1. Beginning of the end of the USSR

2. Leadership changes in USSR
Khrushchev lost support after Cuban Missile Crisis
Leonid Brezhnev takes over from
Many Soviet satellite nations begin to revolt and declare independence (Czechoslovakia, Hungary)
Soviet relations with China also end as China no longer wants to hide in the shadow of the Soviet Union

3. Hungary 1956
An anti-communist revolt breaks out and Hungarian soldiers and civilians install a new government led by Imre Nagy.
Soviet troops crush the uprising and executed Nagy.

4. Czechoslovakia 1968
Czech communist leader Alexander Dubcek begins the democratic reforms known as the Prague Spring.
Soviet Union invades Czechoslovakia, repeals Dubcek’s reforms, and expels him from the party.

5. Tension begins to weaken
Nixon’s policy of détente- nations should deal practically and in a flexible manner
Nixon became first President of a free nation to visit China (Bejing, 1972)

6. SALT I Treaty- 1972 Strategic Arms Limitation Talks
Soviets and Americans agreed to limit the number of intercontinental ballistic missiles.
The arms race is winding down (for now)!

7. Nixon Doctrine
June Brezhnev visited Washington and produced SALT II (second arms agreement)
New Guidelines on foreign policy became known as the Nixon Doctrine
U.S. would help allies and friends resist aggression and communist subversion
Basic responsibility rested on the allies or friends

8. Third World
Nixon believed the third world held the majority of problems in the world
The U.S. would support pro-American governments in the third world (even if corrupt and oppresive)

9. Nixon Video

10. New Leaders emerge in the 1980s
U.S.= Ronald Reagan
Soviet Union= Gorbachev
Glastnost- a new openness of ideas and outside influences
Perestroika- economic restructuring that allowed some small privately owned businesses
Gorbachev also reopened churches, lifted bans on authors and other leaders of the arts

11. Mikhail Gorbachev March 1982 - Leonid Brezhnev died
Communist party leaders were aging and trying to hold on to their power
Party members chose a younger, energetic party member Mikhail Gorbachev (1985)

12. Gorbachev introduced reforms
At 54, Gorbachev wasn’t influenced by Stalin
Gorbachev introduced “glasnost” (an openness that encouraged Soviet citizens to revitalize society)
Churches were allowed to re-open
Dissidents were released
The public was allowed to read previously banned books

13. Perestroika Soviet consumers protested without fear
The Soviet government’s central planning was inefficient and caused shortages in consumer goods
Perestroika = a new economic plan to give managers more freedom over their collective farms and allowed people to open small private businesses

14. Demkratizatsiya
The new policy of demkratizatsiya called for a new legislature where voter could choose a candidate instead of ratifying the parties choice
The Soviet people chose less known candidates over party bosses (ie Boris Yeltsin who became Gorbachev’s rival)

15. New Thinking
The Soviet Union couldn’t afford to keep the arms race going
Gorbachev depended on diplomacy instead
President Ronald Reagan and Gorbachev signed the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) banning all missiles between the 300 to 3,400 mile range

16. Ronald Reagan Moved away from Détente
Increased defense spending, putting pressure on Soviet Union
Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI)
Protect against enemy missiles
Also known as Star Wars

17. Reagan Video

18. Built in 1961 to separate communist East Berlin from the free West Berlin
The new leader, Egon Krenz, promised reform
November 9, he opened the Berlin Wall
Berlin Wall is demolished in 1991
Gorbachev agrees to tear down the wall
West and East Germany would re-unify October 3, 1990

19. The Curtain Falls
Czechoslovakia and Romania overthrew their Communist dictators
Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia will gain independence
The lack of economic improvement will hurt Gorbachev and in an unsuccessful coup attempt Boris Yeltsin becomes a hero and Gorbachev will resign

20. CIS
Yeltsin met with the leaders of the new republics and formed the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS)
Gorbachev tried to save the Soviet Union and reform the Communist party but he is known for the Soviet break-up

21. Final collapse of the Soviet Union
Many smaller Soviet nations declared their independence in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s
The Soviet Union as we knew it collapsed in 1991
It then became known as the Russian Federation
Today, there are 15 individual AND INDEPENDENT countries that make up the former Soviet Union

22. Past Present

24. Summary Video

25. Summary Make two columns
Label one column US Leaders and the other Soviet Leaders
List all the names of the leaders of each country during the Cold War

26. Check your answers United States Soviet Union Truman Eisenhower
Kennedy
Lyndon B. Johnson
Richard Nixon
Gerald Ford
Jimmy Carter
Ronald Reagan
Soviet Union
Stalin
Khrushchev
Brezhnev
Dubceck
Gorbechev
Yeltsin