Fall of the Communist Block

1985 - 1991

The Gorbachev Revolution

Chernobyl - symbolic of what was coming to the Evil Empire

West’s view

First noted in Scandinavia

The 80s = New Leadership

• Brezhnev 1964 - 1982

• Andropov 1982 - 1984

• Chernenko 1984 - 1985

SAME OLD GUARD

A breath of fresh air

• See pp 198-201 in the Handbook for the challenges he faced

Caricatures usually show this mark

Brezhnev’s legacy:Brezhnev’s legacy:

• Near 0 economic growth• Shortages (rationing) with few consumer goods (and those

were of poor quality)

• Inefficient industry/resource sectors• Big military expenses (USSR spending 2-3 times the USA % of

GNP + Afghan war)

• Corruption (Apparatchiks = spoiled Party bureaucrats)

• Nationalism (caused tension from non-Russians - 50% of population)

Gorby’s response: if it’s broken let’s improve it - tweak tweak

it - it - dondon’’t replace t replace itit• Glasnost (openness/making public) 1986

– Allowed the West to see behind the Curtain, but also allowed Soviets to see what they were missing.

– Reform Congress (see p 206 in Handbook)

• Perestroika (restructuring) 1987– Tried to create a “socialist market economy inside

the existing Command structure - a contradiction– Reform necessitated further reform which became

difficult as the directives moved down the chain of command

1987 Campaign against labourless profit - oops, that’s part of the capitalist system.

“The national border of the

USSR is untouchable”

1987

There were also campaigns against drinking, corruption, prostitution, and

Stop contraband! Give 4 days free labour each year! Stop contraband! Give 4 days free labour each year!

Gorbymania in the WestGorbymania in the West

Gorbachev wanted to democratize communism not capitalize the USSR.

Compare that to Deng Xiaoping’s reforms.

Free Economic Zones allowed for foreign investment and foreign currency exchange

Free Economic Zones allowed for foreign investment and foreign currency exchange

This is not the scene of a stagnated economy - but this is also not the norm.

PRC vs. USSRPRC vs. USSR

• Peasant farmers in China could keep a portion of their produce and work outside of collectivization (Lenin’s N.E.P.).

• The Soviet Enterprise Law (1987) involved more top-down controls and State procurement - little was left for sale and this stifled free market growth.

But, the PRC continued to…

The Regime must be willing to meet challenges to its being

The key to prolonging the USSR’s command economy was a continuation of the use of coercion in the workplace and in the streets: when the

State was no longer willing to do this, the economy (and the country) was doomed. Gorby

was no longer willing.

But others were…"Let me say that Mikhail Gorbachev is now on vacation. He is undergoing treatment, himself, in our country. He is very tired after these many years and he will need some time to get better."

Gennady Yanayev, Soviet vice president, speaking at a press conference during the 1991 August Coup.

Gorbachev was under house arrest in the South, but Yeltsin went into the streets of Moscow, boarded a tank and spoke to the people! Yeltsin had criticized the slow rate of reform - this event helped him to eclipse Gorbachev’s leadership.

See Global Forces p 316 for why the coup failed

Yeltsin criticizing Gorbachev about the rate of reform

2. Yeltsin, p 3162. Yeltsin, p 316

3. Sakharov,

Global Forces p 299

3. Sakharov,

Global Forces p 299

1. Communist Party1. Communist Party

Yeltsin’s support from the people won the day, and on December 31, 1991, the USSR ceased

to exist.

Yeltsin’s support from the people won the day, and on December 31, 1991, the USSR ceased

to exist.

In four days the coup failed, but the writing was…

PolandPoland• 1945 Curzon line/buffer • 1956 Gomulka got more

freedom• 1980 Solidarity• 1981 General Jaruzelski• 1981-83 Martial law• 1988 Crackdown• 1989 Solidarity elected

majority (Jaruzelski Pres.)• 1990 Walesa President

Lenin Shipyard, Gdansk (you know it as Danzig)

SolidaritySolidarity Lenin Shipyard, Gdansk, 1980

SolidaritySolidarity Lenin Shipyard, Gdansk, 1980

Walesa with head government negotiator, 1980

Jaruzelski imposed martial law 13 Dec, 1981

Martial law lasted until 1983: many Solidarity members were jailed

Solidarity was made illegal

Solidarity was made illegal

Wujak Coal

Mine, 16 Dec

1981:

Wujak Coal

Mine, 16 Dec

1981:

Striking miners were

dispersed by the ZOMO:

9 dead, 21 wounded

Martial Law, 1981Verification of

educators/media to test loyalty - 2000 lost jobs

ZOMO: State Riot Police

Where’s the beef?

In 1988, the PCP tried to improve

the economy with strict policies

The result was a return to strikes

and protests.

Solidarity meets with the Government, Feb - Apr 1989

RC Church

Solidarity

Govt Communists

Smaller oppsn groups

RC Church

Solidarity

Govt Communists

Smaller oppsn groups

In 1990, Walesa, the shipyard electrician, replaced

Jaruzelski as President

Gorbachev had not followed the Brezhnev Doctrine and intervened

Fall of East Germany (DDR)Fall of East Germany (DDR)

The Wall, 1961

• In the late 1980s, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev introduced glasnost and perestroika, reforms to liberalise communism.

• Frictions between him and Honecker had grown over these policies and numerous additional issues from 1985 onward.[30]

• East Germany refused to implement similar reforms, with Honecker reportedly telling Gorbachev: "We have done our perestroika, we have nothing to restructure”.

• Gorbachev grew to dislike Honecker, and by 1988 was lumping Honecker, along with Bulgaria's Todor Zhivkov, Czechoslovakia's Gustáv Husák and Romania's Nicolae Ceaușescu as a "Gang of Four" — a group of inflexible hardliners unwilling to make necessary reforms.

• Honecker felt betrayed by Gorbachev in his German policy and ensured that official texts of the Soviet Union, especially those concerning perestroika, could no longer be published or sold in East Germany.

• Protests against the lack of reforms by the Honecker-led regime grew during 1989.

• At the Warsaw Pact summit on 7–8 July 1989 in Bucharest, the Soviet Union reaffirmed its shift from the Brezhnev Doctrine of the limited sovereignty of its member states, and announced "freedom of choice”.

• The Bucharest statement prescribed that its nations henceforth developed their "own political line, strategy and tactics without external intervention".

• This called into question the Soviet guarantee of existence for the communist states in Europe. Already in May 1989 Hungary had begun dismantling its border with Austria, creating the first gap in the so-called Iron Curtain, through which several thousand East Germans quickly fled in hopes of reaching West Germany by way of Austria.

• Per a 1969 treaty, the Hungarian government should have forced the East Germans back home. However, after a week, the Hungarians relented and let the refugees pass into Austria, telling their outraged East German counterparts that international treaties on refugees took precedence.

JFK, 1963: Ich bin

ein Berliner

Erich Honecker

Erich Honecker

When the Wall came down in 1989, it

occurred quickly!

Old worries: what will happen with a reunified Germany?

Mitterrand and Helmut Kohl, Verdun, 1984

The French-German Brigade, established 1989

Old worries: what will happen with a reunified Germany?

Mitterrand and Helmut Kohl, Verdun, 1984

The French-German Brigade, established 1989

Gorbachev negotia

ted a

huge loan fro

m Germany

for his a

pproval of

reunificatio

n

Helmut Kohl - First Chancellor of a

reunified Germany

Helmut Kohl - First Chancellor of a

reunified Germany

What challenges would be faced after the euphoria?

• Nationalism (old horrors?)

• Xenophobia• Unemployment• Debt• Outmoded industry• Inflation

See Global Forces pp 308-309

Czechoslovakia

• Versailles, 1919

• Munich Agreement, 1938

• Annexation 1939

• Soviets 1948

• Prague Spring 1968

• Freedom 1989

Brezhnev Doctrine

1968

Brezhnev Doctrine

1968When forces that are

hostile to socialism try to turn the

development of some socialist country

towards capitalism, it becomes not only the

problem of the country concerned,

but a common problem and concern

of all socialist countries.

She Might Have Invaded RussiaH. Block, 1968V

elve

t R

evol

utio

n

Alexander Dubček

end