EASTERN EUROPE

1
EASTERN EUROPE

• Beginning with Khrushchev, there had been a
  steady relaxation of Soviet control of Eastern
  Europe
• Marshall Tito of Yugoslavia (who had broke from
  Soviet control in 1948) welcomed back into
  communist fold
• Undermined Eastern European leaders who had
  followed Stalin

Marshall Tito
2
HUNGARY 1956

• Moderate nationalist communists appointed leaders
  in Poland and Hungary with Soviet approval
• In Hungary, relaxation triggered further demands
• On November 1, 1956, new government announced
  that country would withdraw from Warsaw Pact and
  create multi-party democratic system
• Result was swift and bloody invasion by Soviet
  army
• New government overthrown
• Many leaders and supporters killed

3
CZECHOSLOVAKIA 1968

• Liberal communist regime, headed by Anton Dubcek,
  established in 1968
• Initiated reforms with the goal of giving
  socialism a human face
• Establishment of democratic system
• Creation of open and uncensored press
• Soviet troops invade, depose regime, and
  re-establish hard-line status quo
• Brezhnev justifies invasion with Brezhnev
  Doctrine
• Whenever socialism was threatened in one country,
  it was the duty of all other socialist countries
  to intervene and protect it

Anton Dubcek
4
SPEED UP OF CHANGE

• Brezhnev Doctrine already fading by mid-1980s
• Solidarity movement in Poland
• Gorbachevs speeded up process because his
  reforms in Soviet Union inspired like-minded
  reformers in Eastern Europe to do the same thing

5
REASONS

• Gorbachev rejected use of Brezhnev Doctrine to
  support Communist regimes in Eastern Europe
• Military intervention would have damaged
  relations with U.S.
• Military intervention would have provoked serious
  outcry within Soviet Union
• Multiple interventions would have been required,
  costing tremendous amounts of money
• Would have diverted scarce funds from economic
  programs
• Gorbachev simply could not resort to old
  repressive measures to keep Eastern Europe in
  line
• Whole new approach was called for

6
SINATRA DOCTRINE

• Gorbachev publicly rejects Brezhnev Doctrine in
  1988 and affirmed the principle that each
  socialist country was free to follow its own path
  with no fear of intervention from the Soviet
  Union
• Sinatra Doctrine
• In 1989, Poles remove Communist regime and
  replaced it with government made up of former
  members of anti-communist Solidarity Movement
• Gorbachev does nothing to intervene

7
EAST GERMANY

• Erick Honecker initially rejected the idea that
  any sort of reform would work in his country and
  attempt to resist all changes
• Thousands of East Germans travel to Hungary and
  then crossed border into Austria and West Germany
• East Germany responds with restricting travel to
  Hungary
• Thousands of East Germans flee to West German
  embassy in Prague, Czechoslovakia
• East Germany responds with restricting travel to
  Czechoslovakia

Erick Honecker
8
EAST GERMANY RISES UP

• Demonstrations erupt in Liepzig
• Honecker forced to resign in October 1989
• Replaced by Egon Krenz
• Even though Krenz opened the Berlin Wall,
  demonstrations continue
• Krenz resigns on November 9, 1989
• Moderate communist takes over and free elections
  held for first time

Leipzig Demonstration
Egon Krenz
9
GERMANY REUNITES

• Christian Democratic candidates win most seats in
  new Parliament
• Affiliated with party of West German chancellor
  Helmut Kohl
• Work begins to unify Germany
• Four plus Two conference
• U.S., France, Great Britain, and Soviet Union
  work with West and East Germany to create
  unification
• West and East Germany officially reunified on
  October 3, 1991

10
STIRRINGS OF DISCONTENT

• CP votes to permit non-communist parties in USSR
• March 1990
• State restrictions against religious practice
  abolished
• Russian Republic declares that laws passed by its
  legislature could over-ride laws of the Soviet
  Union
• June 1990
• Other republics followed suit
• Lithuania unilaterally declares it independence
• Gorbachev responds with economic embargo of this
  Baltic state

11
GROWING ISOLATION

• Gorbachev increasingly isolated from what was
  going on
• Still skeptical of democracy, he wanted to
  maintain a role for the CP in the new era that
  was being born
• Committed to preventing the break up of the USSR
• Orders crackdown on nationalist movements in the
  Baltic states
• Only result was the erosion of his popular
  support and increased foreign criticism

12
BORIS YELTSIN

• Charismatic and Hard-drinking
• Rose to prominence as liberal reformer
• Challenged Gorbachevs authority and the very
  legitimacy of the Soviet state
• Former high-ranking member of CP
• Repudiated this affiliation and became spokesman
  for those who wanted to create true democracy and
  pure free market capitalism in USSR
• Did not think communism could survive and had
  grave doubts about whether the Soviet Union could
  hold together

13
GORBY SHIFTS TO THE RIGHT

• Gorbachev gradually shifts away from reform
• Encouraged by right-wing elements in CP, army,
  and KGB
• Approves attempt to overthrow democratically-elect
  ed government of Lithuania
• January 1991
• Begins with clumsy attack on television station
  in Vilnius
• Fails
• Lithuania holds referendum on independence a
  month later
• 90 support independence

Boris Pugo
14
BACK AND FORTH

• Yeltsin publicly calls for Gorbachevs
  resignation
• Because of his actions towards Lithuania
• February 1991
• Gorbachev responds by ordering Russian troops to
  surround the Kremlin
• Gorbachev then suddenly abandons hard-line
  approach
• April 1991
• Accepts the idea of autonomy for the various
  republics
• Yeltsin elected president of Russian Republic
• June 1991
• Clear sign that CP no longer enjoyed much public
  support

15
THE COUP BEGINS

• Gorbachev returned from trip to London and
  announced that the CP would eliminate
  Marxism/Leninism from its platform
• Then he left for vacation in the Crimea
• Hard-line communists within the CP, army, KGB,
  and even his own cabinet were now convinced that
  his policies threatened the existence of
  communism and the Soviet Union
• Placed under house arrest in the Crimea
• Hoped to convince or force him to throw his
  prestige against reform and declare a state of
  emergency
• He agreed to do so, but only if such a move was
  approved by Soviet parliament
• Conspirators then declared he was incapacitated
  and announced that his vice-president would take
  over

16
YELTSIN THE HERO

• Yeltsin courageously resisted coup in Moscow
• Stood on tank outside Russian parliament and
  encouraged resistance
• Tens of thousands responded
• As a result, troops who had been ordered to seize
  building refused to do so

17
END OF THE COUP

• Coup rapidly fell apart
• Leaders underestimated strength of Yeltsins and
  Gorbachevs popular support
• Army remained loyal to Gorbachev
• Yeltsin mobilized Moscow by calling for
  resistance and the restoration of Gorbachev as
  legitimate Soviet leader

18
BEGINNING OF THE END

• Gorbachev released
• Adopted a more reformist stance
• Yeltsin uses Russian parliament to suspend the CP
  and its newspaper, Pravda, in Russia
• Dismantlement of communism

19
ACCELERATION

• Gorbachev appoints new people to key ministries
• KGB officials pensioned off
• All vestiges of censorship removed from radio and
  television
• Soviet government finally officially recognizes
  independence of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia
• Gorbachev accepts decrees that Yeltsin
  implemented in Russia
• Soviet parliament suspends CP throughout entire
  Soviet Union

20
THE END
Yeltsin and new presidents of Belarus and Ukraine
announce creation of Commonwealth of Independent
States in December 1991 Loose confederation of
newly independent states
Moldavia, Ubekistan, and Azerbaijan declare their
independence shortly after August coupM
Other republics hold referendums on independence
and all succeed by large majorities By end of
1991, 13 of 15 Soviet republics had declared
independence
Gorbachev resigns as president of Soviet Union on
December 25, 1991