The End of the Cold War - Part II

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The End of the Cold War - Part II
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Causes of the Collapse of the Soviet Union

• Government leaders were disillusioned by
  Khrushchevs secret speech, the rise of
  capitalism, and the lack of world revolution
• New freedoms, such as assembly, speech, and
  religion undermined the familiar and rigid sense
  of order there were many protests and
  demonstrations
• Ethnic and social conflicts reappeared in the
  Balkans leading to strikes and growing incidents
  of crime
• Czechoslovakians versus Slovakians
• Serbs versus Albanian Kosovars in Kosovo
• Serbs and Croats versus Muslims in
  Bosnia-Herzegovina

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Causes of the Collapse of the Soviet Union

• During the mid-1980s, there was a fall in world
  oil prices, which deprived the USSR of currency
• In Apr. 1986, a melt-down at a nuclear reactor at
  Chernobyl caused an expensive clean-up
• In 1988, a terrible earthquake in Armenia killed
  25,000 and massive destruction. There was a poor
  response from the rest of the USSR, which showed
  apathy and a lack of unity

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Causes of the Collapse of the Soviet Union

• People were depressed because
• Lack of honesty from the government on the
  economic situation and other things
• Lack of consumer goods
• Spending on military
• Lack of a good future or ability to move up
• Inability to participate in government or talk
  freely

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Mikhail Gorbachev

• In order for his reforms of glasnost and
  perestroika to take place, he needed to end the
  Cold War to lower defense spending
• He declared that the satellite nations were in
  charge of their own future and he assured them
  that he would not intervene in their affairs
• He supported change and opposed the use of force
  to stop it
• Satellite nations had been kept in check through
  the use of Soviet force

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Poland

• Reform communists and Solidarity leaders came
  together in a roundtable talks from Feb.-Apr 1989
• Solidarity was legalized, strikes were legalized,
  elements of a free market were introduced, and
  Senate elections were to be held
• The communists had control of the media and
  money, so they expected to win the elections, but
  they lost 99 of 100 seats
• They formed the first non-communist majority in
  the Eastern Europe
• The President resigned in 1990 and the leader of
  Solidarity, Lech Walesa, was elected President in
  Dec. 1990

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Hungary

• Economic problems in Hungary led to the people
  urging for reform
• Janos Kadar resigned in April 1988 and the
  President of Hungary was now a reform communist
  named Imre Pozsgay
• President George H.W. Bush met with opposition
  party leaders in July 1989
• He wanted a multi-party system and other reforms
• Gorbachev consented to a request to cut down the
  barb wire fence (iron curtain) between Hungary
  and Austria
• Elections were held in October 1989 that replaced
  the communist leader with a democratic one

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East Germany

• The hard line president, Erich Honecker, rejected
  Gorbachevs glasnost and perestroika
• In October, Gorbachev visited East Germany and
  claimed that change was needed. He also ordered
  Soviet troops stationed in East Germany not to
  intervene
• As a result, huge crowds were gathering in the
  major cities to demand the end of Communist
  control

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East Germany

• Thousands fled from East Germany to Austria to
  Hungary to West Germany
• Demonstrators were beaten by police
• On Oct. 18, Honecker resigned
• When new arrangements for travel to the West were
  announced, reporters asked the government
  spokesman when the checkpoints would be opening.
  He said Right away
• Thousands of East Berliners began gathering at
  the checkpoints, to the surprise of the border
  guards, who had received no orders

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East Germany

• The crowds told the guards that they had heard on
  the television that the Wall was to be
  immediately thrown open
• The commander at one of the check points decided
  to let the crowd through
• Soon crowds were clambering all over the wall,
  and many began to break it with hammers

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East Germany

• December 1989
• The government of East Germany collapsed
• This marked the beginning of the end of the Cold
  War
• October 1990
• Germany reunited

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Czechoslovakia

• In Nov. 1989, a student demonstration was crushed
  by police
• Alexander Dubcek came back to Czechoslovakia to
  support Civic Forum, a reform movement/party/union
  of workers
• Workers demonstrated and threatened a general
  strike if the government didnt resign
• The government resigned in Dec. 1989 and Dubcek
  and other reformers were elected to leadership
  positions
• All this was called the Velvet Revolution because
  there was no violence

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Causes of the Collapse of the Soviet Union

• Bulgaria, Romania, Yugoslavia, and Albania
  communism fell in 1990
• In June 1990, Russia declared their independence
  from the USSR
• August 1991
• Mikhail Gorbachevs policies of glasnost and
  perestroika caused the old-guard communists to
  want to preserve the system
• They tried a military coup, but it was foiled
  with the help of Russian Republic president Boris
  Yeltsin (one of the republics in the Union of
  Soviet Socialist Republics, or USSR)

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The Fall of Communism

• December 1991
• Gorbachev resigned as Soviet president
• The Soviet Union dissolved into 15 republics
  loosely confederated in the Commonwealth of
  Independent State (CIS), with Russia the most
  powerful state and Yeltsin the president
• To varying degrees, all the new governments in
  the CIS repudiated communism and embraced
  democratic reforms and free-market economies

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1 Armenian SSR 2 Azerbaijan SSR 3
Byelorussian SSR 4 Estonian SSR 5 Georgian
SSR 6 Kazakh SSR 7 Kirghiz SRR 8 Latvian
SSR 9 Lithuanian SSR 10 Moldavian SSR 11
Russian SFSR 12 Tajik SSR 13 Turkmen SSR 14
Ukrainian SSR 15 Uzbek SSR
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The Fall of Communism

• Results of the Fall of the Soviet Union
• The demise of the Soviet Union was a complete end
  to the Cold War
• No more tension over nuclear war between the U.S.
  and Russia
• It also marked the virtual end of communism
  world-wide
• Democracy now had no more ideological battles
  left to fight

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Boris Yeltsin

• Russias first popularly elected president, Boris
  Yeltsin, introduced further reforms (i.e.
  freedom to import and export)

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Results of No More Cold War in Russia

• Russias transition to a free-market economy has
  not been smooth
• 25 of the population lives in poverty, which was
  largely nonexistent in the last decades of the
  Soviet Union
• Law and order has broken down and organized crime
  has flourished

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Results of No More Cold War

• GDP has dropped
• The U.S. is left as the worlds policeman
• There has been a wave of democratization
  throughout Latin America, Africa, and Eastern
  Europe
• Space exploration has declined without the
  competitive pressure of the space race

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New Cold War?

• In 1999, ailing Boris Yeltsin named Vladimir
  Putin, a former KGB agent, his replacement
• Defense Shield
• Fear that a U.S. defense shield in the Czech
  Republic and Poland would be offensive
• Putin threatened to face missiles on those
  countries who participated

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New Cold War?

• U.S. Influence in Eastern Bloc
• Russia is resentful at attempts to get former
  satellite nations and former parts of the USSR
  into NATO and the EU
• Former President Vladimir Putin compared it to
  the Third Reich
• Disabled Spy Satellite
• U.S. hit a disabled toxic spy satellite in Feb.
  2008
• China and the USSR believed the U.S. was testing
  anti-satellite technology

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New Cold War?

• Chechnya
• Republic that seeks independence from Russia and
  has used terrorist tactics to gain Russias
  attention to their goal
• Russia has used torture to gain information out
  of Chechnyans, summarily executed people, and
  sent troops to squash rebellions

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New Cold War?

• Elections
• In Mar. 2008 were deemed by some to be unfair
  because
• the government controls censorship
• intimidated voters
• harasses opposition groups
• authorities would fill out and cast ballots
• Oppose Kosovo Independence
• UN and EU support Kosovo independence
• EU wants to send peacekeeping troops, which
  Russia believes needs Security Council approval