April 14

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April 14Define supply-side economics.
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End of the Cold War

• 1979-1991

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IB Objectives

• End of the Soviet Union

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IB Sample Questions

• Evaluate the role of one superpower in the Cold
  War after 1970.
• To what extent did economic problems in the
  Communist bloc bring about the end of the Cold
  War?
• When and why did the Cold War end?

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Key Terms

• Mikhail Gorbachev
• Lech Walesa
• SDI
• INF Treaty
• Perestroika
• Glasnost
• Congress of Peoples Deputies
• Boris Yeltsin

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Lecture Outline

• I. Mikhail Gorbachev
• II. Poland and Afghanistan
• III. Fall of Communism in Eastern Europe
• IV. Gorbachevs reforms
• V. The Collapse of the Soviet Union

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Mikhail Gorbachev

• Was born in 1931
• Became a provincial party chief in 1970.
• In 1978 he became the CPSUs Secretary of
  Agriculture.
• Became the Communist Partys Chairman in March
  1985.

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Reagan

• Took office in 1981
• Soviet Union is the focus of evil in modern
  world.
• First 3 yrs in office, he increased defense
  spending, adjusted inflation by 40, and
  abandoned Carters human rights policy.

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Poland

• In 1981 the Soviet Union forced the Polish army
  to impose martial law in order to crush
  Solidarity, a trade union under the leadership of
  Lech Walesa.

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What caused the fall of Communism in Eastern
Europe?

• 4 decades of containment by NATO
• The burden of the arms race
• The people of Eastern Europes refusal to abandon
  their hopes for freedom
• Communism as practiced by the Russians was an
  awful system.

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Fall of Communism in Eastern Europe

• In January 1989 Gorbachev reduced the Soviet
  military by 14.
• The Estonian legislature voted to give Estonian
  preference over Russian as the official language.
• In April 1989 the Polish government signed an
  agreement with Solidarity make it legal and
  setting open national elections for June.

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Fall of Communism in Eastern Europe

• In June 1989 Gorbachev effectively put an end to
  the Brezhnev doctrine.
• In August 1989 Solidarity won 99 out of 100 seats
  they were allowed to contest and a Solidarity
  leader became Prime Minister.
• In November 1989 anti-Communist dissident Vaclav
  Havel came out of prison and soon was elected
  president of Czechoslovakia.

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Fall of Communism in Eastern Europe

• On November 9, 1989 the East German government
  announced that it is now possible for all
  citizens to leave this country through East
  German crossing points.
• Within hours, tens of thousands of East Germans
  and West Berliners began tearing down the Berlin
  Wall.

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Fall of the Berlin Wall
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Fall of Communism in Eastern Europe

• President Bush and Gorbachev met at Camp David
  and agreed to reduce the number of their
  long-range nuclear weapons by 30 and their
  chemical weapons stockpile by 80.
• In 1991 the Warsaw Pact was dissolved.

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Fall of Communism in Eastern Europe

• In March 1990 the parliament of Lithuania voted
  to secede from the Soviet Union and the Estonian
  and Latvian parliaments declared transitional
  periods to independence.

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Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI)

• Nov. 1985 Gorbachev and Reagan attend first
  summit meeting together.
• Reagan earlier had called for a 50 reduction in
  nuclear weapons and an expanded SDI, a missile
  defense program that would end the ABM treaty and
  cause the US and USSR to greatly increase defense
  expenditures.
• Reagan refused to back down and no agreement was
  made.

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Intermediate Range Nuclear Force (INF) Treaty

• When Gorbachev took over, Soviet military
  expenditures accounted for 20-30 of the Soviet
  GDP (at the peak of the Reagan defense buildup,
  US defense spending was 6.5 of the US GDP.
• In December 1987, in Washington D.C., Reagan and
  Gorbachev signed the INF Treaty, which called for
  the destruction of all short and medium range
  nuclear-tipped missiles.
• It was a breakthrough because it actually
  provided for the elimination of major weapons
  systems and it significantly reduced tensions in
  Europe.

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Afghanistan

• Gorbachev allocated more money to defense, and
  authorized an offensive to break the stalemate of
  the Afghanistan War.
• 50,000 Soviet casualties
• In April 1988, Gorbachev ordered a phased Soviet
  withdrawal from Afghanistan that was completed in
  February 1989.
• First time in 33 years that the Red Army had
  pulled back from anywhere.

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Soviet Economy

• By the end of the 1980s the entire Soviet Union
  had just 200,000 desktop computers while the US
  had 25 million.

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Perestroika

• Gorbachev relaxed central controls of the economy
  while keeping state ownership and oversight of
  the economic system.
• Begins in 1986 with market-like reforms.
• Legalizes certain kinds of co-operatives and
  people begin to open privately owned restaurants.
• 1987Legalizes foreign investment but not
  ownership. Decentralizes economic planning.
  Shifts to local levels.

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Effects of Perestroika

• Economy gets worse.
• Creates party resistance which results in many of
  the reforms not be enacted.
• Gorbachev begins to attack bureaucrats and party
  conservatives which results in him creating
  glasnost.

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Glasnost

• In April 1986 the worlds worst nuclear disaster
  took place at Chernobyl.
• The denials by Soviet officials forced openness
  or glasnost.

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Glasnost

• During 1986-87, the Soviet media set out to
  demonstrate a necessity for change by publicizing
  many previously forbidden topics.
• People viewed it as more party propaganda not
  openness.

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Glasnost

• Gorbachev wanted openness in the Communist Party
  not the public.
• Was concentrated mostly in Moscow and Leningrad
• New publications emerged, including uncensored
  newspapers.

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Glasnost

• Banned books were now available.
• Many people were learning about Soviet tragedies
  such as Stalins actions, pollution, nuclear
  power and waste including Chernobyl for the first
  time.
• Began to learn of the standard of living in
  Europe and the US which resulted in people
  feeling that there country was uncivilized.

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Glasnost

• Allowed for freedom of assembly which allowed for
  the creation of political groups who aimed to
  reform the USSR.
• After Glasnost the old system was rejected by
  most of the citizens of the Soviet Union.
• Most people under 301/4 of the Soviet
  populationwere simply not interested in
  reforming Communism.

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Congress of Peoples Deputies

• In July 1988 Gorbachev attempted to decentralize
  the authority of the Partys Central Committee by
  authorizing open elections for a new body, a
  Congress of Peoples Deputies (CPD), which would
  in turn choose representatives to the USSR
  Supreme Soviet, or parliament.

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CPD

• 2,250 deputies
• Divided into groups of 750 from territories,
  ethnic regions, and party chosen.
• 2/3 were elected. 1/3 chosen
• Nominations, registration, and campaigning began
  in 1989
• Voting occurs March 26, 1989 90 turnout
• Boris Yeltsin, Gorbachevs protégé, became the
  representative from Moscow.

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CPD

• Meets for the first time on May 25, 1989
• The election process shows how inept the
  Communist Party (CPSU) was.
• Party officials losing elections was humiliating
  and made the CPSU lose legitimacy and confidence.

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Constitutional Reforms

• 1990
• Creates office of the President who is elected by
  the CPD
• Removal of Article 6 which gives the CPSU the
  leading role

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Russian Republic CPD

• Holds elections in 1990.
• Results 1/3 Democratic Russians, 1/3 CPSU
  deputies 1/3 independent deputies.
• First meets in May 1990
• Boris Yeltsin become chairman of Russian CPD and
  he wants to write a new constitution and create a
  Russian president.

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Russian Republic CPD

• Begins to pass laws that contradict USSR CPD
  which results in a conflict.
• Yeltsin passes a law that gives the Russian
  Republic economic sovereignty which results in
  other republics doing the same. All of this
  results in the economy ceasing to function.

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Russian Republic

• Yeltsin resigns from CPSU in summer of 1990 and
  thousands of Russians follow him.
• 1990 is the beginning of a depression in Russia
  that lasts 10 years.
• Gorbachev is blamed for everything
• Fall 1990 Gorbachev turns to the right and away
  from reform in order to keep his job.

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End of Reform

• Jan 1991 Soviet CPD made censorship legal again.
• April 1991 Russian presidency is created.
• April 1991 Gorbachev calls for the creation of a
  Union Treaty which would give more power to the
  leaders of the republics. This threatens the
  national institutions. Conservatives begin to
  plan a coup.
• Yeltsin is elected Russian president in June 1991.

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The Collapse of the Soviet Union

• In August 1991, reactionaries in the Red Army and
  the Communist Party staged a coup against
  Gorbachev. Begins August 18, public becomes aware
  Aug. 19 and it ends Aug. 21.
• In Moscow, Russian President Boris Yeltsin called
  for a general strike and resistance to the coup
  on Aug. 20 after receiving a note of support from
  Pres. Bush.
• The coup collapsed in 3 days.

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Collapse of the Soviet Union

• Coup bestowed an incredible amount of legitimacy
  on Yeltsin.
• Gorbachev returns but is discredited.
• Yeltsin passes a decree that makes the Soviet
  CPSU illegal.
• December 25, 1991 Gorbachev signs over control of
  the nuclear arsenal to Yeltsin which is a
  symbolic end of the USSR.

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