The Fall of Communism Kevin Sacerdote Mandarin High School Jacksonville, FL

The Fall of Communism

Kevin Sacerdote

Mandarin High School

Jacksonville, FL

Taken from Zubok's "A Failed Nation," Developed by Kevin R. Sacerdote

Informational Source! The main sources for this presentation

come from Vladislav M. Zubok’s: A Failed Empire: The Soviet Union in the Cold War from Stalin to Gorbachev (2007) & Tony Judt’s: Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945 (2005).

All sources are listed at the close of this presentation.


Chapter Nine: A Failed Empire, by Vladislav M.

Zubok (2007, Chapel Hill Press)

The early eighties are called the “Second Cold War,” it had a feeling of déjà vu:

Rampant arms race; Covert battles via secret services around the world,

and Fierce psychological warfare gave the situation “a

resemblance to the last years of Stalin.” [1]

[1] Zubock, p. 265


A Failed Empire The last Brezhnev years, followed by Andropov

and Chernenko were times of political and

economical deterioration of the Soviet system. I. The CIA had a sense of the economic situation,

as well as the shaky hold Moscow had on their satellites, but they did not know the depth of the problems.


A Failed EmpireI. The empire that Stalin built was terribly shaken

in the 1980’s with the Solidarity movement in Poland (1980-1981), mixed with the growing dependency of other countries of the Warsaw Pact on the financial and economic power of the Western capitalist states (thus embargoes or economic sanctions by them on the Warsaw nations would be detrimental, especially considering the USSR’s financial woes).


Lech Walesa


1980: Gdansk Shipyard August 1980, labor strike in Gdansk escalates

into a crisis (Solidarnosc: Solidarity movement is very organized, “on November 10th, 1980 it became the first officially registered independent trade union in a Communist country, with an estimated ten million members”[1])

[1] Judt, p. 588


Poland, 1980 Polish and Russian officials sense outside help:

‘Instigators’ Zbigniew Brezinski (Carter’s former Natl. Security

Adviser) Ioannes Paulus PP. II (Krakow’s own: Karol Wojtyla).

Elected at 58 Yrs. Old, Visits Poland THREE times. His first trip was June 2nd, 1979.(Pope John Paul II: 1978 – 2005)[1]

“What John Paul II lacked in soldiers he made up in visibility—and timing.” [2]

[1] http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/ [2] Judt, p. 586


Pope John Paul II


1981

1981: the revolutionary spirit begins to spread Strikes in the Baltic Republics, especially Latvia KGB calls for a strict closure of Poland’s borders

Closed down tourism, student programs, jam Polish radio, shut down publications and all cultural exchange (an iron curtail within the Iron Curtain)


1981

Would Moscow send in the troops, ala the Prague Spring (1968)?

Cost Factor for the USSR Thoughts of other Warsaw nations

watching critically GDR, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and

Rumania


USSR’s Ailing Leadership Brezhnev’s continued health problems

leads to a “troika” Andropov, Ustinov, Gromyko

Even though Brezhnev tried in vain to have his loyal disciple Konstantin Chernenko named his successor before he died, Andropov will be next!


Yuri Andropv Succeeds Brezhnev

Andropov (KGB Director) is key “Andropov recognized that the Soviet

economy had begun to collapse under the weight of the disastrous policies of the Brezhnev years…’era of stagnation’”[1]

[1] Keylor, p. 310


Yuri Andrpov


Andropov Advocate of the Soviet invasion Hungary,

Czechoslovakia, and Afghanistan But before his terminal kidney disease really

takes hold, he comments to an assistant: “the quota of interventions abroad has been exhausted.”[1] But what exactly is meant by “abroad?”

Stages a fake invasion (full-scale intimidation) on the border of Poland as well as military exercises within its borders for three weeks

[1] Zubok, p. 267


Andropov

The future of the Warsaw Pact (Poland’s location) is in jeopardy

Cost is a huge factor: “By the 1980’s the Soviet Union assisted or maintained sixty-nine Soviet satellites and clients around the world.”[1]

[1] Zubock, p. 268


Economics in the USSR

President Carter’s economic sanctions and the drop in oil prices (the USA goes to Saudi Arabia and OPEC and requests this during the early portion of the invasion of Afghanistan- thus the Soviet’s could not EXPORT oil for huge profits) are hurting the Soviet economy


Poland October 1981, Prime Minister General

Wojciech Jaruzelski took over party control from Stanyslaw Kania Soviets want him to declare martial law, he

will put this off until Dec. 13, 1981 He warns Moscow that the Polish Catholic

Church might join forces with Solidarity, but impatient radicals start to demonstrate for radical reforms ASAP


Poland 1981: USSR gives Poland 1.5 billion

dollars, plus supplies and oil (they need it so badly it is used very quickly)

Russia (via an angry and bitter Andropov) introduces a new intelligence operation named “RYAN – after the first letters of the Russian words raketno-yadernoye napadeniie (nuclear-missile attack). Andropov feels that a first strike by the Americans is eminent.


Poland

Walesa was going up against Wojciech Jaruzelsky. Jaruzelsky declared martial law, outlawed Solidarity, and jailed Walesa.

Martial law would not be suspended until 1982.

The former Archbishop of Krakow Karol Wojtyla was elected Pope John Paul II in 1978, and made his first trip back to Poland in 1979. He was the first Pope to visit a Communist country.


November 10, 1982 November 10, 1982: Leonid Brezhnev

died in his sleep 68 yr. old Andropov takes over (he is in the

final phase of terminal kidney disease at this time)


March 8th, 1983 (Orlando, FL)

March 8th : President Reagan gives his infamous “evil empire” speech

March 23rd: Reagan announces his plans for the development of the Strategic Defense Initiative- “SDI” (Star Wars). The Soviet Union realizes that they can NOT effectively compete against due to cost.



1983 April/May: America’s Pacific fleet conducts a

massive military exercise, which includes simulated assaults on Soviet strategic submarines with nuclear missiles on board

Soviets respond with their own exercises which for the first time includes a rehearsal for mobilization and interaction with strategic nuclear forces (Operation RYAN is now constantly being updated)


Andropov v. Reagan

Andropov has a deep mistrust of Reagan, “fortified by emotions-

contempt, animosity, and a tinge of fear.”[1]

[1] Zubock, p. 273


Downing of KAL 747 September 1st (1983): a Korean Air Lines 747 240 passengers, a cabin crew of 20, a three-man

flight crew and six other KAL crew members

deadheading back to Seoul Five hours and twenty-six minutes after takeoff,

KE007 was struck by two Anab missiles fired by the

pilot of a Soviet SU-15 interceptor.


November 1983: Operation Able Archer

“NATO forces conducted the Able Archer exercises; to Soviet intelligence

sources, this looked almost indistinguishable from preparations for

an imminent attack.” [1]

[1] Zubock, pp. 274-5


1984-85 “The Politburo fiddled, but the Grim Reaper Did Not Wait”[1] [1] Zubock, p. 277

February 9th, 1984: Andropov Dies

“His successor, another septuagenarian (70-80 yrs. Old), Konstanin Chernenko, was a walking mummy, who suffered from severe asthma and lived on tranquilizers”[1]

[1] Zubock, p. 276


The Arrival of Gorbachev

March 10, 1985: Konstanin Chernenko Dies, (enter Mikhail Gorbachev)

After the death of Chernenko, “the new general secretary-the fourth in three years during this prolonged leadership crisis in the Kremlin-was ANDROPOV’S hitherto obscure young disciple Mikhail Gorbachev…Gorbachev also shared the concern of his patron Andropov that the decay of the Soviet economy in the Brezhnev era posed a serious security threat.”[1]

[1] Keylor,pp. 310-311



Mikhail Gorbachev’s Three Reform measures (May 1985)

1. Gorbachev announces “Perestroika” (economic restructuring/reform) as part of his “NEW THINKING” policy

2. Glasnost (openness), and

3. Democratization would follow


Gorbachev’s Reforms

Like FDR’s New Deal, he knew change was needed but did not exactly how to do it

Attacked national and regional corruption and laxity, nomenklatura, and alcoholism

Doubled investment in heavy industry Started to talk openly about the need for true

arms control He encouraged “NOVOE MYSHLENIE” (New

Thinking). Wants to open the Soviet Union up to the outside world.


Gorbachev’s “New Thinkers”“New Thinking” would be based on

voracious reading, including books by Western socialist

politicians and thinkers”[1] New thinkers included his college

educated wife Raisa, and other “Children of the Twentieth

Congress”[1] Zubock, p. 281


Soviet Invasion of AfghanistanDec. 24, 1979

Gorbachev in the mid-1980’s did NOT immediately end the war in Afghanistan- his biggest mistake to date? (Could have help save money and international face).

He felt it needed to be solved in stages.


Chernobyl Accident April 26, 1986Second worse man-made nuclear

disaster, behind the bombs in Japan

Soviet denial, panic spreads with rumors

100, 000 displaced AFTER a few days passed

8, 000 dead The health and well-being of

453,000 people affected Gorbachev is humiliated


Chernobyl April 1986“Chernobyl’s effect on the Soviet political

leadership was greater than any other event since the Cuban Missile Crisis…the catastrophe demanded the end of xenophobia and obsessive secrecy and a reprisal of security policies in the nuclear age…our work is now transparent to the whole people, to the whole world. There are no interests that could force us to hide the truth.” [1]

[1] Zubock, pp. 288-89


May 1987 May 1987: “Matthias Rust, a young West German pilot,

flew a sport plane into the USSR from Finland and landed on Red Square. The bizarre “Rust affair” allowed Gorbachev to remove most of the old top brass, beginning with the minister of defense…Rust, after spending several months in the KGB Lubianka prison, quietly obtained amnesty.”[1]

July 1987, as part of his GLASNOST policy the “new thinkers” started to publish forbidden manuscripts, criticizing the Brezhnev Era of stagnation, and promoting anti-Stalinist films and novels.

[1] Zubock, p. 300


Gorby and the UN: Dec. 7, 1988 Gorbachev addressed the United Nations General

Assembly. He Amazed the global community when he

announced drastic cuts in the Soviet military presence in Eastern Europe and along the Chinese border -- a move that ultimately allowed Soviet satellites to choose their own paths.[1] [1] http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cold.war/episodes/23/documents/gorbachev/


Soviet Union Military Cuts

“In January 1989, Gorbachev announced the reduction of Soviet forces in Central and Eastern Europe by 14 percent and cuts in armaments by 19 percent[1].”

[1]. Zubok , p. 322


The Revolutionary Year of 1989 Poland The Solidarity movement of 1980 made

Poland the most ripe for a radical political transformation

1989: Jaruzelski lifted the ban against Solidarity that had been in place for seven years.


The Revolutionary Year of 1989

June 4th, 1989: Poland’s Election: “The results came back as a shock to everyone…Solidarity won 99/100 seats for the Senate.” [1] “Gorbachev made quite explicit to Jaruzelski in a private phone conversation, the election must stand.” [2]

August 1989: a Solidarity-led coalition took power in Warsaw, the first non-communist government in Eastern Europe since the start of the Cold War.

[1] Judt, p. 607[2] Judt, p. 607


The Revolutionary Year of 1989 Hungary

“Hungary, a comparable caution was born of very different experience. Two decades of ambiguous tolerance had obscured the precise limits of officially condoned dissent. Hungary, after all, was the Communist state where Hilton opened its first hotel behind the Iron Curtain, in December 1976; where Billy Graham undertook not one but three public tours in the course of the Eighties.” [1]

[1] Judt, p. 608


Hungary However, there was NO organized political

opposition in Hungary. “The catalyst for change was the frustration of

younger, ‘reform-Communists’- openly enthusiastic about the transformations Gorbachev was working in the CPSU-at the inflexibility of their own ageing Party leadership.”[1]

[1] Judt, p. 609


Hungary

“When the Hungarian authorities took down the barbed wire along the Austrian border, they had intended only to make it easier for their own citizens…But the word spread, and soon thousands of East Germans…were walking across”

(Gaddis, p. 243)


The Sinatra Doctrine

Even before the wall fell: “By October 1989, Gennadi Gerasimov, the Soviet foreign

ministry press spokesman could joke about [the pending changes] ‘You know that

Frank Sinatra song My Way…Hungary and Poland are doing it their way. We now have

the Sinatra Doctrine.” (Gaddis, p. 248)

Trouble in East Germany

Honecker’s Swan Song


Fleeing East Germany (again)“By September [of 1989], there were more than

130,000 East Germans in Hungary and the government announced that for , “humanitarian”

reasons, it would not try to stop their emigration to the West. Honecker and his associates were

furious…Meanwhile guests-including Gorbachev himself-were arriving in East Berlin for the official

commemorations on October 7-8, 1989”

(Gaddis, p. 244)


Gorbachev & Honecker


Trouble for Honecker’s East Germany

“During the parade…the marchers abandoned the approved slogans and

began shouting, ‘Gorby, help us! Gorby, stay here…the regime was doomed…

Gorbachev tried to warn the East Germans of the need for drastic changes…[but] trying

to get through to him [Honecker] was like throwing peas against the wall” (Gaddis, pp.

244-245)


East German Trouble“Anti-government protests had been building

for weeks in Leipzig…there was no Tiananmen-like massacre, but that meant

there was no authority left for Honecker, who was forced to resign on October, 18th…His successor Egon Krenz…decided to relieve

the mounting tension…by relaxing-not eliminating-the rules restricting travel to the west…the hastily drafted decree was handed to…a Politburo member who had not been to

the meeting” (Gaddis, p. 245)


The Wall Comes Down (by mistake?)

Gunter Schabowski, the Politburo member announced to the press “that citizens of the G.D.R. were free to leave ‘through any of the border crossings…within minutes, the word went out that the wall was open. It was not but crowds, but crowds began gathering at crossing points and the guards had no instructions” (Gaddis, p. 246)


Fall of the Wall



Gorbachev’s Reaction

“Gorbachev in Moscow, slept through the whole thing and heard about it only the next morning. All he could do was pass the word to the East German authorities” ‘You

made the right decision.”

(Gaddis, p. 246)


Hungary “In the early months of 1989 the

Communist legislature passed a series of measures recognizing the right of free assembly; officially sanctioning ‘transition’ to a multi-party system; and, in April, formally jettisoning ‘democratic centralism’ in the party itself.”[1]

[1] Judt, p. 609


Hungary

Opposition throughout 1989 against the Communists They formally abandoned the ideology of Leninism,

and changing the name of the party to Hungarian Socialist Party

Name change FROM the Soviet-style “Hungarian People’s Republic” TO the “Republic of Hungary”

The remains of Imre Nagy- the former Prime Minister who had been overthrown and executed after the 1956 Revolution were reinterred with full national honors


Hungary “On June 16th 1989-the thirty-first anniversary of his

death- the remains of Imre Nagy and four of his colleagues were ceremoniously reburied as national heroes. An estimated 300,000 Hungarians lined the streets, with millions more watching the proceedings live on television.”[1]

It took down the barbed-wire border with Austria to permit free circulation of people

[1] Judt, p. 610


Hungary

“On August 25, 1989, Kohl (of West Germany) reached an understanding with the reformist leadership of Hungary to open the Hungarian-Austrian border to defectors from the GDR [East Germany].

In return, Hungary received 1 billion Deutsche Marks to cover its budget deficit…In October, Hoenecker told Gorbachev that Nemwth received from the SPD a loan of 550 million D-marks on the condition that the “Hungarians opened a border with Austria.”[1]

[1] Zubok, p. 324-325


Hungary In January of 1990 the Hungarian

government asked the Soviets to remove all of its troops, which in March the Kremlin promised to do by the summer of 1991

With Poland and Hungary out of the way the rest of the Warsaw Pact began to fall like dominos


Bulgaria

November 1989: Communist boss the 78 yr. old Todor Zhivkov had been ruling since 1954 was replaced by a coalition of Communist reformists.

Zhikov had been the longest-serving leader in the Communist bloc, but the economy had been in trouble for a long while.


Bulgaria Zhikov had stressed ethnic nationalism at the

EXPENSE of the Turkish minority in Bulgaria (900,000 in the land of Nine Million).

The Turkish minority was still a symbol of the hated Ottoman Empire: “a tottering Party autocracy turned the full fury of ethnic prejudice upon a helpless domestic victim.” [1] [1] Judt, p. 626


Bulgaria Bulgaria stripped the “Turkish Bulgarians” of

many rights, and the international community complained bitterly

An exodus by the minority to Turkey began (300,000 in the summer of 1989). These fleeing numbers cut the supply of labor in Bulgaria.

November 10th, 1989: “not coincidently the day after the fall of the Berlin Wall”-they ousted Zhikov.[1][1] Judt, p. 627


Bulgaria Opposition from Bulgarian intellectuals, and

Bulgaria was denounced by the UN and the European Court of Justice

Change did come to Bulgaria and “Bulgaria successfully avoided the catastrophe awaiting Yugoslavia” [1]

December 29th , 1989, “in the face of angry nationalist protests, Muslims and Turks were granted full and equal rights.” [2]

[1] Judt, p. 627[1] Judt, p. 627


Czechoslovakia

Czech Communists were actually rather successful at maintaining total control to the very end. Neither the Catholic Church nor intellectual opposition gained significant support in society at large.”[1]

[1] Judt, p. 616


Czechoslovakia Havel and thirteen other Charter 77 activists were arrested and

once again imprisoned: (excerpt)

“In January 1977, 230 prominent Czech intellectuals signed and published a manifesto announcing the formation of Charter 77, a “loose, informal and open association of people” committed to human rights. Signatories included the playwrights Vaclav Havel and Pavel Kohout. The manifesto was published in various Western newspapers on January 6. Czech authorities arrested several of the signatories the next day, denounced them and began cracking down on dissident activities. The United States charged Czechoslovakia with violating the 1975 HELSINKI ACCORDS on human rights.” [1]

[1] www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cold.war/episodes/19/documents/charter.77/


Czechoslovakia

November 17th, 1989: “Prague police officially approved a student march through the inner-city to commemorate…the 50th anniversary of the Nazi murder of a Czech student. But when marching students began to chat anti-Communist slogans the police attacked, scattering the crowd and beating up isolated victims.” [1]

A FALSE RUMOR CIRCULATED THAT A STUDENT WAS KILLED. THIS LED TO MORE PROBLEMS FOR THE GOVERNMENT. WITHIN A WEEK THE ENTIRE PRAESIDIUM RESIGNED! (NOV. 24TH, 1989)

[1] Judt p. 618


Czechoslovakia Nov. 25th, 1989: half a million people gathered at the

Letna Stadium just because they could! December 1989: The “Velvet Revolution” (peaceful exit

from communism) like the changes in most of Eastern Europe during 1989 occurred in a peaceful manner. “The playwright Vaclav Havel, the country’s most famous dissident, was elected president, was elected president, while the parliament chose as its speaker former prime minister Alexander Dubcek, who had been ousted by the Russians after the “Prague Spring” of 1968.”[1]

[1] Keylor, p. 316


Czechoslovakia Nov. 25th, 1989: half a million people gathered at the

Letna Stadium just because they could! December 1989: The “Velvet Revolution” (peaceful

exit from communism) like the changes in most of Eastern Europe during 1989 occurred in a peaceful manner. “The playwright Vaclav Havel, the country’s most famous dissident, was elected president, was elected president, while the parliament chose as its speaker former prime minister Alexander Dubcek, who had been ousted by the Russians after the “Prague Spring” of 1968.”[1]

[1] Keylor, p. 316


Czechoslovakia Jan. 1, 1990: 16,000 political prisoners were released in

Czechoslovakia

NOTE: “In response to requests by Czechoslovakia and Hungary for the removal of troops, Gorbachev’s agreement in February and March 1990, respectively, to a total military withdrawal from the two countries by the end of June 1991 sounded the death knell of Moscow’s hegemony in Eastern Europe.” [1]

[1] Keylor, p. 317


Romania (NASTY ENDING) The exception to a relatively non-violent

transfer of power in the former eastern bloc was Romania.

Brutal Communist rule in the 1950’s under “Dej” (Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej who was the General Secretary of the Romanian Communist from 1944 – 65)

Pro-Stalin ruler, angered by Khrushchev’s anti-Stalin comments, followed by Ceausescu!

Nicolae Ceausescu

General Secretary of the Romanian Communist Party

1965-1989


Nicolae Ceausescu

Compared to DEJ, Nicolae Ceausescu (Ciao-Sessh-Koo) flew under the radar: i.e. Within one year of violently putting down a miner’s strike in 1977, Ceausescu visited the United States as a guest of President Jimmy Carter.


Nicolae Ceausescu (rules 1965 – 1989)


Nicolae Ceausescu

In the early stages of the “Second Cold War” of the 1980’s was happy to criticize the USSR, and he even sent his gymnasts to the Los Angeles Olympics…Americans and others kept silent about his domestic crimes.o To increase population he outlawed

abortions for women under forty with fewer than four children, he raised the age to 45 in 1986

o 1984 the minimum age to married was dropped to 15


Nicolae Ceausescu

Compulsory monthly medical exams for women-in order to prevent abortions

Abortions were only allowed if a member of the Communist Party were in attendance

Doctors in districts that had a declining birth rate had their salaries reduced

Population did not increase, but the death rate from abortions far exceeded that of any other European country (from 1966-1989 at least 10,000 women died via illegal abortions)[1]

[1] Judt p. 622


Ceausescu Portraits of Ceausescu and his wife were put

everywhere, almost as many as North Korea’s Kil Il Sung

November of 1989 he was re-elected Secretary-General

December 1989 Ceausescu cracked down on a Hungarian pastor in a western Romanian city, the Hungarian minority held an all night vigil for the pastor


Romanian Violence

In December of 1989, Communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu ordered his troops to fire on the demonstratorso After a trip to Iran, Ceausescu decided to

appear before a huge crowd that jeered him, he tried again the next day and was jeered again and he fled with his wife via a helicopter (while portions of his military began to switch sides)


End of Ceausescu’s Rule He was caught, returned, tried and on

Dec. 25 1989 was executed with his wife. His successors removed all remnants of

the former dictator’s rule and planned for the country’s free elections.


The Reunification of Germany


German Reunification

“The fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989, caught everyone in Moscow by surprise.

The East German leaders, acting under growing public pressure and without any advice from Moscow, decided to allow the controlled movement of population between East and West Berlin”[1]

[1] Zubok, p. 326


German Reunification “Credit for German re-unification-a unique

case of fusion in a decade of fission-must go in the first instance to Helmut Kohl (West German Chancellor)”. [1]

November 28th, 1989: Kohl presents, to the Bundestag, a five-year series of cautious steps towards German unification

[1] Judt p. 638.


German Reunification But after listening to East Germans-and

getting Washington’s backing- he felt that unification had to happen ASAP

Like previous German unification, the first stage was to be a “currency union” with the political unification to follow

East Germany (GDR) called for elections (March 1990) Alliance for Germany (Christian Democrats) ran on a

unification ticket and took 48% of the vote Social Democrats took 22% Communists took 16%



May 1990: The CDU/PD Liberal Coalition took steps to unify

May 18th 1990: “a MONETARY, ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL UNION was SIGNED BETWEEN THE TWO GERMANIES, AND ON July 1st its crucial clause-the EXTENSION OF THE DEUTSCHMARK TO EAST GERMANY-came into force. East Germans could now exchange their virtually useless German marks- up to the equivalent of DM 40,000- at a highly advantageous rate of 1:1.”[1]

[1] Judt, p. 639



August 23rd, 1990: “the Volkskammer voted to accede to the Federal Republic. A week later a Treaty entered into force: the GDR ‘acceded’ to the Federal Republic and ceased to exist”[1]

NOTE: E. Germans had 360,000 Soviet troops still in their country as late as 1989

France and the Brits were NOT excited about German Reunification [1] Judt p. 639


Money to the USSR The Soviet’s were open to financial

persuasion regarding German reunification. Gorbachev tried to hold the reunification process

“hostage” by demanding $20. Billion (before finally settling for $8 plus an additional $2 billion in interest-free credits).[1]

“Overall from 1990 through 1994 Bonn (W. German Capital) transferred to the Soviet Union (and Latterly Russia) the equivalent of $71 billion (with a further $36 billion going to the former Communist states of Eastern Europe)”[2]

[1] Judt, p. 642[2] Judt, p. 642


Reunification in Germany German reunification led to an ERASURE of

HISTORY, not a RECOVERY of HISTORY. In the former East Germany, “the names of towns, streets, buildings and counties were changed, often reverting to pre-1933 usage…rather than engage the GDR’s troubled history…its former subjects were encouraged to forget it”[1]

[1] Judt, p. 642



“In the three years following unification total transfers from Western into Eastern Germany amounted to the equivalent of 1,200 Billion Euros; by the end of 2003 the cost of absorbing the former GDR had reached 1.2 Trillion Euros. East Germans were subsidized into the Federal Republic: their jobs, pensions, transport, education and housing underwritten by huge increases in government expenditure.”[1]

Gorbachev’s concessions of the German Reunification issue hurt his popularity at home.

[1] Judt, p. 643


The Fall of the U.S.S.R.


Soviet Withdrawal From Afghanistan

The Withdrawal From Afghanistan Not completed until February of 1989 “By late 1986 it became clear to

Gorbachev…[that] the invigorated Soviet strategy in Afghanistan was not working[1]” [1] Westad, p. 372


Afghanistan “American willingness to supply an almost

unlimited quantity of arms to the Mujahedin, the improved organization of the guerillas, and the participation of foreign fighters-mostly Pakistanis and Arabs-on the side of the resistance had upped the ante to a level where fighting for a better position prior to withdrawal seemed impossible. In February 1987 Gorbachev was close to desperation.”[1]

[1] Westad, p. 372


Afghanistan “On the chilly winter morning of 15 February

1989 Lieutenant General Boris Gromov, the last commander of Soviet forces in Afghanistan, walked across the bridge over the Amu Darya River and back into Uzbekistan, from where the Red Army had come almost ten years before…the ignoble Soviet exit from Afghanistan became a global symbol for the failure of Moscow’s Third World policies”[1] [1] Westad, pp. 377-378


According to Westad, the three major reasons for the Soviet’s withdrawal:

“(first) the Soviet critique of Third World socialism that found its way into the party leadership through Gorbachev’s choice of advisers…(secondly) the Soviet hope that it could remove American hostility through making compromises in the Third World…(lastly) the ideological adherence to the principle of national self-determination that Gorbachev’s reading of Lenin gave rise to, and which led the CPSU both out of Afghanistan and eventually, out of the Kremlin.”[1]

[1] Westad, p. 380


A Failed Coup “On August 18, 1991, Gorbachev, his wife

Raisa, and his foreign policy minister Anatoly Chernyaev, were on vacation in the Crimea when the majority of Gorbachev’s ministers took power into their own hands…tanks and troops flooded Moscow…[they] lacked the will to use violence and spill blood…for three days, the leader of a superpower was a prisoner of the KGB in his Crimean residence… the architects of the coup claimed he was “sick.”[1] The coup failed!

[1] Zubok, p. 321-332.


Last Days of Gorbachev “Gorbachev was seen as a pathetic and

procrastinating figure, hated and despised by many of his fellow countrymen and by former Soviet allies around the world. Intellectual and artistic elites abandoned Gorbachev (although he and his wife had cultivated and helped them so much) and enthusiastically supported the anti-Communist course and rhetoric of Boris Yeltsin.” [1]

[1] Zubok, p. 332.


The Rise of Yeltsin “The resistance to the coup was the golden hour of the

‘men and women of the sixties’…young people, students, businessmen and intellectuals [rushed] to defend the Russian Parliament, where Yeltsin stood in defiance of the Kremlin’s hard-liners…the international media, including CNN, beamed the image of a defiant Boris Yeltsin, standing on an armored troop carrier in front of the threatened Russian parliament, around the world…As the leaders dithered, the coup lost its momentum and collapsed like a house of cards…the active participants of this “revolution never numbered more than 50,000 to 60,000 demonstrators does not diminish its significance[1]”

[1] Zubok, p. 333.


Fall of Communism

Yeltsin, the President, banned the Communist party and separated from the USSR.


Yeltsin

December 8th, 1991 Yeltsin and other former communist leaders from the Ukraine, and

Belorussia disbanded the Soviet Union. “One last time Gorbachev refused to use force to

remain In power…On December 25th, 1991, the triumphant Yeltsin and his followers forced Gorbachev out of his Kremlin office. A bit later, the Soviet flag went down the Kremlin mast one

more time”[1][1] Zubok, p. 334


The Legacy of Mikhail Gorbachev

“The peaceful and rapid end of the Cold War secured Gorbachev’s place in international history. The unwitting

destruction of the Soviet Union made him one of the most controversial

figures in Russian history”[1]

[1] Zubok, p. 335


Bibliography

CNN Cold War. Retrieved July 6, 2008, from Episode 23: The Wall Comes Down Web site (1998): http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cold.war/episodes/23/documents/gorbachev/

Gaddis, J.L. (2005). The Cold War: A new history. New York, NY: Penguin Press.

Ioannes Paulus PP. II. Retrieved July 6, 2008, from The Holy See Web site: http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/


Bibliography

Judt, T. (2005). Postwar: A history of Europe since 1945. New York, NY: Penguin Press.

Keylor, W.R. (2003). A world of nations: The international order since 1945. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press)

Westad, O.A. (2007). The global Cold War: Third world interventions and the making of our times. New York, NY: Cambridge Press

Zubok, V.M. (2007). A failed empire. Chapel Hill, NC: Chapel Hill Press.

Documents

The Fall of Communism Kevin Sacerdote Mandarin High School Jacksonville, FL