An History 12 lesson discussing the collapse of the communist regimes in USSR, DDR, Poland and Czechoslovakia

1. Fall of the Communist Block
1985 - 1991
The Gorbachev Revolution

2. Chernobyl - symbolic of what
was coming to the Evil Empire

3. West’s
view

4. First noted in
Scandinavia

6. The 80s = New Leadership
• Brezhnev 1964 - 1982
• Andropov 1982 - 1984
• Chernenko 1984 - 1985
SAME OLD GUARD

7. A breath
of fresh air
• See pp 198-201 in
the Handbook for
the challenges he
faced
Caricatures usually
show this mark

8. 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)

9. Gorby’s response: if it’s
broken let’s improve it - tweak
it - don’t replace it
• 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

10. 1987 Campaign against labourless profit - oops, that’s part of the capitalist system.

11. “The national
border of the
USSR is
untouchable”
1987
There were also
campaigns against
drinking, corruption,
prostitution, and

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

13. Gorbymania in the West

14. 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

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

17. PRC 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…

18. The Regime must be willing to
meet challenges to its being

19. 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.

20. 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.

21. 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

23. Yeltsin criticizing Gorbachev about the rate of reform
1. Communist Party
2. Yeltsin, p 316
3. Sakharov,
Global Forces p 299

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

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

29. Poland
• 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

30. Lenin Shipyard, Gdansk
(you know it as Danzig)

31. Solidarity Lenin Shipyard,
Gdansk, 1980

32. Walesa with head government
negotiator, 1980

33. Jaruzelski imposed martial law
13 Dec, 1981
Solidarity was made
illegal
Martial law lasted until 1983: many
Solidarity members were jailed

34. Wujak
Coal
Mine, 16
Dec
1981:
Striking miners were
dispersed by the ZOMO:
9 dead, 21 wounded

35. Z OM
O: S
tate
Riot
Polic
e
Martial Law, 1981
Verification of
educators/media to test loyalty
- 2000 lost jobs

36. Where’s the beef?

38. In 1988, the PCP
tried to improve
the economy with
strict policies
The result was a
return to strikes
and protests.

39. Solidarity meets with the
Government, Feb - Apr 1989
RC Church
Solidarity
Govt
Communists
Smaller oppsn
groups

41. In 1990, Walesa, the shipyard
electrician, replaced
Jaruzelski as President
Gorbachev had not
followed the Brezhnev
Doctrine and
intervened

42. Fall of East Germany (DDR)
The Wall, 1961

43. • 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.

44. •
•
•
•
•
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 ann
”.
The Bucharest statement prescribed that its nations henceforth developed
This called into question the Soviet guarantee of existence for the commun
Hungary had begun dismantling its border with Austria, creating the first ga
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.

45. JFK,
1963:
Ich bin
ein
Berliner

46. Erich Honecker
Erich Honecker

47. When the Wall came down in 1989, it
occurred quickly!

48. Old worries: what will happen
with a reunified Germany?
Mitterrand and Helmut
Kohl, Verdun, 1984
The French-German Brigade,
established 1989

49. e
g
Old worries: what will happen
hu
a
with a reunified Germany?is
d rh
te f o
ia Mitterrand andon
t
Helmut
y ti
go anKohl, Verdun, 1984
e m
n r
ca
ifi
v
e Ge un
c h m f re
a o
rb f r
o
l
o n
G a
va
lo pro
p
The French-German Brigade,
a
established 1989

50. Helmut Kohl - First Chancellor of a
reunified Germany
See Global Forces pp
308-309
•
•
•
•
•
•
What challenges would
be faced after the
euphoria?
Nationalism (old horrors?)
Xenophobia
Unemployment
Debt
Outmoded industry
Inflation

51. Czechoslovakia
•
•
•
•
•
•
Versailles, 1919
Munich Agreement, 1938
Annexation 1939
Soviets 1948
Prague Spring 1968
Freedom 1989

52. Brezhnev
Doctrine
1968
When 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.

53. Velvet Revolution
She Might Have Invaded Russia
H. Block, 1968

54. Alexander Dubč ek

62. end