Do Now

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_deficit

$596,000,000,000.additional debt

$539,000,000,000.additional debt

$575,000,000,000.additional debt

$500,000,000,000.additional debt

$1,018,000,000,000.additional debt

At what level of debt will you feel like it’s time At what level of debt will you feel like it’s time to speak out against government debt?to speak out against government debt?

$14 trillion? $16 trillion?

$18 trillion? $20 trillion?

$30 trillion?

• To whom will you complain? • About whom will you complain? • Will you worry about your safety if you speak out?

• For the longest time in the Soviet Union, people were not allowed to speak their minds.

• They got only what the government allowed them to get.

• Consider just for a moment the power of free speech…

“The truth will set you free.”

Glasnost:openness, freedom of information

Perestroika: rebuilding, reconstruction, reform

www.estonica.org/en/History/1985-1991_Restoration_of_independence/The_first_changes/

• The Soviet war against Afghanistan started in 1979 and proved much more complicated than initially estimated. This brought about foreign policy complications and further strained the country’s already weak economy.

• By the mid-1980s, the Soviet Union’s economy was in a state of total disorder, largely caused by a lack of technological development compared to the West.

• The inefficient socialist planned economy based on extensive production and development of military industries began to unravel.

• The Soviet Union turned out to be the loser, having exhausted its potential, in the arms race with the United States.

www.estonica.org/en/History/1985-1991_Restoration_of_independence/The_first_changes/

• The Soviet export of oil and gas suffered seriously after fuel prices fell on the world market.

• At the same time, the Soviet Union increasingly depended on imported grain, and was still unable to meet the demands of the domestic market.

• The increasing lack of food products and basic necessities (footwear, clothes, etc.), plus escalating prices, caused bitter resentment among the population.

• Soviet foreign policy had reached a dead-end as well, as it had been expansionist for decades, trying to extend Soviet power throughout the world.

www.estonica.org/en/History/1985-1991_Restoration_of_independence/The_first_changes/

• The Soviet leadership did not publicly acknowledge the economic crisis.

• Many people, including most Estonians, were initially cautious of Mikhail Gorbachev, the new leader of the Soviet Union, who started his innovative policies in 1985.

• The key words glasnost and perestroika seemed like empty slogans, and it was not clear what kind of reforms and changes the new Soviet leader was actually pursuing.

• The new General Secretary of the Communist Party in the Soviet Union instituted new policies because he knew his country was in bad shape economically and believed that glasnost and perestroika would help the Soviet Union and strengthen communism.

• If the economy had been better, nothing would have changed.

• They needed to get more investments and support from the Western world.

• Gorbachev did not understand how his policies would effect each of the occupied nations’ yearning for freedom.

• The Estonian people stood at the ready to test this new policy of free speech.

Play Disc 3

1987-1991: The Singing Revolution

Comments on Gorbachev0:00 thru 1:49

• Gorbachev underestimated the power of the independence movement.

• President Reagan and General Secretary Gorbachev became seemingly close friends during the Reagan years and the Baltic States worried that they might end up “victims” in the relationship between these two superpowers.

• There were constant warnings “not to rock the boat” as things could get much worse if Gorbachev lost his influence.

Play Disc 3

1987-1991: The Singing Revolution

Comments on Gorbachev3:59 thru 4:48

• Nobody knew what the limits of these new policies would be. How far could the Estonian activists go before the Soviets used their “war machine” to stop them?

• The Estonians involved in the independence movement and the Heritage Society learned how to quietly “step over the line” to test the limits of the new Soviet policy.

Play Disc 3

1987-1991: The Singing Revolution

Comments on Gorbachev4:48 thru end of clip (approximately 2:06)

• Pollution was rampant in the Soviet Union under communist rule.

• In the town of Kunda, smokestacks deposited cement dust on every home and field.

• Strip mining in Kohta-Jarvebecame so egregious that residue from oil shale production and phosphate mining leaked radioactive waste into the water table and poisoned the water wells.

• Estonian activists and university students used the environmental issue to test the new Soviet policies.

• In 1986-87, Estonian environmentalist activists won the “phosphate war” testing the limits of the new policies.

“There are two roads we can take. We can either tighten our belts very, very tightly and reduce consumption which the people will no longer tolerate. Or we can try to diffuse international tension and overcome the disagreement between East and West, and so free up the gigantic sums that are spent on armaments in the Soviet Union.”

Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze

• Mikhail Gorbachev visits the United States for the first time to sign a limited Nuclear Disarmament Treaty with President Ronald Reagan.

• Gorbachev wanted to convince the Western world that the Soviets were serious about change.

• In 1987, political activists decided to stage a demonstration in the Town Hall Square in the middle of Tallinn.

• They based the protest on the legality of the Molotov- Ribbentrop Pact of 1939, trying to publicize the secret agreements in the pact and to get Moscow to admit that the Baltic States had been illegally incorporated into the Soviet Union.

• The activists relied on word of mouth, Radio Free Europe, and Voice of America broadcasts to publicize the protest.

• Authorities had originally issued a permit for the peaceful demonstration in the Town Center, but the night before the event they decided to revoked the permit for that location.

• Protest organizers scrambled to move people to nearby Hirve Park. As thousands converged, authorities turned off the electricity to disable the PA system.

• It was the first time in 50 years that anybody had spoken publicly against communism, the MRP and Soviet occupation… and hadn’t gotten arrested!

Play Disc 3

1987-1991: The Singing Revolution

Details on the 1987 Hirve Park DemonstrationTime: 0:00 - 9:02

• People began to realize that they could now speak out freely against the policies of the communist socialist Soviet system.

• One of the biggest impacts of Gorbachev’s policies was that in the span of 2 years, he made the “fear” disappear. People lost their fear of speaking and acting freely.

• Glasnost brought pop culture out into the open and ignited the Estonian youth through a series of Night Song Festivals.

• Glasnost: openness, freedom of information. The Estonian people used the new policies to speak the truth.

• They exposed the humiliation of the communist/socialist way of life.

• They exposed the brutality of the Stalin Era.

• They challenged Soviet environmental policies.

• They exposed the secret protocol of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, which reaffirmed the illegality of the occupation.

• The Hirve Park Demonstration marked the beginning of the end of the powerful Soviet Union.

• Gorbachev’s policies inadvertently allowed the Estonian people to regain their independence.

Play Disc 3

1987-1991: The Singing Revolution

Details on the 1987 Hirve Park DemonstrationTime: 9:02 – 10:54

“For me, it was one of the brightest days there’s ever been in the fight for freedom. It gave courage to everyone. The sun came out. There was a feeling of complete happiness at Hirve Park. A good example of courage is Hirve Park. [That courage] began to grow from meeting to meeting, along with the singing events. The energy and courage was found to continue on together. It is very important that in the beginning, someone stands up.”

- Lagle Parek Activist & Former Political Prisoner