Rise and Fall of communism

How did this happen?!?

• StalinStalin (1927-1953) beginning of Cold War

• KhrushchevKhrushchev (1956-1964)

de-stalinization/ “peaceful coexistence”

• BrezhnevBrezhnev (1967-1982) détente/ Brezhnev doctrine

• --------

• GorbachevGorbachev (1985-1991) glasnost/ perestroika

Nikita Khrushchev

• 1956 secret speech @ 20th Congress of Communist Party (leads to ea. Eur. relax)

• cultural thaw/ Poland, Hungary

• some consumer goods production

• 1957 - Sputnik

• 1958 - “peaceful coexistence”

• 1959 - K tours U.S.; schedules Paris Summit for 1960

• 1960 - Paris Summit foiled by U-2 spy plane

• 1961 - Berlin Wall/Pigs

• 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis

• 1963 - Nuclear Test Ban Treaty - hot line

• Hardliners feel K. has lost his effectiveness…British film – 1964 – dark

comedy by Stanley Kubrick

Leonid Brezhnev• Repression; KGB strengthened

• 1968 - Prague Spring Crushed ---- Brezhnev Doctrine

• Supports US antagonists; eg: Vietnam

• 1971 - SALT I; freezes certain weapons programs

• 1972 - Grain sales from US to SU

• 1974 - DÉTENTE

• 1975 - Helsinki agreements

• European countries recognize the existing borders of European nations, the principle of national sovereignty, and non-interference in internal affairs, and commitment to human rights

• 1979 - Soviet invasion of Afghanistan

• 1982 - Brezhnev dies

• Andropov/ Chernenko

Change comes to Soviet UnionChange comes to Soviet Union• 1985 Gorbachev

• faces problems:– lack of economic growth

– decline in consumer goods; long lines

– absenteeism at work; alcoholism

– loss in Afghanistan

– inability to continue arms race

– dissident opposition

– nationalism in republics

Mikhail Gorbachev

* Glasnost - openness

* censorship relaxed* dissidents released

Gorbachev Reforms• economic economic perestroikaperestroika – (but not

fast enough for many; eg: Yeltsin)

– reduces role of state corporations

– encourages foreign investment

– allows transition to market economy

– trips to US - 1987

• PoliticalPolitical perestroikaperestroika– Appointment of some “liberals”

– 1988 - dissidents & non-communists can be elected to Congress of People’s Deputies

–1989 renounces Brezhnev Doctrine-

–Impact on eastern Soviet bloc• Foreign minister Shevardnadze encourages

renunciation of Brezhnev Doctrine

• 1990 - end to restrictions on religion

–Lithuania declares independence from SU

• Gorb. unable to stem the tide…

• 1990 – Nobel Peace Prize

Yeltsin – leader of Russian Republic

• Boris Yeltsin steers a different course for Russia - Russia - wants more rapid change

• calls for Gorbachev’s resignation

• Yeltsin president of Russia

• But - hard-liners attempted coup ag Gorb (fails) – Yeltsin supports Gorbs return

• Yeltsin suspends communist party in Russia

• Dec 1991 - Gorbachev resigns - end of the Soviet union...

Meanwhile in the satellites...

The end of Soviet Soviet dominance & the

fall of communism

• Poland - “10 years”

• Hungary - “10 months”

• E. Germany - “10 weeks”

• Czechoslovakia - “10 days”

• Rumania - “10 hours”

Background:

Regime change…

Poland• 1956 – revolt

• Golmulka (56-70)- new communist leader

– but halted collectivization of agriculture

– established trade with west

– acceptable to Moscow; stayed in Warsaw Pact

• Gierek (70-80)

– greater freedom - Solidarity grows

– 1980 ….

• Aug 1980 - Lenin shipyard strike at Gdansk (Danzig)

–Lech Walesa –

–spokesperson for Solidarity trade union - strikes

–Gov’t grants concessions

• USSR presses Polish gov’t to suppress “revolt”

–General Jaruzelski…

• 1981 - Jaruzelski imposes martial law:– (2007 – facing charges)

– strikes crushed; Solidarity suspended

• 1982 - Solidarity declared illegal

• 1983 – Nobel Peace Prize - Walesa

• by ’88 changes in SU cause increasing discontent in Poland

• J. repeals martial law; Solidarity legal

• ‘89 elections - Solidarity wins BIG

– When Walesa & others were arrested under Jaruzelski’s martial law, Walesa had said:

– At this moment, you lost. We are arrested, but you have driven a nail into your communist coffin... You'll come back to us on your knees.

• The success of non-violent civil disobedience

• 1990-1995 President of Polish Republic

Hungary• 1956 - Uprising in Budapest

• Imre Nagy headed new communist govt.

– greater independence for Hungary

– Soviet troops to withdraw

– withdrawal from Warsaw Pact

• Soviet invasion - 1956

– Nagy deposed; later executed

– Janos Kadar new premier

• More open and more market econ. development than most E. Euro 1985 - support for political pluralism

• 1989 Janos Kadar out

• communist party socialist party

• Hungarian Democratic Forum initiates reform - free elections

East Germany• 1949 - Communist Government established

– industries dismantled by Soviets

• 1971 - Erich Honecker becomes premier (had been in charge of building the Berlin Wall in ‘61)

– no reforms even while Gorbachev was making changes in SU

– growing # of dissidents

• 1989 - demonstrations -Gorbachev declines to back communists

• Honecker resigns (Oct 89); Krenz replaces – promises reforms

• Russian foreign minister Shevardnadze - “each country has right to absolute freedom of choice”

• East Germans interpret “free” to leave (unintentional)…...

• November ‘89 - order for the Berlin Wall to be torn down

• communist party changed name to socialist

• fall of Krenz govt

• March 1990 - free elections - unification supporters

October 3, 1990 - reunification of GermanyOctober 3, 1990 - reunification of Germany

Czechoslovakia

• 1968 - Prague Spring

– Alexander Dubcek expands intellectual freedom

• Summer 68 - Soviet invasion - Brezhnev Doctrine

• 1977 - intellectuals sign protest against gov’t restrictions - reprisals

1989 1989 “The Velvet Revolution”“The Velvet Revolution”

• Dec - Dubcek - chairman of parliament & Havel - President

• Jan 1, 1993 - Czech Rep Slovakia

•Vaclav Havel – •poet/playwright leads Civic Forum “party” which forces Husak to resign (‘68)

Romania• Most repressive and isolated

• Ceausescu - cult of personality; nepotism

• C. attempted distance from Moscow during Gorby changes

• harsh persecutions/ economic disasters

• Dec 15, 1989 - security forces open fire on demonstrators in Hungarian region of Romania

• Dec 24, 1989…

• C & wife captured as try to flee

• “tried” & shot

• free elections May 1990 -

Yugoslavia

• Marshall Josef Broz Tito

• communist dictator 1946-1980

• suppression of ethnic conflict

• 1980’s - Serbs dominated govt

• Rising Nationalism…

• -Slobodan Milosovic• - repression of Albanian

nationalism in Kosovo - Serb occupation

• withdrawal of republics: Slovenia, Croatia, Macedonia, Bosnia...

• Civil wars as Yugo govt attempts to prevent… Slovenia, Croatia...

Civil War in Bosnia

• Yugoslav Serbs attempt to militarily halt division of Yugoslavia

• Bosnia:

–1/3 Croat, Muslim, Serb ; Serbs refuse to accept independence from Yugo

–Radovan Karadzic - Bosnian Serb leader

–ethnic cleansing…

• 1995 - Dayton Peace AccordsDayton Peace Accords -

– division within single state: Bosnian-Croat federation & Serb republic

Challenges in former USSR & Satellites…..• lack of democratic traditions

– no other political parties

– emergence of nationalist rt. wing parties

– restyled communists ----socialists

• economic turmoil – Transition to market economy: corruption,

organized crime, homelessness, food shortages

• ethnic rivalries

– Bosnia, Georgia, Chechnya, Kosovo, Azerbaijan, Armenia

Discontent of Ethnic Minorities

•Kosovo – 1996-1999 war with Yugoslavia •Most population Albanian•NATO attack on Yugoslavia – 1999; protected status•2008 – declared complete independence as a sovereign state•Milosevic – war crimes trial

• Chechnya -

Putin & Yeltsin

President-elect Dmitry Medvedev