1. Soviet History: from Khrushchev to Gorbachev
Leonid Brezhnev:
Mikhail Gorbachev
Nikita Khrushchev:

2. Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union

3. Khrushchev retired in 1964
Communist Party deposed Khrushchev in 1964 Central Committee was unhappy with his failed agriculture policy Angry with his brinkmanship which had caused a loss of face over Cuba Unhappy with the Sino-Soviet break

4. The Coup against Khrushchev
Dramatic meeting of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the Communist Party
(October 1964)
First transition of Soviet leaders accomplished without bloodshed
“I’m not going to resist, I’m not about to smear you; after all, you and I hold the same views. I’m upset, but I’m also glad that the party has gotten to the point that it can rein in even its first secretary. You call this a cult? You smeared me all over with shit, and I say, “You’re right.’ You call that a cult?”
(Khrushchev, October 14, 1964, Presidium meeting, quoted in Taubman., p. 15.

5. Statement in Pravda 16 October 1964
Condemned Khrushchev’s: subjectivism and drift in Communist construction, harebrained scheming, half-baked conclusions and hasty decisions and actions divorced from reality, bragging and bluster, attraction to rule by fiat, and unwilling to take into account what science and practical experience have already worked out.”

6. Khrushchev on Soviet history
“Paradise is a place where people want to end up, not a place they run from! Yet in this country the doors are closed and locked. What kind of socialism is this? What kind of shit is it when you have to keep people in chains? What kind of social order? Some curse me for the times I opened the doors?. If God had given me the chance ot continue, I would have thrown the doors and windows wide open”

7. Khrushchev about himself
When he asked what he regrets the most:
“Most of all the blood,” he replied. “My arms are up to the elbows in blood. That is the most terrible thing that lies in my soul.”

8. 1964 - Khrushchev is replaced as first secretary of the Communist Party by Leonid Brezhnev.

9. Brezhnev
Leonid Brezhnev headed the communist party from 1964 to Brezhnev reestablished many Stalin’s rigid cultural and economic policies. The party again suppressed all public criticism. Brezhnev pursed the policy of ‘DÉTENTE’. The purpose was to obtain technology and extra grain from the west.

10. Leonid Brezhnev
Soviet political leader Leonid Brezhnev rose through the ranks of the Communist Party in the Ukraine. In 1964 he emerged as leader of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) after engineering Nikita Khrushchev’s downfall. Brezhnev is known especially for his “Brezhnev Doctrine”, which stated that the Soviet Union would intervene in any Soviet-bloc country where Communism was threatened. This led to the 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia, which had been on a track of political reform.

11. Brezhnev & Prague Spring
Soviet and Warsaw Pact troops invade Czechoslovakia to stem a trend towards liberalization; "Brezhnev doctrine" enunciated, giving communist countries the right to intervene in other communist states whose policies threatened the international communist movement.

12. Soviet Decline and Collapse: 1976-1991
New Russian flag: 1991

13. Overview of the Issues of the 1970s
A decline in détente
arms race with the U.S.
proxy wars in Africa (Angola, 75-76),
and Ethiopia (77-78)
Invasion of Afghanistan (1979)
Rise of anti-communist Solidarity Union in 1980
Changes in domestic consensus about détente in both countries

14. High point of détente: 1972 Ratification of SALT
Economic and trade agreements
Cooperation over ending war in Vietnam
Agreement to develop the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE)—perhaps a successor to NATO and Warsaw Pact?
1972 Brezhnev visit to West Germany—increased trade, Soviet natural resource sin exchange for German technology
1973 Brezhnev trip to the U.S.

15. How was détente viewed?
Managed Competition: continuation of the Cold War by less dangerous means
Both sides wanted to try to gain an advantage
Negotiate from strength: domestic politics, ideology, bureaucratic interests limited possibilities: Nixon could control the more conservative elements of his own party until Watergate

16. Domestic hurdles
U.S. Pressure on Russia to let Jews emigrate: Jackson-Vanik Amendment to trade bill
--American Objection to exit tax on Soviet
émigrés
Problems:
-- infringement on Russian sovereignty
--unlimited immigration to Israel from Russia would antagonize Arab allies
Soviet refuseniks (those that are
Refused an exit visa) demonstrate
In Moscow in 1973

17. Shakiness of Detente
Security and economic interests take a back seat to human rights and ideological opposition to Communism (liberal and conservative alliance in Congress against Nixon Administration)

18. The Dissident Alexander Solzhenitsyn
Flash points among hardliners and reformers in the Politburo
The dissident (died 2008) meets with President Putin.

19. The Brezhnev Years, 1964-1982 Leonid Brezhnev (1906-1982)
Stability over reform
Cautious attempts at reform
Stagnant industrial and agricultural economy
A Controlled Society
Revival of Stalinism
Restrictive policy against Soviet Critics
Andrei Sakharov and Alexander Solzhenitsyn
Free expression restricted
Pravda (Truth) and Izvestia (News)

20. Helsinki Final Act July 1975
Conference on European Security and Cooperation
Agreement on borders in Europe
Russians promise to respect free movement of people, family reunifications and visits, information, cultural, and educational openness
New commitment to human rights undermines Soviet regime

21. The Helsinki Decalogue
The first of the Final Act's three baskets outlines ten principles guiding relations between the participating States. These principles, known as the 'Helsinki Decalogue', are as follows:
Sovereign equality, respect for the rights inherent in sovereignty
Refraining from the threat or use of force
Inviolability of frontiers
Territorial integrity of States
Peaceful settlement of disputes
Non-intervention in internal affairs
Respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, including the freedom of thought, conscience, religion or belief
Equal rights and self-determination of peoples
Co-operation among States
Fulfilment in good faith of obligations under international law
The full list of signatories of the Helsinki Final Act is as follows: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Cyprus, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Finland, France, the German Democratic Republic, the Federal Republic of Germany, Greece, the Holy See, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, San Marino, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, the USA and Yugoslavia

23. Yom Kippur War 1973 Soviet support for Egypt Israeli victory
Sadat turns against Russia
U.S. seizes the upper hand in guiding Middle East peace process

24. Watergate Crisis
Russians could not understand why Nixon had to resign– suspected that enemies of détente were responsible

25. Brezhnev’s health problems
Addiction to sedatives
Ability to pay attention to details slipping according to aids
Physician says that Brezhnev’s addiction—”contributed to the collapse of the national leadership”

26. Continued arms race
Soviet rapid buildup of ICBMs part of a general plan to negotiate from a position of strength
Concern that Russia might be put in a Cuban Missile Crisis situation again and have inferior capabilities

27. Competition for control
African conflict: Russia seeks to project is Great Power status and spread communism
Oil price increases gave Russia hard currency to fund military expansion
Successful support of communist in Angola: The Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola

28. Decision to invade Afghanistan 1979
Brezhnev ill.
Ignore realities about Islamic fundamentalism
Exaggerated American influence over Islamic fundamentalists
Saw Afghanistan in terms of Cold War –U.S. deployment of Pershing missiles in Europe

29. The Soviet Union in The 1980s
The Polish Revolution—Solidarity Union-ties with Polish Catholic Church, the Vatican, support from the U.S.—Jaruzelski is the new hardline communist party leader –imposes martial law, December 13, 1981
Polish unrest spilled into Soviet republics
Brezhnev virtually a recluse: Andropov, Ustinov, and Gromyko the leaders…
Andropov said to subordinate: “The quota of interventions abroad has been exhausted.”
Soviet leaders dedicated to détente
Heavy economic pressure: food shortages, client states, one-fourth of gdp spent on the military

30. Solidarity led strike at Gdansk Shipyards, Poland 1980

31. Dealing with Reagan
Soviet leadership thought that Reagan was planning to launch nuclear war
Andropov becomes the new Soviet leader (Brezhnev dies on Nov. 10, 1982)
Reagan calls Soviet Union evil empire: March 8, 1983
Reagan announces Strategic Defense Initiative on March 23, 1983
September 1983—Kal-007 shot down over Kurile Islands—269 civilians die

32. U.S. actions perceived as aggressive
Invasion of Grenada 1983, depose Marxist regime
NATO military exercises
Pershing missiles begin to arrive in Europe
Also, strong Western peace movement

33. Pershing II missiles deployed in Europe

34. Soviet reactions
“Reagan and his team have taken up as their aim to destroy the socialist camp. Fascism is on the march in America”
A. Gromyko
Foreign Minister
“The impact of Reagan’s hard line policy on the internal debates in the Kremlin and on the evolution of the Soviet leadership was exactly the opposite from the one intended by Washington. It strengthened those in the Politburo, the Central Committee, and the security apparatus who had been pressing for a mirror-image of Reagan’s own policy.”
A. Dobrynin, Soviet
Ambassador to the U.S.

35. Andropov to Konstantin Chernenko to Mikhail Gorbachev
February 9, 1984 Andropov passes away
Chernenko dies on March 10, 1985
Gorbachev replaced Chernenko—March 11, 1985
Shares similar characteristics to Khrushchev—peasant background, reformist, optimist, self-confident, moral revulsion against Soviet past
Gorbachev rejected Brezhnev as a conservative reaction against Khrushchev’s de-Stalinization

37. Gorbachev A consensus builder
Save socialism from stagnation and crisis: Perestroika—restructuring
But cautious– he writes in hindsight, “One could not, naturally, liberate one’s consciousness at once from previous blinkers and chains”

38. Link between domestic and foreign policy
“Reforms in economic life and political system…” were impossible without an “advantageous international environment”
New thinking: open the Soviet Union to the outside world
Gorbachev and others were children of the Twentieth Party Congress

39. Arms control is on again
Gorbachev-Reagan summit in Geneva
Gorbachev replaces classic Leninist thinking about the capitalist origins of imperialism with an assumption of global interdependence
But did Gorbachev really believe in his new thinking?

40. Two pivotal events: Chernobyl and Reykjavik
Chernobyl nuclear explosion
Initial denial then--
Evacuation of 100,000
Affected health of 435,000 people
Killed 8000 over the course of ten years
Nuclear danger now was brought home: any kind of nuclear war would kill thousands everywhere as radiation spread

41. Eight-legged foal born near Chernobyl

42. Chernobyl continued
“We learned what nuclear war can be.” Gorbachev said to the Politburo
Prompted change in Soviet foreign policy, military doctrine, nuclear arms control
Forced Politburo to introduce glasnost

43. Reykjavik (Iceland)
Summit 1986– discuss dismantling all nuclear weapons in exchange for halting SDI.
No deal
But summit hastens new thinking
New military doctrine– no more attempts to achieve superiority—instead deep unilateral cuts in Soviet strategic stockpile
Improve human rights in the USSR as way to improve relations with the West

44. Economic issues Perestroika not working Huge deficits Trade deficit
Foreign debt
Lines everywhere! Everyone needs a
Grandmother! Why!
To Wait in Line for consumer goods!

45. The Collapse of the Soviet Union
Great Man theory of historical causation out of favor but…
Role of individuals matter: Reagan, Gorbachev
Gorbachev: emphasized ideas, the need for a new world order
His own optimism and self-confidence propelled his ideas forward

46. Lenin is Gorbachev’s hero
Feverish power of revolutionary ideas,
Historic optimism
Unflagging determination to muddle through social and political chaos
But no plan– perestroika was just supposed to unfold….
Believed in nonviolence as a principle
“We have accepted that even in foreign policy force is to no avail. So especially internally—we cannot resort and will not resort to force.”

47. At Malta, 1989
With regards to Baltic republics– Gorbachev agreed that he would not use force, in return for U.S. not aiding rebel movements---
Gorbachev and Bush discuss the momentous changes

48. The Trouble with Gorbachev?
In short Gorbachev’s character traits:
a. optimism
b. Naiveté
c. tendency to act ad hoc
d. Westernism
e. aversion to force
f. indecisiveness and procrastination

49. Gorbachev determined to bring the Soviet Union in to the common European home but..
Growing domestic anarchy
Deepening economic crisis
Rise of national separatism
Imminent erosion of existing state structures

50. Fall of the Berlin Wall
Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan –completed in summer of 1989
Policy of noninterference in Eastern Europe
Fall of Berlin Wall November 9, 1989: surprise! – attempt to open the safety valve
Instead of constructing a common European home: eastern Europe joined the West

51. August 1991: Coup by hardliners in Kremlin defeated by Russian people led by new Russian president, Boris Yeltsin
Boris Yeltsin –elected leader of Russia
Gorbachev –unelected leader of Soviet Union
Abortive coup against Gorbachev to stop transforming Soviet Union into federation
Boris Yeltin

52. Soviet Union replaced by Commonwealth of Independent States, December 25, 1991

53. December 25, 1991 1991: Gorbachev resigns as Soviet Union breaks up
Mikhail Gorbachev, leader of the Soviet Union for almost seven years and executive president for nearly two, has stepped down from office. He announced his resignation in a 10 minute speech, broadcast live on television, as the Soviet Union passed into history.
It has been replaced by the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).
The 60-year-old appeared solemn but composed.
"Due to the situation which has evolved as a result of the formation of the Commonwealth of Independent states I hereby discontinue my activities at the post of president of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics," he said.
He said he was resigning on a matter of principle, adding the decision to dismantle the state should have been made "on the basis of popular will".
Mr Gorbachev, highly regarded abroad but not at home, listed his achievements.
"Free elections have become a reality. Free press, freedom of worship, representative legislatures and a multi-party system have all become a reality," he said.
Human rights, free enterprise and the removal of nuclear threat were also now in place, he said.
He added that some mistakes had been made but ended by offering his best wishes to the people.
Tributes
Control of the former Soviet Union's nuclear force now passes to Boris Yeltsin, the Prime Minister of Russia which inherits the USSR's permanent seat on the United Nations' Security Council.
The Soviet red flag, bearing the hammer and sickle, was lowered over the Kremlin and in its place the Russian Federation's tricolour was raised.
It was an image mirrored at Soviet embassies around the world.
US president George Bush, who was told of the changes by Mr Gorbachev by telephone, joined other world leaders in paying tribute to him.
America is expected to recognise the existence of Russia tomorrow.
British Prime Minister John Major, speaking at Chequers, said Mr Gorbachev helped make the world a safer place.

54. Eastern Europe: From Soviet Satellites to Sovereign Nations
Poland
Solidarity
Free parliamentary elections, 1988
President freely elected by the populace, December, 1990
Hungary
Attempts at economic reform in the 1980s
Elections, March 1990
Czechoslovakia
Charter 77
Communist government collapses, December, 1989
East Germany
Oppressive regime of Erich Honecker led to massive demonstrations
Government opened the border with the west; Berlin Wall torn down
Germany reunited

55. Soviet “Bloc” or “satellite” nations

56. Dynamic of Change
Economic Stagnation Soviet Union and Eastern European regimes Soviet Union liberalizes under Gorbachev—glasnost and perestroika Recommends that Eastern European regimes do the same End of Brezhnev Doctrine—no military intervention Existing human rights movements in Eastern Europe used Helsinki Human Rights agreement to legitimize demands for instituting multi-party regime Governments urged to peacefully accommodate political change Critical Mass!!—Snowballing…Peaceful Transitions in all states except for Romania

57. Revolutions of 1989
From the “Spring of Nations” (1848) to the “Autumn of Nations” (1989)
Peaceful revolutions throughout Eastern Europe
Altered world balance of power
Ended era of communism
“Great Danger and Great Opportunity” co-exist

58. Causes: Revolutions of 1989
Long-term economic decline
Political stagnation
Foreign Relations disasters
Change in Soviet leadership: “Gorbachev Factor”
Nationalism
The power of the people

59. The Role of the People Influence of “Solidarity”
“They pretend to pay us and we pretend to work” – Polish national joke
Political/Intellectual dissidents
Desire to become like the West

61. East Germany “Revolution from Below” – Reform started by the people
"Wir sind ein Volk" = "We [all Germans] are one people."
East Germany not “modern”

62. West Germany vs. East Germany
West Germany: “Economic Miracle”
Close ties to France, US; key role in NATO and EC
Politics dominated by Socialist party (welfare state)
East Germany: Stagnation
USSR used workers and industry for its benefit
All trade done with other Soviet Bloc countries
E. German Positives:
Low unemployment
Workers: basic needs met
Minimal goods available

63. Fall of the Berlin Wall
June 1987: Reagan and Gorbachev had begun peace talks
“Mr. Gorbachev: Tear down this wall”

65. Reunification 1969: Ostpolitik (West Germany’s “eastern policy”)
Create economic ties to E. Europe
1989: Communism is failing
Without Soviet support:
Communist leaders ousted
Economy suffers
Wall is torn down in November 1989
1990 German voters approved reunification

67. Germany: Problems
Prosperous W. Germans paid higher taxes to finance the rebuilding of the East
Unemployment rose as out-of-date factories in the East were closed
Global economic slowdown in the 1990s led to further economic trouble
Increase in neo-Nazism: immigrants blamed for economic troubles

68. Solidarity in Poland
In Poland, the process wbich led to the end of Communism was begun by Solidarity in 1980 – a trade union not controlled by the government.
It was led by Lech Walesa, a shipyard worker. Solidarity soon had 10 million members. This represented about 60% of the workers.
The government then tried to ban Solidarity but it remained so popular that in 1989 the Communists gave in and Poland had its first non-Communist government since 1948.
Lech Walesa – in the centre here –
became the leader of Eastern Europe’s
first free trade union, Solidarity. Walesa
was a devout Catholic and the powerful
Catholic Church in Poland fully supported
Solidarity.

69. Czechoslovakia’s Velvet Revolution1989
In mid-1980s, Communist Regime of Gustav Husak promotes economic reform and some limited freedom (following Gorbachev.
Charter 77 (begun in 1977) to promote human rights (following Helsinki Accords)
leads public and student protests
Civic Forum created to unify oppositional groups
(Nov. 1989) Husak resigns, Vaclav Havel leads new government

70. Excerpt from Havel’s Power of the Powerless
Hyperlink

71. Excerpt from “Skepticism and Hope” by Vaclav Havel
The most important development is the chasm which is slowly but relentlessly widening between two worlds which may today no longer seem to have anything in common: the world of official ideology and the real world of thinking and feeling. Of course, everyone continues to do what must be done – people vote, show fear of their superiors, follow their orders, and at various levels of the hierarchy they carry out the will of the central authority – but actually, nobody any longer believes the things that the powerful say. People just mind their own business and live their lives as best they can. The real interests of society ranging from the hunger for Western electronic equipment to the pursuit of the latest samizdat literature; from the cultivation of sophisticated hobbies defiantly developed against many obstacles; to the acquiescence to various subcultures – be they musical, religious, or pertaining to some entirely different activity; from the mass watching of Western TV, to the free expression of opinions in the cheapest beer halls – all these together constitute a vast reservoir of independent expression entirely outside the framework created by the powers-that-be. We may even go so far as to say that the real and most important parallel polis is now represented not by the dissident world, but by the world of ideas and the private interests of all society, which on the one hand is giving the totalitarian authorities what they unconditionally demand, but on the other hand openly pursues whatever it craves, which of course usually has very little to do with the will of the authorities.

72. Excerpt from Charter 77
Tens of thousands of our citizens are prevented from working in their own fields for the sole reason that they hold views differing from official ones, and are discriminated against and harassed in all kinds of ways by the authorities and the public organizations. Deprived as they are of any means to defend themselves, they becomevictims of a virtual apartheid.
Hundreds of thousands of other citizens are denied the “freedom from fear” mentioned in the preamble of the irst covenant of the Helsinki Final Act, being condemned to live in constant danger of unemployment and other penalties if they voice their own opinions.
Countless young people are prevented from studying because of their own views or even those of their parents. Innumerable citizens live in fear that their own and their children’s right to education may be withdrawn if they should ever speak up in accordance with their convictions. Any exercise of the right to “seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print” or “in the form of art”is punished by extrajudicial or even judicial sanctions, often in the form of criminal charges as in the recent trial of young musicians.
Charter 77 is a free, informal, open community of people of different convictions, different faiths, and different professions united by the will to strive, individually and collectively, for the respect of civic and human rights in our country and throughout the world – rights accorded to all men by International covenants, by the Final Act of the Helsinki Conference, and by numerous other international documents opposing war, violence and social
or spiritual oppression, and which are comprehensively laid down in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
We hereby authorize Professor Dr. Jan Patočka, Václav Havel, and Professor Jiří Hájek to act as spokesmen for Charter 77

73. Romania
December 1989—Stalinist dictator Nicole Ceausescu cracks down on pro-democratic demonstrations.
Military refuses to enforce martial law.
After Ceausescu tries to flee, he is captured and he and his family are put on trial, found guilty of human rights violations and shot.

76. “The Cold War’s end was a baby that arrived unexpectedly, but a long line of those claiming paternity quickly formed.”
Identify and assess the relative weight of various explanatory
variables. In your view, what is the best explanation for the
end of the Cold War?

77. Greek myth:
Fearing his children would
Overthrow him, Saturn ate
each one.
Goya, Saturn Devouring
His Children