1.  starter activity

2. Why did the Cold War end? Gorbachev and the end of Cold War
DISCUSSION: WHAT DO WE THINK/NO AT THE MOMENT?
(specific events/themes)

3. Problems Facing the USSR in the 1980s
Afghanistan had become "Russia's Vietnam".
Russia could not afford the arms race.
The Soviet economy was backwards - factories and mines were decrepit and out of date.
Backward industry was causing increasing environmental problems - eg pollution, the Chernobyl nuclear power plant explosion of 1986, and the Aral Sea dried up.
Many people were much poorer than the poorest people in the capitalist West - unrest about shortages was growing.
Crime, alcoholism and drugs were out of control in Soviet towns.
The Soviet system had become corrupt and out of date - instead of dealing with problems, the government just covered them up (eg Chernobyl, 1986).
Many people were dissatisfied with the Soviet police state and censorship
GENERALLY ARGUED THAT THE COLD WAR ENDED DUE TO THE COLLAPSE OF THE USSR – THIS IS LAREGLY ASCRIBED TO INTERNAL EVENTS RATHER THAN AS A US ‘ACHIEVEMENT’

4. Key Events
1979, the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan to try to prop up the communist government there, which was being attacked by Muslim Mujaheddin fighters. This immediately caused a rift with America, which boycotted the 1980 Olympics.
In 1980, Ronald Reagan became president of the USA. As a strong anti-communist, he called the Soviet Union the "evil empire" and increased spending on arms. The US military developed the neutron bomb, cruise missiles and a Star Wars defence system using space satellites.
By 1985, the Soviet Union was in trouble. In 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev became leader of the USSR.

5. How did Gorbachev improve relations with the US?
1985, Gorbachev & Reagan met at Geneva to discuss arms reduction
1987, Gorbachev & Reagan signed Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces treaty removing medium range nuc. weapons from Europe
SALT developed into START (Strategic Arms Reduction Talks)
What was so significant about the 1995 meeting?

6. How did Gorbachev reform the USSR?
Identified key problems: Communist bureaucracy; low industrial output; high inflation; social probs – alcoholism; human rights
Perestroika – free market economics
Glasnost – openness in govt
Political prisoners released (e.g. Andrei Sakharov)
Why were hard-line Communists extremely critical of this book?

7. How did the Soviet control of Eastern Europe collapse?

8. Your task
Find out why & how Communism collapsed in each of the states highlighted in blue on this map

9. Poland, 1989
1989, Poland – free elections held for 1st time since WWII
Lech Walesa elected president
1st non-Communist leader in Eastern Europe since 1945

10. East Germany, 1989 1000s fleeing every year by 1989
Demonstrations in E. German cities during state visit by Gorbachev
East Germany – Erich Honecker’s troops refused to shoot protestors
Honecker forced to agree to reforms
Nov 1989, Berlin Wall pulled down
What makes this one of the most powerful images of the entire Cold War era?

11. Czechoslovakia, 1989
24 November 1989, massive anti-Communist demo in Prague
Dubcek (former leader) & Havel (playwright) rallied support of crowds
December 1989, Communist leader resigned & replaced by Havel
1990, free elections held

12. Hungary, 1989 Communist leader, Imre Pozgay accepted need for reform
Ban on opposition parties lifted
Communist Party renamed Socialist Party
1990, free elections

13. Romania, 1989
Coup
Communist dictator Nicolae Ceauşescu & wife Elena shot

14. Bulgaria, 1989 November 1989 Communist leader resigned
1990 free elections

15. Baltic States, 1990
1990, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia declared independence from USSR

16. Mounting opposition to Communism
USSR, 1991
Communists criticised G. for allowing collapse of USSR
Reformers wanted complete abolition of Communism
Feb. 1990, anti-Communist demo in Moscow
May Day 1990, G. booed
Mounting opposition to Communism

17. 1991, G. under house arrest by hard-line Communists
Boris Yeltsin, an advocate of market economy & reform, gathered support from Russians to resist the coup
Coup demonstrated the unpopularity of Communism & popularity of reformers
Boris Yeltsin new Russian president
Boris Yeltsin

18.  Discussion
What is this 1992 US cartoonist trying to say about the political problems facing America after the collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe?