1. End of the Cold War in Eastern Europe
The end of the Cold War comes from within the Eastern Bloc itself..... TERMS TO REMEMBER:
Berlin Wall
Eastern Bloc Satellite States
and
Iron Curtain

2. Soviet party leaders
Stalin dies in He is followed by then until...
Leonid Brezhnev
The guy with the eyebrows
The Cold War continues but the USSR is in economic decline
Nikita Khrushchev
The bald guy
Involved in Cuban Missile Crisis

3. Gorbachev
In the 1980s a new kind of leader emerged in the USSR – one who was open to economic and political reform.
The guy with the birthmark
Reforms of perestroika: economic reform
Glasnost: Free speech and openness

4. Assignment #6: End of Cold War in Eastern Europe Film Clips
Watch film clips on life behind the Iron Curtain, the end of the CW in the Eastern Bloc and the end of the CW in the Soviet Union. Take bullet point notes on assignment #6. (1-19, 26-37, 46-50)

5. End of the CW in Eastern Bloc play by play
Gorbachev’s reforms inspire Eastern Bloc nations to revolt.
Poland, Czechoslovakia, East Germany all free themselves from the “iron curtain”
Communist hard liners in Soviet Union see Gorbachev as reforming too much.
They stage a coup to get him out of power and trap him in his vacation home and call tanks into Moscow.
Meanwhile, Boris Yeltsin, another reforming political leader calls for the people to rise up against the Communist hard liners. They do. The coup is not only over, but communism is overthrown.
Yeltsin calls for an end to communist rule
Gorbachev trapped in Crimea

6. Why does communism in the USSR seem to end so quickly and surprisingly?
The revolutions in the Eastern Bloc inspire people back in Russia The economy of the Soviet Union is falling apart, even with Gorbachev’s reforms Ethnic minorities and nationalism play a role in weakening the USSR’s centralized power.