Lecture 9: decline and fall of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev - General Secretary of the Communist Party (March 1985) Glasnost and perestroika Tentative steps towards domestic reform · wished to improve, not reject, Leninism · maintain Communist Party control · foreign policy remained combative Glasnost · 'openness' about Soviet problems and possible solutions Perestroika · 'restructuring' to make socialism more efficient · 'market-lite' reforms, e.g. private ownership of enterprise Arms control Mid 1980's · US and Soviet domestic situations favourable for dialogue . Both could imagine an end to the Cold War · Strategic Defense Initiative recurring obstacle Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty (Dec 1987) · removed intermediate-range weapons from Europe START I Treaty (July 1991) · process to date has reduced strategic nuclear weapons by 80% Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE, Nov 1990) · limited standing forces in Europe Communism in central & Eastern Europe
· Warsaw Pact renewed for 20 years (April 1985) but serious drain on USSR resources · Poland = free elections (June 1989) and presidential elections (Dec 1990), won by Walesa · Hungary = non-Communist coalition (April 1989) · Czechoslovakia = new President Havel (Dec 1989) · Romania = Ceau?escu executed (Dec 1989) · Berlin Wall (Nov 1989) German reunification · Long-standing wish of most Germans · Iron Curtain started to crumble (May 1989) · influx of East Germans into West Germany · Berlin Wall (Nov 1989) · GDR elections (March 1990) · Unification Treaty (August 1990) Complicating issues · Germany's eastern border · new Germany to join NATO? Gorbachev · adopted highly pragmatic position · German self-determination Reunification · 3 October 1990 · dissolution of Warsaw Pact (1991) Retreat of Soviet power Afghanistan · withdrawal of Soviet troops (Feb 1989) · end of the 'Bear Trap' · end of the Red Army's aura of invincibility Cambodian-Vietnamese War (1978-1991)
· Soviet stopped aid to Vietnamese · transferred to UN mandate Gradual dismantling of Soviet assistance · South Africa · Horn of Africa Collapse of the USSR · Internal dissent · domestic reformers demanding change · 1987: 'one-party democracy' · partly-elected Congress of Peoples' Deputies (1988) · Unrest · Baltic states, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine, opposing Soviet power · Gorbachev sends troops into Baltic states, Uzbekistan Moscow gives up political monopoly · 1990: all republics hold elections · CPSU loses six republics · republics begin to declare independence · attempts to negotiate new Soviet Union fail (March 1991) · attempted coup by traditionalists (Aug 1991) · CP control collapses · Commonwealth of Independent States (26 Dec 1999) Post-Soviet tensions · Azerbaijan = Christian-Muslim conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh · Abkhazia and Ossetia sought independence from Russia and Georgia · Chechnya declares independence (1991) · Ukraine, Estonia, Latvia, Moldova = public unrest, pro-democracy · Central Asian republics = ethnic tensions · Islamic fundamentalism = spread from Afghanistan, post-1992 Economic collapse in Russia Boris Yeltsin (president, 1991-1999)