CW collapse of the soviet union

• The fall of the Soviet Union led to the rise of new nations and the dissolution of others.
• The collapse of Soviet control over Eastern Europe occurred between 1989 and 1990.
• The fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989 led to the reunification of Germany and the end of Soviet control in Eastern Europe.
• Demands for change, especially in Leipzig, East Germany, resulted in public demonstrations in many East German cities.
• East German leader, Eric Honecker, received no assurances from Mikhail Gorbachev that he would not attempt to deal with these protests using force.
• Honecker resigned and was replaced by the more moderate Egon Krenz.
• The growth of democracy in Hungary meant that East Germans could now travel to West Germany through Czechoslovakia and Hungary.
• On 9 November the East German government announced that East Germans could now travel to West Germany.
• Crowds of jubilant East and West Germans began to chip away at the wall leading to its collapse.
• German reunification: East Germany ceased to exist and became part of a united Germany in 1990, with Berlin as its capital.
• The Soviet Union withdrew its troops from what was East Germany, British, French and US troops remained in western Germany.
• A ten celebrates on top of the Berlin Wall, 10 November 1989.
• The end of the Warsaw Pact in July 1991.
• The withdrawal of Soviet troops from Eastern Europe from 1990 onwards.
• NATO continued to exist but expanded to include many former members of the Warsaw Pact including Poland and Hungary.
• The fall of the Berlin Wall gave further momentum to the 'thaw' in the Cold War.
• The Conventional forces in Europe (CFE) Agreement (1990) set limits on non-nuclear forces deployed in Europe.
• Gorbachev's glasnost policies meant people could say what they thought, but perestroika only made the Soviet economy worse.
• The leaders of these countries wanted even greater independence and rejected the constitution.
• The Soviet Union collapsed between 1990 and 1991.
• Growing opposition to Gorbachev led to a failed military takeover (or coup) against him in August 1991.
• At the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) in 1991, the USA and Soviet Union agreed to reduce nuclear warheads by about a third, with an additional undertaking to reduce them further.
• The Cold War came to an end as the Soviet Union no longer existed and there was no ideological conflict between East and West.
• Many Soviet republics began to demand independence in 1990-91.
• The collapse of the Soviet Union led to the formation of the Commonwealth of Independent States in January 1992.
• Gorbachev tried to save Soviet communism by issuing a new constitution in the Soviet Union that would have given Soviet republics, such as Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Ukraine, more independence.
• The decline of communism meant that the Soviet Union had much less influence on other countries.
• On 25 December 1991, Gorbachev announced the dissolution of the Soviet Union and his resignation as president.
• The end of the Cold War was marked by the meeting of Bush and Gorbachev in December 1989 (the Malta Summit), which declared an end to the Cold War.
• The Soviet Union had lost the Cold War due to factors such as arms race, propaganda, Afghan War, freedom, economy, and the 1970s 80s.
• The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 led to the decline of Soviet influence in Eastern Europe.
• Many Soviet states seceded (broke away) from the Soviet Union and became independent states, including Ukraine, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, as well as Asian Republics, such as Kazakhstan.