T3 C

• Gorbachev's new thinking:

  -Gorbachev took over in 1985 and wanted to reform the soviet union and it's relationship with its citizens

  -Perestroika (reconstruction) was a programme for reorganising and reconstructing the soviet state and economy in order to include some capitalist practices to bring growth

  -Glasnost (openness) meant there should be transparency in government, it would allow opposition to the government and freedom of speech

  -Brezhnev doctrine ended

  -USSR would pull out of Afghanistan and reduce its spending on arms
• consequences of Gorbachev's new thinking:

  -removal of Brezhnev doctrine meant satellite states wind no longer fear violent reprisals from USSR

  -Gorbachev gave a speech to the UN in 1988 where he said there would be a reduction of 500,000 Warsaw troops in eastern Europe, further reducing soviet control

  -within 12 months if this speech, soveir hold over satelite states had ended as they one by one introduced democratic governments
• dismantling of the Eastern Bloc:

  -in May 1989 in Hungary, the government took down borders with Austria and it was promised a new democratic government and had free elections in October

  -in June 1989 in Poland, the solidarity trade union was legalised as it won a landslide victory in elections

  -in September 1989 in East Germany, huge numbers left for the west via Hungary and on September 11th over 125,000 crossed the border

  -in October 1989 in East Germany the government announced that the border crossings would be opened and citizens began to dismantle the Berlin wall

  -in November 1989 in Czechoslovakia, the velvet revolution overthrew the communist and the anti community Vaclav Havel was elected president
• dismantling of the Eastern Bloc 2:

  -in December 1989 in Romania, large scale public demonstrations took place against communist government and dictator Ceausescu is overthrow n and executed -in December 1989 in Bulgaria, communist leader Mladenov resigns and free elections are held in 1990 -in December 1990 in Yugoslavia, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro, and Bosnia-Herzegovia voted to become independent so Yugoslavia no longer existed -communism in all satellite states was at and end and the eastern bloc no longer existed
• fall of the Berlin wall:

  -friends and family reunited after 30 years

  -border crossings were lifted

  -many people took souvenirs of the wall showing symbolic representation of the end of soviet control

  -East German lesder Erich Honecker was sacked as the anti communist movement toppled the old regime

  -showed other countries that the USSR would not intervene if they tried to topple their regimes aswell
• collapse of the USSR:

  -USSR was under huge economic strain from the invasion of Afghanistan, the arms race and years of economic mismanagement

  -growing calls for independence in the baltic and sattelite states

  -in July 1991 the Warsaw Pact came to an end

  -Gorbachev tried to save the soviet union by issuing a new constitution that would have given the soviet Republics more independence but the leaders rejected it as it didn't go far enough

  -Gorbachev was unable to hold the Republics together ans so announced the dissolution of the soviet union and his resignation on 25 December 1991

  -soviet union became the commonwealth of independent states in January 1992
• consequences of the collapse of the USSR:

  -independence of many Republics

  -growing calls for reform within satellite states leading to the dismantling of the Eastern bloc and collapse of Warsaw Pact

  -free travel across borders in Europe

  -Iron curtain ceased to exist

  -Gorbachev replaced by Yeltsin on 25 December 1991

  -the end of the cold war