Unit #15 - The End of the Cold War

• Perestrioka - was the policy of Gorbachev leader of the Soviet Union which restructured the economy and the government
• Glasnost - was the policy of Gorbachev leader of the Soviet Union which opened up Soviet society with some freedoms
• The Cold War - the name given to the time from 1945-1991 in which the Soviet Union (USSR) and the United States were locked into an ideological war about communism vs capitalism, and democracy vs. totalitarianism. A war of political, social, economic, and intellectual ideas
• The Berlin Wall - in 1961, East Germany closed off East Berlin and built a wall to stop the flood of people leaving the communist east for the free and democratic west
• Sphere of Influence - a specific area/region that a nation/state has considerable impact
• Soviet Bloc - the countries that are in the Soviet Union's sphere of influence in Eastern Europe
• Lenin Shipyards - the place where the Solidarity movement started in Poland in 1980, beginning the end of strict communist rule.
• Solidarity - Soviet bloc's first independent trade union located in Poland and founded by Lech Walesa.
• Velvet Revolution - a revolution that toppled communism in Czechoslovakia in 1989 without violence will cause the breakup of the country into two states (Czech Republic and Slovakia)
• Fall of the Berlin Wall - In the early fall of 1989; the border regulations were relaxed between Soviet sphere of influence countries (Soviet Bloc). Within a month peoplewere escaping to the west. In October, people starting leaving East Berlin for West Berlin, eventually during one night people started chopping it apart. Within a year Germany which had been divided since WWII was reunited as one nation again
• Satellite States - Communist nations in Eastern Europe on friendly terms with the USSR and under the USSR's control
• Maragret Thatcher - 1st woman prime minister in the United Kingdom (Great Britain) from 1979-1990 who limited social welfare, restricted union power and helped end the Cold War.
• Ronald Regan - The 40th president of the US (a republican) who encouraged Americans to mistrust communists and helped put an end to the Soviet Union by using capitalism and economics, as well a promoting democracy around the world.
• Tear Down this Wall - Reagan said this in a speech in front of the Berlin Wall to challenge Mikhail Gorbachev to make reforms to his government. (Wall would come down 1 year later)
• Lech Walesa - former Polish Solidarity leader and president of a non-communist Poland