Fall of Communism in Eastern Europe

• FALL OF COMMUNISM IN EASTERN EUROPE

  
  

  • Gorbachev’s speech signified the end of the Brezhnev Doctrine and sparked the disintegration of the Eastern Communist Bloc.

  • People in the satellite states started to speak out against the governments and organised protests to be independent from Soviet influence

  • Without Soviet backing, Communist governments in Eastern Europe fell one by one in 1988 – 1989

  • Communism ended in Eastern Europe as all the satellite states revolted and elected their own democratic (or at least non- communist) governments

  • Warsaw Pact and COMECON ended in 1991
• FALL OF COMMUNISM IN EASTERN EUROPE - POLAND

  • 1988: Workers organised strikes, led by the independent trade union Solidarity. This was a group which had earlier protested against Soviet control in the 1970s.

  • First free elections held in 1989 and Solidarity won a landslide victory – ending communist rule in Poland.
• FALL OF COMMUNISM IN EASTERN EUROPE : CZECHOSLOVAKIA

  • Nov 1989: Students held peaceful strikes and demonstrations against communist rule

  • Initially attacked and stopped by riot police, but number of protestors grew daily till hundreds of thousands were on the streets

  • Dec 1989: Czech Communist party agreed to hold elections and resigned.
• FALL OF COMMUNISM IN EASTERN EUROPE : EAST GERMANY


  
  

  • Sep 1989: East Germans started peaceful anti-communist demonstrations which grew to 70,000 by Oct.

  • Military and police refused to shoot the protestors though the communist leader, Erich Honecker ordered them to.

  • Honecker was forced to resign and free elections for East Germany was announced in 1990.