Introduction & Background For years, the USSR s political, military, and economic grip on the world seemed unshakable. Then, with only the stroke of a pen, it was gone. How did this great nation sow the seeds of its own destruction? At its height, the nation stretched from the Baltic Sea to the Bering Strait.
Introduction & Background The Republic of Russia made up its bulk, along with 14 other republics controlled by Moscow, but there were few cultural ties there. To the west were the countries of the Warsaw Pact, and those governments owed their existence to the USSR for good or ill.
Introduction & Background The central government controlled all economic, political, and expressive freedoms or lack of them. There was no room for dissent or discussion. Those in control were inflexible, and unwilling to change.
Problems on the Horizon But, by 1985, even the most hardened of them could not ignore the facts. The centralized economy had stagnated, and superpower status had come at a high price. Millions of dollars flowed into other Eastern nations to bolster their communist governments
Problems on the Horizon..the arms race was financially devastating. The war in Afghanistan was also a disaster. Issues were brought to the forefront, with the deaths of three Soviet leaders in quick succession: Brezhnev, Andropov (2 years), & Chernenko (1 year).
Problems on the Horizon The government needed a younger leader who would bring stability, and keep the party s absolute power intact.
A Safe Choice? They chose a 54-year-old party secretary named Mikhail Gorbachev. They felt he was someone they would be able to control. They were wrong. In fact, not even Gorbachev would be able to control the forces he unleashed.
A Safe Choice? Gorbachev saw the greatest problem the gap between the government and society. He felt the leadership had lost all touch with the will of the people. So to the horror of the old guard, he took to the streets to talk to the common man in Russia. No leader had ever done this.
A Safe Choice? All the government wanted was to keep its power, he thought and he felt that was wrong. He filled his cabinet positions with people who were like-minded reformers. Among them was Boris Yeltsin, the man who would bring about the end of the USSR. For now, he was named secretary for the city of Moscow.
A Safe Choice? Gorbachev started talking about new ideas, and nobody was concerned. All previous leaders had started with new ideas, but they always came around and dropped them a bit into their term. Things would run as they always had.
A Safe Choice? However, they didn t realize Gorbachev actually meant to find out what needed to be changed, and try to do something about it. This was just the beginning of his work at home. His other tasks were nearly overwhelming fix the economy, regain the trust of the people, and fix the country s image abroad.
A New Start Abroad He did all he could to separate himself from his predecessors and show people this was a new USSR. On December 7 1987, he signed a historic nuclear disarmament agreement with the USA. The west dared believe there was a Soviet leader who would keep his word.
A New Start Abroad Next, he pulled out of Afghanistan. Perhaps here was a Soviet leader who could admit to mistakes.
A New Start at Home Back at home, Gorbachev introduced two new things: Perestroika and Glasnost. The west was about to speak a little Russian. Glasnost meant openness. Blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah
A New Start at Home To battle corruption and allow people to question the way things were done, he wanted to allow discussion for the first time in many years. Perestroika was an economic restructuring of Russia s bureaucracy from a centralized economy to a freer market.
A New Start at Home Once freedom of the press was allowed, the floodgates opened. People talked about how corrupt the government was, how inefficient it was, and how much needed change.
A New Start at Home Then they began to talk about Stalin s cult of the personality, and all that had been done wrong in his time as well. Nothing was sacred.
A New Start at Home In time, Lenin himself was open to great criticism. And once that happened, the entire basis for the USSR was crumbling. If your founder was a monster, then what?
Trouble on Two Horizons Glasnost was very unpopular among the old guard in the government. They were used to unrestricted authority. That was now under attack. There were whispers of discontent and plans being made
Trouble on Two Horizons On the other side were the progressives, who wanted more change, and faster change. At their head was Boris Yeltsin. But Yeltsin was doing more than fighting for change, he was also building up his own personal image a personality. This was greatly worrying, as Gorbachev wanted no other cult of personality to follow.
Trouble on Two Horizons And so Gorbachev demoted Yeltsin and a humiliating move one that Yeltsin did not forget. He became deputy construction minister. In the summer of 1988, Perestroika was put to the test. Gorbachev called congress together and suggested a new congress structure
Trouble on Two Horizons 2/3 of the seats would be freely elected ones. The streets were suddenly filled with political campaigning. In the spring of 1989, the people elected representatives for the new congress. Russia and the other republics sent their most vocal opponents of the system into the national government.
Trouble on Two Horizons What Gorbachev had started was now running well outside his control. Yeltsin also ran, and won a seat in the congress. The man Gorbachev had wanted out, was now back in thanks to Gorbachev s own system.
Trouble on Two Horizons However, the economy continued to decline. There were great ideas on what to do, but little action. The Democrats and Conservatives could not agree.
Trouble on Two Horizons Free from central control, the economy had no new system to take its place. The average person felt it most grocery stores without anything on the shelves. Shortages were at a high.
Building Momentum Internationally, all was roses. Gorbachev was extremely popular. He won the Nobel Peace Prize. He was welcomed by the Pope, and country heads of many western nations. Inspired by that support, Gorbachev announced an end to Soviet intervention in Warsaw Pact nations.
Building Momentum Those nations were on their own. No longer would they be forced to remain part of the USSR but Gorbachev expected that they would choose to be, now that things were looking up. He was wrong.
Building Momentum Poland was the first. In June of 1989, the Polish parliament opened itself to free elections. The Solidarity Party came to power, and it became Eastern Europe s first non-communist government in 40 years.
Building Momentum On November 9 th, 1989, the Berlin Wall came down. It was the point of no return. The USSR surrendered its chief, and most important holding, without a fight. Gorbachev firmly believed that intervention would betray all he was trying to do.
Building Momentum In Hungary, Bulgaria, and Czechoslovakia, the Communists fell without bloodshed. Romania was a different story. President Ceauşescu tried to crush the Democrats with the army, but the army rebelled against him as well.
Building Momentum The revolution was short and bloody, and on Christmas day 1989, the president and his wife were executed. By the end of the year, the Warsaw Pact was gone.
Being Pushed for More In the west, Gorbachev was a hero. Back at home, the conservatives saw him as the radical who lost Eastern Europe. Democrats began to push for a multi-party system, and Gorbachev relented. Now non-communists could hold government offices.
Being Pushed for More Yeltsin immediately resigned from the Communist party. Now the most popular man within Russia was a non-communist. Other nations within the Russian Republic began to test the limits. The Baltic states (Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia) declared their independence from the USSR.
Being Pushed for More Gorbachev called their actions illegal and told them they wouldn t leave that they would listen to their consciences and remain part of the union. Their consciences were telling them to do the exact opposite, and they did.
Being Pushed for More Soviet special forces tried to control the broadcast stations in Lithuania and Latvia. Some people were killed when they tried to blockade them. There were killings in Georgia as well. Gorbachev went into seclusion for a week almost a depression.
Being Pushed for More Yeltsin leapt forward and issued a statement that no Russian troops should take any orders that were illegal. Essentially, he was stating that he was the commander in chief of the armed forces, and people should listen to him. It was an incredibly daring and risky move.
Being Pushed for More He went further calling for Gorbachev s resignation. Gorbachev decided to take a vote on it. He held a referendum. Should the union continue or be dissolved? The vote was in favour of continuation, though numerous states abstained from the vote in protest so the results were skewed.
Being Pushed for More Gorbachev was not prepared to use force to keep the others as part of the union, so the opportunity to rein it all in passed. Yeltsin pushed for the office of President of Russia, and it was created. He was voted in.
Being Pushed for More Now there was a President of the USSR, and a President of Russia at the same time. The two rivals now had to work together somehow.
Counter-Revolution Gorbachev agreed to a deal that would grant the republics limited sovereignty, but still kept the union intact while Yeltsin pushed for more and more independence. To the hardliners, Gorbachev had gone one step too far. The time for a counter-revolution had come.
Counter-Revolution On August 19, 1991, the conspirators announced The State Committee for the Emergency Situation. They called on their control of elements of the army. They surrounded Gorbachev s holiday house in the Crimea, and held him there as prisoner.
Counter-Revolution They demanded he resign, but he told them to go to Hell. He was willing to shoot himself, rather than give in. The coup leaders didn t want a martyr.
Counter-Revolution Then the tanks rolled into Moscow, and to the parliament the heart of Democratic power and support. People made barricades, but the tanks rolled through them. But they hadn t counted on Yeltsin.
Counter-Revolution With tanks around parliament, and thousands of supporters of freedom in the streets, Yeltsin made his biggest move yet. He climbed on top of a tank, shook hands with its commander, and defied the army to shoot its own people. (It had done so before)
Counter-Revolution The army dropped the leaders of the coup like a hot potato, and joined the other side. They swung their tanks from pointing at parliament, to aiming outwards and defending it. The coup leaders were dead in the water. Some killed themselves, while others begged Gorbachev for forgiveness.
A Blunder Gorbachev returned to Moscow, but made a major blunder. Huge crowds were gathered at Parliament, and Yeltsin was on the balcony giving speeches.
A Blunder If Gorbachev had joined the crowds and thanked Yeltsin for his support, he could have regained a great deal of power. He didn t, and so Yeltsin became the sole image of defiance that the people saw and their hero.
A Blunder Yeltsin then pushed for, and got, a declaration signed that essentially made the Communist Party illegal in the Russian Republic (of which he was President). Gorbachev lost his party and his job.
A Blunder On Christmas day, 1991, Gorbachev signed a document that abolished the USSR, and placed it on the trash heap of history on the last day of the year. The cold war enemy was dead, and not a western shot had been fired.
And that s it For History 12 s main content