End of Cold War (1989)

Gorbachev

• ‘We can’t go on living like this’

• Glasnost - ‘open’ with the west

  • Freedom of speech & less corruption

• Opposition of satellite states

  • E.g. Hungary, Poland + EGermany

• Anti-alcohol campaign (1985-88)

  • Fall in tax revenue 1986

• 1987 = Gorbachev speeches encourage Satellites to ‘go their own way’ + less reliant on USSR

  • Non-intervention in Warsaw pact

Economic

• Instability + lack of consumer goods

• Perestroika = attempt to modernise and ‘rebuild’ the Soviet state

• Policy of uskorenie (acceleration) = attempts to increase productivity

  • Increased shortages & grew budget deficit

• 1970s annual GDP growth —> stagnated in 1980s

• Strikes 1989 —> loss of 2.5 million workdays

• Gorbachev - ‘the burden of the arms race’ on Soviet economy

• Afghanistan (1979-89)

  • 15 billion roubles

  • 18% of Soviet GDP

Arms Race - Reagan

• Reagan won election against Carter using anti-communist rhetoric

  • Slogan = ‘peace through threat’

  • Interpreted by Kremlin as US emerging threat

• 1983 Reagan doctrine = anti-Marxist insurgencies

  • Refused to recognise Baltics as Soviet satellites

• Evil empire speech - ‘struggle between right and wrong and good and evil’

• Increased defense spending by 8% in 1984

  • Increased to $1.4 trillion

  • Deployed 700 new nuclear weapons

• 1983 Able Archer crisis —> misunderstanding = nuclear threat

• Reagan —> Soviet leaders ‘kept dying on him’

Arms Race - diplomacy

• April 1985 —> Central committee meeting

  • Reopen disarmament talks

• 1986 —> Reykjavik summit

  • Failure due to lack of agreement BUT began rapport

• 1987 —> INF treaty

  • Intermediate-range nuclear forces treaty

• Dec 1989 —> Malta Summit

  • Gorbachev: ‘we are at the beginning of a long road to a lasting, peaceful era’

• Marked end of Cold War

H. Feis (orthodox)

Blamed Gorbachev for his role in ending the Cold War as his policies were the most significant reason for dissent

Gaddis

‘Armament make impressive exoskeletons but a shell alone ensure the survival of no animal and no state’

Raymond Garthoff

Malta summit helped establish ‘genuine mutual respect and confidence’ between Bush and Gorbachev