history essay info

economic weakness - facts (1960s onwards)

EE economic weakness

• Average E bloc worker = poor pay, rationing, shortages of even basic foodstuffs

• housing inexpensive BUT standard of accommodation poor (apartments lacked bathrooms/kitchens

• lack of economic growth put severe pressure on leaders of EE = solidarity grew in Poland (increasing frustration by industrial workers) + most satellite states had hard-currency stores where W goods were sold, but these luxuries were out of reach for most ordinary workers --> reminder of what communism failed to provide + even the wealthiest E bloc countries didn’t compare well with their W neighbour

• This economic gap simply grew over time due to the issue of stagnation

• lower purchasing power and quality of life in EE

• economic weakness in EE countries, as a result of following soviet system led to CW collapse in Europe = motivating revolt/popular protest by causing resentment + that revolt undermined/weakened soviet control

USSR economic weakness

• Around 1/4 of soviet GDP (gross domestic profit) spent on military

• Propped up other communist regimes  = Cuba + Vietnam both receiving $1billion/year by 1980

• Wages didn’t keep pace with inflation ---> worker discontent + lack of productivity, bc no incentive for workers to do more than the bare minimum

• economic weakness of the USSR led to control of EE being unsustainable/unfeasible (couldn’t afford to prop up comm gov anymore) —> G promised to stay uninvolved

G’s policies arg layout

• Perestroika = meaning 'restructuring', was the modernisation of the soviet system, involving a move away from centralised control and collectivised farming (akin to admitting failure on both central strands of the USSR's communist ideology). —→

• Glasnost = G permitted free speech and media criticism of soviet control, allowing newspapers to expose the deep-rooted flaws of soviet compared to western life (inadequate housing and environmental pollution compared to more freedom and consumer goods) caused by economic issues —→ motivated popular protest + leniency of his overall approach allowed this protest to be successful (e.g. Solidarity)

• revealing problems and tolerating the subsequent discontent, Gorbachev's policies destabilised soviet control in EE

• but only part of a larger-scale weakening + response to economic issues (trying to solve problems) so less significant than those problems

protest in EE facts

• due to the economic issues within EE but also their country specifically (Heavy in debt to Western creditors due to the purchase of Western high-technology and consumer good + in Feb 1988 raised food prices up to 200%​) —→ series of strikes, forcing the government to legalise Solidarity

• feb 1989 round table agreements = solidarity involved in the creation of the country’s new constitution

• successful and peaceful revolution = led to collapse of soviet control of Poland + had wider-scale impacts through encouraging similar revolution across EE

• Czechoslovakia = motivated the 1989 Velvet Revolution (peaceful student protest strong in the face of opposition) until comm gov relinquished on the 28th November

Fall of the Berlin Wall

• economic misfortune = lower standard of living than W evident from WG

• By 1986, the SED was spending 9% of its budget on armed forces and was far the second highest spender in the WP