End of Cold War

just for history

Detente in Action

• US and USSR became open to cooperating with each other and with less friendly countries

• Started to visit each other countries and discuss important issues like nuclear weapons

• In June 1973: Brezhnev visited US to sign Agreement on Prevention of Nuclear War, where both sides agreed to do anything to avoid nuclear war

Decline of Detente

• Carter abandoned detente and became aggressive to USSR

• US and USSR began criticizing each other actions again and accused each other of breaking their promises

• Carter blamed USSR for not settling disputes peacefully where by USSR was making things worse by supplying weapons to allies in war zones like Angola

• Brezhnev countered that the US was doing the same in Central and South America

Decline of USSR in the 1970s and 1980s

Here comes a Sarang

Soviet Economy before 1970s

• Soviet command economy was based on the state deciding which areas of economy should receive investment and be developed

• Controlled resources, production and vital aspects of economy

• USSR relatively backward and many lived in poverty and squalor

• However, USSR later transformed into modern industrial power with impressive growth rates and became a modern economy with industries and infrastructures

Weaknesses of Soviet Economy

• USSR began to experience a decline in growth rate

• Industrial output decreased from double to single digit

• Agriculture output decreased from 4.8% to 1.8%

Weaknesses of Soviet Economy

Structural Weaknesses of Command Economy

• Soviet economy worked relatively well with small numbers of large industries

• But overtime the Soviet economy grew and Soviet economy became overwhelmed by increasing demands

• Unable to cope with many companies making many different goods

Weaknesses of Soviet Economy

External Burdens on the Economy

• USSR fought proxy wars and supported money, technical equipment to many allies

• Soviet troops entered Afghanistan to maintain power of pro-soviet government, but tied down by Mujahideen

• Mujahideen new the territory and had more experience in guerrilla warfare and supplied with money and weapons by US and Saudi, detrimental to USSR

• USSR invested too much in military power, Afghanistan war was expensive

Weaknesses of Soviet Economy

Poor Standard of Living

• Command economy prioritize industry and military spending over consumer goods

• Workers wages were not increasing

• Over-investment in military took money away from areas such as education, R&D in universities

Weaknesses of Soviet Economy

Disillusionment of Workforce

• Soviet workers found their bosses were appointed due to personal connections or bribes

• Wages tightly controlled with limited incentives for workers to work hard

• Those protested risked being arrested by secret police

Opposition to Communism in Eastern Europe

• Soviet economy was closely tied to Eastern European economies, USSR and other communist regime in Eastern Europe begin to struggle

• Eastern Europe borrowed heavily from Western banks leading to them having high debt levels

• USSR formed the Warsaw Pact to protect USSR and its allies from external threats, but many believed it was to protect communist regimes in Eastern Europe from internal threats

  Prague Spring:

• A period of liberal reforms in Czech under Dubcek. Dubcek believed communism polices were not working and began introducing democratic reforms

• Other members of Warsaw Pact invaded Czech and destroyed the government

Brezhnev Doctrine

• All Eastern Bloc countries will be one party states led by Communist Party

• Attempts to reverse communism is seen as a threat to communist states and will intervene by sending troops

• Honecker was a lifelong communist and thus he and other communist leaders were pleased with the Brezhnev Doctrine

• However, everyone can see communist government relied USSR heavily and opposition and resentment among civilians

• Highlighted the failure of communism to provide good living standards, undermining the claim communism benefitted ordinary people

• Also showed communist government could be threatened by people power

Ageing Leadership

• Politburo was made up of ageing politicians

• Average age of Politburo was 65, even US leadership was younger

• Most Soviet leaders were unwell and were ill equipped to deal with economic stagnation and a rejuvenated US leadership

US Economic and Military Superiority

Economic Boom in US and Western Europe

• Reagan had radical ideas for US policy and believed people and business needed to be liberated from government regulation

• Emphasize government should cut taxes to give people incentive to work harder and start their own businesses

• US and UK advocated that government should spend less and limit their involvement in people’s lives

• Believed free market were better than government at providing solution to problems

US Economic and Military Superiority

Expanding US Military Might

• Booming economy gave US and allies confidence and money to champion US values of capitalism and democracy

• Reagan believed in taking a tough line with USSR and increase US defence spending

• Supported anti-communist forces in Afghanistan and increased defence spending by 32.6 Billion

• Reagan proceeded with Strategic Defence Initiative, a project to create satellites and laser system to destroy missile before hitting the target

• SDI didn’t develop into a weapon but it put pressure on Soviets as USSR struggled to keep up with US

Glasnost

• Gorbachev called for open debate on government policy and honesty in facing problems

• Allowed open political debate by Communist Party members who disagreed with government

• This backfired as it released resentment against government

• Glasnost exposed shortcomings of government officials such as their inefficiency and corruption and decreased confidence in the party

• The positive picture of Soviet life fell apart to the public, many in Soviet bloc lost confidence in communist governments

• Glasnost created a platform to unleash criticism of communis rule which led to USSR’s doom

Perestroika

• A series of political and economic reforms which Glasnost is meant to pave the way for

• Introduced measures such as company managers were encouraged to innovate and try new approaches without first seeking permission from the government

• Managers also encouraged to involve workers in discussions and decision making of business

• Intent was to encourage new ideas, to increase efficiency and fight corruption. Also allowed market forces to be introduced in Soviet economy

• Policy eventually failed because there wasn’t increase in output and there were chronic problems of unemployment, black markets and shortages in basic necessities due to conflicting methods of cooperative ownership

• Small businesses still had to pay high taxes and deal with dishonest officials

• Unprofitable enterprises that needed government support increased and many citizens lost interest to open their business

• Perestroika did not rejuvenate Communist Party, but led to mounting criticism of Gorbachev by both Party Conservatives and radical opposition

Foreign Policy Reforms

• Gorbachev was eager to bring New Thinking to foreign policy and military in USSR and began to cut defence spending

• Gorbachev recognised USSR could not outspend US on nuclear weapons and announced cuts in arms spending

• Gorbachev brought new attitude to USSR relations with the world and withdrew Soviet troops from Afghanistan

Reagan-Gorbachev Summits

• Reagan shocked to discover Soviets almost launched a nuclear strike against US due to malfunction in Soviet’s early warning system

• Reagan keen to advance nuclear disarmament and reduce strategic arms race

• Led Reagan to approach Soviet leaders and engage with Gorbachev in negotiations to nuclear abolition

• Reagan and Gorbachev had 5 summit meetings and reached agreements to reduce nuclear weapons

De-ideologization of Soviet Foreign Policy

• An end to all ideologically driven engagement designed to promote communism globally and challenge US

• Gorbachev knew to successfully reform Soviet economy, he had to reduce large amount of money spent in superpower competition with US

• USSR would not intervene in other countries to support communist regime, plus Gorbachev withdrew troops from Afghanistan to demonstrate his commitment to de-ideologization

• Gorbachev also prepared to tell hard-line communist leaders of Eastern Europe to change

• Gorbachev called leaders of Warsaw Pact countries together and explained he was committed to a policy of non-intervention in other countries (aka Sinatra doctrine)

Collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe

• Gorbachev made a speech at Warsaw Pact summit, with intention to withdrawal of Soviet troops, tanks and aircrafts from other communist states

• Gorbachev made it clear to Warsaw Pact leaders that Soviet army would leave Eastern Europe and they had to listen to their people

• Caused sudden and dramatic changes like the fall of Berlin Wall

  October 1989:

• Gorbachev visited East Germany and made a speech to Eastern European leaders to reform their countries

• USSR would not use troops to keep them in power

• Hungary decided to declare itself as democratic republic than communist

Collapse of USSR

• Gorbachev visited Lithuania whose leaders made clear they wanted independence and not part of USSR

• Gorbachev didn’t allow this but Lithuania still declared its independence

• The change in Soviet policy from Brezhnev doctrine to Sinatra doctrine saw a shift from Moscow control to freedom of Eastern European states

• Last ditched attempt by Communist Party to save USSR failed, Gorbachev admit USSR was finished and announced his resignation and the end of USSR (also end of Cold War)