The End of the Bipolar Order and the Collapse of the USSR (1985-1991)
The End of the Bipolar Order (1985-1991) and the Disintegration of the USSR
Following Leonid Brezhnev’s death and a brief period of leadership under Yuri Andropov and Konstantin Chernenko, Mikhail Gorbachev rose to power in the USSR.
Gorbachev’s Objectives
Gorbachev attributed the declining Soviet economy to Brezhnev’s stagnation, scientific and technological backwardness, low productivity, lack of work motivation, and widespread corruption. Additionally, the USSR faced a technological challenge from the U.S. Strategic Defense Initiative, which threatened to give the United States definitive supremacy in the arms race.
The new General Secretary’s fundamental objectives were:
- Reduce the defense budget and provide economic aid to ideologically similar countries.
- Introduce a spirit of enterprise and innovation into Soviet society.
- Combat the rigid, hyper-centralized, and highly bureaucratic political system.
To achieve the first objective, Gorbachev radically changed foreign policy, renewing dialogue with the United States and proposing a comprehensive plan to eliminate all nuclear weapons within 15 years. This resulted in the important Washington Treaty with President Reagan and the START I agreement signed with President Bush. Numerous trips abroad, which gave Gorbachev immense popularity in the Western world, also prompted a shift in official Soviet thinking, clearly articulating the need to overcome the ideological struggle between the two blocs.
To introduce entrepreneurship into the USSR, Gorbachev promoted a vast innovation policy called perestroika. Key actions of this new course included authorizing individual work, expanding the autonomy of state enterprises to manage themselves, allowing the creation of cooperatives, and proposing rent-free land to farmers for 50 years. In 1988, trade with the outside world was also stimulated.
To free society and the economy from the rigid controls that stifled individual initiative and facilitated corruption, Gorbachev turned to the policy of glasnost. This involved abolishing censorship, restoring freedom of expression, and encouraging research to restore the historical truth of the Soviet past. In 1986, over 200 dissidents were pardoned.
To democratize political life, Gorbachev initiated a reform of institutions. From 1989, a new parliament, the Congress of People’s Deputies, allowed him to strengthen the reformist current. In 1990, the Congress abolished the leading role of the Communist Party and elected Gorbachev as President of the USSR for five years.
The Failure of Perestroika
The economic objectives of perestroika soon proved difficult to achieve. The early forms of a market economy, instead of encouraging private initiative, disorganized traditional mechanisms without replacing them with effective alternatives, leading to significant price increases.
Causes of the Fall of Communist Regimes
The sudden collapse of communist regimes in Eastern and Central Europe in 1989 surprised many, despite the collective memory of the brutal Soviet suppression of rebellions in Berlin, Budapest, and Prague. The USSR had considered this part of Europe as its absolute zone of influence since the Yalta Conference. Brezhnev himself had justified Soviet military interventions with the doctrine of “limited sovereignty” of these countries.
Several factors contributed to the fall of communist regimes:
- A change in Soviet attitude between 1989 and 1990, a sort of contagion effect from the revolutionary power of democratic forces in these countries.
- The sudden awakening of national consciousness among certain populations, particularly visible in popular mobilizations with national flags.
- The stagnant economy and a hunger for freedom and consumption, fueled by glimpses of the affluent Western world through media.
- The leadership role of minority opposition groups, such as the Solidarity trade union in Poland, Protestant sectors in the GDR, and human rights movements in Czechoslovakia.
The End of the Cold War and the Collapse of Communist Regimes: The Fall of the Iron Curtain (1989-1990)
Between 1989 and 1990, the world witnessed the fall of a series of communist regimes in Europe and the Balkans.
Poland
Poland was the precursor of this process. In the late 1970s, opposition to the communist regime was based on three pillars: the Solidarity trade union led by Lech Walesa, the Catholic Church, especially after the Polish Cardinal Karol Wojtyla became Pope John Paul II in 1978, and the active participation of many intellectuals.
In 1980, during Brezhnev’s final years, the Soviet Union was on the verge of intervening militarily to crush the opposition. To avoid this intervention, General Wojciech Jaruzelski, head of the Communist Party, declared martial law, outlawed Solidarity, and arrested Walesa, although secret contacts with the opposition were maintained.
In June 1989, elections were held, and Solidarity-nominated candidates won a resounding victory. In August, one of the leaders, Tadeusz Mazowiecki, was proclaimed Prime Minister. In December, Parliament abolished the leading role of the Communist Party in the country’s economy. The following year, Lech Walesa was elected President of the Republic.
Hungary
The second collapse occurred in Hungary, due to the combined efforts of the opposition, grouped in the Democratic Forum, reformers, and groups within the Communist Party. In October 1989, Hungarian leaders declared Hungary to be a socialist and popular republic. Three months earlier, the Hungarian government had decided to open the border with Austria. Many citizens of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) began to migrate through Hungary and Austria towards the Federal Republic of Germany.
Germany
In the GDR, popular demonstrations demanding the resignation of Erich Honecker, head of the Communist Party, increased. He resigned in October. On November 9, 1989, the Berlin Wall began to be demolished by popular impulse. On November 28, Helmut Kohl presented a ten-point plan in favor of German reunification, which was supported by the United States. On July 1, 1990, the Federal German currency became the single currency, and the former GDR joined the EEC. On July 16, the United Kingdom agreed to a unified Germany in NATO in exchange for a 12 billion mark fund for the repatriation of Soviet troops stationed in the GDR. Finally, on October 3, 1990, German unification was made official. The former West Germany began to invest 100 billion marks a year in the East to match their economy and standard of living.
Czechoslovakia
In Czechoslovakia, the collapse of communism took place at the end of 1989 in what became known as the “Velvet Revolution” due to its peaceful nature. Between November 17, when student demonstrations began, and November 27, when a general strike forced the Communist Party to relinquish its leadership role, the transition was swift. On December 29, the Czechoslovak parliament, chaired by Alexander Dubcek, the inspiration of the repressed Prague Spring of 1968, elected Václav Havel, one of the leaders of the Charter 77 human rights movement, as president. Three years later, Czechoslovakia peacefully divided into two new independent states: the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
The Balkans
In Balkan Europe, the revolutionary process was later and more violent. In Romania, dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu was arrested in December 1989 under confusing circumstances, summarily tried, and executed on December 25. In Bulgaria, the fall of dictator Todor Zhivkov, also in November 1989, was the prelude to change, although communists remained in power until the 1991 elections.
Yugoslavia’s process led to its disintegration. Slovenia and Croatia proclaimed their independence. The Serbian-led federal authority sent the army, which was defeated. When Bosnia and Herzegovina also proclaimed independence, a violent civil war erupted between the Bosniak and Croat majority and the Serb minority, which did not end until the precarious Dayton Agreement in 1995. Meanwhile, Macedonia also gained independence in 1991.
In 1998, the internal conflict in Yugoslavia extended to the province of Kosovo. Serbian ethnic cleansing actions led to NATO military intervention with intense bombing of Belgrade and other Serbian cities and strategic points. Slobodan Milošević then ordered the withdrawal of Serbian troops, while deported Kosovar Albanians returned to their homes. Kosovo was occupied by an international force. After democratic elections in Serbia, Milošević was removed from power and handed over to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia for prosecution of crimes against humanity.
The Aftermath
The fall of the Iron Curtain allowed for a rapprochement between the “two Europes.” The 34 member states of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE), created under the Helsinki Accords of 1975, adopted the Charter of Paris, proclaiming the end of the era of confrontation and division. A plan for massive conventional disarmament was confirmed. The dissolution of the Warsaw Pact in 1991 reinforced the climate of détente.
Western democracies decided to help countries transitioning to a market economy through the creation of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), OECD credits, and providing technical assistance and customs facilities from the EEC.