The end of the Cold War
When Mikhail Gorbachev became leader of the The group of 15 communist republics formed from the Russian Empire after the revolution of 1917. in 1985, relations with the USA began to improve. This led to reductions in An explosive device used as a weapon. The most deadly and destructive weapon developed by humankind. on both sides and the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Eastern Europe. By 1991, this had led to the end of the The political tension and competition for power that existed between the communist East and the democratic West after World War Two. The two sides did not ever go to war.
Glasnost and perestroika
Gorbachev realised that the people of the Soviet Union were struggling as the economy was being drained by the constant expense of the A competition between America and the USSR to build more destructive and a higher number of nuclear weapons. This resulted in shortages of goods. The Soviet Union was also becoming technologically inferior to the USA, as the recent nuclear disasters of the A Soviet submarine that filled with radioactive gas due to a faulty nuclear missile. submarine and the explosion of the nuclear reactor at The Chernobyl disaster occurred in 1986 when the nuclear reactor at the Chernobyl power station caught fire, sending a radioactive cloud across Europe. showed.
Gorbachevâs first steps towards fixing this were to introduce important reforms:
- Openness. A policy introduced by Gorbachev to allow more freedom in discussing problems in the Soviet Union. (openness) - allowing people to speak out against the government, in the hope that this would lead to better decisions being made
- Restructuring. A policy introduced by Gorbachev to allow changes to the way communism worked. (restructuring) - introducing more The economic idea that countries should be run based on private business, trade, stocks and shares, and profit. economic reforms, in the hope that the Soviet Union would be able to compete economically with the USA
To begin with, US president Ronald Reagan was very hostile towards these changes. He did not want to help the Supporters of the communist movement or party. system survive and continued to argue publicly with Gorbachev over Cold War issues such as the Berlin Wall. It also did not help that when people in the Soviet Union were given more freedom, they used it to criticise Gorbachev and the communist government, making it more difficult for him to introduce further reforms.
Once Gorbachev had begun a more positive A way that countries try to avoid wars by using peaceful talks to resolve problems relationship with Reagan, he started reducing the costs that he believed were holding the Soviet Union back. He began to negotiate further arms reductions to lower costs. He also withdrew Soviet troops from Afghanistan and ended support for the communist governments of Eastern Europe in 1989.
Superpower summits and arms reduction
A meeting between different nations or political powers where key issues and problems are discussed. meetings between Reagan and Gorbachev began in 1985. These showed that the two leaders could get along and resulted in a significant amount of progress in resolving the issues behind the Cold War.
Negotiations between the USA and the Soviet Union resulted in the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF). This reduced the number of nuclear weapons that each side would have. It also ended the The American plan in the 1980s to use lasers fired from satellites to shoot down nuclear missiles; also known as Reaganâs Star Wars programme. programme and removed ground-based weapons such as A missile guided towards its target by a computer system. Both sides agreed that they could inspect each otherâs nuclear facilities to check the reduction in the number of weapons was being carried out.
After a summit in Moscow in 1988, the 1990 Conventional Armed Forces in Europe Treaty (CFE) was eventually signed. This reduced the numbers of non-nuclear weapons held by the members of the A military alliance of western powers that was originally created to provide a counterforce to the Soviet armies of Eastern Europe. and the A collection of 12 communist countries that agreed to defend each other if one of them was attacked.
After George HW Bush became president, there was another summit in Washington, DC. This led to the 1991 A treaty to further reduce nuclear weapons signed in 1991. which resulted in a severe reduction in the number of nuclear warheads and other strategic offensive weapons being produced.
Fall of the Berlin Wall
In December 1988, Gorbachev began to withdraw Soviet troops from bases in Eastern Europe. By 1989, he was telling communist leaders that they would not be getting any more military support from the Soviet Union. He hoped that this would make these countries take more responsibility for themselves, but as a result opposition to communism grew stronger.
In May 1989, Hungary opened its border to Austria, which meant that people from Eastern Europe could now leave to live in Western Europe. By October, Hungary had a non-communist government. In November, after widespread protests across East Germany, the border crossings between East and West Germany were opened. People in Berlin began to climb over and then pull down the Berlin Wall. There were no Soviet troops or A police force that operates outside of the law and engages in covert operations against a goverment's political opponents. to stop them.
The fall of the Berlin Wall became a symbol of the end of communist rule in Eastern Europe:
- The communist governments of Bulgaria and Czechoslovakia were peacefully overthrown in November 1989.
- A revolution removed the communist A ruler with complete power. of Romania in December 1989.
- Also in December 1989, a non-communist was elected as president of Poland.
- In October 1990, East and West Germany were reunified.
The end of the Soviet Union
President George HW Bush declared that the Cold War was over at a conference in Malta in December 1989. This did not mean the end of communist rule. He meant that rivalry between the USA and the Soviet Union was over.
The Soviet Union began to break apart. Some of the countries that had been taken over to form part of the Soviet Union now demanded their independence as well, starting with the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania in 1990. By the end of 1991, 15 former Soviet A country where the leader is elected or nominated by the people. had become independent. When reunified Germany joined NATO that same year, it was the end of the Warsaw Pact.
Gorbachev faced opposition from two groups of people - those who thought his reforms had gone too far and those who thought they had not gone far enough. In August 1991, he was taken prisoner by those who thought his reforms had gone too far. Boris Yeltsin, who was the president of Soviet Russia, led the resistance to this and Gorbachev was restored to power.