The collapse of USSR control in Eastern Europe

• 1985: Gorbachev becomes the new leader of the USSR
• 1986: Gorbachev cooperates with Ronald Reagan (US President) to withdraw their nuclear missiles from Europe
• January 1989: Soviet troops left Afghanistan
• June 1989: Poland gains independence
• September 1989: Hungary gains independence
• November 1989: The Berlin wall was finally removed and the people of East Berlin could once again pass to West Berlin freely
• December 1989: Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, and Romania were no longer under communist governments but under elected democratic ones
• March 1990: Lithuania gains independence. By this stage, Soviet influence over Eastern Europe was near over
• May 1990: Boris Yeltin was elected as President of Russia
• October 1990: The two parts of Germany were reunited
• May 1991: The Soviet Union ended

• Recognised the need for change
• Campaigned to catch up economically and fight alcohol dependency/addiction and corruption
• He introduced these two main policies:
• Glasnost:
• Political and social reforms to allow more freedom of expressing opinions to allow people to participate more in politics
• Freedom of the media, news of corruption against members of the government was allowed
• Gorbachev also published hidden records of the past to the public, such as information in Stalin's reign
• Perestroika (restructuring)
• Economical, political, and cultural reform to improve the efficiency of the economy
• Private ownership of industry and agriculture was encouraged
• Less state control on international trade
• Trade with countries outside of the Soviet bloc was allowed
• Allowing investments for Russian companies from other countries
• Increase in focus on (the production and trade of) consumer goods
• Gorbachev then stated that Eastern European countries would no longer be forcefully controlled by the Soviet Union, and that achieving democracies in those countries would be allowed and not opposed by military force. Reasons of this were...
• Believed that people should have a say in their rulers and also believed that Russia control over other countries was outdated
• The economy in the Eastern bloc was failing, and food shortages were extremely common, with the policy of food rationing during WW2 being reintroduced
• The USSR could no longer afford military control over the other countries and Gorbachev wanted to focus on reforming Russia instead of maintaining control over Eastern Europe

Changes for independence were made all throughout Eastern Europe

• Poland's Solidarity movement showed that an organised collective movement with little violence could succeed in making change. This inspired the other countries
• Hungary's Parliament created a new set of laws, introducing rights to run trade unions, personal freedoms, a press with more freedom, more voting rights, and recognised the uprising in 1956 as a movement and not an insurgency
• East Germany: After the border between both sides of Germany was open, the people hoped for change. This resulted into a popular movement which the government tried to repress. However, Gorbachev convinced the Communist Party to allow reform, and the Berlin wall was destroy with freedom of movement for the people. A year later, the parts of Germany reunited
• Romania: Nicolae Ceausescu was the leader of Romania, and wanted to oppose the anti-communist protestors. However, during a time he was outside the country, the people protested. He ordered for the military to fire on them, but the soldiers did not want to follow ordered, and Ceausescu was forced to escape. Democratic elections were then held in 1990

Between the spring of 1989 and the spring of 1991, all Eastern European country that had been communist had democratic elections for the first time and was free from Soviet rule

There were more factors that led to the fall of Soviet control over Eastern Europe than Gorbachev's decisions. This included...

• The war in Afghanistan: The Afghan militia fought the Soviets in a guerilla-style war in 1979 to take over their own country. However, the Afghan economy worsened because of this and other countries pressured the USSR to withdraw from Afghanistan
• The USA: Ronald Reagan, the US president, also wished to end the Cold War. Reagan and Gorbachev worked together to limit nuclear weaponry and encouraged movements in Eastern Europe. Also, when the USA increased its military spending by a third in the "arms race", the USSR believed they could not increase their own spending. Therefore, the Soviets decided to turn to diplomacy to secure peace.

• Gorbachev allowed an environment in which people could make changes based on their own decisions
• These rights were first spread in Russia, then to the rest of Europe
• After this, the popular movements that fought against communism were able to seize power