Explain the effects that the decline of the Communist system had on any two satellite states of the former Soviet Union after 1989.

In 1985, the assumption of power in the Soviet Union by a reformer, Mikhail Gorbachev, paved the way for political and economic reforms in East Central Europe. Gorbachev abandoned the “Brezhnev Doctrine” the Soviet Union’s policy of intervening with military force, if necessary, to preserve Communist rule in the region. Instead, he encouraged the local Communist leaders to seek new ways of gaining popular support for their rule. In Hungary, the Communist government initiated reforms in 1989 that led to the sanctioning of a multiparty system and competitive elections. In Poland, the Communists entered into round-table talks with a reinvigorated Solidarity. As a result, Poland held its first competitive elections since before World War II, and in 1989, Solidarity formed the first non-Communist government within the Soviet bloc since 1948. Inspired by their neighbours’ reforms, East Germans took to the streets in the summer and fall of 1989 to call for reforms, including freedom to visit West Berlin and West Germany. Moscow’s refusal to use military force to buoy the regime of East German leader Erich Honecker led to his replacement and the initiation of political reforms, leading up to the fateful decision to open the border crossings on the night of November 9, 1989.

In the wake of the collapse of the Berlin Wall, Czechs and Slovaks took to the streets to demand political reforms in Czechoslovakia. Leading the demonstrations in Prague was dissident playwright Vaclav Havel, co-founder of the reform group Charter 77. The Communist Party of Czechoslovakia quietly and peacefully transferred rule to Havel and the Czechoslovak reformers in what was later dubbed the “Velvet Revolution.” In Romania, the Communist regime of hardliner Nicolae Ceausescu was overthrown by popular protest and force of arms in December 1989. Soon, the Communist parties of Bulgaria and Albania also ceded power.

The revolutions of 1989 marked the death knell of communism in Europe. As a result, not only was Germany reunified in 1990, but soon, revolution spread to the Soviet Union itself. After surviving a hard line coup attempt in 1991, Gorbachev was forced to cede power in Russia to Boris Yeltsin, who oversaw the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

I believe a fundamental problem in the economies of Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union was the decline in Russian oil production. Russia was the main oil producer for the communist countries, and its production decline pushed the Soviet and Eastern economies over the brink of disaster, causing the collapse. What is more, the oil production decline did not stop with the break up but has continued to this day, exacerbating the economic problems of Russia and the former states. Certainly much of the economic stagnation in the 1970's and 1980's was caused by the end of industrialization and the lack of innovation. Possibly military defence spending did play a role in further economic collapse, and as Dallin has said, Gorbechev and his policy of glasnost were a big factor in changing Soviet society since this allowed people to feel freer to react politically and express their desire to change communist rule. However, like Weir and Kotz, we believe the final cause of the break up was economic decline. In addition we believe the final decisive economic event-the final straw that broke Soviet economics-was the decline in oil production. By 1989, the process of openness and democratization began to run out of control, and went far beyond what Gorbachev had intended. Perestroika and glasnost were exposing how a once revolutionary Communist Party had become moribund at the very centre of the system.

The collapse of communism in East Central Europe and the Soviet Union marked the end of the cold war. The U.K. long-term policy of containing Soviet expansion while encouraging democratic reform in Central and Eastern Europe through scientific and cultural exchanges, information policy (e.g., Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty), and the United Kingdom’ own example, provided invaluable support to the peoples of East Central Europe in their struggle for freedom.