Events in the Soviet Union brought down Communist regimes in Eastern Europe - Discuss

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Events in the Soviet Union brought down Communist regimes in Eastern Europe - Discuss

The collapse of the Communist spectre that cast itself over Eastern Europe since the end of World War II was due to a series of events that happened both in and outside of the Soviet Union.  The accession to power and subsequent policies of the progressive reformist Mikhail Sergeevich Gorbachev such as Perestroika and Glasnost began the effective crumbling of the Soviet grip over the East.  The desire to reform and greatly modernise the USSR both economically and socially gave way to revolutionary circumstances beyond party control, effectively sealing the fate of Communist Europe and Russia.  Internally we see in the defiance of the many dissident groups that sprung up all over the Soviet Empire, demonstrating for reform.  The rise of nationalism in the Soviet “satellite states” such as the Baltic [of which I will focus on in depth], Poland and Azerbaijan saw organised dissent against the Central one-party system, with Lithuania unilaterally declaring independence in 1990. With liberties being conceded by Moscow it soon gave rise unforeseen consequences that could not be stopped without resorting to the old “methods” that had been abandoned.  Outside of the Soviet Union we see pressures exerted by the West to undermine the Soviet Empire, NATO would secure the West and provide beacons of hope for those trapped in the Eastern Bloc. Communism’s demise in Eastern Europe and soon after the Russia occurred rapidly after Gorbachev’s somewhat revolutionary reform programmes, giving way relatively peaceful, pent-up revolutionary activity from the masses.

During the Mid-Eighties the Soviet monolith that reigned over Eastern Europe and Asia was in considerable crisis.  A declining economy that had suffered chronic illness for many years just could not compete with the Western market economy; failing to meet the needs of the elite and masses.  Gorbachev’s economic reforms worked on the premise that the problems hampering the Soviet economy were the bad habits and attitudes of the workforce.  He constantly referred to this as “activate the human factor”, both workers and managers alike needed to be taught and shown that they could no longer carry on in their lax and corrupt ways.  Gorbachev failed to appreciate that the very foundations of the Soviet command economy were outdated and detrimental to promoting and maintaining a successful economy.

‘Perestroika’ (restructuring) is perhaps one of the most important aspects in the disintegration of Soviet regimes in Eastern Europe.  Mikhail Gorbachev in his attempted restructuring of economic, social and political life dismantled the Marxist-Leninist-Stalinist totalitarian state.  By these revolutionary measures implicated at the top he sought to curtail and stem the threat of revolutionary actions from below.  Many people at the time and historians since, perhaps mistakenly, viewed Gorbachev’s actions as nothing but an attempt to rejuvenate and restore the Soviet Union with the socialist traditions of its birth.  Perestroika was the Soviet elite acknowledging the Soviet system had hit a dead end, economic growth had ceased and that popular morale was at a critical low, reform had to be made right across the board so that the elite could still retain their status and control over the creation and disposition of the surplus product. 

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The political liberalisation that Gorbachev entitled the Soviets brought many damaging consequences to the reform process and to the stability of the USSR as a whole.  Strikes and workplace protests that were previously dealt with in brutal suppression and legal action by the State were now dealt with by the largely ineffective strike law.  1989 saw the Soviet economy as a whole lose 7.3 million person-days, this was mostly due to the nationalist unrest in the Caucus and the first mass miner’s strike that broke out in four of the five major coal mining regions.  This strike was caused by ...

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