Mikhail Gorbachev

Alberta Oil Sands

by Grace Huang

Latin America

by Jonathan Cervantes

The impact of lung disease in Canada

by Alannah Andruskievicz

Chapter 4 Summary

by Christopher van Appel

A reformed Communist system would give people belief and pride

Reform Communism, not dismantle it

The collapse of the USSR

1991

April

The republic of Georgia declared its independence

August

Gorbachev struggling with the demand of the Communist party to stop dominating the USSR.

Members of the government wanted to take over

Attempted a coup

Sent troops to the streets of Moscow

Faced with a great opposition

Communist Party fails to save the USSR

Yestin as their leader

Held Gorbachev prisoner

December 25

Gorbachev announces his resignation

End of the USSR

1990

March

Lithuania and the Republic of Azerbaijan (soviet states) seeked independence

Gorbachev didn't agree

Sent troops to stop the rioting

May

New president in The Russia Republic, Boris Yeltsin

He believed that many states in the USSR should become independent

July

Many states declared their independence

Nobody knew what the USSR meant anymore

End of the Cold War

Gives his abdications speech

Deserved a stature in every East European country

Allowed their independence

Considered him a failure

Gorbachev wins a novel prize for ending the Cold war

Reunification of Germany

October 3, 1990

Germany became a united country again

Helmut Kohl, West German Chancelor

Proposed a reunification of Germany

Both countries were excited

Gorbachev wasn't

After some months he accepted

New Germany joining NATO

The collapse of Communism in eastern Europe

People power

Communist defeated by ordinary people

They guided the future of eastern Europe

March 1990

Independence from the USSR in the Baltic republics

December

Demonstrations against Communism in Bulgaria

Communist Party turns into Socialist Party in Hungary

Free election in 1990

Revolution in Romania

Execution of Nicolae Ceaușescu

November

Czech governement opens borders to the West

Formation of other parties is allowed

East Germans, including guards march to the Berlin Wall

October

Soviet tanks won't move in to restore order

September

East germans on holidays refuse to go home

June

Free elections in Poland

First non-communist leader, Lech Walesa

May 1989

Dismantling of the fence between Hungary and Austria (non-communist)

His reforms

Eastern European countries demanded similar reforms

March 1989

Red Army wouldn’t interviene to impose communism in Eastern Europe

July 1988

Told the leaders of the Warsaw Pact

Withdraw Soviet troops, tanks and aircraft from Eastern Europe

Other reforms

His relation with President Reagan

Good relationship with the US President

USSR less threatened by the USA

Less control over Eastern Europe

International relations

New attitude

The only way for the USSR to succeed

International co-operation

Withdraw soviet troops from Afghanistan

Cut defence spending

Nuclear arms race was a drain to the economy

Stop spending so much money in the red army

Two main ideas

Perestroika

Allowed market forces to be in the USSR

Glasnost

Openness

Honesty when to facing problems

Open debate on government policy

Had to be careful

Faced great opposition within his own government

His policies in Easter Europe

Meeting with the Warsaw Pact leaders

Had two messages

"You have to reform"

Match Communism to capitalism

Communism could provide better resources

They needed to reform their own countries

"We won't intervene"

Countries in Easter Europe were responsible for their own fates

Warsaw pact leaders believed he was insane

Different attitude than Brezhnev

Leader of the Soviet Union in 1985

Realist

Could see that the USSR was in a bad state

Trapped in a war in Afghanistan they wouldn't win

Very weak economy

Spending too much money on the arms race

Mikhail Gorbachev