Assess the reasons for the overthrow of Soviet Power in Eastern Europe. The Cold War (1945-91) was mainly between some of the most influential countries, USSR, USA and western European countries. Soviet power had dominated Eastern Europe for the majority of the Cold War, however, around the early 1980s this power began to falter. There were many reason for the overthrow of the Soviet power, some of which were, the economic decline in the USSR, the power of the people, the introduction of Gorbachev and Western prosperity. So which of these reasons was the most important?
2. Why did the Leninist regimes in East-Central Europe collapse so suddenly in 1989? When looking at the collapse of Leninist Regimes in East Central Europe, it is important to distinguish between chronic, long term factors; such as the economic stagnation in comparison to the capitalist Western Europe, and the decrease in ideological passion of communism. These must be seen as setting the foundations for the events of the 1980s such as Gorbachev’s leadership and the round table talks in Poland, which acted as a catalyst for the collapse of Hungary, East Germany, and Czechoslovakia. The economic problems of the Soviet Bloc were at the core of communisms downfall.
Mao criticised Khrushchev for his policies such as de-Stalinisation and his secret speech. He was also very critical of the policy of Peaceful Coexistence as he believed it was a way of being friendly with the United States (the enemy) and also Mao saw it abandoning millions of comrades struggling to free themselves of capitalist and imperialist oppression. This, therefore, made the USSR an ‘enemy’. How could two countries work together if they had such differing beliefs about how to run their countries? This problem had a big contribution to the split as they couldn’t agree on anything, and if they did, it was because their national interests were at risk.
Another reason to why America is to blame is after the success of the atomic bomb the members of the Grand Alliance began to see changes in Truman’s behaviour as he started to control the meetings they had and Stalin refused to be bossed around so arguments between Stalin and Truman started, they started. The USSR is to blame for the breakdown of the Grand Alliance for many reasons. One reason is that the USSR wanted to impose big respirations on Germany but America and Great Britain refused as they knew how it would affect Germany and could cause another war. A second reason is that Stalin wanted most of Europe to become communist, Roosevelt and Churchill didn’t agree. After Truman became Americas new President there was a lot of tension at the Potsdam Conference.
When Mikhail Gorbachev became leader of the Soviet Union he wanted the war to end. He first tried to increase Soviet troops to end the war quickly. However, this didn't work. By 1988 Gorbachev realized the war was costing Soviet troops and hurting their economy. He signed a peace treaty to end the war.
The Cold War, along with attitudes and doctrines formed within it, continues to shape the world, years after its end. The Cold War ended, arguably, because of Mikhail Gorbachev’s reforms, and economic problems left over from older administrations. The Cold War had its origins in the direct aftermath of World War 2, but simply leaving it at that would be too simple. The Cold War began as a result of political tension between the United States and Soviet Russia; the Soviet ideology, as listed in the Communist Manifesto, states that the bourgeoisie, those that own the means of production and the capitalist doctrine as a whole are the enemies of the proletariat. To Marx and Engel, the capitalist system as used during the Industrial Revolution created a class system, which oppressed the proletariat.
Americans had hated and feared Communism ever since it had appeared in the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 and had refused to recognize the new Soviet government, especially after Bolshevik leaders promoted the destruction of capitalism. During World War II, Roosevelt and British prime minister Winston Churchill delayed their decision to open a second front, which would have distracted the Nazis and taken pressure off the Red Army entrenched at Stalingrad. Stalin resented this delay, just as he resented the fact that the United States and Great Britain refused to share their nuclear weapons research with the Soviet Union. After the war, Truman’s decision to give Great Britain relief loans while denying similar requests from the USSR only added to the resentment. Another major factor contributing to the Cold War was the fact that the United States and USSR were the only two powers to escape World War II relatively unharmed.
In the early 30’s US due to President Hoover’s views on Foreign Policy believing that the US should not go into “firm commitments” where they would have to promise security to other countries. He did however believe in treaties but opposed using economic sanctions against dissentients, saying it would only cause military involvement. This almost detached was the US was going is looked back at was our stage of isolationism. We started severely isolationist in the start of the 30’s as time progressed towards the late 30’s and early 40’s America does a 180 and starts to interfere sneakily with the World’s problems. As the economy started to fail America seemed to have stepped back from foregin affairs and focused on problems within their own
This did not happen. New thinking was required, enter Keynes! 2. What did Keynes argue in his book The Economic Consequences of the Peace? He argued that reparations forced on Germany by the Allies after WW1 were far too severe and would cripple the German economy to such an extent and would lead to socio-political problems in the future which would not be in the interest of the Allies.
The Cold War is a war without guns and bombs amongst the Allies during 1945 to 1991, after World War Two. As the common enemy Germany and Japan were defeated, the balance between allies was no longer be there and a high level of tension was brought by the end of the war. USA and the USSR were the major two parties in the Cold War, their arguments were based on their different political opinions, which is capitalism and communism and it was the disagreement with each other caused the high level of tension between the Allies by the end of World War Two. The main difference between USA and the USSR is that they have a different point of view of politics. The USSR was a communist country and the USA is a capitalist country, just like China and USA now.