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Period: to
Reagan's Military Build-Up
the buildup consists of a 5-year military defense program for 1982-1986, included MX ICBM, Trident II SLBM and funds for the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI)
- it orced Gorbachev to acknowledge the impossibility of matching such a program with Soviet economic defense and to look for other ways to ensure security - diplomacy.
- reagan was facing domestic pressure to curt down on military spending -> instrumental in making reagan receptive to Gorbachev's attempt to limit the arms race -
Gorbachev's willingnes to end the CW
his sincerity in establishing warmer relations with the US highlighted by his unilateral announcement of a temporary maratarium on nuclear testing upon coming to power in 1985.
this is further highlighted bt his replacement of a long-time soviet foreign minister Andrei Gromyko with the reformist Eduard Shevardnadze in July 1985 -
Period: to
Perestroika
effects: by the eginning of the 1990s, he country's gross national product had declined by 2%, the government's foreign debt skyrocketed and both the national budget deficit and the foreign trade deficit widened -
Reykjyavik Summit
possible turning point in terms of ending the arms race: Gorbachev's willingness to end the arms race was underlined by the sweeping concessions he made at reykjyavik, Iceland, in Oct 1986 - he accepted Reagan's "Zero Option" plana nd proposed the abolishment of all nuclear weapons within 10 years
prevented this to be a turning point" reagan refusal to scrap the SDI acted as an obstacle for the blocks -> CW defined by the arms race did not end in 1986 -
INF treaty, Dec 1987
Gorbachev's willingness to limit the nuclear arms race was highlighted when there was a drastic reduction of theatre nuclear weapons destruction of 851 Soviet lauchers and 1836 missles complared to 283 american launchers adn 867 missiles
- turning ooint compared to the past, the SALT treaties of 1973 and 1979 had imposed limits on the future deployment of strategic weapons while INF treaty decreed the entire class of nuclear weapons that were already operational -
Glasnost introduced to the people
(to support) Perestroika: it not only failed in that aspec, but further increased political discontent within the USSR. in junw 1988 the old rubber stamp supreme soviet was replaced b a new congres of people's deputies, giving he soviet peole an experience in democratic politics.
effect of glasnost: throughout 1990 christian armenians battled muslim azeris in the american enclave of nagorno-karabakh with azerbaijan
by the 19th party congress in june 1988, major changes were proposed affected pos -
Gorbachev's speech at the UN, Dec 1988
prior, to gorbachev, the soviet leaders wanted to be superior. Gorbachev's speech showed a change where it signalled to EE that USSR was willing to let go of satellite states. he also further annunced a reduction in th soviet military presennce in EE, for eg, reduction half a million men in 2 years, substantial cuts in tanks, combat aircraft -> signified the end of the conventional arms race and was confirmed with the CFE treaty in Nov 1990 -> another possible end of CW in terms of arms race -
Solidarity wins POlish Elections, June 1989
solidarity - non communist trade union (government) coming to power.
it marked the end of cold war as defined by the division in europe -
Fall of Berlin Wall, Nov 1989
it marked the end of CW as defined by a divvision in europe -
Union Treaty (drafted nov 1990)
the treaty gave more autonomy to the sovet republics and gorbachev hoped to prevent the success of the replublics, hence avert the collapse of the USSR.
the baltic states, however, wanted nothing to do with the treaty wheras the other republics had reservations. a march 1991 referendum recorded 76% spproval for the union but did not include voters from 6 of the republics. -
August Coup 1991
with this coup, yeltsin made use of telecommunications to rally domestic and foreign support, further cementing his political position at the expanse of Gorbachev's political credibility
hardliners believed that gorbachev's weakness was undermining the position of USSR and CPSU
union treaty was the immediate cause of the coup as they saw the treaty as heralding the fall of USSR
the coup cemented yeltsin's political postion,damaged gorbachev's credibility - also caused damage to communist part