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Gorbachev 1985-91

By Basil_Omori

  • Economic Pressure via USA

    • Restricted Soviet access to American gas and oil and technology
    • They also continually attacked the morality of the communist regime and the USSR's refusal to abide by Basket 3 of the Helsinki Accord

  • Rise of the 'New Right' in the West

    Margaret Thatcher elected 1979 Ronald Reagan elected 1981 Both explicitally anti-communist, 'evil empire', believed the West had a moral duty to challenge them

  • Pre-Info

    • the policies Gorbachev followed were dictated by the problems he had inherited (domestic + economic)
    • collapse of detente and arms race
    • $18billion spent per year funding Afg. + leftist regimes in Africa
    • economy was stagnating + needed western help
    • Marxist-Leninist ideology had little influence on his foreign policy

  • Creation of SDI

    A space based system based on lasers to intercept and destroy soviet missiles
    This would have undermined MAD
    Demoralised the Soviet Elite, convinced many that USSR could not out-perform or out-arm the USA. felt they had no alternative

  • Perestroika

    the introduction of fundamental Western-style economic reforms
    (though it lacked a clear strategy)

  • Glasnot

    promoted greater openness in regards to discussing political and social issues made the government more accountable to public scrutiny envisaged it to led to a reform of communism across EE but instead it unleashed fierce nationalism

  • Geneva Summit

    Wanted to end SDI (strategic defense initiative) but Reagan refused Agreed to meet again to halve their nuclear arsenal

  • Reagan Doctrine/Rollback

    • Follows Reagan's policy of rollback (winning back areas which had fallen to communist control)
    • Reagan Doctrine offered help in soviet infiltrated areas
    • By 1987 $687mil was given to Mujahedin
    • Largest peacetime military build-up in American history, 1985 30% of the federal reserve was spent on military

  • Chernobyl Disaster

    took Gorbachev away from the idea of world revolution or even the Brezhnev Doctrine HENCE why agendas were dictated by economy prioritization of economy and a focus on domestic policies shows big !! change from his predecessors renounces the idea of an inevitable world conflict (bcs could no longer afford it) which had been continued since Lenin in 1917

  • Reykjavik Summit

    Still fighting over SDIs Focused on arms reduction NOT limitation Still cannot agree

  • INF Treaty

    Removes all IR (intermediate range) missiles from Europe, planted in Germany and Britain The IRM faced a lot of criticism in Europe with 300,000 taking to the streets in Bonn.

  • Moscow Summit

    Agreements to extend trade and technology links No progress on nuclear issues

  • Sinatra Doctrine

    disallowed all possibility of resortung to threat or use of force a complete rejection of the Brezhnev doctrine

  • Year of Miracles

    • EE starts to test out their freedom, and communist control crumbles (starting in Poland and Hungary), by end of 1989 all communist regimes were gone in EE
    • Withdraws all troops from Afghanistan by Feburary 1989

  • Malta Summit

    Declared the Cold War was over Note: the Cold War wasn’t won, Gorbachev simply abandoned it Bush Sr. - believed it could only be brought to end if Gorbachev remained in office
    So
    - stressed that unification of Germany did not threaten the Soviet Union and could not act against them as a memeber of NATO

  • Unification of Germany

  • Collapse of the Soviet Union

    As the new EE republics begin to seek genuine independence Gorbachev formed a Federation in which they could enjoy more independence. It was unable to be created. This was to uphold his commitment to not use force Resigned 25/12/1991 and thus the USSR ceased to exist