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Baltic Crisis
the government had decided to encourage better farming practices and more food production by increasing the price of food (farmers would gain more profit). -
Riots
Gierek attempted to make the Polish economy competitive, he hoped that Poland would be able to produce goods that it could sell to the west and so earn hard currency to repay the loans. The government increased food prices, what triggered riots throughout the country and again the government was forced to retreat on the issue -
Threat of Soviet Intervention
Brezhnev and other Warsaw Pact leaders urged the new Polish Prime Minister, Stanislaw Kania, who had replaced Gierek to crush the anti socialist opposition forces. Warsaw Pact forces were mobilized in early december, but at the last moment intervention was canceled as Kania convinced Brezhnev that he could restore order without assistance -
Years of tension
January 1981, Ronald Reagan became the US president, between 1981-83, he adopted and uncompromising line towards the USSR -
Martial Law
This led to the arrest of solidarity’s leadership, the use of soldiers to end strike, Poland’s army ruling the state and the outlawing of solidarity in October 1982 -
Years of tension
-hostile speeches about the USSR and communism
-massive increase in US armaments
-rejection of the SALT II treaty
-deployment of missiles in Western Europe
-support for the mujahideen in Afghanistan -
Reduced tensions
Reagan and his advisors came to the conclusion that relations with USSR needed to be improved, this was the result of a more confident US government that gained military dominance over the Soviet -
Gorbachev
The Soviet economy was hampered by inefficiency and corruption -
Detente renegotiated
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Detente renegotiated
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Gorbachev
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Fall of the Berlin Wall
No more tensions