The Collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe

The year the empire let go

On 7 December 1988 Mikhail Gorbachev told the United Nations that the Soviet Union would cut its army by 500,000 men and withdraw six tank divisions from Eastern Europe, and that every nation had freedom of choice in how it was governed. The Brezhnev Doctrine, which had sent tanks into Prague in 1968, was over, though it took the satellites a few months to believe it. Then they tested it. Poland held a half-free election on 4 June 1989 and the communists lost every seat that was open. Hungary opened its border with Austria on 11 September, and East Germans poured through it. Crowds in Leipzig grew every Monday until, on the night of 9 November, the Berlin Wall was opened. Czechoslovakia followed in ten days without a shot; Romania in a week with a firing squad. Moscow did nothing, because Gorbachev had said it would do nothing. Two years later the Soviet Union dissolved itself. The exam asks why Gorbachev let the satellites go, what the fall of the Wall meant, and how the collapse of the bloc led to the collapse of the Union and the end of the Cold War. This module gives you the dated evidence and the three question shapes.

Five words the examiners use

Each definition ends with the moment it mattered, because a bare definition earns nothing in an 8-mark answer.

1989 to 1991, in order

Put these six events in the order they happened.

• Gorbachev announces troop cuts and freedom of choice at the United Nations
• Solidarity wins the Polish election and Hungary begins cutting its border fence
• The Berlin Wall is opened after weeks of Monday demonstrations in Leipzig
• Havel becomes president of Czechoslovakia and Ceausescu is shot in Romania
• East and West Germany are reunited
• The Warsaw Pact is dissolved, a coup against Gorbachev fails, and the Soviet Union breaks up

Why did Gorbachev let Eastern Europe go?

Every Soviet leader since Stalin had used force to keep the bloc. Which explanation best accounts for Gorbachev refusing to?

• The Soviet economy could not afford the empire: defence took around a quarter of spending, Afghanistan was costing lives and money, and the satellites needed subsidised oil the Union no longer had; Gorbachev believed reform at home needed peace abroad and Western credit; he had told the UN in December 1988 that force was over and could not send tanks without destroying everything he had built with Reagan; and once Poland and Hungary went unpunished, every other regime lost the fear that had held it up.
• The Red Army had been defeated and could not intervene.
• NATO threatened war if the Soviets intervened.
• Gorbachev planned from 1985 to dissolve the Soviet bloc.

Two ways to fall: Poland and Romania

The narrative question rewards knowing that the revolutions of 1989 were not all the same. Poland was negotiated over months; Romania was over in a week and ended in blood.

Why the Wall fell when it did

Five statements about the autumn of 1989. Tap the TWO that give reasons why the Wall was opened on 9 November, as opposed to describing the night or its results.

• After Hungary opened its border with Austria on 11 September, tens of thousands of East Germans drove to Hungary on holiday and did not come back, and thousands more camped in the West German embassy in Prague.
• At a press conference on the evening of 9 November the spokesman Gunter Schabowski, asked when new travel rules took effect, read his note and said "immediately, without delay", and crowds went to the checkpoints.
• The Monday demonstrations in Leipzig grew from a few thousand in September to 70,000 on 9 October, and when the police did not fire that night the regime had lost its last weapon; Honecker was removed on 18 October.
• At the Bornholmer Strasse crossing the guard commander, with no orders and 20,000 people in front of him, raised the barrier at about half past eleven.
• Within a year of the Wall opening, East Germany had held a free election, adopted the West German mark, and joined the Federal Republic on 3 October 1990.

From the bloc to the Union

Select the THREE statements that are true of how the collapse of Eastern Europe led to the end of the Soviet Union.

• With no satellites left to defend, the Warsaw Pact was formally dissolved on 1 July 1991, and the last Soviet troops were scheduled to leave Germany and Poland.
• The republics of the Union drew the same lesson as the satellites: Lithuania declared independence on 11 March 1990, and on 1 December 1991 Ukraine voted 90 per cent for independence.
• Hardliners tried to reverse the drift in the August coup of 19 to 21 August 1991; it failed in three days, Yeltsin emerged as the strongest figure, and on 8 December the leaders of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus declared the Union dissolved.
• NATO was dissolved at the same time as the Warsaw Pact.
• Gorbachev became the first president of independent Russia.
• The Soviet Union was defeated in a war with the United States.

Why the fall of the Wall mattered

The importance question on this bullet asks what the fall of the Berlin Wall meant. The strong answer says what it was a symbol of, what it caused, and what it proved, and keeps the three apart. Symbol. The Wall had been the Cold War made concrete since August 1961: the point where Kennedy had said Ich bin ein Berliner and Reagan had said tear down this wall. When East Berliners walked through it on the night of 9 November 1989 and were not shot, the world saw on television that the division of Europe was over. Cause. Without the Wall there was no East Germany: its citizens could now leave, so the state had to give them a reason to stay, and there was none. The first free election of March 1990 voted for union, and the country joined the Federal Republic on 3 October 1990, inside NATO, with Gorbachev agreeing in July in return for German money. Proof. The Wall fell because a border guard raised a barrier without orders and Moscow did not react. That showed every republic of the Union, from the Baltic to Ukraine, that force was really gone. This meant that the collapse of the bloc in 1989 became the collapse of the Union in 1991, and a judgement that connects the two through the Wall reaches the top level.

In the shoes of Gorbachev and the regimes

Four decisions in 1989. Choose what was actually done, and notice what each choice led to.

• August 1989. You are Gorbachev. Solidarity has won the Polish election and the Polish communists are asking whether they should form a coalition with it or block it. What do you tell them?
• September 1989. You are the reforming Hungarian government. Thousands of East Germans are camping in Hungary hoping to reach Austria, and East Berlin demands you send them home. What do you do?
• 9 October 1989. You are the East German leadership. Seventy thousand people are marching in Leipzig, Honecker has hinted at a Chinese solution like Tiananmen in June, and the local commanders are asking for orders. What do you do?
• 2 December 1989. You are Gorbachev, meeting Bush on a ship off Malta three weeks after the Wall opened. What do you say?

From cause to consequence

Because the Soviet economy could not carry the arms race and the empire, Gorbachev announced at the _____ in December 1988 that force was over. Because Moscow accepted the Solidarity victory of June 1989, every other regime lost the fear that had held it up. Because _____ opened its border in September, East Germans left in tens of thousands and the regime in Berlin had to change its travel rules. Because the police did not fire in _____ on 9 October, the East German state had no weapon left when the Wall opened on 9 November. And because the republics of the Union saw that freedom of choice applied to them too, _____ voted for independence and the Union was dissolved in December _____.

The Polish result

In the Polish election of 4 June 1989 Solidarity won 160 of the 161 seats it was allowed to contest in the lower house and 99 of the 100 seats in the Senate. How many seats did Solidarity win in total?

The 8-mark consequences question

Question 1 might read: Explain two consequences of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Each consequence is marked as a consequence plus supporting detail, for 4 marks. Which answer scores all four marks for ONE consequence?

• One consequence was the reunification of Germany. Once East Germans could cross freely from 9 November 1989 the East German state had no way to keep its people, so its first free election in March 1990 voted for union, Gorbachev agreed in July that a united Germany could stay in NATO, and the two states became one on 3 October 1990, less than a year after the Wall opened.
• One consequence was that Germany was reunited and the Cold War ended.
• One consequence was that Hungary had opened its border and East Germans were leaving through it.
• On 9 November Schabowski read the note, crowds went to the checkpoints, and at Bornholmer Strasse the barrier went up.

A narrative paragraph, marked

Question 2: Write a narrative account analysing the key events in the collapse of Soviet control of Eastern Europe in 1989. You may use: the Polish election of June 1989; the fall of the Berlin Wall. The collapse began with the promise Gorbachev made at the United Nations on 7 December 1988 that the Soviet Union would cut its forces and that every nation had freedom of choice. Because the satellites now had reason to believe Moscow would not intervene, the Polish regime agreed at the Round Table in April 1989 to a half-free election, and on 4 June Solidarity won 160 of the 161 seats it contested. This led to a test of the promise: Gorbachev told the Polish communists in August to accept a Solidarity prime minister, and Mazowiecki took office on 24 August as the first non-communist head of government in the bloc. As a result, Hungary, already dismantling its border fence since May, opened the frontier to Austria on 11 September, and tens of thousands of East Germans left through it. The turning point came in Leipzig on 9 October, because when 70,000 marched and the police did not fire, the East German regime had shown it would not use force either. What earned the marks: events in sequence with dates; each event linked to the next by because, this led to and as a result, so that the account analyses rather than lists; and the turning point named. One more paragraph, from the removal of Honecker on 18 October through the Wall on 9 November to the Velvet Revolution and Romania in December, and the answer reaches the top level.

Write the narrative account

Write a narrative account analysing the key events in the collapse of Soviet control of Eastern Europe in 1989. You may use the following in your answer: the Polish election of June 1989; the fall of the Berlin Wall. You must also use information of your own.

• The span: from the UN speech of December 1988 to the fall of Ceausescu in December 1989
• Detail that counts: a name, a number or a place
• Events of your own: the Hungarian border, Leipzig, the Sinatra Doctrine, the Velvet Revolution or Romania

The importance question

Question 3 might read: Explain the importance of the new thinking of Gorbachev for the collapse of Soviet control of Eastern Europe. Which answer best explains the importance, rather than describing the policy?

• New thinking was important because it removed the one thing that had held the bloc together since 1956, the certainty that Moscow would send tanks: once Gorbachev had told the UN in December 1988 that each country was free to choose its own system, and had then let Poland install a Solidarity government in August 1989 without reacting, every regime in the bloc was left to survive on its own popularity, and none could. This meant that the satellites fell in six months rather than being held for another generation.
• New thinking was important because it meant glasnost, perestroika, arms cuts and withdrawal from Afghanistan.
• New thinking was important because it led to the coup of August 1991 and the end of the Soviet Union.
• New thinking was important because Reagan forced Gorbachev into it with SDI.