4.2: The end of the Cold War

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AGE 10. The Time of Television and Computers

4.2 The Cold War

What do you know about the Cold War?

dates

important events

important people

terms

causes/concequences

changes

involved countries

present your work :)

• write down one question
• add in a different colour

End of the Cold War

Important dates:

1985: Gorbachev: 

1989: 9th November:

1990: 3rd october: 

1991: 25th December:

          26th December: 

Gorbachev's policies (2):

Important dates in this lesson:

1985: Gorbachev becomes the leader of the Soviet Union

1989: 9th November: Fall of the Berlin Wall

1990: 3rd october: German Reunification.

1991: 25th December: Gorbachev resignes

          26th December: End of the Soviet Union.

Gorbachev's policies (2): Glasnost, Perestroika

Explain how Gorbachev tried to improve Soviet Union policies.

What was the main reason for Gorbachev's reforms?

1. The USSR could no longer afford the arms race
2. Gorbachev was an American spy and wanted to sabotage the USSR
3. The USSR no longer wanted to control the Eastern Block countries
4. Gorbachev wanted better relations with the USA

Why could many Eastern European countries
easily form new non-communist governments after Gorbachev rose to power?

1. Because of the end of the Truman Doctrine.
2. Because Gorbachev was afraid of NATO interference.
3. Because the Soviet army no longer interfered in Eastern Bloc countries
4. Because Gorbachev had to focus on internal politics.

This statue of Lenin stood in Kiev.

It was pulled down after the fall of the USSR.

Give an argument why this photo became even more symbolic for the fall of the Soviet Union.

What do we remember
about the Korean war?

Let's have a look if you understand:

Let's have a look if you understand:

USSR

USA

1948

Democratic

communist

Kim il sung

at the 38th parralel

1950

domino

UN

USA

South korea

Korean War

china

armitrice

1953

Kim il sung

www.bsot.nl

The experiment...

The experiment

The need for change

When Gorbachev rose to power in 1985, he recognised that the Soviet Union needed to change its policies. The Soviet Union was in economic crisis; people were starving while at the same time much money was spent to keep pace in the Cold War arms race. The costs associated with the space race were also excessive. So Gorbachev introduced two new reform policies. The first was called perestroika (‘rebuilding’ in Russian language) which turned the communist economy into a free market economy. To make this change possible, Gorbachev introduced glasnost (Russian for ‘openness’), his second new policy: this gave Russians greater freedom of speech. With these two policies, Gorbachev wanted to improve the economy of the Soviet Union and so improve the living conditions of its people.

Perestroika postage stamp, 1988

Revolts in Eastern Bloc countries

Gorbachev also made changes internationally: he wanted a better relationship with the USA, so he met the American president Reagan a couple of times trying to ease strained superpower relations. He also announced that the Soviet army would no longer interfere if anti-Communist revolt broke out in Eastern Bloc countries.

So when in 1988, massive strikes broke out in Poland, there was no Soviet intervention and a new non-Communist government was promptly set-up. Also in Hungary, revolutionaries demanded a new non-Communist government, which was established in January 1989. In the year after, other Eastern European countries followed this path and installed democratic governments.

Time Magazine covered the Geneva Summit in 1985, where US president, Ronald Reagan, and the leader of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, Mikhail Gorbachev met for the first time, during the " Cold War ".

When Gorbachev announced that the the Red Army would not crush demonstrations in Eastern Block countries, people in Poland, Eastern Germany, Czechoslovakia and Hungary went out into the streets to demonstrate fro more freedom.

in 1986 Reagan and Gorbachev met in Reykjavik. The two leaders developed a good relationship that would help end the Cold War.

In pairs:

Give two arguments why this picture is iconic for the end of the Cold War.

Use a source element in your answer (what you litteraly see).

The three Allied leaders at the Yalta Conference. From left to right: Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin. 9th February 1945.

After the so-called Fall of the Wall, talks began about a reunification of East and West Germany. 

Although reluctant at first, Gorbachev dropped his objections for a reunited Germany in return for financial aid from West Germany for the Soviet Union. Already on 3rd October 1990, the German Reunification was a fact and Berlin was restored as Germany’s capital. West German chancellor Helmut Kohl became the first chancellor of a reunited Germany.

East German president Erich Honecker was arrested but he did no go to jail because he was very ill. He died in 1994.

Celebrations in front of the Reichstag building. People celebrate the reunification of Germany on Oct. 3rd, 1990

The end of the Soviet Union

According to a poll held in 2014, 57% of elderly Russians regretted that the Soviet Union had collapsed.

Six years after Gorbachev came to power, his new policies had not had the desired effect; they had led to shortages, rationing and endless queuing for scarce goods. 

The Soviet Union was a federation, a union of states, but its government and economy were highly centralised. Frustrated with the economy and with the politics of Gorbachev, one by one the individual Soviet Republics declared independence. In four months, all states except for Georgia had seceded from the Soviet Union.

Lenin's statue is torn down as the Ukraine declares independence from the USSR.

Gorbachev resigned on 25th December 1991. 

The next day, a treaty was signed acknowledging the independence of all former Soviet Republics. 

The largest of the fifteen Soviet republics of the Soviet Union got back its old name: Russia. The once-mighty Soviet Union had finally fallen. The fall of the Soviet Union also meant the end of the Cold War because the USA was now the only superpower left.

Cartoon about the end of the Soviet Union

The breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991. 

The experiment...

The experiment