Topic 5: The Cold War

Title and Author of Packet: Chapter 24: Imploding Imperium by Robert Service

Major Theme: Origins of the Cold War

Ideological Differences Mutual Suspicion and Fear From Wartime Allies to Post-War Enemies Historiography

Major Theme: Nature of the Cold War

Ideological Opposition Superpowers and Spheres of Influence Alliances and Diplomacy in the Cold War Historiography

Major Theme: Development and Impact of the Cold War

Global Spread of the Cold War from its European Origins Cold War Policies of Containment, Brinkmanship, Peaceful Coexistence, Détente Role of the United Nations and the Non-Aligned Movement Role and Significance of Leaders Arms Race, Proliferation and Limitation Social, Cultural, and Economic Impact Historiography

Major Theme: End of the Cold War

Break-Up of Soviet Union: Internal Problems and External Economic Issues Pressures  Left behind in information technology and biotechnology  Got revenues only from domestic sales of vodka

 Ministry of finance relied on consumption of alcohol and on the export of petrochemical fuels at high prices  Agriculture = incredibly inefficient – had to import a lot of food  Industrialization caused ecological damage to parts of USSR Economic issues caused by Gorby + other factors  Anti-alcohol campaign  Excessive investment in machine-tool industry  The raising of retail prices in 1987-8 made customers hoard goods  Workers elected their own managers but just made their wages rise hugely  He didn’t choose good economic advisers  Decentralized decrees of 1987-8 were bad so net material product between 1988- 1990 fell 9%  The reorientation of the industrial sector towards the needs of civilian consumers was an unattained goal o Brought back food rationing and queues o Meat was rationed in 26 out of 55 RSFSR regions o Sugar rationed in 53 regions o Shortages of medicines in hospitals o Inadequate provision of housing and everyday services o Agricultural imports constituted 1/5 of population’s caloric intake Armenian earthquake!  Financial and political disaster Not enough $$ after Afghanistan war and Chernobyl disaster Bold economic choices by Gorby  1986 – says that sovkhoz and kolkhoz should be run on basis of “family contracts” o A family has a particular function on the farm and would be rewarded for increase in productivity o Never was implemented  Local officials either didn’t fully implement new policies or sabotaged Gorby o Leningrad city officials buried sausages in trenches!!  Small private-sector co-operatives were being established in big cities o Weren’t totally trusted o Seen as scams for speculation o Didn’t expand manufacturing output o Did well as private restaurants and clothes-kiosks o They aggravated the shortages in the shops and raised the cost of living because they were buying up all the goods

o Corrupt – bribed government officials o Products in 1989-90 start vanishing from state retail outlets! Especially dairy products Political stuff  Rebellions o Strike by coal-miners in Kemerovo  followed by strikes in mines of Don Basin, Karaganda in Kazakhstan, and Norilsk in Siberia o Workers basically won! – no repressive sanctions against them  Elections to the Congress of People’s Deputies – March 1989 o 38 province-level party secretaries + republican capital city securities = defeated o Gorby doesn’t overturn the elections and encourages them to step down  o Most of the delegates were super communist though and didn’t want reform  Congress of People’s Deputies first session – May 25th-June 9th o Gorby was Chairman of Supreme Soviet and wanted to use congress so that his political and economic reforms could be ratified o Most deputies weren’t super radical or super conservative o Inter-regional group formed by Yeltsin and included liberals, social- democrats, greens and some communists . Purpose = push Gorby into making more radical change/reform against conservative party members . They were outnumbered by conservative communists in Congress . Problems:  Activism against communist conservatism wasn’t very strong in Russia  Neformaly (informals) were political associations but they only had a few thousand members  Religious + cultural revolution o Russian orthodox church is on the up & up o Salacious, foreign, and fluff books become more popular o Pop music on TV stations o People didn’t participate in politics at all – seek pleasure instead  Different ideas opposing reformist communism came from cultural figures in Russia o Vasili Grossmann’s Forever Flowering and Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s The Gulag Archipelago were serialized and both depicted Lenin and Stalin

harshly o Vladimir Soloukhin’s Reading Lenin criticized Lenin o pro communism historians regarded with little respect  Gorby’s political democratization o His politics are under more scrutiny by Congress of People’s Deputies o Unified central executive authority on the decline o No new clear definition of powers/laws including no law on press freedom  Interest groups, organizations, and territorial administrations functioned with little interference and either didn’t want reform or wanted a reform different from Gorby’s. o Public organizations, artists, and intelligentsia have greater freedom of speech than ever o Union of Writers of RSFSR promoted nationalism o Colonel Viktor Alksnis complained about state of Soviet army o Old elitist communists rally to defend themselves Problems in Non-Russian Republics  Nationalism and democratic thinking on the rise!!  Baltics: o Estonian supreme soviet declared right to veto laws passed in Moscow – November 1988 o Lithuanian nationalists held demonstration against soviet troops in Lithuania – January 1989 o Both countries dropped Russian as official language o Protest rally in Riga against the Latvian Communist Party o Estonia proclaimed economic autonomy – June 1989 o Lithuania declared right to overrule USSR legislation – June 1989 o Human chain formed by 1 million people across Baltics as form of protest o Gorby really didn’t want to let go of Baltics o October 1989: . Latvian popular front demands independence . Lithuanian communist party declares withdrawal from communist party of Soviet Union . Nationalists in Estonia and Latvia winning elections  Transcaucasus o Demonstration in Georgia in Tbilisi (April 1989) – 19 civilians killed o Soviet army dispatched to Uzbekistan, Estonia, and Latvia – showed force would be used

o Violence between ethnic groups in Uzbekistan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, and Tajikistan  Ukraine o Basically allowed to secede in September 1989  Armenian Supreme Soviet votes to incorporate Nagorny Karabakh  Fighting in Azerbaijan  soviet army sent and creates more violence  Some politicians start warning of civil war across USSR Breakdown of Soviet Control Over Central and Eastern Europe  Overthrowing of communist leaders and introduction of democracy in Poland, Hungary, German Democratic Republic, Bulgaria, and Czechoslovakia o Gorby didn’t act against the reform  Romania: Nicolae Ceausescu is executed o lol proved Gorby right that Ceausescu’s regime would make ppl mad  Albania = only remaining European communist country Historiography  The USSR’s economy resembled that of a third world ex-colony country  Rise in net material product by 11% 1983-1988 only happened because of the tightening of labor discipline and sacking of corrupt officials but the economic performance wouldn’t last  In the face of economic crisis, Gorby could either abandon the reforms or make them more radical. He chose the latter because he saw the stagnation from Brezhnev’s era.  Illegality had to be accepted as companion to the re-emergence of private economic activity  The practical and mental catharsis of Soviet society (through glasnost) had been only half accomplished because little changed in the lives of surviving victims  Political freedom for Russians at this time = being frivolous and apolitical  Worry over USSR’s republics distracted Soviet citizens from what was happening in Eastern Europe in late 1980’s  If Gorby had used military intervention in Eastern Europe, he would’ve lost diplomatic support from Western countries and initiated hostilities  His restraint in Eastern Europe should be applauded because it shows he really stuck by his policies of minimal violence