The Cold War

COLD WAR

The euphoria of V-E Day was short-lived

Japan continued to fight for another 3 months (surrendered August 15, 1945)

Growing tension between the Soviets and their western Allies

The victorious Allies had to settle some old scores in conquered Europe

Collaborators

• In every occupied country many people had actively collaborated with the Nazi occupation - some countries more than others - in each nation they were rooted out
• France had a very large collaborationist community - Action Francaise of Pierre Leval had actively supported the Germans - thousands of Frenchmen served in the SS - most French had supported Petain and Vichy - after the liberation everyone claimed to have always supported the Free French - well-known collaborators were beaten or worse - Leval was executed - women who had dated Germans had their heads shaved - Petain was briefly imprisoned
• Norway also had a large collaborationist movement led by Vidkun Quisling - he had helped the Germans take over Norway - he was executed
• Thousands of Soviet citizens who had initially supported the defeat of the communists were turned over to Stalin - how many thousands were murdered is unknown - ***Prisoners of war begged not to be returned to the Soviet Union.  The Allies agreed but said they had to be moved.  When they got them on the train they sent it back to the Soviet Union.  The prisoners were all sent to gulags or executed.  Stalin said they had been corrupted by the West.

Germany

• The Nazi regime was so discredited the entire structure had to be destroyed
• de-Nazification - every judge, police official, civil servant tied to the old regime was removed as soon as possible
• The Allies also faced the issue of dealing with the crimes against humanity committed by the Nazis - ***When the Allies found the concentration camps they diverted supplies earmarked for prisoners of war to be used by the inmates.  I talked to a man in Germany who's father was a prisoner of war and he was very bitter about the treatment he had received.  The prisoners were imprisoned outside in the elements with very limited food and shelter.  He blamed his father's early death on these conditions.
• The decision was made to hold trials of the leading figures and for those directly involved in the Holocaust
• Many of the Nazi leaders, like Hitler, Himmler, and Goebbels had committed suicide - ***Himmler had been taken prisoner and strip and body cavity searched three times but somewhere on his body he had poison and managed to take it.

Nuremburg Trials

• 1945-1946
• An international court of justice was convened to try the leadership of the Nazi state for the Holocaust
• Some were Goering - Doenitz - Ribbentropp - Speer
• 12 of the leaders were executed
• Many incarcerated in Spandau Prison outside of Berlin - ***This prison was run by the Soviets, France, Britain and the U.S. - Each county was responsible for running the prison for one quarter of the year.  In later years when feelings were not running so high France, Britain, and the U.S. tried to shorten some of the sentences.  The Soviets would have none of that.  What ever the sentence was they demanded it be served.

Growing Tensions

• The mood between the victorious Allies continued to sour in 1946
• In March 1946 Churchill spoke at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri "From Settin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the continent." - this is where the term "iron curtain" comes from
• The source of the problem was mistrust of Soviet intentions in eastern Europe
• The agreement among the Allies was that all of Europe would be occupied.  After everything began to return to normal control of the countries was to be returned to their government.  The Soviets did not do this in the areas they controlled.

Eastern Europe

• "liberated" by the Red Army - Poland - Yugoslavia - Czechoslovakia - Bulgaria - Hungary - East Germany - Romania - Albania
• In each of these newly "liberated" states the Red Army openly assisted local communists in establishing governments and cut off most contact with the West
• During the war many of these countries had maintained "governments in exile" in London
• In many of these nations the only true resistance movements were led by communists during the war years
• These "anti-communist" governments were harassed whenever possible
• An example would be Czechoslovakia.  It had a well established pre-war government in London - in February 1948 the Soviets and local communists seized power by murdering the Foreign Minister, Jan Masaryk, and forcing President Eduard Benes to resign
• For the Truman government this was the incident which proved the ill intentions of the Soviets

Truman Doctrine

• In 1944 civil war had broken out in Greece between the royalists (supported by the British) and the communists (supported by the Soviets)
• By 1947 the British could no longer afford to help the royalists
• President Truman asked Congress for money to support the royalists - "free people who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures."
• Pledged immediate American military assistance to any government threatened by revolution - would help in resisting communism
• Immediate goals was to assist Greece and Turkey
• Used as a justification for Korea and Vietnam
• Becomes the basis of the cold war policy of "containment" - to keep communism from spreading

Marshall Plan

• Named after General George C. Marshall - Army Chief of Staff (1939) - became a 5 star general (1944) - Secretary of State (1947-1949) - Secretary of Defense (1950-1951) - received the Noble Peace Prize (1953) for this recovery plan
• Western Europe had been ruined by war and this was a threat to stability
• Fear was that communism would prove a popular alternative to the poverty of the post-war era
• To get Europe back on it's feet economically the European Recovery Program was established (Marshall Plan 1948-1952) - it was offered to all countries - ***Marshall announced this plan in a speech he gave at Harvard.   It was a 12-minute commencement speech and few realized it's importance at the time.
• 11,000,000,000 invested in western Europe (I've seen figures as high as 23 billion so this number is iffy.)
• Soviets refused to allow their satellites to participate
• By 1951 Europe was back to pre-war levels of production - support for the communist parties in the west was minimal

The Soviet response to these western initiatives was to form the Communist Information Bureau (Cominform) - dedicated to spreading communism all over the world and to launch the Molotov Plan - this was not as good as the Marshall Plan

Tito (Yugoslavia) refused to follow Stalin's orders - kicked out of the Soviet Bloc - became nonaligned (neutral) in the cold war - will stay in power until his death

Berlin Crisis

• The first major crisis of the post-war era - war appeared likely - arose over the future of Berlin
• Berlin had been divided into 4 zones after the war - it lay deep in the Soviet zone
• In July 1948 the Soviets cut off western Berlin from the Allied zones - all roads, railroads and waterways - cut off food
• Feared a rebuilt, reunified Germany would threaten Soviet security
• Within 2 days and for the next 10 months the Allies supplied their zones from the air - 277,000 flights - delivered over 2,300,000 tons of supplies - food, fuel, medicine, machinery
• In May 1949 the Soviets backed down and re-opened the land corridors - there would be no appeasement for Stalin

West Germany (Federal Republic of Germany)

• In September 1949 the three western Allies combined their occupation zones into the new nation of West Germany
• Free democratic style of government led by Konrad Adenauer - head of the Christian Democratic Party
• An "economic miracle" took place that drove West Germany into the position of the economic leader of Europe

East Germany (German Democrat Republic)

• October 1949 - Soviets formally established their zone as East Germany
• Communist style government led by Walter Ulbricht
• Enjoyed a much slower economic recovery than the western section
• Considered the success story of the Soviet Bloc

North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)

• Berlin crisis had pointed out the need for military cooperation
• Formed April 1949
• Led by the United States
• Organized as an alliance of non-communist nations pledged to mutual support in the event of Soviet aggression
• Members: Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg, France (1966), Great Britain, Italy, Denmark, Norway, Portugal, Iceland, Canada, United States, West Germany (1955), Spain (1982), Greece (1952), and Turkey (1952)
• American forces and nuclear weapons kept in Europe - still there today

Warsaw Pact

• 1955
• Soviet response to West Germany joining NATO and beginning to rearm
• It was structured like NATO and pledged mutual assistance to one another
• Members: Soviet Union, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, and East Germany
• Soviet troops kept in each member country

Yugoslavia

• Communist government established by Tito (real name: Josip Broz) in 1945
• Tito was a maverick - resented Stalin's attempt to bully all other communist leaders - (The Soviets always felt that all communist countries should be run their way.  This caused conflict with other communist leaders, especially Mao in China.)
• Tito developed an independent foreign policy which was not closely aligned with the Soviets
• Stalin left him alone because he was a communist

United Nations

• Formally established at the San Francisco Conference in June 1945
• Originally had delegates from 50 countries - today 185 countries
• Headquartered in New York
• General Assembly - every member nation has a vote - conducts general business (trade, visa, travel, etc.)
• Security Council - 15 members - deals with international conflicts - 10 alternates, each elected for a 2 year term - 5 permanent members - each with a veto (United States, Great Britain, France, China, Soviet Union) - any action must be approved by all permanent members - can veto to block an action
• Presided over by the Secretary General - elected by the General Assembly
• Trygve Lie 1946-1953 - Norwegian
• Dag Hammarskjold 1953-1961 - Sweden
• U Thant 1961-1972 - Burma
• Kurt Waldheim 1972-1982 - Austria
• Javier Perez de Cuellar 1982-1992 - Peru
• Butros Boutros-Ghali 1992-1997 - Egypt
• Kofi Annan 1997- , Ghana
• The United Nations will become a sparing arena for the two rival blocs of nations during the Cold War
• The conflict on the Korean peninsula became the first test of the new world body's ability to enforce its will

(1949 - Communists defeat Nationalists in China)

POST-WAR EUROPE

Great Britain

• Following it's victory in WW II they were once again an exhausted world power
• Nation suffered heavy war damage
• Population tired of wartime sacrifices and shortages
• Welfare State - Election of Clement Attlee in 1945 began the rise of the Labour Party - beginning of the welfare state- new social programs were established including free medical services for all citizens - many businesses were nationalized - taxes soared
• The economy had problems with high unemployment and low growth - mixture of free enterprise and socialism
• Nation lost it's competitive edge in the world market
• Powerful unions had a stranglehold
• "sick man of Europe"
• Britain did not join the Common Market until 1973
• The decline continues until the election of the Conservative leader Margaret Thatcher (P.M. 1979-1990)
• British foreign policy illustrates it's sharp decline most clearly
• In 1947 they had been forced to admit they could no longer police the Mediterranean Sea - hence the Truman Doctrine
• Suez Crisis - 1956 - Egypt's Gamal Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal
• British, French, and Israeli commandos attacked and reclaimed the canal
• Nasser, with Soviet support, threatened to start a war which could have become a world war
• The Eisenhower government forced the British and their allies to give up the canal and recognize the Egyptian claims
• End of the Empire - following the war the independence movements began to develop all over the Empire
• India - 1947 finally granted them independence - Moslem/Hindu violence led to the formation of two separate states Hindu India and Moslem Pakistan - this was terribly disruptive to the population ***People were forced to move even if they had lived in the area for hundreds of years and wanted to stay regardless of their religion.  I had a student who's family had to move from India to Pakistan.  His grandfather had to stand in the door of a railway car with a gun to protect them on their journey.  Once they got there they were forced to live in tents, as no housing was available, for several years.
• Africa - 1950's independence campaigns began in many areas - in the British ruled areas of the continent the people had been somewhat prepared for independence - trained as civil servants, teachers, doctor, and lawyers
• Kenya - scene of a bloody uprising in 1953 called the Mau Mau Uprising (1953-1959) - led by Jomo Kenyatta - gained independence in 1963
• Nigeria - Britain's richest colony  - won independence in 1960 - fell into a bloody civil war over Biafra
• By 1967 most of the former colonies of the Empire had won their full independence
• In place of the Empire the British Commonwealth was established - members practiced free trade within the Commonwealth - free travel (no visas)

France

• After the war there was chaos in France
• The Vichy Government had to be destroyed - it's leaders and supporters were harassed and even executed
• There was no desire to resurrect the failed Third Republic
• A temporary Provisional Government was established under the only legitimate hero of the war, General Charles de Gaulle (1890-1970) - *** The Allies had planned to put another man in charge.  General de Gaulle seemed to go along with it, but once France was invaded his free forces took over.  Controlled the telephones, gas, water, electricity, trains, etc. - de Gaulle forced the Allies to give him control - de Gaulle hated the Allies for trying to keep him out and in later years fostered and anti-American policy that we still see today.
• Fourth Republic (1946-1958) - constitution created a strong legislative branch and a weak executive - this angered de Gaulle who refused to serve as President - the result was a series of weak governments - ***France had many political parties, probably well over 50 and it made it very hard to get enough of them to agree and form a majority

Foreign Affairs - biggest cause of instability during the Fourth Republic

Indochina (Vietnam)

• During the war occupied by the Japanese
• After the war the French tried to reoccupy the area
• During the war an anti-Japanese resistance sprang up - led by a charismatic Vietnamese communist - Ho Chi Minh
• Allied with the U.S. - Viet Minh made special OSS agents
• Rescued downed pilots
• Helped prisoners of war escape
• Provided intelligence to the OSS
• The Viet Minh now began to resist the French
• The U.S. actively supported France fearing the spread of communism in Asia
• Domino Theory  - if one country fell the rest would go - so had Theory of Containment
• War went badly for the French
• In 1954 the Foreign Legion was badly defeated by the Viet Minh in the Battle of Diem Bien Phu (Fu) - lasted 55 days - area the French controlled was reduced to the size of a baseball field - surrendered
• France announced it's departure from Indochina
• The area of Vietnam was divided at the 17th Parallel into North Vietnam and South Vietnam - North Vietnam led by Ho Chi Minh became a Soviet client - South Vietnam was in the American sphere

Algeria

• This region of North Africa had been an official Department of France since 1830
• A large population of French people immigrated to the area
• In 1956 an independence minded revolt broke out led by Moslem Arabs - the Algerian Liberation Movement (FLN)
• The French government considered it to be a civil war and tried to crush it - had little success
• By 1958 the revolt was tearing France apart - nationalists demanded France hold Algeria - leftists demanded France quit Algeria at once
• In 1958 the army mutinied in Algeria and Corsica - the nation was on the verge of collapse (4th Republic)

Fifth Republic

• Into the chaos of 1958 came Charles de Gaulle
• The nation turned to the one man everybody respected, even those who hated him
• de Gaulle agreed to accept the position of President of the Republic but only with a new constitution which gave him broad powers - created the Fifth Republic
• de Gaulle recognized that Algeria was unwinnable - negotiated a face saving withdrawal in 1962 - gave Algeria independence
• Many of the former parts of the French Empire were organized into the French Community - closely resembled the British Commonwealth

Charles de Gaulle

• an old fashioned nationalist
• He pursued policies which were in the interest of France - oversaw the French development of a nuclear bomb - took French forces out of NATO in 1966 - vetoed British membership in the Common Market
• His heavy-handed rule grew increasingly unpopular - in 1968  huge student demonstrations swept through Paris - workers went on support strikes - de Gaulle rallied his supporters to take to the streets as well - the nation was paralyzed
• In 1969 de Gaulle resigned following a minor political setback

his successors, Georges Pompidou and Valey Giscard d'Estaing, pursued his same policies - including close ties with West Germany

The Election of 1980 of Francois Mitterand - a Socialist - marked a milestone for French leftist politics

West Germany

• Most prosperous state in Europe following the rebuilding of the post-war
• Konrad Adenauer rapidly rebuilt the ruined economy and slowly brought the nation back into the family of nations
• In 1955 West Germany joined NATO
• Adenauer helped establish the European Economic Community -  the Common Market
• West Germany and France forged strong ties
• West Germany was in a unique position - it had German citizens on the other side of the Iron Curtain
• In 1969 Willy Brandt of the Social Democratic Party became the new Chancellor
• Brandt perused a foreign policy called Ostpolitik - sought cooperation rather than confrontation with the Soviet Bloc - he established ties with the East Germans - he recognized the border with Poland - he visited Moscow

Italy

• Also had rebuilding to do - had to de-fascistise the government
• The Christian Democratic Party got a firm grip on the government - led by Alside do Gaspari
• Nation quickly recovered from war
• The Italian Communist Party was the strongest of any Western European nation - led by Enrico Berlinguer - pursued Eurocommunism rather than strictly following directives from Moscow

Austria

• following the war Austria was divided into 4 zones of occupation
• In 1955 the Soviets agreed to withdraw in exchange for an Austrian statement of neutrality in world affairs

STEPS TOWARDS EUROPEAN UNITY

One of the most significant developments since WW II has been the growing movement towards continental cooperation

Politically

• In 1949 10 European states organized the European Parliament - headquartered in Strasbourg, France
• Members states elect delegates to attend - they are seated by political orientation rather than by national groups
• It was hoped that the European Parliament would eventually grow into a true continental government - today the Parliament is virtually powerless

Economically

• It is in the field of economics that Europe has made the greatest strides towards unity
• following the end of the war most European statesmen acknowledged the economic nationalism had played a role in provoking the wars 
• The leading voices of economic cooperation were Adenauer (West Germany), Schuman (France's Foreign Minister), Gaspari (Italy)
• In 1949 the Benelux Union was formed - it ended all tariffs and trade barriers between the Low Countries (Belgium, Netherlands, and Luxembourg)
• In 1950 the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) was formed - Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg, France, West Germany, and Italy - it was a huge success, coal and steel production soared as the members cooperated on production and price
• In 1957 the Treaty of Rome set up the structure of the European Economic Community (Common Market) - members pledged to eliminate all tariffs and trade barriers - capital and labor were allowed to flow freely - similar wages and benefits were to be established in member states - Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg, France, West Germany, Italy, Britain (1973), Ireland (1973), Denmark (1973), Spain (1982), Portugal (1982), and Greece (1982) - the EEC has been a great success
• In 1959 the European Free Trade Area was established as an alternative to the French/German dominated EEC - Britain, Sweden, Norway, Austria, Portugal, Switzerland - has basically ceased to exist as it's members left to seek a place in the Common Market

SOVIET BLOC

The end of the war found Eastern Europe in ruins and under the control of the Red Army

The physical reconstruction of the region was much slower than that of Western Europe - Stalin took a lot for Russia - machinery, raw materials, railroads, entire factories, skilled workers

All over the region communist regimes were established

1949 tested an atomic bomb - began arms race

• 1952 - U.S. - hydrogen bomb
• 1953 - USSR - hydrogen bomb
• Both developed rockets to carry nuclear warheads
• 1957 - USSR - intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM) - could reach any part of the world

Soviet Union

At the end of the war Stalin still held power

Harsh purges of collaborators and former prisoners of war followed - sent to gulags

*** The author Alexander Solzhenitsyn points out:  The Russian czars killed about 17 victims a year.  The infamous Spanish inquisitors killed about 10 victims a month.  But the Soviet dictator Josef Stalin's henchmen in the late 1930's killed about 9,000 victims a week.  (L.M. Boyd)

Stalin actively encouraged the establishment of communist governments all over Eastern Europe

In 1953 - just as a major new purge based on the Doctor's Plot was about to begin Stalin died - Molenkov took over

Stalin's death left a power vacuum in the Soviet leadership - not until 1956 did a new leader emerge

Nikita Khrushchev

• Consolidated his hold on the nation by 1956
• The new government wanted to gradually relax some of the most extreme aspects of the Stalin era
• At the Twentieth Party Congress in 1956 Khrushchev issued a secret condemnation of Stalin detailing some of his crimes - called his "secret speech" - caused a rift with several communist leaders
• Launched "de Stalinization" - more liberal policies
• Khrushchev firmly believed that the Soviets would triumph in the Cold War - he thought it could be done without war
• He liberalized the system - curbed the power of the secret police - ended large scale purges
• 1961 - allowed publication of One day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich - written by Alexander Solzhenitsyn who had actually spent time in a gulag - the book won the Noble Prize in 1970 - *** Solzhenitsyn was told if he went to accept the prize he could not return - in 1974 he was deported (to the U.S.) anyway
• Khrushchev traveled all over the world - including the United States and the  United Nations
• *** When he was in the U.S. he flew from the East coast to the West coast.  The pilot of the plane was a friend of my brother in law.  He told him that Khrushchev thought the U.S. had transported all the cars on the East coast to the West coast to make him think we had a lot of cars.
• *** I remember when Khrushchev came to southern California he wanted to go to Disneyland and was told there was not time.  He threw a temper tantrum and refused to do anything until he got to go to Disneyland.
• Said he wanted "peaceful coexistence" - eased some tensions
• He tried to increase the production of consumer goods and housing - high priority
• Industrial production stayed low - factory managers lacked technical skills - chosen for party loyalty
• He opened vast new areas of Siberia to agriculture - the Virgin Lands Program - it was done so poorly it was a dismal failure - crop failures common after 1963

Launched the "space race" in 1957 with the appearance of Sputnik (means "traveler")

• 1959 USSR on the moon
• ***  Information came out later that they had sent animals and humans into space that were never recovered.  Our radios picked up cosmonauts begging for help because they could not return to land.
• 1961 Yuri Gagarin orbited the earth at over 17,000 mph - total time for the trip was 1 hour and 48 minutes
• *** I had a friend that spoke fluent Russian that went to Russia in 1965 who saw Yuri and he was a drunk going from bar to bar and not respected at all.  According to the Soviets he became training director for the women cosmonaut program until 1963.  Then he resumed training to go to space again.  He died in 1968, his jet crashed on a training mission.  (I suspect he was killed, but I don't know.)  His ashes are buried in the Kremlin wall.  (Kremlin means "fort")
• 1961 - American - Alan Shepard went into space
• 1969 - July 20 - Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin landed on the moon
• ***  Star City in the central Russian steppes has a population of more than 100,000 people. Plus a university, a concert hall, movie theaters, numerous shopping complexes and a soccer stadium.  But no tourists, foreign or domestic, can visit there.  And it's not listed on any map ever made public inside or outside the Soviet Union.  It's the USSR's space center (L.M. Boyd)
• ***During the height of the space race in the 1960's NASA realized the astronauts would need something to write with in zero gravity.  After considerable research and development over 2 years they developed a zero-g pen at the cost of about 1 million dollars.  The first production run was 50 pens.  The Soviet Union faced the same problem.  They issued pencils.

Khrushchev's Foreign Policy

• Denouncement of Stalin had worldwide repercussions
• Mao Zedong denounced Khrushchev - the split with China began
• Other communist leaders saw an opportunity to seek more independence from Moscow
• In 1956 shortly after the Twentieth Congress speech a revolt broke out in Hungary - the Hungarian Premier Nagy was inspired by the speech to declare a more non-aligned direction - Hungarians expected to get American help - initially the Red Army withdrew from Budapest and the Hungarians thought they had won - Khrushchev ordered the Red Army to crush the uprising - Nagy was killed
• In 1961 the Cold War escalated dangerously
• In early May 1960 and American U-2 spy plane was shot down over Soviet territory - the pilot was Francis Gary Powers - he was taking pictures of a major industrial area - sentenced to 10 years in prison - was held for 2 years - traded for a KGB master spy Col. Rudolph Abel
• Later in the year the U.S. launched the Bay of Pigs Invasion against the new Castro government in Cuba
• In August 1961 the East German government erected the Berlin Wall - *** 12' high and 28 miles long
• In October 1962 the most dangerous confrontation of the Cold War occurred - Cuban Missile Crisis - the Soviets had secretly shipped nuclear missiles to Cuba - the U.S. spotted launch sites only 90 miles from the U.S. border - President Kennedy demanded removal - began a blockade of Cuba
• Khrushchev backed down - agreed to remove the weapons
• In 1964 Khrushchev was stripped of his office - *** fired for "harebrained schemes"

Following the removal of Khrushchev the next significant leader to appear was:

Leonid Brezhnev

• The rise of Brezhnev marked the beginning of the fall of the Soviet state
• He was a party hack
• Not a tyrant like Stalin nor an idealist like Khrushchev
• Reversed many of Khrushchev's policies - called "re-Stalinization"
• Restricted personal freedoms
• Restored full central planning
• Emphasized military spending at the expense of consumer goods
• While Brezhnev ruled the soviet Union the nation began to decay sharply

Economically

• Agricultural production dropped so much that the country began to buy grain from the West (They still do this today.)
• The standard of living continued to fall further behind the West

Brezhnev's Foreign Policy

Initially he continued the hostile relationship with the West

In 1968 the Brezhnev Doctrine was proclaimed - pledged military assistance to any Communist state threatened by revolt/overthrow

In 1968 the communist government of Czechoslovakia announced a series of internal reforms and liberalization's that frightened Moscow

• Czech leader Alexander Dubeck advocated a "socialism with a human face"
• Called the "Prague Spring" - in July 1968 the Warsaw Pact demanded an end to reforms
• In August 1968 Warsaw Pact troops invaded the country and tight communist hard line rule was restored

In 1969 a brief border war flared with the People's Republic of China - Illustrated how bad relations had become between the two communist superpowers

In 1972 Brezhnev and President Nixon met in Moscow and the slow thaw in U.S./Soviet relations began

• Detente -"relaxation of tensions" - by USSR
• More trade with the West
• Helped the USSR win international respectability

In 1979 the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan to support the puppet government installed there

• Used the Brezhnev Doctrine as the justification
• It became a 10 year nightmare and ended with a Soviet withdrawal in 1989
• They took the cities but could not control the countryside
• *** A note about Afghanistan.  It is a country of tribes.  The mostly fight each other until there is an invader and then they band together to fight the invader.  This has been going on for 100's of years.  With this type of history it is nearly impossible to form a government because the tribe in power is always under attack.  Additionally, the center of the country is mountainous and there is only 1 road that goes around the outside of the country.  And, finally their government is supported by the drug trade.  Before the the Soviets and the U.S. became involved it was about 25% of the budget.  To day it makes up over 75% of the national budget.  This information came from the book Afghanistan's Endless War by Larry P. Goodson if you would like to know more about this.

Brezhnev died in 1982

Mikhail Gorbachev    b. 1931 near Stavropol

• The next (and last) major Soviet leader
• 1952 became a Communist Party member - held a number of local posts
• 1970 rose to become First Secretary of his local party committee
• 1971 became a member of the Central Committee
• 1980 Politburo member
• 1985 General Secretary
• Had not fought in WW II and had not risen to power under Stalin's brutal regime
• He brought fresh views and a spirit of change to the government
• In the mid-1980's he began a series of reforms designed to open up the Soviet system to greater personal freedom
• Glastnost -"openness" about the nations problems - such as Chernoble (nuclear power plant - killed 31 people - injured 100's - spread radiation over much of the world)
• Similar reforms of the failing Soviet economy
• Perestroika - "restructuring" - ambitious program of political and economic reforms - introduced democratic measures like the secret ballot and multi-candidate elections - economic reforms gave the local producers more power and incentives - larger private plots for farmers - allowed some privately owned businesses to open and encouraged foreign investment

Foreign Relation

Built stronger ties with the West

Signed arms reduction agreements with the U.S.

Abandoned the Brezhnev Doctrine

• Removed troops from Afghanistan
• Promoted peaceful change in Eastern Europe
• For his efforts he won the 1990 Nobel Peace Prize
• Appeared the cold war was over and a period of cooperative relations with other nations had begun for the Soviet Union

Brought dramatic changes to the Soviet Union

• Deputies criticized the Communist Party and Gorbachev
• 1990 the Party made a historic decision to give up its 70-year monopoly on power, paving the way for a multi-party political system
• Party agreed to create a strong Western-style presidency
• Gorbachev now had unparalleled power

Despite his successes he had many critics

Changes caused a steady decline in the standard of living

By 1991 the Soviet economy appeared to be near collapse

Gorbachev introduced a moderate reform plan

At the same time the Soviet Union showed signs of disintegration

Many non-Russian people were discontent

Ethnic tensions erupted

• Azerbaijan - fighting between Muslims and Christians
• Republics demanded independence from central control including - Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia

Get tough response

• Soviet troops in 1991 attacked key buildings in the Lithuanian and Latvian capitals

Many threw out their communist governments between 1989 and 1990

• Poland - 1989\Hungary - 1990
• Czechoslovakia
• Bulgaria - 1990
• Rumania - 1989
• East Germany - 1989

Soviet control crumbled

Belief in communism as a workable system had vanished

Gorbachev defended the military crackdown

Now giving higher priority to the survival of the Soviet state than to any continuation or reform policies

Boris Yeltsin   b. Feb. 1, 1931

• Oldest of 3 children
• Parents Russian peasants
• *** At age 11 he lost the thumb and forefinger of his left hand while disassembling a grenade that he and 2 friend had stolen from a weapons warehouse
• Trained as a structural engineer - he worked for a company that built apartment buildings
• 1968 he entered politics
• By 1976 he headed his regional branch of the Communist Party - also running the factory where he began working 20 years earlier
• 1985 - Gorbachev asked him to move to Moscow - he was appointed first secretary of the Moscow branch of the Communist Party - a post similar to that of mayor in the U.S. - he served until 1987
• He eagerly aligned himself with the Gorbachev led reformist wing of the Communist Party
• He arrested 100's of corrupt officials
• Hard working and incorruptible - abrasive and domineering - he made enemies
• Impatient with the pace of the reforms
• He quit the party in 1990 after being elected speaker of the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic
• On June 12, 1991, he became the first elected president of the Russian Federation - later that year he oversaw the breakup of the Soviet Union into independent states
• He helped found the Commonwealth of Independent States on December 8, 1991, bringing an end to efforts to preserve the USSR
• His popularity plummeted when he introduced a radical reform plan intending to move Russia to a market-based economy

Health Problems

• ***Alcoholic - seen drunk on numerous public occasions
• Suffered 2 heart attacks
• Worsening heart condition sidelined him through much of the fall and winter of 1996
• Underwent quintuple heart bypass surgery - November 1996
• January 8, 1997 contracted pneumonia
• His enemies wanted to impeach him but his health improved and he reappeared to seize the reins of government

Unexpectedly resigned December 31, 1999

*** After he left office he was very wealthy and lived much better than he ever could on the salary he made

February 1, 2006 he celebrated his 75th birthday

Vladimir Putin   b. October 7, 1952

• A native of St. Petersburg
• Humble beginnings - lived in a rat infested tenement in a communal apartment building
• *** Stands about 5' 4" tall - very sensitive about it
• *** Favorite sport Judo - a black belt
• Appointed Prime Minister by Yeltsen - August 1999
• When Yeltsen resigned appointed President then won the election March 26, 2000
• Former KGB operative - suppressed dissident activities in Leningrad
• Promised to clean up corruption but still surround himself with many of Yeltsin's cronies (they helped him come to office)
• Strengthened the economy
• Tried to regain control of areas Yeltsin had granted autonomy