1946-2000s+(B)+Fall+of+Com.

 **194****6****-2000s** Fall of Communism

Hannah & Julia

__**Timeline of Important Events**__
 * 1922**- The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) is established
 * 1949**- Mao Zedong and the Chinese Communist party proclaim the People's Republic of China
 * 1950-1953**- The Korean War demonstrates the battle between Communist and Non-Communist forces
 * 1953**- Death of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin
 * 1956**- Revolts in Poland and Hungary against Soviet Control
 * 1961**- Construction of the Berlin Wall
 * 1965**- Increased US involvement in Vietnam
 * 1968**- "Prague spring" in Czechoslovakia
 * 1975**- Communist forces take control of Vietnam[[image:gorbachev.jpg align="right" caption="Mikhail Gorbachev"]]
 * 1978**- Deng Xiaoping launches economic reforms in China
 * 1980-1981**- Solidarity movement in Poland
 * 1985**- Mikhail Gorbachev becomes leader of the Soviet Union
 * 1987**- US and Soviet Union agreement to reduce arms
 * 1989**- Communist regimes fall in Poland, Hungary, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, and Romania
 * 1990**- Germany reunified
 * 1991**- Boris Yeltsin elected president of the Russian Federation
 * 1991-1996**- Yugoslavia breaks apart; "ethnic cleansings" commence
 * 1992**- USSR officially dissolved
 * 2000**- Vladimir Putin succeeds Yeltsin as president of Russian Federation

** Major Rulers and Leaders of the Time: **

U.S.S.R. Stalin Krushchev Brezhnev Gorbachev

Russian Federation Yeltsin Putin

China Mao Zedong Deng Xiaoping

U.S. Kennedy Johnson Nixon Ford Carter Reagan Bush

** Political/Military **
 * Marshal Tito of Yugoslavia defied Soviet control
 * decentralized the economy
 * stopped agricultural collectivization
 * had an independent foreign policy
 * defied Moscow openly
 * stood with Asian and African neutralist nonaligned nations
 * declared independence from Moscow
 * 1956: Communist party leadership in Hungary tries for reform; this "counterrevolution" is crushed by the Soviets
 * Imre Nagy, a reforming Communist leader, came back to power after having been removed from the premiership earlier
 * The Soviets had him taken down again, replaced him with J ánós Kádar, who would follow them


 * 200,000 Hungarians left Hungary
 * Communist leaders also lead a revolt in Poland in 1956
 * In Poland, people were deeply connected with the church and were nationally minded; wanted freedom both within Poland and from Moscow
 * Wladyslaw Gomulka leading this revolt
 * Gomulka lessened political and economic controls
 * stopped collectivization
 * got on better terms with the church
 * tried to be lessen Poland's attachments to Moscow
 * Krushchev taken from office by the party leadership in 1964
 * Brezhnev took over after Krushchev left
 * 1968: "Prague spring" in Czechoslovakia: Alexander Dubček's reforms threatened one-party state
 * Brezhnev and party leadership beat it down
 * sent 250,000 troops to stop the coming revolution and take Dubček and other reformers from power
 * Krushchev didn't think that war with the capitalist nations was inevitable; spoke of "peaceful coexistence"
 * relations improved for a time
 * 1972- SALT I (Strategic Arms Limitation) treaty signed between Soviet leaders and US President Johnson- period of detente
 * Citizens of Eastern European states under dictatorships by the mid 1980s wanted recognition of the human rights guaranteed by the Helsinki accords in 1975, in which people could have a "civil society"
 * At age 54, Gorbachev became the youngest leader of the USSR selected by the Politburo in 1985
 * Needed support of the country for economic reforms to succeed. Introduced //glasnost//, or "openness" in which the public had freedom to criticize the Soviet system
 * //Glasnost// ended the totalitarian control over political and cultural life, with liberalization of Soviet life
 * 1987- The US and Soviet Union agree to remove intermediate-range missiles from Europe
 * 1988: Gorbachev makes constitutional reforms; creates a new national legislature; multicandidate elections as opposed to nominees from one party only
 * Gorbachev's reforms lessen the control the party had held
 * Communist regimes began to fall in 1989:
 * Solidarity takes a major victory in Parliamentary elections in Poland; first Polish open elections in over 40 years. Party-State dictatorship ended without bloodshed
 * In 1988 the Hungarian Communist party eased strict leader Janos Kadar out of office and elections began. Reform turned into a bloodless revolution. Later Hungary opened its borders to the West, allowing large numbers of East Germans to escape since 1961.
 * At the end of 1989, hundreds of thousands of East Germans had fled, and Gorbachev informed German Democratic Republic leader Erich Honecker could not have Soviet troops save the regime. Party forced Honecker to resign and new elections were held. On November 9, 1989, the Berlin Wall was torn down. In 1990, east and west Germany reunited.




 * In Czechoslovakia demonstrations broke out against the dictatorship, and demonstrators on November 24 caused party leaders to resign. Free elections and reforms were promised in a "velvet" revolution that liberated the country after the failure of 1968. Czechoslovakia later divided into the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
 * A palace coup within the Communist party in Bulgaria forced the resignation of the party chief after various demonstrations. His foreign minister pledged economic reforms, parliamentary elections, and an end to the party's absolute control of power
 * In Romania, riots broke out in a key provincial capital. The military refused to fire, but dictator Nicolae Ceausescu made his security forces take over and killed hundreds. Ceausescu and his wife were executed and a new regime took control, more liberated than the previous authority.
 * In 1991 Gorbachev allowed constituent republics to elect their president, and a new opponent of the party, Boris Yeltsin, won as president of the Russian republic
 * Gorbachev introduced a "union treaty" to create framework for republics to share power in a new political federation in August 1991
 * Treaty led to a failed August Coup by hard liners of the Communist party
 * Ukraine and Belarus proclaimed their independence, and along with Russia were the three Slavic states that originally created the USSR. This dissolved the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics officially in 1992.

[|French Cartoon of Break Up of the USSR]

** Economic/Social **
 * Krushchev trying to deentralize the economy of the U.S.S.R.
 * tried to ease up on central economc controls
 * created regional economic councils
 * offered factory owners more autonomy
 * offered incentives to factory owners for efficiency and profitability
 * Soviets lose the support of many Communists who disliked the harsh suppression in Hungary in 1956 and Czechoslovakia in 1968
 * 1970s and 1980s: calls for economic reform and political liberalization in eastern Europe; strongest in Poland
 * 1980s: Solidarity, an aggressive independent trade union federation, is formed in Poland
 * Lech Walesa
 * a leader for Solidarity
 * a national symbol of protest for Solidarity
 * Detente opened up East European nations to loans and investment of the West
 * One of Gorbachev's first reforms was dealing with economic restructuring. He introduced //perestoika//, a modification to the centrally planned command economy.
 * Gorbachev introduced decentralization to free restraints from agriculture and industry in order to raise productivity
 * 1987: Gorbachev speaks of "Stalin's enormous and unforgivable crimes"
 * People involved in the 1989 revolutions wanted democracy, freedom, and independence
 * After several revolutions, Gorbachev attempted to move the USSR to a market economy by giving broad economic powers to the republics.
 * US President Clinton introduces his "Third Way" in politics in a program that favored economic growth and combined with with social issues, including health care and education
 * End of the Cold War left many unemployed
 * European Union Established by the Treaty of Maastricht in 1991; "economic" unification of Europe

** Cultural/Intellectual **

Krushchev encouraged a "thaw" in the U.S.S.R.
 * encouraged more cultural and economic freedom
 * restraints on powers of political police
 * 1956 speech to twentieth century party congress, spoke of the "crimes of the Stalin era"[[image:youth_revolt.jpg width="432" height="255" align="right" caption="Youth Revolt in Paris, 1968"]]
 * 1962: Alxander Solzhenitsyn allowed to publish //One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich//
 * told of human suffering in forced labor camps
 * Fundamentalism continues in religion, as the Catholic Church reforms with Vatican II (Second Vatican Council) in 1962
 * Youth revolts occured in the 1960s in reaction to established society
 * Pro-Communism propaganda
 * Totalitarian society- complete control over all aspects of life such as press, art, and politics before Gorbachev's //glasnost//
 * Works were allowed publication, such as Pasternak's //Dr. Zhivago// and Solzhenitsyn's //Gulag Archipelago//
 * // Gulag ArchipelagoI // talked about Stalin's forced labor camps
 * Gorbachev disliked the idea of "ideological struggle"
 * Unlike Marx and Lenin, thought people should support "universal" ideas and goals
 * The papacy supported Poland's Solidarity with Pope John Paul II inspiring demonstrations for freedom
 * Contemporary art arises, focusing on the individual who created the piece; subjectivism
 * The Internet and World Wide Web grow and become major developments in the 1990s; a technological revolution