Fall of the Communist Bloc

We explain how the fall of the communist bloc was. In addition, its causes and characteristics by countries.

What was the fall of the communist bloc?

The fall of the communist bloc It occurred between 1989 and 1991. It marked the end of the Cold War which had faced the United States and the Soviet Union (USSR) for more than forty years.

The Cold War began after the end of World War II (1939-1945) and faced two blocks of countries defined by opposite political, ideological and economic projects: the western bloc (composed of capitalist countries, generally organized in representative democracies and internationally led by the United States) and the Eastern Block (composed of communist countries, organized in regimes of the single party and led by the Soviet Union).

The eastern or communist block began to fall whenafter the reforms implemented by Mikhail Gorbachov in the USSR, The communist governments of Eastern Europe could not contain the revolutions that exploded in their countries in 1989.

The “popular democracies” were replaced by parliamentary regimes with free elections and market economies. In 1990 there was a reunification of Germany and, in 1991, the Soviet Union dissolved.

See also: Blocks of the Cold War

MIJAÍL GERBACHOV reforms

The Perestroika and the Glasnost

The fall of the communist bloc and the dissolution of the Soviet Union were the result of A process that began with the reforms of Mikhail Gorbachov, who became the leader of the Soviet Union in 1985when he assumed the position of general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (PCUS).

The Soviet Union went through serious economic and political difficulties. To deal with them, Gorbachev proposed a distension in its relations with the United States, the reduction of military spending and the implementation of external cooperation and consensus policies. In internal politics, he promoted the Perestroika (An economic restructuring, although without abandoning socialism) and the Glasnost (A reform to guarantee political and informative transparency).

The Gorbachev Mikhail Project He also pointed out the impossibility of continuing to forcefully maintain “popular democracies” that had been established in Eastern and central Europe after the Soviet interventions after World War II and that functioned as satellite states of the Soviet Union.

The Perestroika and the Glasnost They had an immediate consequence in the satellite states of Eastern and central Europe. Without Soviet intervention, The communist governments of these countries were removed by their own populations in the short term of a few months.

The abandonment of Breznev doctrine

In September 1988, Gorbachev closed the PCUS link committee with socialist countries, a sign that He left the Breznev doctrine (this doctrine had the intervention of the Warsaw Pact in any communist country whose government was threatened by internal political forces).

In December of that same year, Gorbachev announced at the UN General Assembly (United Nations Organization) a unilateral reduction of more than half a million soldiers of the Soviet armed forcesof which half would be retired (along with more than five thousand tanks) from Eastern Europe.

Although Gorbachev's goal was for these countries to apply their own Perestroika and stay In the Warsaw Pact (The Military Alliance controlled by the Soviet Union), soon the events took another direction. In 1989 There was a revolutionary wave that caused the overthrow of communist governments from Eastern and Central Europe.

See also: End of the Cold War

The 1989 revolutions

The transition in Poland

Poland was the country that began the revolutionary process. After a series of strikes in mid -1988, the communist government, led by General Wojciech Jaruselzski, was forced to negotiate with the opposition union solidarity.

The April 1989 agreements meant the legal recognition of the union and the opening of a democratic transition process. Solidarity was presented as a political party in the June elections and the Communist Party was defeated.

Thus, The first non -communist government was formed in Eastern Europe since the end of the 1940schaired by Tadeusz Mazowiecki (leader of solidarity) as prime minister.

The rapid decomposition of the communist regime allowed the Popular Republic of Poland to change its name to the Republic of Poland and to be convened to presidential elections in 1990. Lech Walesa, main leader of solidarity, He was elected president and began his term in December 1990.

The transition in Hungary

In Hungary they were the communist reformers themselves, such as Imre Pozsgay, who dismantled the communist system. After displacing János Kadar from the position of Secretary General of the Party in 1988 (position he held since 1956), the transition in Hungary began: In the 1989 European spring, multiparty and in October of that same year the Hungarian Workers' Socialist Party (official name of the country's Communist Party) dissolved.

At the same time A democratic constitution was approved and the Republic of Hungary was proclaimed (replacing the People's Republic of Hungary). The elections of March and April 1990 led to power to anti -communist democratic forces.

The “peaceful revolution” in the German Democratic Republic

The change in Hungary had a huge impact on the rest of the countries in the region. The decision of the Hungarian authorities to open its border with Austria in September 1989 opened a “gap” in the steel curtain for which Tens of thousands of inhabitants of the German Democratic Republic (or Eastern Germany) fled to the Federal Republic of Germany (or Western Germany), crossing Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Austria. To the exodus of the population He soon joined a wave of manifestations throughout Eastern Germany.

The leader of the German Democratic Republic, Erich Honecker, believed that the solution was repression, but did not have the support of Gorbachev. The Soviet authorities made three statements at the end of October 1989, that had enormous political importance:

• On October 23, before the proclamation of Hungary as an independent sovereign republic, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Soviet Union, Eduard Shevardnadze said that The USSR should not interfere in any way in the affairs of Eastern Europe.
• That same day, Gennadi Gerasimov, spokesman for Gorbachev in foreign policy affairs, announced that the Breznev doctrine had been replaced by Sinatra doctrine. Gerasimov referred to a song by American singer Frank Sinatra that he used to proclaim that the Soviet Union allowed the countries of Eastern Europe to do things “in their own way.” This meant that Kremlin ratified changes in Poland and Hungary, and encouraged other countries to follow that path.
• Finally, on October 25 the own Gorbachevon a trip by Finland, he openly condemned the Breznev doctrine.

A few days before, on October 18, Honecker was replaced by a reformist communist, Egon Krenz, who made the historic decision to open the Berlin wall on November 9, 1989.

The rapid collapse of the German Democratic Republic opened a negotiation process between the four winning powers of World War II (United States, the United Kingdom, France and the Soviet Union) and the Federal Republic of Germany (whose chancellor, Helmut Kohlaspired to the reunification of Germany).

Finally, the so -called 2 + 4 Agreement (the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic plus the United States, the United Kingdom, France and the Soviet Union) enabled the reunification of Germany on October 3, 1990.

In exchange for a commitment to limit German military power, the non -landscape of NATO troops in the territory of the former German Democratic Republic and important financial aid, reunified Germany remained a member of NATO and the European Economic Community.

The “velvet revolution” in Czechoslovakia

The fall of the Berlin wall precipitated the events in the other countries of the east European. The Gustáv Husák regime, leader of the Socialist Republic of Czechoslovakia and defender of Soviet orthodoxy and Breznev doctrine since 1968, repressed on November 17, 1989, 1989 a student demonstration that demanded political freedoms. Next, the demonstrations and strikes multiplied And, in a short time, the regime collapsed.

This process, called “velvet revolution”, led to the resignation of Husák on December 10, 1989. He also led to the presidency of the Federal Assembly to the Hero of the Spring of Prague, Alexander Dubček, and the presidency of Czechoslovakia to VACLAV HAVELone of the main opponents of the communist regime.

Who was Václav Havel?

Václav Havel (1936-2011) was a Dramaturgian and Czech political dissident who, after the fall of the communist regime, was President of Czechoslovakia from December 1989 to July 1992. Then, after the country's division in two states, he was president of the Czech Republic from February 1993 to February 2003.

After a brilliant race in the theater, actively participated in the spring of Prague (1968) And, after the Soviet invasion, his works were prohibited and his passport confiscated. He was arrested several times and was one of the main signatories of Charter 77, a statement that demanded respect for human rights, so he spent four years in jail (1979-1983).

When the massive demonstrations of November 1989 began in Prague, Havel became the leader of the Civic Foruma coalition of non -communist democratic forces. In December 1989 the communist government collapsed by popular pressure. The lack of violence of political change in Czechoslovakia caused him to be called “velvet revolution.” Interimly appointed president of Czechoslovakia on December 29, 1989, he was democratically re -elected for office in July 1990. Opposite to the Division of Czechoslovakia and unable to avoid it, he resigned in 1992. In 1993 he was elected president of the newborn Czech Republic, a position he held until 2003. He died in 2011 at the age of 75.

The transition in Bulgaria

The day after the fall of the Berlin Wall, and in fear of repeating in Bulgaria the protests that had taken place in East Germany, There was a coup inside the leadership of the Bulgarian Communist Partyencouraged by Gorbachev. This blow overthrew the leader Todor Zhivkov (who ruled since 1954) and led Petar Mlambov, a reformist communist who initiated the path to the democratization of the regime.

At the end of 1989, political liberties were established and An opposition political party that participated in the free elections could be formed which were held in June 1990. The Bulgarian Socialist Party, a moderate continuation of the dissolved Bulgarian Communist Party, won in those elections.

The revolution in Romania

In Romania The most violent revolution of 1989 took place. After a few days of protests and disturbances, on December 21, the secretary general of the Romanian Communist Party and President of the Socialist Republic of Romania, Nicolae Ceaucescu, found that A demonstration to support the regime became a popular protest.

At that time an insurrection prepared for various positions of the Communist Party and supported by the Army and sectors of the civilian population broke out. After overcoming the resistance of the Securitate (the secret police of the regime), Nicolae CEAUCESCU And his wife, Elena Ceaucescu, were arrested in their attempt to escapesummarily judged by a military court and executed on December 25.

The Romanian revolution, which caused more than a thousand victims and caused the dissolution of the Socialist Republic of Romania, ended the 1989 revolutionary cycle in Eastern Europe.

In the People's Republic of Albania, who had moved away from the Soviet Union in 1968 and had established relations with communist China for a while, The transition from the communist regime to a multiparty republic occurred in 1991.

The frustrated revolution in China: the tiananmén slaughter

The death of Mao Zedong, leader of the People's Republic of China, in 1976 opened a deep political crisis in communist China that concluded in 1980 with the rise to the power of Deng Xiaoping.

China had already dipped diplomatically from the Soviet Union in the Mao yearsand with the new direction he opened to the West: Deng traveled to Washington (where he met with the US president, Jimmy Carter), signed a commercial agreement with Japan and reached a friendly arrangement with the United Kingdom for the transfer of Hong Kong to Chinese sovereignty.

In parallel, A deep economic reform was undertaken that introduced capitalist elements as the limitation of state control, incentives for production and consumption and openness to foreign investments.

Economic success allowed, in the late eighties, the Chinese economy grew at rates greater than 10 % year -on -year of GDP. However, political reforms such as those implemented in Eastern Europe were not applied. Civil and political freedoms remained absent and The Chinese Communist Party maintained control of the State.

Anyway, The echoes of the Perestroika They reached China and, in 1989, A wave of protests, mainly starring students, He toured the country. On May 20, 1989 the situation was out of the control of the communist authorities: more than one million protesters filled the streets. On May 29, Democratic students erected a statue of the “Goddess of Democracy” in Tiananmén Square, in Beijing.

Inside the communist government there was a debate between negotiation supporters and defenders of repression. Finally, the repressive wing was imposed and, June 3, 1989, Military units of the Chinese popular army repressed and suffocated the revolt. Despite the secretism of the Chinese authorities, it is estimated that The dead and thousands were the detainees during the repression in the Tiananmén Square.

Slobodan Milosevic and the dissolution of Yugoslavia

Yugoslavia was a communist country not aligned with the Soviet Union that experienced a dissolution process since the beginning of the nineties. One of the main protagonists of this process was Slobodan Milosevic.

Born in Serbia of Montenegrinos parents in 1941, Milosevic entered the League of the communists of Yugoslavia (LCy) with 18 years of age. After marrying Mirjana Markovic, a convinced communist, He began his political career in the SERBIA communist leagueone of the federated organizations in the League of the communists of Yugoslavia.

In 1986 he assumed as head of the central committee of the Serbian organization and In 1987 it was consolidated as a leader. In full transition process, with the communist system strongly questioned and with liberal reforms in progress, Milosevic He focused his demands on the abolition of autonomy that Kosovo and Voivodina had within the Socialist Republic of Serbia (which was both part of the Socialist Federative Republic of Yugoslavia) and manifested in favor of a total control of the Serbian government over these territories.

He also focused on the defense of state intervention in the economy against liberal economic reforms. These demands were accompanied by popular protests that received the name of “antiburocratic revolution.”

In 1989, Milosevic reached the presidency of Serbia. As of 1990, he restricted the powers of the Autonomous Regions of Serbia and became the leader of those who opposed the separatism of Croatia and Slovenia. His attitude ended up causing the dismemberment of the country. The Yugoslavia communist League was divided into matches of each Republic. Milosevic decided to adapt to the new times, converted the Serbia communist league into the Socialist Party of Serbia and was elected president of Serbia by a large majority.

The clash between nationalisms within Yugoslavia resulted in a rupture of the Yugoslav state. In 1991 Croatia and Slovenia declared their independence and a war between Croatia and Serbia began. In 1992 The war also faced Serbia with Bosnia.

Milosevic's ultra -nationalist position led Serbia to international isolation Successive defeats: in 1995 against Croatia and Bosnia with the signing of Dayton's agreements and in 1999 before the Kosovo Liberation Army supported by NATO. The “ethnic cleaning” policy applied by the Milosevic government against the Albanian Muslim population, majority in Kosovo, earned him the international conviction and He was accused of war crimes. In 2001, Milosevic was arrested by the Yugoslav government and delivered to the International Criminal Court for the former Yugoslavia of The Hague, formed by the UN in 1993, to be tried for war crimes. He died in prison on March 11, 2006, before he concluded the legal process.

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References

• Britannica, Encyclopaedia (2022). Collapse of the Soviet Union. Britannica Encyclopedia. https://www.britannica.com/
• Britannica, Encyclopaedia (2022). Tiananmen Square Incident. Britannica Encyclopedia. https://www.britannica.com/
• Britannica, Encyclopaedia (2023). Václav Havel. Britannica Encyclopedia. https://www.britannica.com/
• Cabrera, M. & Juliá, S. (Coords.) (1992). Europe 1945-1990. Pablo Iglesias Foundation.
• Kulik, RM (2022). Eastern Bloc. Britannica Encyclopedia. https://www.britannica.com/
• Powaski, Re (2000). The Cold War: the United States and the Soviet Union, 1917-1991. Criticism.