Lesson 1: End of the Cold War

Lesson Focus

Explore the revolutionary upheaval in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe that brought the 40-year Cold War to a dramatic end, reshaping the political map of Europe and dissolving a superpower.

People to Know

Mikhail Gorbachev, Lech Walesa

Learning Objectives

• Understand how Gorbachev’s reforms, perestroika and glasnost, fundamentally changed the Soviet Union.
• Analyze how popular revolutions in Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Romania overthrew their communist governments.
• Explain the key events and nationalist movements that led to the Soviet Union's collapse.
• Identify Russia's political, economic, and social challenges after the Soviet Union's dissolution.
• Describe how the collapse of communism led to the violent disintegration of Yugoslavia.

Facing a declining economy in the 1980s, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev initiated radical changes.

He introduced perestroika (economic restructuring) and glasnost (political openness) to reform the ailing system.

Pay special attention to how he also created an elected parliament and became the first Soviet president in March 1990.

When Mikhail Gorbachev stopped sending troops to support Eastern Europe's communist governments, revolutions erupted in 1989.

In Poland, Lech Walesa’s Solidarity movement led to free elections.

In Czechoslovakia, large demonstrations brought writer Vaclav Havel to power after the government’s collapse.

Gorbachev’s reforms inadvertently fueled nationalism across the 15 Soviet republics.

Fearing a breakup, conservative leaders arrested Gorbachev in August 1991, but the coup failed when Boris Yeltsin and Russian citizens resisted.

This failed coup was the final blow. Note that the republics quickly moved for independence.

After the Soviet Union's collapse, Boris Yeltsin became president of the new Russia and faced immense challenges.

His rapid shift to a free market economy caused severe hardship and a rise in organized crime.

He also used brutal force to stop the province of Chechnya from seceding. His successor, Vladimir Putin, later used oil and gas revenue to boost the economy. Russia’s transition from communism was marked by economic instability and violent internal conflict.

The collapse of communism unleashed long-suppressed ethnic conflicts in Yugoslavia.

Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic fought to keep the country together under Serbian control, attacking republics seeking independence. His forces committed ethnic cleansing against Bosnian Muslims.

A later war erupted when he stripped Kosovo of its autonomous status, prompting NATO intervention.