The End Of The Cold War Flashcards
What officially ended the period of Détente?
The Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan
What happened in the 1980 olympics?
The US boycotted them because they were held in Moscow. They were joined by 60 other countries.
What was the reason for the Boycott of Moscow Olympic games 1980?
The invasion of Afghanistan which infuriated the USA as they belived it was an example of the USSR attempting to spread communism abroad.
What happened in the 1984 Olympics?
The Soviet Union led a boycott of the LA olympic games with 15 other communist countries.
Why did the Soviet Union boycott the LA olympic games 1984?
To hit back at what the USA did 4 years earlier
What were the three main components of Gorbachev’s new thinking?
Perestroika
Glastnost
Dropping the Brezhnev doctrine
What was Perestroika?
The idea that the Russian economy should be reformed to include some of the practices that made capitalism successful.
What was Glastnost?
There should be more transparency amd less corruption in government.
What did Gorbachev do about the War in Afghanistan?
The USSR would withdraw from Afghanistan.
What was the Brezhnev doctrine and what would it mean to drop it?
Brezhnev announced that the actions lf any individual communist country affected all communist countries. Therefore if one countries actions threatened the future of Communism it was the duty of all communist countries to stop it. Dropping it would give these countries more political freedoms.
Who was Mikhail Gorbachev?
He became leader of the USSR in March 1985 and was determined to reform communism.
Impact of Glastnost
Journalists were finally allowed to speak the truth and news about the economy could now be published
Impact of Perestroika
Small businesses could finally flourish and make a profit.
Fall of the Berlin Wall events in order (Narrative account?)
- In June 1989 the Hungarian government began deconstructing the electric fence and then, 3 moths later in September approximately 13000 tourists escaped through Hungary.
- The East German government responded by disallowing any travel to Hungary. In response there were demostrations of people wanting to go to the West.
- This meant that the Hungarians had to prevent more East Germans from crossing the border
- To ease the difficulaties the Politburo decided to allow East Germans to travel through crossing points between East and West Germany
- On live tv the spokesperson for East Germany announced that the wall will come down. When asked when he didn’t know and replied now.
- Immediately East Berliners rushed to the wall and chanted open the gate.
- Eventually the gate came down
Importance of the fall of the berlin wall
It showed that even though Soviet governments were falling the Soviet Union was not going to step in. It also symbolised the end of the cold war as throughout the cold war it symbolised the division of Europe.
