Gorbachev was also strongly influenced by Secretary of State Shultza former

Stanfordeconomics professorwho repeatedly went to Moscow to lecture Gorbachev and his

topadvisors about the need for greater Soviet openness and Capitalist reforms, lest they
completelyfall behind the curve economically and technologically.Gorbachev realized that
Communism had to be moderated and blended with Capitalism tosucceed, but he was unwilling
to make the same scale of changes that Deng Xiaopeng had.The state cannot influence efficient
labor anywhere near as well as markets.In the late 1980s, the Soviets withdrew from
Afghanistan and cancelled support for worldwideCommunist movements. In private, the Soviet
leadership had also relinquished any real claim onEastern Europe and was unwilling to use
military force against them, yet it preserved the faadeof domination, which the West
believed.Gorbachevs 1988 speech to the UN General Assembly that the Soviet forces in Eastern
Europewould be cut by 500,000 men openly signaled the USSRs concession of power over the
region.Chapter 7: The Triumph of Hope1989-1991 saw the end of the Cold War.George Bush
took office that year. His and Gorbachevs administrations were very wary of eachother, and did
not foresee the Cold War ending anytime soon.However, the events of the 1980s had so
weakened Communism that it would only take minutechanges from seemingly unimportant
leaders and individuals to bring the entire Soviet systemdown.Hungary had always pursued
independence from the USSR. By 1989, its economy was partiallyliberalized and was the most
advanced in Eastern Europe.Hungarian Prime Minister Nemeth visited Moscow and discussed
the 1956 uprising withGorbachev, who openly admitted that leaders should be accountable to
their people and that theuprising had been a popular one.The Hungarians then initiated a public
inquiry into the 1956 uprising and concluded that it had been a popular revolt against unfair rule,
and its leaders were exonerated of crimes. Gorbachevdid not intervene. The Hungarians were
elated and went a step further by dismantling their border fence with Austria on the grounds that
it was obsolete and a health hazard. Though EastGermany protested, the USSR did nothing.In
1989, facing an economic crisis, the Polish prime minister allowed Solidarity to compete
inelections. Everyone expected them to be rigged, but they were fair, and Solidarity actually
wonthe majority of seats, turning control of Poland over to a non-Communist
government.Gorbachev also allowed elections for the Soviet Congress of Peoples Deputies.In
the same year, the Tiananmen Square Massacre occurred as Chinese people inspired by eventsin
Europe pressured Deng Xiaopeng to make democratic reforms. Part of what kept theCommunists
in power after the Cold War was their willingness to use force against their own people,
something the Eastern European regimes lost stomach for. [Capitalism and a historicalChinese
fear of internal disorders consequences were also major factors]East Germany remained the
most repressive Communist regime up until the end, and in 1989,hundreds of thousands of East
Germans fled across the newly opened Austro-Hungarian border.Many thousands also requested
asylum at West German embassies in Prague.East Germans secretly cheered on their countrymen
who escaped.22

Gorbachev was popular in East Germany because of his reputation as a reformer, and during
his1989 visit to commemorate the countrys 40 anniversary, protests broke out in the country in
anattempt to attract his attention.Egon Krenzleader of East Germanyauthorized the easing of
some travel restrictions intoWest Berlin. A subordinate instructed to deliver the news to the
media misunderstood Krenzmessage and instead announced that unfettered travel was
authorized. Huge crowds of EastGermans gathered at the border posts immediately. The guards
had not received instructions, andin the confusion, opened the gates. Krenz was stuck in
meetings at the time, and didnt realizewhat was going on until after thousands of his citizens
had already fled into West Berlin, and people were dancing on and dismantling the Berlin
Wall.In November 1989, the Communist governments of Bulgaria and Czechoslovakia stepped
downand free elections were promised.In December, Romanian dictator Ceausescu ordered his
troops to fire on protestors, killing 97.His country went into open rebellion, and he was captured
and executed on Christmas Day.Bush and Gorbachev met at Malta. Bush was respectful and
promised that it would not humiliatethe USSR as Communism fell in Eastern Europe, but at the
same time, Bush affirmed Americansupport for German reunification under a democratic
government. Gorbachev did not argue.Hemlut Kohl was the West German chancellor at the time,
and came out in favor of unification,as did the majority of Germans on both sides.Gorbachev
accepted Germanys unification and withdraw from the Warsaw Pact. An independentGermany
would be more dangerous than one tied to NATO.Bush promised never to extend NATO
eastwards, but Clinton broke that since the promise had been made to a later-defunct USSR.The
Germanies reunified on October 3
rd
, 1990.While Gorbachev was wildly popular abroad, within the USSR, he was widely hated for
severalreasons:-The economy had remained stagnant thanks to inadequate reforms.-The USSRs
newly increased political freedoms were leading to domestic chaos.-Soviet citizens disliked their
nations decline in military and foreign power.The USSR was composed of many different
republics, many of which had large degrees of autonomy and cultural distinctiveness. As Eastern
Europe was allowed the right of self-determination, it became increasingly clear that the same
had to be applied to the Sovietrepublics. The Baltic states and Transcaucus states had been
especially vociferous in their desirefor independence.Gorbachev had hoped that economic
improvements would occur fast enough to placate therepublics and keep them from breaking
away.The Baltic republicswhich had been annexed by the USSR in 1940 and still resented it
firstvoted by referendum for independence in early 1991. The precedent had been set for other
Sovietrepublics to secede.1991 also saw the first democratic election of a Russian prime
ministerBoris Yeltsin. He was astaunch anticommunist and enemy of Gorbachev. Initially, the
U.S. disliked him because heundermined Gorbachev, whom we were trying to support.The Bush
administration had difficulty contemplating a world without the USSR, so it did notimmediately
side with Yeltsin and the independence movements because it feared instability.23

On August 18
th
, 1991, a group of hardline Communists staged a coup against Gorbachev in aneffort to save the
USSR. It failed thanks to outside repudiation, Boris Yeltsins defiance, and thelack of support for
the coup within the military and among average people.By the end of 1991, Yeltsin had
consolidated power, disbanded the Communist party and the oldauthoritarian power structures,
and replaced them with a democratic government. Gorbachev wasmarginalized.On Christmas
Day 1991, Gorbachev signed a decree officially abolishing the Soviet Union.Gorbachev was a
man who wanted to reform Communism and save the Soviet Union, but he hadno cohesive
vision for what it would look like in the end. He allowed himself to be influenced byWestern
leaders while not securing any concessions. He was also totally unwilling to use force to protect
his nation or its interests.EpilogueBefore the Cold War, wars between the major powers were so
commonplace that they wereregarded as a normal condition. But during and afterwards, they
were never fought. This hadseveral causes:-Primarily, the existence of nuclear weapons made it
impossible to win major wars.-The World Wars had shown that even purely conventional wars
were becoming increasinglydeadly.-Satellite reconnaissance made it almost impossible to mount
surprise attacks that would in the past have resulted in success.The Cold War might perhaps be
longest remembered for initiating the current era of peace between the big powers.The Cold War
also discredited authoritarianism, Marxist-Leninism, and Communism. [ThoughSocialist
Democracy is still viable]Democracy also boomed during and after the Cold War thanks to
greater education, economic prosperity, and conscious effort from the West.The information revolution
was also critical since it destroyed the states monopoly over the flowof information: People
could learn about forbidden ideas and could also access other newssources that told them the true
condition within their own countries and standing relative to other nations.Capitalism and
democracy can exist separately, but only with difficulty. In fact, they aresynergistic and
reinforcing.Of course, the Cold War was also full of enormous waste and atrocities.Meanwhile,
communism had promised a better life but failed to deliver. Marx insisted that theshifts in the
means of production would increase inequality, provoke anger, and thereby fuelrevolutionary
consciousness within the working class. He failed, though, to anticipate the
kinds
of shifts that would take place, for as post-industrial economies evolved they began to
rewardlateral over hierarchical forms of organization. Complexity made planning
less
feasible thanunder the earlier, simpler stages of industrialization: only decentralized, largely
spontaneousmarkets could make the millions of decisions that had to be made each day in a
modern economyif supplies of goods and services were to match the demands for them. As a
result, dissatisfactionwith capitalism never reached the point at which prolitetarians of all
countries felt it necessaryto unite to throw off their chains.