Stagnation and Decline of Communism in Eastern Europe, 1960-1991

Leonid Brezhnev, r. 1964-1982

• Stagnation: Geriatocracy
• Economic decline
• Collectivized Agriculture never really worked
• Lack of consumer goods: Toilet paper and denim jeans

The Prague Spring, 1968

• Aleksandr Dubcek
• Action Program
• “Socialism with a human face”
• “Thousand Words”
• August: 500,000 Warsaw Pact Troops invaded

Poland and Solidarity

• Gdansk
• Lenin Shipyards
• August 1980: Party granted right to unions
• Sept.1980: Solidarity: Union of Trade Unions
• By early 1981: 10 million Solidarity members
• December 1981: Martial Law imposed
• Lech Walesa

Mikhail Gorbachev, r. 1985-1991

• A reformer in sheep’s clothing
• Reform Communism (still idealism)
• Attempted moderate reform
• Perestroika (restructuring)
• Glasnost (openness)

CAUSES of the collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe and Soviet Union:

1. Negative comparisons with West
2. Communism was not working
3. Pressure of Western containment policy and Soviet military spending
4. Persistence of nationalism
5. Chernobyl nuclear disaster (April 1986)
6. Soviet intervention in Afghan war (1979-1989)
7. Chinese reform efforts
8. Mikhail Gorbachev (idealist, planned reform before power, unwilling to use violence)