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Unit 6: How secure was the USSR Control over Easter Europe? (Berlin Wall…
Unit 6: How secure was the USSR Control over Easter Europe?
Hungarian Uprising
Causes:People lived in poverty and were tired of USSR soldiers living in their country. They were in constant fear of the secret police and were denied freedom such as speech, press, and religion.
Action: Students and citizens joined to protest against Soviet power. They took down Stalin's statue in Budapest and the protest evolved into a riot. Soviet troops killed many civilians and soon USSR tanks and artillery invaded the Hngary.
Outcome: Thousands of both Hungarians and Soviet soldiers died until the USSR finally controlled everyone. Hungarian leader Imre Nagy was arrested, tried, and executed.
Poland Solidarity
Cause: The economy was in a bad state, wages were going down while food prices were increasing. Workers were furious.
Action: Workers gathered on a strike in protest and formed a union known as Solidarity. Workers demanded more pay, benefits, freedom of religion, elections, among others. By January of 1981, there were 9.4 million members of the Solidarity. The USSR established martial law in Poland and banned Solidarity. The movement still went on and although many were arrested soon they were heard.
The USSR finally agreed to Solidarity and their leader Lech Walesa was elected president of Poland.
Prague Spring
Cause: Czechoslovakian citizens were denied from their basic freedoms and feared Soviet troops and the secret police. Czechs wanted to introduce different political parties other than Communism and wanted reforms.
Action: Czech leader, Alexander Dubcek began giving citizens more liberties and rights which was against Soviet rule. Citizens gathered to peacefully protest at Prague Spring.
Outcome: Soviet tanks invaded Czech but the people did not resist, unlike the Hungarian Uprising. A few people died and soon the tanks retreated and the leader, Dubcek was arrested but soon released.
Berlin Wall
Cause: People were leaving the poverty and misery of the East for the prosperity and wealth of the West ruled by capitalism. The West was much more prosperous and the people had more freedoms unlike the East.
USSR Reaction: The USSR at 1st surrounded the West section of Berlin with barbed wire and shortly with a reinforced concrete wall to prevent any citizen of East Germany from entering the West. No one could go in or out and many were killed in attempts to do so.
Action: After more than a decade of coping with the Berlin wall on November 9, 1989, East and West Berlin citizens gathered at the wall in defiance.
Outcome; The Soviet army did not stop them. They all destroyed the wall that for years had symbolized the division of not only a city but a country as a whole. The wall that proved the USSR was willing to separate families to keep their selfish control.
Collapse of the Soviet Union
Cause; Bad economy and quality of life. Average life expectancy was decreasing. Corruption was common among Communist leaders.
Mikhail Gorbachev, Soviet Union leader introduced reforms. Glasnost (openness) gave citizens more freedoms, Perestroika ( restructuring) introduced some elements of capitalism in the economy. He decreased the number of soldiers, cut spending, and quit the arms race.
Boris Yeltsin was elected and GOrbachev resigned, declaring the nonexistence of the Soviet Union.
