Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Wall. For two generations, the Wall was the physical representation of
the Iron Curtain, and East German border guards had standing shootto-kill orders against those who tried to escape. But just as the Wall
had come to represent the division of Europe, its fall came to
represent the end of the Cold War. In the White House, President
George H. W. Bush and his National Security Advisor, Brent
Scowcroft, watched the unfolding scene on a television in the study,
aware of both the historical significance of the moment and of the
challenges for U.S. foreign policy that lay ahead.
Germans celebrating
the fall of the Berlin
Wall on November 10,
1989.
Not even the most
optimistic observer of
Presidents Ronald
Reagans 1987 Berlin
speech calling on Soviet
General Secretary Mikhail
Gorbachev to tear down
this wall would have
imagined that two years
later the communist
regimes of Eastern
Europe would collapse
like dominoes. By 1990, the former communist leaders were out of
power, free elections were held, and Germany was whole again.
The peaceful collapse of the regimes was by no means pre-ordained.
Soviet tanks crushed demonstrators in East Berlin in June 1953, in
Hungary in 1956, and again in Czechoslovakia in 1968. Soviet
military planners were intimately involved in the Polish planning for
martial law in 1980, and Soviet troops remained stationed
throughout Eastern Europe, as much a guarantee for Soviet security
as an ominous reminder to Eastern European peoples of Soviet
dominance over their countries.
The Reagan administrations strong rhetoric in support of the political
aspirations of Eastern European and Soviet citizens was met,
following 1985, with a new type of leader in the Soviet Union. Mikhail
Gorbachevs policies of perestroika (restructuring) and glasnost
(transparency) further legitimized popular calls for reform from
within. Gorbachev also made clearat first secretly to the Eastern
European leaders, then increasingly more publicthat the Soviet
Union had abandoned the policy of military intervention in support of
communist regimes (the Brezhnev Doctrine).
On February 6, 1989, negotiations between the Polish Government
and members of the underground labor union Solidarity opened
officially in Warsaw. Solidarity was formed in August 1980 following a
series of strikes that paralyzed the Polish economy. The 1981 Sovietinspired imposition of martial law drove the organization
underground, where it survived due to support from Western labor
organizations and Polish migr groups. The results of the Round
Table Talks, signed by government and Solidarity representatives on
April 4, included free elections for 35% of the Parliament (Sejm), free
elections for the newly created Senate, a new office of the President,
and the recognition of Solidarity as a political party. On June 4, as
Chinese tanks crushed student-led protests in Beijing, Solidarity
delivered a crushing electoral victory. By August 24, ten years after
Solidarity emerged on the scene, Tadeusz Mazowiecki became the
first non-communist Prime Minister in Eastern Europe.
US State Department site:
http://future.state.gov/when/timeline/1969_detente/fall_of_communis
m.html
The collapse of the Berlin Wall was the culminating point of the
revolutionary changes sweeping east central Europe in 1989.
Throughout the Soviet bloc, reformers assumed power and ended
more than 40 years of dictatorial communist rule. The reform
movement that ended communism in east central Europe began in
Poland. Solidarity, an anti-communist trade union and social
movement, had forced Poland's communist government to recognize
it in 1980 through a wave of strikes that gained international
attention. In 1981, Poland's communist authorities, under pressure
from Moscow, declared martial law, arrested Solidarity's leaders, and
banned the democratic trade union. The ban did not bring an end to
Solidarity. The movement simply went underground, and the
rebellious Poles organized their own civil society, separate from the
communist government and its edicts.
In 1985, the assumption of power in the Soviet Union by a reformer,
Mikhail Gorbachev, paved the way for political and economic reforms
in east central Europe. Gorbachev abandoned the "Brezhnev
Doctrine"--the Soviet Union's policy of intervening with military force,
if necessary, to preserve communist rule in the region. Instead, he
encouraged the local communist leaders to seek new ways of gaining
popular support for their rule. In Hungary, the communist
government initiated reforms in 1989 that led to the sanctioning of a
multiparty system and competitive elections. In Poland, the
communists entered into round-table talks with a reinvigorated
Solidarity. As a result, Poland held its first competitive elections since
before World War II, and in 1989, Solidarity formed the first non
communist government within the Soviet bloc since 1948. Inspired
by their neighbors' reforms, east Germans took to the streets in the
summer and fall of 1989 to call for reforms, including freedom to visit
West Berlin and West Germany. Moscow's refusal to use military force
to buoy the regime of East German leader Erich Honecker led to his
replacement and the initiation of political reforms, leading up to the
fateful decision to open the border crossings on the night of
November 9, 1989.
In the wake of the collapse of the Berlin Wall, Czechs and Slovaks
took to the streets to demand political reforms in Czechoslovakia.
Leading the demonstrations in Prague was dissident playwright
Vaclav Havel, co-founder of the reform group Charter 77. The
Communist Party of Czechoslovakia quietly and peacefully
transferred rule to Havel and the Czechoslovak reformers in what
named Lech Walesa, struck and occupied the plant. They were soon
joined by other workers in solidarity as well as intellectuals, and
had the support of the Catholic Church. The Solidarity Movement was
thus born. The workers demanded free trade unions, freedom of
speech, release of political prisoners and economic reforms. Polands
Communist leader, Wajciech Januzelski responded by proclaiming
martial law, arresting the leaders of Solidarity, and thereby saving
the nation. He was unable to stop the movement, however,
because the government was unwilling (and perhaps unable) to
impose a full scale reign of terror. Solidarity continued to grow as an
underground movement, and the Polish people began acting as if
they lived in a free state, even though they did not. In 1989 with the
country on the brink of economic collapse, Solidarity convinced
Polands communist leaders into legalizing the movement and to
allow free elections to Polands Parliament. The Communists
expected to win most contested seats, and still controlled a majority
in the Parliament, but were roundly defeated in the election. Most of
the contested seats were won by Solidarity leaders. Many angry
voters crossed off the names of unopposed Communist candidates
and wrote in the names of Solidarity candidates. The result was the
Communist Party did not achieve the majority it had anticipated. By
forming a coalition with two minority anti-communist parties,
Solidarity took control of the Government and the editor of
Solidaritys weekly newspaper was sworn in as Polands leader. The
new government slowly eliminated the Secret Police, Communist
government ministers, and other officials; but did so at a deliberate
pace so as not to invite military intervention from the Soviet Union. A
free market system was introduced, and Poland became the first
Soviet Bloc country to experience revolution.
Poland was followed by Hungary. Communist leaders there granted
modest reforms and some political concessions, hoping to prevent a
groundswell of popular opposition as had occurred in Poland. The
opposite happened. The government was forced to hold free
elections in 1990. In an attempt to preserve their position, and put
pressure on the hard line East German government, Hungarys
leaders allowed free emigration from East Germany, and tens of
thousands of East Germans crossed over. This led to widespread
protests in East Germany, often led by intellectuals,
environmentalists and Protestant ministers. In an attempt to stabilize
the country, East Germanys leaders opened the Berlin Wall in
November, 1989. By so doing, they opened the flood gates: East
Germanys leaders were swept aside and a reform government
formed which scheduled free elections. Seeing the handwriting on
the wall, in summer, 1990, Gorbachev and West German Chancellor
Helmut Kohl signed an agreement by which Germany solemnly
affirmed its peaceful intentions and pledged never to develop
nuclear, biological or chemical weapons. On October 3, 1990, East
and West Germany were united once more into a single Nation, the
Federal Republic of Germany.
Communism died swiftly in ten days in Czechoslovakia as a result of
the Velvet Revolution. Vaclav Havel, a playwright and moral
revolutionary led protest which took control of the streets and forced
the communist government to form a power-sharing government.