p176--Previously the threat of Soviet intervention had prevented revolutions--but with Gorbachev, the Eastern Bloc countries were suddenly behind in reforms

p177--moral and ideological crisses in the regimes

p178--Western pressure--particularly Helsinki human rights

Gorbachev The Revisionist

p179--came to power in March 1985--first two years not very reform minded--Twenthy-seventh party congress he called for anti-corruption/decision making reforms and to get the people involved int he decision makeing process

p181--Gorbechev ready to fully denounce Stalin--but wants to keep communism and its Leneninist tendancies and premesise

p183--1989 Gorbechev finally realizes that he needs to set up a democracy to survive with lots of old party members around

p186--Gorbechev decided that the esatern states were too costly--needed to reform Russia and didn’t want to spend on the troops and political capital to keep the satillite states alive

p188--Gorbachev adminted they needed a new socialist model, but didn’t ask if the eastern countries wanted it--1989 at the Council of Europe in Strasbourg Gorbachev announced that european states were free to choose their desinies

p189--Feb 1989 Hungary agreed to move toward a multiparty system--April 1989 legalizationj of Solidarity, free elections for most of the house--July 1989 Warsaw pact meeting: deined that there was only one true socialism

p190--lax eastern policies partly due to problems in Moscow

Solidarity Redux and the Collapse of Polish Communism

p192--people in both the oposition and the communist elite who realized compromise was needed--allowed non violent transition--Aprila nd August 1988 massive strikes--have to work with Solidarity--talks in Feb 1989--agreemend 5 Apirl 1989--recognize Solidarity and other groups--new gov. structure with significant communist power--freedom of the press

p193--fisrt elections June 1989--99/100 seats to Solidarity

p196-- "THe moment the communists admitted that they had to use naked violence against 10 million people organized in an independent union, they acknowledged that the real nature of their power had nothing to do with governmetn by the working class" --martial law in Poland was the begining of the end

p197--Ceausecu 1989 1988 tried to get other coutnries to repress with whatever means neccessary the Solidarity-led governemtn revolution in Poland

The Hungarian Breakthrough

p198--Kadarism was a political stalemate--could only last as long as economic conditions were okay--New Economic Mechanism (some liberalization and decentralization) was abandoned before it could work

p199--economic collapse in the 1980s--Kadar was seen as his party’s ruin

p202--Kadar era ended in may 1988 national party conference replaced the General Secretary with a four member presidum chaired by Rezsö Nyers--Radical reform wing within the Hungarian Communist parity led by Nyers and Imre Pozsgay--criticized for bastardizing Marxist communism under Stalin--wanted to get rid of the whole system because he saw nothing Marxist in it

p203--Communists split most renouncing Bolshevism and accepting pluralism--Sumer 1989--roundtable opposition/gov discussions agree on free elections in 1990

p205--FIDESZ--Youth Democratic party--non-violence--wnated to get into the european market--belived that you needed a popular democratic sentiment to ensure democracy and that over throwing the governement was not an acceptable option.

The Collapse of the GDR: Setting the Stage for the Colapse of Czechoslovak Communism

p205--Fall of 1989 Hungary removed the barrier across its Austrian frontier and allowed GDR citizens to leave through it--100,000 people left GDR--major economic drain--they were according to the west german constitution German citizens intitled to all the benefits--major crisis

p207--in Prauge the COmmunist leadership tried to lambast Dubcek as a has-been leader of the 1968 revolution which nearly brough the country to dissaster

p208--East germany could in 1989 only count on the support of Romania’s Ceausescu--Gorbachev told him to reform--Bulgaria’s Zhivkov was trying desperately to stay in power

p209--18 October 1989 Honecker out and Krenz in--Krenz didn’t do much--right hand mand of Honecker--due to large public demosntrations--Gorbechev argued against using force to put them down

p211--the more they accepted demands the greater the demands grew--they realized that *** a non-socialsit GDR could not exists--it would merge with West Germany

p212--23 Oct--hundreds of thousdands protested, 4 Novmember half a million protested--7 Nov Politburo resigened--9 Nov Berlin Wall breached--Krenz instituted reforms trying to save his party and country

p213--revelations of SED opulent lifestyles destroyed any remaining SED credibility--3 December Krenz and the whole SED Poitburo resigned

Czechoslovakia’s Velvet Revolution

p215--No opposition leadership--crackdown in early 1989 puts Havel and others in jail--violent suppression of peaceful sutdent protests on 17 Nov lead to massive opposotion and strikes--did not go to a full military suppression because they realized it would be against soviet interests

p216--25 Nov--Communists resigned en masse--new gov. continued to oppress student protests-- Havel and Dubcek called for a real government--two opposition groups formed Civic orum in Prague and the Slovakian Public Against Violence--27 Nov general strike forces communists--29 Nov allow multiple parties--29 December Vaclav Havel elected President

p217--Havel saw the destruction of the human soul as the worst legacy of Communism

p219--Havel wanted a new politics based on the fundamental values of human rights (the basis for the revolution) and on working for a better state

p220--Other states (Bulgaria and Romania) the more they tried to prevent change the stronger the people wanted it

The Bulgarian Domino: The Anti-Zhivkov Coup

p220--Zhivkov tried to placate Moscow’s reform desiers by doing little things (like removing his photo and statue)--even people in his own party wanted to change--he prevented it

p221--Early Nov. protest, small--10 November Zhivkov ousted by Petar Mladenov and army generals and Dorbi Dzhurov (Minister of Defense)--preemptive attempt to save the communist party some face--new leader Mladenov promised reforms

p222--protests against the continuation of the Communist dictatorship--early December the Union of Democrtic Forces formed as an umbrella organization for the opposition--Zhelyu Zhelev elected as its leader--significant ethnic tensions

The Siege of the Romanian Fortress

p224--August 1968 denounced Soviet take invasion of Czech and decided to become a complete dictator--before that he had been some what liberal and had resisted Moscow

p225--His anti moscow stance made him popular with the west until Gorbechev

p226--after 1984 Ceausecus tried desperately to pay off the country’s $12billion in debt--no imports, no fuel for the people--massive suffering--just to prevent any sort of external pressure

p227--bulldozed more than 7,000 villages and forced people to move into the cities--bulldozed the historic section of Bucharest to put in an administrative building--people were seethign--first protest 15 November 1987

p228--"xenophobic communism" tried to manipulate ethinic tensions to keep revolution down--

p230--the most outspoken critic to reform

p231--he had lost all his support in the warsaw states when GDR went down--still working with propganda

p232--15 December 1989 massive demonstrations against Ceausecu--17 December bloody and violent repression ordered--20 December Ceausecu blatantly admitted that he had ordered the crack down and would do so in the future--this went too far for the people

p233--tried to do a mass rally in support of himself which turned against him =)

p234--students protests on 22 Decmeber despite bloody repression--army switched sides--siezed tv stations--spontaneous marches--25 December Ceausecu and his wife were executed! Euophoria for several days until dissapointement with the National Salvation Front defacto governemtn set in--questions about the execution: undertaken by the NSF (communists) to get rid of him and improve thier legitimacy by detaching themselves from him

p235--Front announced it would fiedl candidates for the election--not just an interim gov--opposition grew despite attempts to intimidate it

Populism and Reforms in Yugoslavia

p236--ethnic tensions!!--Serbians wanted Slobodan Milosevic to come to power--nationalisitc authoritarian--6 ethnic republics--each angry at the others--the only national institution was the army which was 70% Serbian

The Warsaw Pact Reaction to Gorbachev

***p238--overveiw of responses to Gorbachev