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Do not fill this in! ==Final years (1985–1991)== {{Main|Cold War (1985–1991)}} ===Gorbachev's reforms=== {{Further|Mikhail Gorbachev|Perestroika|Glasnost}} [[File:President Ronald Reagan and Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev at the first Summit in Geneva, Switzerland.jpg|thumb|[[Mikhail Gorbachev]] in one-to-one discussions with US President [[Ronald Reagan]]]] [[File:Reagan and Gorbachev signing.jpg|thumb|Mikhail Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan sign the [[Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty|INF Treaty]] at the White House, 1987.]] By the time the comparatively youthful [[Mikhail Gorbachev]] became [[General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|General Secretary]] in 1985,{{sfn|Gaddis|2005|p=197}} the Soviet economy was stagnant and faced a sharp fall in foreign currency earnings as a result of the downward slide in oil prices in the 1980s.{{sfn|LaFeber|2002|pp=331–333}} These issues prompted Gorbachev to investigate measures to revive the ailing state.{{sfn|LaFeber|2002|pp=331–333}} An ineffectual start led to the conclusion that deeper structural changes were necessary, and in June 1987 Gorbachev announced an agenda of economic reform called ''[[perestroika]]'', or restructuring.{{sfn|Gaddis|2005|pp=231–233}} Perestroika relaxed the [[production quota]] system, allowed cooperative ownership of small businesses and paved the way for foreign investment. These measures were intended to redirect the country's resources from costly Cold War military commitments to more productive areas in the civilian sector.{{sfn|Gaddis|2005|pp=231–233}} Despite initial skepticism in the West, the new Soviet leader proved to be committed to reversing the Soviet Union's deteriorating economic condition instead of continuing the arms race with the West.{{sfn|LaFeber|2002|pp=300–340}} Partly as a way to fight off internal opposition from party cliques to his reforms, Gorbachev simultaneously introduced ''[[glasnost]]'', or openness, which increased freedom of the press and the transparency of state institutions.{{sfn|Gibbs|1999|p=7}} ''Glasnost'' was intended to reduce the corruption at the top of the [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Communist Party]] and moderate the [[abuse of power]] in the [[Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Central Committee]].{{sfn|Gibbs|1999|p=33}} Glasnost also enabled increased contact between Soviet citizens and the Western world, particularly with the United States, contributing to the accelerating [[détente]] between the two nations.{{sfn|Gibbs|1999|p=61}} ===Thaw in relations=== {{Further|Reykjavík Summit|Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty|START I|Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany}} [[File:Bush Gorba P15623-25A.jpg|thumb|left|The beginning of the 1990s brought a thaw in relations between the superpowers.]] In response to the Kremlin's military and [[concession (politics)|political concessions]], Reagan agreed to renew talks on economic issues and the scaling-back of the arms race.{{sfn|Gaddis|2005|pp=229–230}} The first [[Geneva Summit (1985)|summit]] was held in November 1985 in [[Geneva]], [[Switzerland]].{{sfn|Gaddis|2005|pp=229–230}} At one stage the two men, accompanied only by an interpreter, agreed in principle to reduce each country's nuclear arsenal by 50 percent.<ref>BBC News 1985</ref>{{citation not found}} A [[Reykjavík Summit|second summit]] was held in October 1986 in [[Reykjavík]], [[Iceland]]. Talks went well until the focus shifted to Reagan's proposed [[Strategic Defense Initiative]] (SDI), which Gorbachev wanted to be eliminated. Reagan refused.{{sfn|New York Times|1988}} The negotiations failed, but the third summit ([[Washington Summit (1987)]], 8–10 December 1987) led to a breakthrough with the signing of the [[Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty]] (INF). The INF treaty eliminated all nuclear-armed, ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles with ranges between {{convert|500|and|5,500|km|mi|sp=us}} and their infrastructure.{{sfn|Federation of American Scientists}} [[File:President Ronald Reagan making his Berlin Wall speech.jpg|thumb|"[[Tear down this wall!]]" speech: Reagan speaking in front of the [[Brandenburg Gate]], 12 June 1987]] During 1988, it became apparent to the Soviets that oil and gas subsidies, along with the cost of maintaining massive troops levels, represented a substantial economic drain.{{sfn|Shearman|1995|p=76}} In addition, the security advantage of [[Central Europe|a buffer zone]] was recognised as irrelevant and the Soviets [[Sinatra Doctrine|officially declared]] that they would no longer intervene in the affairs of [[Warsaw Pact|satellite states]] in Central and Eastern Europe.{{sfn|Gaddis|2005|p=248}} [[George H. W. Bush]] and Gorbachev met at the [[Moscow Summit (1988)|Moscow Summit]] in May 1988 and the [[Governors Island Summit]] in December 1988. In 1989, [[Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan|Soviet forces withdrew from Afghanistan]] without achieving their objectives.{{sfn|Gaddis|2005|pp=235–236}} Later that year, the [[Fall of the Berlin Wall|Berlin Wall]], the [[Inner German border#Fall of the inner German border|Inner German border]] and the [[Iron Curtain#Fall of the Iron Curtain|Iron Curtain]] fell. On 3 December 1989, Gorbachev and Bush declared the Cold War over at the [[Malta Summit]]. In February 1990, Gorbachev agreed with the US-proposed [[Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany]] and signed it on 12 September 1990, paving the way for the [[German reunification]].{{sfn|Shearman|1995|p=76}} When the Berlin Wall came down, Gorbachev's "[[Common European Home]]" concept began to take shape.{{sfn|European Navigator|1989}}{{sfn|BBC|1989}} The two former adversaries were partners in the [[Gulf War]] against [[Ba'athist Iraq|Iraq]] (August 1990 – February 1991).{{sfn|Newman|1993|p=41}} During the final summit in Moscow in July 1991, Gorbachev and Bush signed the [[START I]] arms control treaty.{{sfn|Gaddis|2005|p=255}} ===Eastern Europe breaks away=== {{Main|Revolutions of 1989}} [[File:Oliver Mark - Otto Habsburg-Lothringen, Pöcking 2006.jpg|thumb|150px|[[Otto von Habsburg]], who played a leading role in opening the Iron Curtain]] [[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-R0518-182, Erich Honecker.jpg|thumb|150px|upright|East German leader [[Erich Honecker]] lost control in August 1989.]] Two developments dominated the decade that followed: the increasingly apparent crumbling of the Soviet Union's economic and political structures, and the patchwork attempts at reforms to reverse that process. Kenneth S. Deffeyes argued in ''[[Beyond Oil]]'' that the [[Presidency of Ronald Reagan|Reagan administration]] encouraged [[Saudi Arabia]] to [[1980s oil glut|lower the price of oil]] to the point where the Soviets could not make a profit selling their oil, and resulted in the depletion of the country's [[hard currency]] reserves.<ref>Kenneth S. Deffeyes, Beyond Oil: The View from Hubbert's Peak.</ref> [[File:00 Páneurópai Piknik emlékhely.jpg|thumb|left|150px|The [[Pan-European Picnic]] took place in August 1989 on the Hungarian-Austrian border.]] Brezhnev's next two successors, transitional figures with deep roots in his tradition, did not last long. [[Yuri Andropov]] was 68 years old and [[Konstantin Chernenko]] 72 when they assumed power; both died in less than two years. In an attempt to avoid a third short-lived leader, in 1985, the Soviets turned to the next generation and selected [[Mikhail Gorbachev]]. He made significant changes in the economy and party leadership, called ''[[perestroika]]''. His policy of ''[[glasnost]]'' freed public [[Freedom of information|access to information]] after decades of heavy government censorship. Gorbachev also moved to end the Cold War. In 1988, the USSR abandoned its [[Soviet–Afghan War|war in Afghanistan]] and began to [[Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan|withdraw its forces]]. In the following year, [[Sinatra Doctrine|Gorbachev refused to interfere in the internal affairs of the Soviet satellite states]], which paved the way for the [[Revolutions of 1989]]. In particular, the standstill of the Soviet Union at the [[Pan-European Picnic]] in August 1989 then set a peaceful chain reaction in motion, at the end of which the Eastern Bloc collapsed. With the tearing down of the [[Fall of the Berlin Wall|Berlin Wall]] and with East and West Germany pursuing re-unification, the [[Iron Curtain]] between [[Western world|the West]] and Soviet-occupied regions came down.<ref name="Andreas Rödder 2009">Andreas Rödder, Deutschland einig Vaterland – Die Geschichte der Wiedervereinigung (2009).</ref><ref name="Thomas Roser 2018">Thomas Roser: DDR-Massenflucht: Ein Picknick hebt die Welt aus den Angeln (German – Mass exodus of the GDR: A picnic clears the world) in: Die Presse 16 August 2018.</ref><ref name="Otmar Lahodynsky 2014">Otmar Lahodynsky: Paneuropäisches Picknick: Die Generalprobe für den Mauerfall (Pan-European picnic: the dress rehearsal for the fall of the Berlin Wall – German), in: Profil 9 August 2014.</ref> By 1989, the Soviet alliance system was on the brink of collapse, and, deprived of Soviet military support, the communist leaders of the Warsaw Pact states were losing power.{{sfn|Gaddis|2005|pp=235–236}} Grassroots organizations, such as Poland's [[Solidarity (Polish trade union)|Solidarity]] movement, rapidly gained ground with strong popular bases. The Pan-European Picnic in August 1989 in Hungary finally started a peaceful movement that the rulers in the Eastern Bloc could not stop. It was the largest movement of refugees from East Germany since the Berlin Wall was built in 1961 and ultimately brought about the fall of the Iron Curtain. The patrons of the picnic, [[Otto von Habsburg]] and the Hungarian Minister of State [[Imre Pozsgay]], saw the planned event as an opportunity to test Mikhail Gorbachev's reaction. The Austrian branch of the [[Paneuropean Union]], which was then headed by [[Karl von Habsburg]], distributed thousands of brochures inviting the GDR holidaymakers in Hungary to a picnic near the border at Sopron. But with the mass exodus at the Pan-European Picnic the subsequent hesitant behavior of the ruling Socialist Unity Party of East Germany and the non-interference of the Soviet Union broke the dams. Now tens of thousands of media-informed East Germans made their way to Hungary, which was no longer willing to keep its borders completely closed or to oblige its border troops to use armed force. On the one hand, this caused disagreement among the Eastern European states and, on the other hand, it was clear to the Eastern European population that the governments no longer had absolute power.<ref name="Andreas Rödder 2009"/><ref name="Thomas Roser 2018"/><ref name="Otmar Lahodynsky 2014"/><ref>Hilde Szabo: Die Berliner Mauer begann im Burgenland zu bröckeln (The Berlin Wall began to crumble in Burgenland – German), in Wiener Zeitung 16 August 1999.</ref> In 1989, the communist governments in Poland and Hungary became the first to negotiate the organization of competitive elections. In Czechoslovakia and East Germany, mass protests unseated entrenched communist leaders. The communist regimes in Bulgaria and Romania also crumbled, in the latter case as the result of a [[Romanian Revolution|violent uprising]]. Attitudes had changed enough that US Secretary of State [[James Baker]] suggested that the American government would not be opposed to Soviet intervention in Romania, on behalf of the opposition, to prevent bloodshed.{{sfn|Garthoff|1994}} The tidal wave of change culminated with the [[fall of the Berlin Wall]] in November 1989, which symbolized the collapse of European communist governments and graphically ended the Iron Curtain divide of Europe. The [[Revolutions of 1989|1989 revolutionary wave]] swept across Central and Eastern Europe and peacefully overthrew all of the Soviet-style [[Communist state|Marxist–Leninist states]]: East Germany, Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Bulgaria;{{sfn|Lefeber|Fitzmaurice|Vierdag|1991|p=221}} Romania was the only Eastern-bloc country to topple its communist regime violently and execute its head of state.{{sfn|Gaddis|2005|p=247}} ===Soviet dissolution=== {{Main|Dissolution of the Soviet Union}} {{Further|History of the Soviet Union (1982–1991)|The Barricades|1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt|Commonwealth of Independent States|Economy of the Soviet Union|Baltic Way}} [[File:August 1991 coup - awaiting the counterattack outside the White House Moscow - panoramio.jpg|thumb|left|[[1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt|August Coup]] in [[Moscow]], 1991]] At the same time, the Soviet republics started legal moves towards potentially declaring [[sovereignty]] over their territories, citing the freedom to secede in Article 72 of the USSR constitution.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2005-03-24 |title=National Review: The red blues - Soviet politics |url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1282/is_n12_v42/ai_9119705 |access-date=2024-03-25 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050324050607/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1282/is_n12_v42/ai_9119705 |archive-date=24 March 2005 }}</ref> On 7 April 1990, a law was passed allowing a republic to secede if more than two-thirds of its residents voted for it in a referendum.<ref>{{Cite web |title=РСПП: Статьи |url=http://www.rspp.su/sobor/conf_2006/istoki_duh_nrav_crisis.html |access-date=2024-03-25 |website=www.rspp.su}}</ref> Many held their first free elections in the Soviet era for their own national legislatures in 1990. Many of these legislatures proceeded to produce legislation contradicting the Union laws in what was known as the '[[War of Laws]]'. In 1989, the [[Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic|Russian SFSR]] convened a newly elected Congress of People's Deputies. [[Boris Yeltsin]] was elected its chairman. On 12 June 1990, the Congress [[Declaration of State Sovereignty of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic|declared Russia's sovereignty over its territory]] and proceeded to pass laws that attempted to supersede some of the Soviet laws. After a landslide victory of [[Sąjūdis]] in Lithuania, that country declared its independence restored on 11 March 1990, citing the illegality of the [[Occupation of the Baltic states|Soviet occupation of the Baltic states]]. Soviet forces attempted to halt the secession by crushing popular demonstrations in Lithuania ([[January Events|Bloody Sunday]]) and Latvia ([[The Barricades]]), as a result, numerous civilians were killed or wounded. However, these actions only bolstered international support for the secessionists.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://brill.com/display/book/9789004464896/BP000014.xml|publisher=BRILL|author=Lauri Mälksoo|title=Illegal Annexation and State Continuity |chapter=The Baltic States Between 1940 and 1991: Illegality and/Or Prescription |date=28 June 2022|pages=70–139 |doi=10.1163/9789004464896_005 |isbn=9789004464896 }}</ref> [[File:Image0 ST.jpg|thumb|left|[[T-80]] tank on [[Red Square]] during the [[1991 Soviet coup attempt|August Coup]]]] A [[1991 Soviet Union referendum|referendum for the preservation of the USSR]] was held on 17 March 1991 in nine republics (the remainder having boycotted the vote), with the majority of the population in those republics voting for preservation of the Union in the form of a new federation. The referendum gave Gorbachev a minor boost. In the summer of 1991, the [[New Union Treaty]], which would have turned the country into a much looser Union, was agreed upon by eight republics. The signing of the treaty, however, was interrupted by the [[1991 Soviet coup attempt|August Coup]]—an attempted coup d'état by hardline members of the government and the KGB who sought to reverse Gorbachev's reforms and reassert the central government's control over the republics. After the coup collapsed, Russian president Yeltsin was seen as a hero for his decisive actions, while Gorbachev's power was effectively ended. The balance of power tipped significantly towards the republics. In August 1991, Latvia and Estonia immediately declared the restoration of their full independence (following Lithuania's 1990 example). Gorbachev resigned as general secretary in late August, and soon afterwards, the party's activities were indefinitely suspended—effectively ending its rule. By the fall, Gorbachev could no longer influence events outside Moscow, and he was being challenged even there by Yeltsin, who had been elected [[President of Russia]] in July 1991. [[File:BaltskýŘetěz.jpg|thumb|The human chain in [[Lithuania]] during the [[Baltic Way]], 23 August 1989]] Later in August, Gorbachev resigned as [[General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|general secretary of the Communist party]], and [[Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic|Russian]] President Boris Yeltsin ordered the seizure of Soviet property. Gorbachev clung to power as the President of the Soviet Union until 25 December 1991, when the [[Dissolution of the Soviet Union|USSR dissolved]].<ref>Greene, pp. 205–206</ref> [[Post-Soviet states|Fifteen states]] emerged from the Soviet Union, with by far the largest and most populous one (which also was the founder of the Soviet state with the [[October Revolution]] in Petrograd), the [[Russia|Russian Federation]], taking full responsibility for all the rights and obligations of the USSR under the Charter of the United Nations, including the financial obligations. As such, Russia assumed the Soviet Union's [[Russia and the United Nations|UN membership and permanent membership on the Security Council]], nuclear stockpile and the control over the armed forces; Soviet embassies abroad became Russian embassies.<ref name="web.archive.org"/> In his [[1992 State of the Union Address]], US President George H. W. Bush expressed his emotions: "The biggest thing that has happened in the world in my life, in our lives, is this: By the grace of God, America won the Cold War."{{sfn|Ambrose|Brinkley|2011|p=xvi}} Bush and Yeltsin met in February 1992, declaring a new era of "friendship and partnership".<ref>{{cite book|author1=Jussi Hanhimäki|author2=Georges-Henri Soutou|author3=Basil Germond|title=The Routledge Handbook of Transatlantic Security|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=swfHBQAAQBAJ&pg=PT501|year=2010|publisher=Routledge|page=501|isbn=9781136936074}}</ref> In January 1993, Bush and Yeltsin agreed to [[START II]], which provided for further nuclear arms reductions on top of the original START treaty.<ref>{{cite book|author=Ruud van Dijk |display-authors=etal |title=Encyclopedia of the Cold War|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QgX0bQ3Enj4C&pg=PA861|year=2013|publisher=Routledge|pages=860–51|isbn=978-1135923112 }}</ref> [[File:CCCP 1991 (4377719733).jpg|thumb|The first [[McDonald's in Russia|Russian McDonald's]] on [[Moscow|Moscow's]] [[Pushkinskaya Square|Pushkin Square]], pictured in 1991]] Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. 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