1
Q
When did Brezhnev die?
A
November 1982
2
Q
What divisions opened up in the Soviet bureaucracy?
A
Between those who wished to hang on to the established ways of doing things and those who recognised the USSR needed radical solutions
3
Q
What figures are there of a slow down in Soviet economic growth?
A
- 1950s: 5.9% per annum
- 1960-73: 4.9%
- 1973-80: 2.6% per annum
- 1981-85: 1.9% per annum
4
Q
What was the best time in Soviet economic history?
A
1966-72
5
Q
How much money had the Soviets spent on the military?
A
1980-83: 20% of GDP per annum
6
Q
When did economic growth slow down?
A
1973 onwards
7
Q
What were the costs of being a superpower?
A
- Support to North Vietnam: 1965-75: $10 billion
- Support to Ethiopia for the Ogaden War, 1977: $7 billion
- Subsidies to Soviet allies in Eastern Europe, 1980-85: $17 billion per annum
- Subsidies to Cuba, 1980-85: $5 billion per annum
8
Q
What was the consequence of the high costs of a superpower?
A
Satellite states had a better quality of life than Soviets in terms of living standards
9
Q
Who was Yuri Andropov?
A
General Secretary of the CPSU - Leader of the USSR
10
Q
When was Andropov leader of the USSR from?
A
November 1982 - February 1984
11
Q
What were Andropov’s priorities?
A
1) Corruption - wants to remove corruption
2) Improve worker productivity
3) Advancements in technology: telephones, computers
12
Q
What did Andropov act as?
A
Gorbachev’s mentor/patron
13
Q
What was the conclusion of Andropov’s approach to detente?
A
He was unable to revive detente
14
Q
Who succeeded Andropov?
A
Konstantinos Chernenko
15
Q
When did Chernenko rule the Soviet Union from?
A
February 1984 - March 1985
16
Q
Why couldn’t Andropov revive detente?
A
- partly because of his own weak leadership
- partly because of Reagan (elected 1980) who was anti-detente
17
Q
How long did Chernenko rule for?
A
11 months
18
Q
When did Chernenko bam athletes from participating in LA Olympic Games and why?
A
8th May 1984
- response to Reagan’s “anti-Soviet hysteria” and boycotting Moscow 1980 games
19
Q
How much did Reagan borrow and spend on the military?
A
$2 trillion
- 1985: spends $28 million per hour
20
Q
Why was Poland a problem?
A
An example of a communist country that tried to move away from Stalinist economic model
21
Q
When does Reagan become president and for how long?
A
Jan 1981 - President for two terms until 1988
22
Q
Who ruled in Poland after Gomulka?
A
Edward Gierek
23
Q
What happened to Poland’s economy?
A
Crumbled - led to growth of underground workers movement
24
Q
What happened to opposition in 1980?
A
Discontent spilled over into mass strikes, various strike committees joined together in a new trade union called Solidamosc
25
How many members were there in Poland’s mass trade union?
10 million by 1981
26
Who was the new Prime Minister in Poland?
Wojciech Jaruzelski
27
When did Jaruzelski become Prime Minister?
11th February 1981
28
What idea did Jaruzelski sell?
If order isn’t established, the Soviets will invade (they had no intention of doing so)
29
When did Jaruzelski plan a military intervention?
12-13th December 1981
30
What happened during the military intervention?
The army imposed order
31
What happened during the military intervention?
The army imposed order by moving tanks into the cities and roadblocks set up on bridges and intersections
32
What happened on 16th December 1981 in Poland?
9 striking miners were machine gunned to death by zomo riot police
33
Who was pressuring Poland?
The Soviets to crush solidarity
34
What did Jaruzelski impose on Poland?
Martial law to avoid invasion by Warsaw Pact forces at the time
35
What had happened to opposition by the end of January 1982?
Brute force had crushed it, solidarity was eradicated
36
What defeated Polish communism and when?
Solidamosc swept out Polish communists in the first free elections of June 1989
37
What approach did Reagan take to the Soviet Union?
A tough line which was accompanied by massively increased spending on defence
38
How did Reagan refer to Soviet Union?
As an ‘Evil Empire’ in his speech in March 1983
39
What did Reagan launch in March 1983?
SDI (Strategic Defence Initiative) - Reagan thought he would win the Cold War by pressuring the Soviets
40
What did Ragan criticise?
The Soviet’s downing of KAAL 007 in September 1983 (weak leadership exposed) and Operation ‘Able Archer’ in November 1983
41
Why was 1983 the coldest most tense year of the Cold War in terms of missiles?
US deployment of cruise and pershing missiles in UK and West Germany in November 1983
42
Why was 1983 the coldest year in terms of invasions?
The USA’s invasion of Grenada (October 1983) and covert intervention in Nicaragua (from 1980 onwards)
43
What did the Second Cold War begin in response to?
Brezhnev’s invasion of Afghanistan in December 1979
44
Why did the US win the cold war?
Due to the flexibility of the system not necessarily because it was stronger (both communism and capitalism in crisis)
45
How did the Soviets change their approach to Afghanistan with Brezhnev's death?
Willingness to participate in UN sponsored negotiations to withdraw from Afghanistan
46
What stalled negotiations for a settlement in Afghanistan?
The KAL-007 incident on 1st September 1983
47
How many Soviet troops were embroiled in the conflict in KAL-007?
155,000
48
What happened during the KAL-007 incident?
Soviets shoot down a civilian plane paranoid that its a spy plane
- South Korean airliner mistakenly navigates into forbidden airspace
- destroyed with missiles
- crashed in to Sea of Japan killing all 246 passengers
- Andropov denied it
49
When was Operation Able Archer?
November 1983
50
What was the purpose of Operation Able Archer?
NATO military exercise - stimulate period of conflict escalation
51
What was Operation Able Archer?
- culminated in a stimulated DEFCON 1 coordinated nuclear attacks
- NATO forces spread throughout Western Europe on November 7th lasting for five days
52
What was Reagan deemed as?
The 'Great Communicator'
53
What did Able Archer lead some members of the Soviet Politburo and military to believe?
That NATO was preparing for a genuine nuclear first strike
- Soviets readied nuclear forces and placed air units in East Germany and Poland on alert
54
When did the apparent threat of nuclear war end?
With the conclusion of the exercise on November 11th
55
What do some historians debate the significance of Able Archer 83 was?
One of the times the world came closest to nuclear war since the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962
56
What was beginning to happen to Reagan from 1987?
Descending into senility (senile)
57
When does Gorbachev come into power?
March 1985 (TP)
58
What was Gorbachev's background?
- Didn't fight in WWII
- Peasant background
- Andropov groomed him for reform and power in the Politburo from 1969
- Travelled in the West on Soviet government business in the 70s
- Liked the PCI - eurocommunism (communists did not want a single leader dictatorship)
59
What was Gorbachev's approach to communism?
- critical of Soviet Union + Brezhnev era
- Wanted to base it on consent not coercion
- Khrushchev's reforms had not gone far enough
60
What made Gorbachev seem like a reform communist on the surface?
- wanted to allocate measure of autonomy to peasant population
- wanted to remove restraints upon mobility of workers
- wanted to crack down on corruption and promoting growth by allocating resources from heavy industry to the light and consumer industrial sectors
61
What distinguished Gorbachev from his predecessors?
Recognised that technical measures could not provide a solution to the problems facing the Soviet economy
- inspired by market socialism
62
What did Gorbachev's appointment signal?
The determination of modernising elements of the bureaucracy to tackle the Eastern bloc's problems in an altogether more radical manner than previous reformers
63
What were both of Gorbachev's programmes called?
Perestroika and Glasnost
64
What was perestroika?
- "restructuring" the economy
- envisaged gradual re-introduction of market relations that would lead to 'market socialism'
- mixed economy modelled on Scandinavian social-democratic lines
65
What was Gorbachev astute enough to realise about perestroika?
Such transformation could not be undertaken without support not just from all sections of bureaucracy but also working class and peasantry
66
What was the function of glasnost?
To provide legitimacy for the attempt to restructure the conomy
67
What were the hopes for Glasnost?
Criticism of bureaucratic conservatism and a greater degree of freedom in public life would help to obtain popular consent for a project that would result in significant reductions in living standards, job insecurity and unemployment
68
What else did Gorbachev wish to reconstruct alongside reforms?
USSR's relations with outside world
69
How did Gorbachev want to improve relations with the outside world?
- Extricate the USSR from Afghan quagmire
- formulate a response to Reagan who was seeking an extension of US power and overseeing a massive increase in spending on arms
70
Did Gorbachev want to win the cold war?
No, as "lemonade Joe" he wanted to walk away from it and continue reforms back home
71
What are the three possible questions for this topic?
1) Collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe in1989
2) Collapse of communism 1989-81
3) End of the Cold War - Reagan, Gorbachev, Bush and agreements they reach
A level history: Cold War
flashcards
Decks in class (47)
# Cards
-
the origins of the cold war-> russian revolution5
-
the origins of the cold war-> long term origins4
-
origins of the cold war -> the centrality of europe6
-
origins of the cold war -> the emergence of the USSR and USA as world powers7
-
origins of the cold war -> US foreign policy13
-
origins of the cold war -> US, British and USSR relations in 194528
-
origins of the cold war -> developing tensions up to 1948 - Soviet hegemony in Eastern and Southern Europe and the US response55
-
origins of the cold war -> developing tensions up to 1948 - Kennan's Long Telegram10
-
origins of the cold war -> developing tensions up to 1948 - Iron Curtain Speech7
-
origins of the cold war -> developing tensions up to 1948 - The Greek Civil War and the Truman Doctrine21
-
the USA's involvement in Europe - The USA's policy towards Britain and Europe8
-
the USA's involvement in Europe -> The launch of the Marshall Plan, June 194724
-
The USA's involvement in Europe - Cominform, September 194717
-
the USA's involvement in Europe -> US attitudes to Germany and Berlin9
-
Conflict over Germany -> Developments in the zones34
-
Conflict over Germany -> Bizonia and currency reform14
-
Conflict over Germany -> The Berlin Blockade and the formation of East and West Germany48
-
Conflict over Germany -> the formation of NATO27
-
US containment in Asia -> Reconstruction of post-war Japan and US-Japanese relations44
-
US containment in Asia -> the triumph of communism in China 1945-5057
-
US containment in Asia -> Dominoes and NSC-6832
-
US containment in Asia -> The Defensive Perimeter Strategy6
-
The Korean War -> Causes, Position and Aims of Kim il Sung and Syngman Rhee49
-
The Korean War -> Actions and attitudes of the UN, USA, USSR and China27
-
The Korean War -> Military involvement and settlement13
-
The Korean War -> Impacts + Consequences63
-
Increasing Cold War tensions -> McCarthyhism in the USA and its influence in Britain and Europe30
-
Increasing Cold War tensions -> US dominance of United Nations and the isolation of China31
-
The widening of the Cold War: alliances and shifts -> Eisenhower, Dulles and Brinkmanship66
-
The widening of the Cold War: alliances and shifts -> The New Look in practice41
-
The Global War -> Khrushchev and East-West relations 1955-6080
-
The Global War, 1955-1963 -> Cold War rivalries:The arms and space races100
-
The Global War, 1955-63: Cold War rivalries -> The Berlin Crisis115
-
The Global War, 1955-63: Cold War rivalries -> Sino-Soviet relations in the 1950s and 60s54
-
The Global War: Confrontation between the superpowers -> Causes and long term causes of the Cuban Missile Crisis52
-
The Global War: Confrontation between the superpowers -> The 13 days of the missile crisis39
-
The Global War: Confrontation between the superpowers -> The Cuban Missile Crisis: outcomes and consequences13
-
The Global War: Confrontation and cooperation -> The Vietnam War: 1954-6391
-
The Global War: Confrontation and cooperation: The Vietnam War -> Johnson's escalation from 1965-6861
-
The Vietnam War -> Nixon in Vietnam and Vietnamisation from 196862
-
Cooperation: The foundations of Detente, Prague Spring, Sino-Soviet relations86
-
Cooperation: Detente -> SALT treaties47
-
Cooperation: Detente -> Ostpolitik and Helsinki Accords47
-
Cooperation: Detente under threat39
-
The Second Cold War -> Problems facing the USSR71
-
The Second Cold War -> Reagan and US militarism + summit79
-
The ending of the Cold War: The collapse of communism, 1980-9190
