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... king and Reagan's positive reception brought an end to one of the most deadly arms build-up the world had ever seen. In the ending of the Cold War the major helping hand was provided by the republics within the Soviet bloc. Nationalism in many Eastern European countries was increasing and they all started their campaigns for freedom from the Soviet Union. The Baltic Republics started their demonstration way earlier than any other Soviet republic as they were the most eager for independence. In Poland Solidarity labor unions began to rise in the early 1980 s.
These unions organized strikes, demanding more pay and a change to the unfair labor rights. As they forced Soviet economy to its decline, they won freedom of expression, politics, religion, and recognition of their labor unions. Finally Polish leaders were forced to allow free elections. The Solidarity participants, however, were only allowed one third of seats and still a communist government was established.
The nation faced another era of economic sufferings as electricity, gas, and water prices rose 500 percent. Then eventually the Communist Party gave up and on January 29 th 1990 Poland renamed itself as the Republic of Poland. Democratic elections were held and communism failed to prevail. In Hungary and Czechoslovakia, meanwhile, communist parties were falling. In the beginning of the year 1989 Gorbachev announced in the United Nations that he would pull out Soviet troops from Hungary. With this Hungary created independent political parties other than Hungary's Communist Party.
Many changes occurred in Hungary as there were younger people taking control of the political parties who were more open-minded and didnt like to use power and violence. Soon the Hungarian Communist Party changed its name to European Social Democrats. Hungary declared itself a republic and now Hungarians were free to travel without a special permission that they had to have previously. These movements in Hungary and Poland were encouraging to Czechoslovakia, which was a neighbor state. There were protests in Czechoslovakia led by Vaclac Havel. The communist government there arrested him and many other illegal protestors.
People in Prague protested against the government and in return the police attacked the demonstrators. Hundreds were admitted to hospitals and many were arrested. The following day around 10, 000 people demonstrated against the government. The next day, there were 200, 000 demonstrators and around 500, 000 people demonstrated on the day when the Communist Party agreed to give up. In early December the Communist Party declared that the invasion of Czechoslovakia had been a mistake and by the end of December, Havel was the head of the newly created parliament.
East Germany in the meantime also started looking forward to their freedom. On August 23, 1989 Hungary opened its border to Austria, which was a neutral nation, many East Germans traveled to Hungary and then to Austria finding their way to West Germany. An estimated 500, 000 had escaped when the Soviet authorities found out about the issue. To prevent further getaways, the Soviet Union closed East Germany's border with Czechoslovakia, but the pressure from civilians didnt cease to mount.
Protests and demonstrations also increased after the border was closed and many East Germans were becoming impatient to gain their independence. Gorbachev finally decided to visit East Germany. It was the fortieth anniversary of East Germany when people gathered and asked Gorbachev for help with freedom issues. Reagan once said to Gorbachev General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberation: Come here to this gate! Mr.
Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall! Gorbachev gave it along thought and set up Eric Honecker as the communist leader of East Germany to solve this issue. As the demonstrations grew Honecker decided to resign and replacing him was Egon Ken, who met with the protestors and listened to their demands.
It was not long after that he fired the whole cabinet and ordered to break down the Berlin Wall. On November 9, 1989 the wall was opened and millions of East Germans fled to the West Germany seeking for a better life. On March 1990 the communists were voted out and East Germany left the Warsaw Pact. As Germany was the heart of the conflict, the breaking down of the Berlin Wall signifies the end of the Cold War.
It is also believed that there was a huge contribution of Pope John Paul II in the ending of the Cold War. If the matter is closely studied we could infer that Pope did help to bring an awakening in Poland. Just eight months after becoming the pope, he visited his home nation Poland for nine days. The popes spokesman said that the pope believed the evil and corrupt Empire of Soviet Union couldnt stay for a long time, its destruction was definite.
There were around 250, 000 Poles who attended the popes speech. The pope mentioned that people have a right to have freedom, independence and protection of human rights. People clapped and kept clapping for the next eight minutes, police and politics were no longer of any importance, the pope was believed to be the real power. A year later Solidarity unions came into being and as mentioned earlier, they were one of the main reasons that the Soviet republics gained their independence.
This movement had ten million people registered as members and priests had also joined the union. Pope is sometimes also credited for Gorbachev not using Soviet army in Poland and other eastern European countries. What the pope actually did was to motivate the people morally. The Soviets knew very well how to deal with political pressure, but they had no idea how strong and effective moral pressure could prove. In my opinion pope did have some contribution in the independence of the Soviet republics.
By 1990 Communism fell in Eastern Europe and lost its influence around the world. The Soviet Union was also demolished and its republics became independent. Many experts predicted that the world would become a safer place now. Mikhail Gorbachev also won the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to end the Cold War. His policies of Glasnost and Perestroika helped bring an end to one of the most feared wars in the 20 th century. However, the credit could also be given to the American containment policy which pushed Soviet Union to stretch the arms race and finally made its economy weaker.
The Soviet republics and their efforts with protests and demonstrations also helped to end the war. The end of the Cold War also signifies the end of the Soviet Empire. Soviet Union was no longer a superpower which left the United States to become the only major superpower in the world. SOURCES: CNN Cold War Spotlight: Pope John Paul II web Chapter 16 web 16. htm Cold War Ends http: // 216. 239. 57. 104 /search? q = cache: 5 PUQvSBsAWAJ: web Cold War Ends.
htm+End+Cold+War&hl = en&ie = UTF- 8 The Cold War web 1025 / 002 /kiss/TheColdWar. pdf The Fall of Berlin Wall Berlin Wall History web Think Quest: Library: Cold War web Untitled Document web txt. html
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