The End of the Cold War

Never before has so terrible a threat hung over mankind as now. The only reasonable way out of the existing situation is the reaching of an agreement by the opposing forces on the immediate termination of the arms race, the nuclear arms race on earth and the prevention of arms in space. We need an agreement on an honest and equitable basis without attempts at "outplaying" the other side and dictating terms to it.

We need an agreement which would help all to advance toward the cherished goal: the complete elimination and prohibition of nuclear weapons for all time, toward the complete removal of the threat of nuclear war. This is our firm conviction.-Mikhail Gorbachev, March 11, 1985The End of the Cold WarThe beginning of the nineties marked the end of a bipolar global system that had spanned over 40 years- one that had started at the end of World War II when the post-war Yalta Conference laid the foundation for the ongoing divide in ideologies between a Capitalist West represented by the United Sates, and a Communist East, represented by the U.S.S.R- a multi-ethnic state, composed of fifteen republics that were held together by extremely powerful central authority exercised by a Communist Russia.

It is necessary to note that when one refers to the end of the Cold War, it is unquestionably a reference to the disintegration of the U.S.S.R; or the withdrawal of the main competitor.

Hence, in order to understand the end of this war, one must analyze the factors that led to the fall of the Soviet Union, which in turn triggered a set of global political changes marking the end of the Cold War.In 1991, the U.S.S.R was officially dissolved with the step-down of President Gorbachev and the collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe. While some analysts contend that Gorbachev himself, with his New Thinking, was the main agent in perpetrating this eventual collapse, there are nevertheless a set of structural and contingent factors that played an essential role in dismantling the monolithic empire.

The non-Russian nationalist movementsThe disintegration of the Soviet Union began on the peripheries- in non-Russian areas. The first region to produce dissent was the Baltic region, when in 1987, Estonia, followed by Lithuania and Latvia, demanded their independence. This sparked up a whole set of nationalist movements from other Soviet sates, namely inside the Armenian-populated autonomous region of Nagorno-Karabakh, in the Republic of Azerbaijan. The Armenian population of this region demanded that they be granted the right to secede and join the Republic of Armenia, with whose population they were ethnically linked. Nationalist movements soon emerged in Georgia, Ukraine, Moldova, Byelorussia, and the Central Asian republics.This sudden emergence of increasingly violent nationalist movements was in effect a culmination of an inherently fragile Eastern bloc, and a result of Gorbachev's New Thinking.

First, all of the states in the Soviet Union, with the exception of Yugoslavia, had had communism imposed on them. These states were forced to comply with the central Russian authority, and any subversive act was automatically quelled by Russian military intervention, exemplified by the Brezhnev Doctrine, which effectively limited any Eastern sovereignty by the threat of intervention. When Gorbachev came to power, along with his new quasi-liberalist policies, the previously submissive states began to test the government, giving more and more voice to their nationalist movements.Gorbachev was faced with a stark reality, one that had always been bubbling beneath the veneer of the ever more totalitarian monolithic state, waiting to be instigated.

In fact, he himself invited the nationalist movements to take action with the introduction of New Thinking into his domestic and foreign policies. Ironically, Gorbachev's government wasn't able to contain these movements and the power of the Central Government was considerably weakened; they could no longer rely on the cooperation of Government figures in the republics. In fact, when confronted with revolt in Eastern Europe, Gorbachev's foreign ministry didn't respond with force and instead remarked that those countries were "doing it their way", what was to known as the Sinatra doctrine (after Sinatra's song My Way)!Gorbachev's New ThinkingWhen Gorbachev became president of the U.S.

S.R. in 1985, he faced a country in a situation of severe stagnation, with deep economical and political problems that needed to be addressed and overcome. Gorbachev acknowledged this, and introduced two new policies: Glasnost or openness, which invited freedom of speech, criticism, and worship, and Perestroika which was essentially political and economical restructuring.

Ironically, these same two policies were the ones that triggered the end of the already declining Soviet Union.Politically, Gorbachev's new thinking resulted in an ascension of non-Communists into the political system due to a new legislature, and with the aforementioned nationalist movements in Eastern Europe. The public was quick to take advantage of the new freedom of speech, and the situation grew quickly out of control, because Gorbachev could no longer contain the criticisms directed towards the administration and against communism. Gorbachev also faced a dilemma when considering how to deal with the nationalist movements, lest he suppress them (a more conservative view), thereby undermining the open policies he was advocating or allow them to proceed (the liberal view) thereby weakening the entire structure of the Soviet Union. Eventually, he conceded to a proposal for a new treaty with the republics, one that would substantially remove power from the Communist government.

Economically, agriculture was reeling from poor harvests and increasing backwardness in technology. The U.S.S.R had been surviving on a war economy, spending enormous sums of money for the ongoing Arms Race with the United States, thus neglecting production and economic growth.

Gorbachev tried to deal with the situation by shifting the economy towards a free market; however the result was growing inflation, shortages, and declining production.Reagan's Intransigence and Gorbachev's complianceThe beginning of the '80's was a period marked by amplified tension between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. The U.S.

administration was feeling increasingly insecure and impotent, and Reagan proposed a new defense program known as the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) which was a costly program to counter the Soviet missile threat. Nevertheless, the financial costs evidently meant little to the Reagan administration as military and technological investment procured an increase in the technological level in the arms race. Ronald Reagan was convinced that Moscow couldn't compete with them at that level. Meanwhile, the Soviet Union had been facing internal domestic problems and could no longer afford the Arms Race and Gorbachev had adopted the perestroika policy that promoted a common global security, one that stemmed from political rather than military means.

Eventually, this led to the signing of the INF treaty asymmetrically, with Gorbachev making more concessions than his counterpart. The Russians also withdrew their forces from Afghanistan, and announced their commitment to nuclear disarmament by the year 2000. Was this the same Soviet Empire that the U.S.

had feared so much?Culmination of EventsAs internal affairs deteriorated, with the European states proclaiming their independence, a crumbling economy, rampant corruption, Gorbachev was forced to make more concessions, not only to the U.S. and with respect to disarmament, but also with respect to granting the European countries their independence, and extricating them from the socialist Soviet network. In 1991, however, the conservative Communists organized a coup d'etat. They kidnapped Gorbachev, however the country went into an uproar.

Massive protests were staged in Moscow, Leningrad, and many of the other major cities of the Soviet Union. When the coup organizers tried to bring in the military to quell the demonstrators, the soldiers themselves rebelled, saying that they could not fire on their fellow countrymen. After three days of massive protest, the coup organizers surrendered, realizing that without the cooperation of the military, they did not have the power to overcome the power of the entire population of the country.After the failed coup attempt, it was only a few months until the Soviet Union completely collapsed. Both the government and the people realized that there was no way to turn back.

Gorbachev conceded power, realizing that he could no longer contain the power of the population. On December 25, 1991, he resigned. By January of 1992, by popular demand, the Soviet Union ceased to exist. In its place, a new entity was formed.

It was called the "Commonwealth of Independent Republics," and was composed of most of the independent countries of the former Soviet Union. While the member countries had complete political independence, they were linked to other Commonwealth countries by economic, and, in some cases, military ties. 1The Cold War was over...

The Republican Party triumphed over Reagan's victory, because in their opinion, it was Reagan's intransigence that forced Gorbachev to negotiate, and consequently accelerated the decline of Communism. Others contended that it was Gorbachev's own reformist policies that ironically led to the fall of the Soviet Union. However, while the unraveling of events was staged by these two actors, one cannot ignore the structural mechanisms that contributed. The framework for the disintegration had been set, with roots extending back into the very nature of the Soviet system of political and social suppression- one that bred nationalism that only intensified with the dawning of the Glasnost and Perestroika. The Soviet economy was rapidly declining, and the communist state found itself increasingly isolated from a growing global system of capitalism and world trade. It was only a matter of time before the walls of the once rigid Soviet structure would come tumbling down- as the Berlin Wall came tumbling down in 1989 signaling the end of communism in Eastern Europe.

This was the environment in which Gorbachev was entrenched... while his reformist initiatives were well-intentioned, the results were disastrous for the Soviet Union. However, the truth is that the framework had already been set for him- the river was flowing fast in the wrong direction, and his policies couldn't counteract anything.

Hence we see an individual within a whole set of structural obstacles and within a growing capitalist world system... The fall was inevitable.