HIST 1F90 Lecture Notes - Lecture 18: New Economic Mechanism, East-Central Europe, Goulash Communism
18 May 2015
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Document Summary
1989 year of revolution: role of the soviet union, domestic causes, poland, hungary, czechoslovakia, romania. Role of the soviet union: economic problems in the ussr, cost of subsidizing fuel for east central europe, cost of the satellite states were much too expensive. Had to pull out of war eventually: chernobyl disaster, nuclear energy plant blew up. This had happened before, but this one could not be kept quiet. The impacts were very large, and this was a disaster and the radiation led to the deaths of 10"s of thousands of people. Highlighted the enormity of the soviet problems: decline of ece"s strategic importance, new weaponry, gorbachev perestroika (economic restructuring) and glasnost (political openness, gorbachev was a leader, and decided to save the socialist system by having significant reform. The economic recon structuring actually created huge problems for those who lived there. Second area of change was supposed to be in political openness.
