The New Revolutions Of 1989

Front 1

Momentous Consequences of the Revolutions of 1989

Back 1

1) People's of E. Europe joyfully re-entered the mainstream of contemporary European life and culture, after enduring Nazi and communists for almost 60 years
2) Gorbachev's reforms boomeranged and complicated anti-communist revolution swept through the S.U. Broke into a large Russia and 14 other independent states
3) W. Germany quickly absorbed its E. German rival and emerged as the most influential country in Europe
4) The Cold War came to an abrupt end and the U.S. stood as the world's only superpower

Front 2

Poland

Back 2

- Early 1989 legalized Solidarity
- June 1989 Free elections for a large minority of representatives to the Polish Parliament
- Solidarity won most of the seats in an overwhelming victory
- Aug. 1989, Lech Walesa was sworn in as Poland's new noncommunuist leader

Front 3

Poland's new Solidarity Govt.

Back 3

- Cautiously introduced revolutionary politcal changes
- Eliminated the Secret Police, the communist ministers in govt. and Jaruzelski

Front 4

Poland's Shock Therapy

Back 4

- Designed to make a clean break w/ state planning and move quickly to market mechanisms and private property
- Jan. 1, 1990, Abolished price controls and reformed the monetary system with a "big bang"

Front 5

Hungary

Back 5

- Summer 1989, the Hungarian Communist Party agreed to hold free elections in early 1990
- Welcomed Western investment
- Moved rapidly towards multiparty democracy
- Hungary's Communists enjoyed popular support and mistakenly believed they could defeat the opposition
- Opened the borders to E. Germany
- Tore down the iron curtain with Austria
- Led to rapid growth of protest movements in E. Germany arguing that a democratic but still socialist E. Germany was possible and desirable
- Stayers failed to convince the leavers and they continued to leave the country en masse

Front 6

Berlin Wall

Back 6

- E. German govt. opened the Berlin wall in Nov. 1989
- E. Germany's old Communist Leaders were swept aside
- A reform govt. took power and scheduled free elections

Front 7

Czechoslovakia's Velvet Revolution

Back 7

- Communism died quickly in Nov./Dec. of 1989
- Demonstrations led by students, intellectuals, playwright turned moral revolutionary Vaclav Havel
- Quickly resulted in the resignation of the Commuinist govt.
- At the end of 1989, Havel was elected president to the Czech assembly

Front 8

Romania

Back 8

- Only revolution that was violent and bloody
- Nicolae Ceausescu combined Stalinist brutality w/ stubborn independence from Moscow
- In Dec. 1989, faced with mass protests, he ordered ruthless security forces to slaughter thousands, sparking a classic armed uprising
- Ceausescu's forces were defeated and they executed him and his wife by a military court
- A coalition govt. emerged