Revolutions of 1989
The Revolutions of 1989, also known as the Fall of Communism,[3] was a revolutionary wave of liberal democracy movements that resulted in the collapse of most Marxist–Leninist governments in the Eastern Bloc and other parts of the world. Sometimes this revolutionary wave is also called the Fall of Nations or the Autumn of Nations,[4][5][6][7][8] a play on the term Spring of Nations that is sometimes used to describe the Revolutions of 1848 in Europe. It may have contributed to the eventual dissolution of the Soviet Union—the world's largest Marxist–Leninist state—and the abandonment of communist regimes in many parts of the world, some of which were violently overthrown. The events, especially the fall of the Soviet Union, drastically altered the world's balance of power, marking the end of the Cold War and the beginning of the post-Cold War era.
Revolutions of 1989
16 December 1986 – 28 June 1996
(9 years, 6 months, 1 week and 5 days)
Main phase:
12 May 1988 – 26 December 1991
(3 years, 7 months and 2 weeks)
End of most communist states
- End of the Cold War
- Spread of liberal democracy
- End of the Soviet Union as a superpower and its dissolution on 26 December 1991
- Collapse of the one-party state regimes, democratic centralism, planned economy
- Socio-economic reforms in China, Cuba, Laos, and Vietnam
- Dissolution of the Warsaw Pact, Comecon, and Eastern Bloc
- Formation of the Russian Federation and the independence of 15 states from the former Soviet Union
- Transfer of power to multi-party governments in Poland, Hungary, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, Mongolia, and Albania
- Fall of old system of economy in other communist countries, transition from a state-run economic model to a private one in the former Eastern Bloc countries; dismantling of the command economies and privatization of state-owned enterprise; the spread of capitalist and free-market economy system after economic crises in former communist countries
- Establishment of a non-communist government in Cambodia
- Many communist parties and their politicians recast themselves into adherents of social democracy or democratic socialism
- The rise of populism and neutral forces
- German reunification
- Yemeni unification
- Dissolution of Czechoslovakia
- Breakup of Yugoslavia and start of the Yugoslav Wars
- Skepticism about communism all over the world associated with decreasing support for various communist and left-wing parties, especially in Europe and Asia, the collapse of communist-dominated governments in Afghanistan, Angola, Benin, Congo-Brazzaville, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Somalia, and South Yemen
- The spread of Western culture, capitalism to previously sealed-off communist countries, including Russia and Eastern Europe
- Expansion of Western media and Internet in former socialist and communist countries
- Failure of Soviet forces in Afghanistan and fall of communist Afghan state
- Emigration of Soviet and Eastern Bloc Jews to Israel
- Suppression of the Chinese democracy movement and the rise of China's anti-Western sentiments
- Start of the Special Period in Cuba
- Attenuation of the socio-economy of North Korea and abandonment of Marxism–Leninism in favor of Juche
- Weakening of communist movements and increase in criticism of Marxism
- More improvement in conflicts in international relations
- Rise of Islamic extremism
- Creation and expansion of the European Union
- Former Soviet Bloc countries in Eastern Europe join NATO
- The United States becomes the world's sole superpower
- Renewed tensions between the Western world and Russia in the 21st century
The earliest recorded protests began in Kazakhstan, then part of the Soviet Union, in 1986 with student demonstrations,[9][10] and the last chapter of the revolutions ended in 1996 when Ukraine abolished the Soviet political system of government, adopting a new constitution which replaced the Soviet-era constitution.[11] The main region of these revolutions was Central Europe, starting in Poland[12][13] with the Polish workers' mass-strike movement in 1988, and the revolutionary trend continued in Hungary, East Germany, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, and Romania. On 4 June 1989, Poland's Solidarity trade union won an overwhelming victory in partially free elections, leading to the peaceful fall of communism in Poland. Also in June 1989, Hungary began dismantling its section of the physical Iron Curtain, while the opening of a border gate between Austria and Hungary in August 1989 set in motion a peaceful chain reaction, in which the Eastern Bloc disintegrated. This led to mass demonstrations in cities of East Germany such as Leipzig and subsequently to the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989, which served as the symbolic gateway to German reunification in 1990. One feature common to most of these developments was the extensive use of campaigns of civil resistance, demonstrating popular opposition to the continuation of one-party rule and contributing to pressure for change.[14] Romania was the only country where citizens and opposition forces used violence to overthrow its communist regime,[15] although the country was politically isolated from the rest of the Eastern Bloc. The Cold War is considered to have "officially" ended on 3 December 1989 during the Malta Summit between the Soviet and American leaders.[16] However, many historians argue that the dissolution of the Soviet Union on 26 December 1991 was the end of the Cold War.[17]
The Soviet Union itself became a multi-party semi-presidential republic from March 1990 and held its first presidential election, marking a drastic change as part of its reform program. The Union dissolved in December 1991, resulting in seven new countries which had declared their independence from the Soviet Union in the course of the year, while the Baltic states regained their independence in September 1991 along with Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia. The rest of the Soviet Union, which constituted the bulk of the area, continued with the establishment of the Russian Federation.
Albania and Yugoslavia abandoned communism between 1990 and 1992, and by the end Yugoslavia had split into five new countries. Czechoslovakia dissolved three years after the end of communist rule, splitting peacefully into the Czech Republic and Slovakia on 1 January 1993.[18] North Korea has abandoned Marxism–Leninism since 1992.[19]
The impact of these events were felt in many third world socialist states throughout the world. Concurrently with events in Poland, protests in Tiananmen Square (April–June 1989) failed to stimulate major political changes in Mainland China, but influential images of courageous defiance during that protest helped to precipitate events in other parts of the globe. Three Asian countries, namely Afghanistan, Cambodia[20] and Mongolia, had abandoned communism by 1992–1993, either through reform or conflict. Additionally, eight countries in Africa or its environs had also abandoned it, namely Ethiopia, Angola, Benin, Congo-Brazzaville, Mozambique, Somalia, as well as South Yemen (unified with North Yemen).
The political reforms varied, but in only four countries were communist parties able to retain a monopoly on power, namely China, Cuba, Laos, and Vietnam. However, these countries would make economic reforms in the following years to adopt some forms of market economy under market socialism. The European political landscape changed drastically, with several former Eastern Bloc countries joining NATO and the European Union, resulting in stronger economic and social integration with Western Europe and North America. Many communist and socialist organisations in the West turned their guiding principles over to social democracy and democratic socialism. In contrast, and somewhat later, in South America, a pink tide began in Venezuela in 1999 and shaped politics in the other parts of the continent through the early 2000s. Meanwhile, in certain countries the aftermath of these revolutions resulted in conflict and wars, including various post-Soviet conflicts that remain frozen to this day as well as large-scale wars, most notably the Yugoslav Wars which led to the Bosnian genocide in 1995.[21][22]
declared full independence from the USSR on 25 August 1991. The main political changes of the early 1990s were driven by the Belarusian Popular Front and its fraction in the Supreme Soviet of Belarus. A few years later, a new post-communist leader, Alexander Lukashenko, obtained power. After a short period, he increased his power as a result of two controversial referendums (1995–96) and has been criticized for repressing political opposition ever since.
Belarus
participated in the War of Transnistria between Moldova and Russian-connected forces in the separatist region of Transnistria. Communists came back to power in a 2001 election under Vladimir Voronin, but faced civil unrest in 2009 over accusations of rigged elections.[118][119][120]
Moldova
had restored its independence in August 1991, after it lost its independence, as the short-lived Ukrainian People's Republic, in 1919. Presidencies of former communists Leonid Kravchuk and Leonid Kuchma were followed by the Orange Revolution in 2004, in which Ukrainians elected Viktor Yushchenko (also a former member of CPSU). Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, was the focal point of the movement's campaign of civil resistance, with thousands of protesters demonstrating daily.[121]
Ukraine
– China remained under the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party, whilst continuing far-reaching economic reforms.
China
– Cuba remained under the leadership of the Communist Party of Cuba and retained a socialist planned economy.
Cuba
– Indian economic reforms were launched in 1991. Poverty reduced from 36 percent in 1993–94 to 24.1 percent in 1999–2000.[130]
India
– Laos remained under the leadership of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party and retained many socialist economic policies.
Laos
– Libya remained governed according to Muammar Gaddafi's socialist Third International Theory, and retained a socialist planned economy until 2011. It erupted with the Libyan Revolution.[131]
Libya
– Syria remained under the leadership of the Syrian Ba'ath Party and retained a socialist (Ba'athist) planned economy.
Syria
– Vietnam remained under the leadership of the Communist Party of Vietnam and pursued economic reforms that were much less far-reaching than China's and many socialist economic policies were retained.
Vietnam
State run enterprises in socialist countries had little or no interest in producing what customers wanted, which resulted in shortages of goods and services.[160] In the early 1990s, the general view was that there was no precedent for moving from socialism to capitalism",[161] and only some elderly people remembered how a market economy worked. As a result, the view that Central, Southeastern and Eastern Europe would stay poor for decades was common.[162]
The collapse of the Soviet Union, and the breakdown of economic ties which followed led to a severe economic crisis and catastrophic fall in the standards of living in the 1990s in post-Soviet states and the former Eastern bloc.[163][164] Even before Russia's financial crisis of 1998, Russia's GDP was half of what it had been in the early 1990s.[165]
There was a temporary fall of output in the official economy and an increase in black market economic activity.[160] Countries implemented different reform programs. One example, generally regarded as successful was the "shock therapy" Balcerowicz Plan in Poland. Eventually the official economy began to grow.[160]
In a 2007 paper, Oleh Havrylyshyn categorized the speed of reforms in the former communist countries of Europe:[161]
The 2004 enlargement of the European Union included the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia. The 2007 enlargement of the European Union included Romania and Bulgaria, and Croatia joined the EU in 2013. The same countries have also become NATO members. In Mongolia, however, the economy was reformed in a similar fashion to the Eastern European counterparts. Armenia,[166] had declared its decision to join the Customs Union and the Common Economic Space of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia, as well as to participate in the formation of the Eurasian Economic Union. Effective from 2015, Armenia joined the treaty on the Eurasian Economic Union.[167]
Chinese economic liberalization began in 1978 and has helped lift millions of people out of poverty, bringing the poverty rate down from 53% of the population in the Mao era to 12% in 1981. Deng's economic reforms are still being followed by the CCP today, and by 2001 the poverty rate became only 6% of the population.[168]
Economic liberalization in Vietnam was initiated in 1986, following the Chinese example.
Economic liberalization in India was initiated in 1991.
Harvard University Professor Richard B. Freeman has called the effect of reforms "The Great Doubling". He calculated that the size of the global workforce doubled from 1.46 billion workers to 2.93 billion workers.[169][170] An immediate effect was a reduced ratio of capital to labor. In the long-term China, India, and the former Soviet bloc will save and invest and contribute to the expansion of the world capital stock.[170]
Interpretations[edit]
The events caught many people by surprise. Before 1991, many thought that the collapse of the Soviet Union was impossible.[174]
Bartlomiej Kaminski's book The Collapse of State Socialism argued that the state Socialist system has a lethal paradox, saying that "policy actions designed to improve performance only accelerate its decay".[175]
By the end of 1989, revolts had spread from one capital to another, ousting the regimes imposed on Central, South-East and Eastern Europe after World War II. Even the isolationist Stalinist regime in Albania was unable to stem the tide. Gorbachev's abrogation of the Brezhnev Doctrine was perhaps the key factor that enabled the popular uprisings to succeed. Once it became evident that the feared Soviet Army would not intervene to crush dissent, the Central, South-East and Eastern European regimes were exposed as vulnerable in the face of popular uprisings against the one-party system and power of secret police.
Coit D. Blacker wrote in 1990 that the Soviet leadership "appeared to have believed that whatever loss of authority the Soviet Union might suffer in Central and South-East Europe would be more than offset by a net increase in its influence in western Europe."[176] Nevertheless, it is unlikely that Gorbachev ever intended for the complete dismantling of communism and the Warsaw Pact. Rather, Gorbachev assumed that the communist parties of Central and South-East Europe could be reformed in a similar way to the reforms he hoped to achieve in the CPSU. Just as perestroika was aimed at making the Soviet Union more efficient economically and politically, Gorbachev believed that the Comecon and Warsaw Pact could be reformed into more effective entities. However, Alexander Yakovlev, a close advisor to Gorbachev, would later state that it would have been "absurd to keep the system" in Central and South-East Europe. Yakovlev had come to the conclusion that the Soviet-dominated Comecon could not work on non-market principles and that the Warsaw Pact had "no relevance to real life".[177]
In retrospect, authoritarian regimes such as the Soviet Union are more likely to be subject to economic sanctions by democratic nations, creating a riskier vulnerability to collapse.[178] Timur Kuran writes in 1991 that generally leaders were despised and failed to meet expectations of freedoms and economic prosperity that they promised, leading to citizen motivation to upheave the government.[179] Economic distress mirrored across most regimes had declined growth rates to near zero leading up to their respective uprisings.[180] While socialist economics may have played a role, Stathis N. Kalyvas argues that international sanctions as well as the government makeup of authoritarian regimes were equally as impactful in reducing their economy's prosperity.[180]
Scholars such as Gale Stokes argue that the moral repression under the guise of security by communist regimes had brought citizens to the streets.[181] Others argue that the repression of revolutionary dissidents and human rights justified revolutionary privilege throughout Europe.[182]
Video of the revolutions in 1989