1. The Cold War Ends
The Fall of the USSR

2. The Cold War: India’s
Role
As the Cold War progressed,
countries in all corners of the
world chose sides.
India, the second largest country
in the world, under its Prime
Minister Indira Gandhi, decided to
move more distant form the US
and closer to the USSR.
However, India never officially
joined either side’s alliance and
tried to assert itself as an
independent country. Under Indira
Gandhi, India also started a
nuclear program due to their
rivalry with Pakistan.

3. Margaret Thatcher: The “Iron Lady”
• Under Prime Minister Margaret
Thatcher, the United Kingdom
became a closer ally of the US.
Thatcher reformed the British
government to make it more
capitalist by reducing government
controls on businesses. She took
certain services that were
government run and turned them
over to private businesses.
• Thatcher also strengthened and
asserted the UK’s military power by Thatcher is known
purchasing missile systems from the as one of Britain’s
US. greatest leaders, for
strengthening her
• Her strong leadership earned her country’s economy
the nickname the “Iron Lady” and military.

4. Contributors to the fall of the
USSR:The Arms Race
• The Cold War theory of
deterrence suggested that each
country needed to show great
strength in order to deter its
enemy from thinking it could
successfully attack the other.
• Throughout the Cold War, both These things aren’t
sides spent huge amounts of cheap
money on their armed forces.
The US was able to afford the
military spending, while the
USSR’s spending put a serious
burden on their economy.

5. The Failure of Communism
• Communism proved to be a failed
economic theory and communist
countries lagged far behind the
West in economic growth.
• State controlled industry was
capable of producing military
supplies but was inefficient when it Communism could
came to producing regular produce good products for
consumer goods. the military, but not for the
regular consumer.
• People in Communist countries did
not enjoy the standard of living of
those in Western Democracy.
• This caused many within
communist states to reject the
philosophy.

6. Nationalism in the Iron Curtain
• People in the Iron Curtain
countries became upset with
the communist system and
indirect rule by the USSR.
• A number of nationalist
movement took place as
countries wanted to rule
themselves under a different
system.
• Up until the 1980s, the
USSR would swiftly crush The Prague Spring Movement was
Crushed by the USSR. Other
any revolution. However, nationalist movements that
nationalist movements and followed would see more success
protests continued to
weaken their control.

7. Poland
• The movement began when a man
named Lech Walesa started a labor
union, known as Solidarity and led
a strike (both illegal in Poland’s
Communist government).
• Solidarity grew in popularity in
Poland and would win some initial
reforms from Poland’s government.
• The USSR did not crush the
Solidarity movement, but in 1981
allowed Poland to arrest Walesa
and ban his activities. They
initiated military rule.
• Poland’s economy failed to recover
under military rule, and the Polish
people who resisted Communism
gained attention from the rest of the
world. Discontent continued in
Poland.

8. A new leader: Gorbachev
• In 1985 a new leader, Mikhail
Gorbachev was given control
of the USSR.
• Gorbachev was a younger
leader, the first leader who had
never lived under Tsarist
Russia. He saw that the USSR
was in drastic need of reform
and started programs to try
and improve the country.
• Ultimately, Gorbachev’s
reforms would lead the USSR Gorbachev represented a
departure from the older
to collapse. communist leaders

9. Gorbachev’s reforms
• Glasnost: Openness. Gorbachev wanted to
lessen the strict control of the Communist party.
He encouraged people to think of new ways to
improve the USSR.
• Perestroika: Restructuring. Gorbachev also
changed the USSR’s economy to try and make it
more efficient. He would allow for some aspects
of capitalism (ex. small private businesses).
• Democratization. Gorbachev also allowed for
some free elections to take place that did not
just include members of the Communist party.

10. USSR’s new Foreign Policy
• Gorbachev realized that the
Soviet union could not keep
up with the USA in an arms
race.
• He met with US President
Reagan and signed treaties to
limit nuclear arsenals.
• Gorbachev also pulled his
Soviet forces out of a costly
war in Afghanistan.
• He encouraged E. Europe Gorbachev and US
communist leaders to look for President Ronald Reagan.
ways to improve their Their friendship helped
economies rather than to rely ease the tensions of the
on aid from the USSR. Cold War

11. 1989: Nationalism in E. Europe
Without aid from the USSR, the Iron
Curtain started to lift and communist
regimes fell.
• Poland 1989. Free elections were
held and the communist party was
voted out of office in favor of
members of the Solidarity party.
• Hungary 1989. Hungarian
communist reformers took control
and dissolved their own party.
• Czechoslovakia 1989.
Demonstrators demanded an end to
the communist regime and forced Uprising in Romania,
their leaders to resign. this time there would be
no support for the Iron
• Romania 1989. Military leaders
Curtain Countries
overthrew Romania’s brutal dictator
and established a new government.

12. German Unification
• The East German government
had resisted change and reform,
but the East German people were
hungry for change.
• Late in 1989, they staged huge
demonstrations and forced the
Communist leader to resign.
• The new communist leader
decided to tear down the Berlin
Wall and allow people to leave E.
Germany. The exposure to
democracy and capitalism made
people unwilling to want to People Dancing on top of the
continue life under a communist Berlin Wall on the day it is torn
dictatorship. down
• The communist leaders would be
forced to resign and Germany
would reunite as a capitalist
country the next year.

13. The USSR dissolves
• In August 1991, hard-line old
communists tried to regain
control of the country in a military
coup. They wanted to end
Gorbachev’s reforms.
• However, the Russian people
resisted the coup and members
of the military refused to
participate. The coup was a
failure.
• Gorbachev was dedicated to the
Communist Party, but was still
unpopular after the coup.
• The 15 Republics of the USSR all
declared independence. The
Soviet Union was no more and
the Cold War was totally over.
• Boris Yeltsin, already elected as
President of Russia’s republic
now had full control of Russia.
Russia would inherit the nuclear
arsenal of the USSR.

14. NATO’s new role
• By the end of the Cold War the
Warsaw Pact had dissolved.
However, NATO continued to
exist and sought a new role.
• NATO expanded to include
more countries, some of whom
had formerly belonged to the
Warsaw Pact.
• NATO continues to exist as an
alliance, and has organized
military action in the former
Yugoslavia and Afghanistan.
• NATO is now committed to
maintaining cooperation and
peace in different regions of the
world.