A History of Modern Europe - From the Renaissance to the Present

1196 Ch. 29 • Democracy and the Collapse of Communism

considerable global television exposure, leading to enormous personal popu­
larity. That year the United States and the Soviet Union agreed to reduce the
number of medium-range missiles, and two years later they signed another
arms-control agreement. In 1988, the Soviet Union recalled troops from Af­
ghanistan after nine years of bloody fighting against rebels there. For the
first time in anyone’s memory, government publications admitted the severe
economic and social problems that troubled the Soviet Union. The Soviet
Union began to allow Soviet Jews to emigrate abroad in greater numbers
than ever before. In 1989, almost 70,000 Jews left, most for Israel or the
United States.
In 1986, the most serious nuclear accident in history occurred in Ukraine,
when a nuclear reactor exploded at Chernobyl, near Kiev, sending radioac­
tive material pouring into the atmosphere. Thousands of people in the
vicinity were killed or suffered grave illnesses. A nuclear cloud passed over
Ukraine, Russia, and the Scandinavian states, among other countries. Fol­
lowing an initial official attempt to deny the seriousness of the disaster,
Gorbachev discussed the situation with unexpected openness.
Early in 1989, some reform-minded government officials joined opposi­
tion leaders in Poland and Hungary in the belief that economic and politi­
cal liberalization was urgent. Communist rule slowly floundered under the
weight of economic decline and popular dissatisfaction. In Czechoslovakia,
East Germany, Bulgaria, Romania, and Albania, Communist leaders sought
desperately to hold on to power. The East German and Czech governments
reverted to force in an attempt to halt popular movements for change.
A crucial factor made the outcome of this wave of demands for reform in
Eastern Europe in 1989 different from those occurring earlier (in East Ger­
many in 1953, Hungary in 1956, and Czechoslovakia in 1968): the Soviet
government no longer was determined to preserve its empire. Indeed, the
shout “Gorbi, Gorbi, Gorbi!” rang out from the ranks of Eastern European
protesters. Even if the Communist leadership in Czechoslovakia, East Ger­
many, and Romania, particularly, were determined to overwhelm dissent,
Soviet tanks would no longer back them up. In a speech to the Council of
Europe in Strasbourg in July 1989, Gorbachev made clear that he rejected
the “Brezhnev Doctrine” that had brought Soviet intervention in Czechoslo­
vakia in 1968. The Soviet leader called events in Eastern Europe “inspir­
ing,” adding, “What the Poles and Hungarians decide is their affair, but we
will respect their decision whatever it is.”

Transition to Parliamentary Government in Poland and Hungary

Poland became the first test case for the new Soviet relationship with its

former satellites. Since its creation in 1980, the trade union organization

Solidarity had virtually achieved the status of an unofficial opposition party.

The Catholic Church remained a source of organized opposition to commu­

nism. But although these organizations exerted some pressure on the gov­