The fall of the Berlin Wall was such a symbolic, visual event that it is the natural emblem of the end of Communism. But it was the culmination of a process. Much of the credit for 1989 has to go to Gorbachev, for a quiet remark he made in March to the Hungarian general secretary
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The collapse of the Soviet empire and the rise of democracy in central and eastern europe seems much less inevitable now than it did in 1993. The Soviet bloc could have tried to go the way of China, and coupled rigid repression with liberalizing economic reforms
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Based on how the Hungarians acted in the summer of 1989 (small steps, wait for reaction, next step) they didn’t completely trust him.
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I mean, they'd been hurt before. There was also the very valid question of how much his opinion reflected that of the politburo
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A lot of credit for Gorbachev's choice of Anatoly Chernyaev to be his senior foreign policy adviser. And a lot of discredit to the Bushies for putting a halt to negotiations in the tail end of Reagan's presidency.
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I'm not familiar with that second part; is there someplace you recommend to go read about it?
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FWIW in Germany, Gorbachev gets a lot of credit for his role.
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And Gorbachev for his part was extremely frustrated with Honecker refusing to take the hint until it was too late. He really thought that it was possible for the communist parties to save themselves if through liberalization they could bring better quality of life.
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1989 featured both many brave people standing up to men with guns, and almost all of the men with guns somewhat remarkably not shooting them. Sadly neither group is well enough remembered today.
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Reagan is argued to have okayed the two front strategy of pushing Soviets into an arms race while persuading Saudis to keep oil prices low. This did a number on USSR finances.
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I had never thought about it closely, but I’m pretty sure I had vaguely assumed Reagan/America did all the work. Now I would very much like to read a Soviet perspective since that’s obviously, on reflection, critical. Any chance you have a recommendation of such?
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