Reunification of Germany 3 October 1990

The reunification of Germany in 1990 is one of the most important historical milestones of the European history after 1945. However, it is not possible to narrow circumstances preceding this historical event only to the period between November 1989 and October 1990, it means to the time period between the fall of the Berlin Wall and the act of the German reunification. The entire second half of 1980’ was an important political prologue to this process.

Fall of the Soviet Union. In December of 1991, as the world watched in amazement, the Soviet Union disintegrated into fifteen separate countries. Its collapse was hailed by the west as a victory for freedom, a triumph of democracy over totalitarianism, and evidence of the superiority of capitalism over socialism. The United States rejoiced as its formidable enemy was brought to its knees, thereby ending the Cold War which had hovered over these two superpowers since the end of World War II. Indeed, the breakup of the Soviet Union transformed the entire world political situation, leading to a complete reformulation of political, economic and military alliances all over the globe.

Eduard Ambrosis dze Shevardnadze born 25 January 1928) is a former Soviet minister of foreign affairs, and later, Georgian statesman from the height to the end of the Cold War. He served as President of Georgia from 1995 to 2003, and as First Secretary of the Georgian Communist Party (GPC, the de facto leader of Soviet Georgia), from 1972 to 1985. Shevardnadze was responsible for many top decisions on Soviet foreign policy in the Gorbachev Era. He was forced to retire in 2003 as a consequence of the bloodless Rose Revolution.

Further Gorbachev reforms 1987-8 Perestroika 'mark II'.Economic reforms early 1988 – efficiency drive. Choice to be introduced in elections in 1989.Leads to rise of hard-line Communist opposition to Gorbachev + rise of nationalist movements

1987 saw the Afghanisation of the army – preparations for Soviet departure – in addition there were continued discussion in Geneva between Afghanistan and Pakistan governments regarding a peace deal.In February 1988 G announced that he aimed to pull out troops by May 1989. This led to a peace agreement being signed in April 1988 in Geneva. Very important agreement – against the wishes of most Soviet politicians and the Afghanistan Communists, even many American figures were not sure of supporting a settlement as they saw the Afghan war as a way to bleed the Soviets dry.

Soviet retreat from the third world So the Soviets were showing the West they were not just prepared to co-operate but to go over and above this. But last Soviet troops leave Afghanistan in February 1989 – important move. The classic Soviet war that had undermined détente fatally was thus over. Important obstacle to the end of the Cold War had disappeared. The Soviet also moved to remove tension in other parts of the Cold War – in areas which had provoked tension in the 1970’s and early 1980s.

George H. W. Bush. George Bush brought to the White House a dedication to traditional American values and a determination to direct them toward making the United States "a kinder and gentler nation." In his Inaugural Address he pledged in "a moment rich with promise" to use American strength as "a force for good."Coming from a family with a tradition of public service, George Herbert Walker Bush felt the responsibility to make his contribution both in time of war and in peace. Born in Milton, Massachusetts, on June 12, 1924, he became a student leader at Phillips Academy in Andover. On his 18th birthday he enlisted in the armed forces. The youngest pilot in the Navy when he received his wings, he flew 58 combat missions during World War II. On one mission over the Pacific as a torpedo bomber pilot he was shot down by Japanese antiaircraft fire and was rescued from the water by a U. S. submarine. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for bravery in action.

June 4, 1989: First (Partly) Free Election. The June 4, 1989 elections were the first partly free elections in Poland after the end of World War II. In the wake of the elections, the communists lost their decades-long monopoly on power that began in the late 1940s. Commenting on the elections, popular

Václav Havel Václav Havel 5 October 1936 – 18 December 2011) was a Czech playwright, essayist, poet, dissident and politician.Havel was the ninth and last president of Czechoslovakia (1989–1992) and the first president of the Czech Republic (1993–2003). He wrote more than 20 plays and numerous non-fiction works, translated internationally.Havel was voted 4th in Prospect magazine's 2005 global poll of the world's top 100 intellectuals. At the time of his death he was Chairman of the New York-based Human Rights Foundation. He was the founder of the VIZE 97 Foundation and the principal organizer of the Forum 2000 annual global conference.

Boris Yeltsin. The man who put an end to the USSR was raised to power by Mikhail Gorbachev. Ironically, he went on to depose his mentor and destroy his empire, becoming the first president of the post-Soviet Russia. Boris Yeltsin was born on February 1, 1931 in the village of Butka, near Sverdlovsk (now Yekaterinburg), in the Urals, in a peasant family. His father spent several years in Stalin’s labour camps accused of anti-Soviet agitation – Yeltsin only joined the Communist Party in 1961, during Khrushchev’s anti-Stalinist reforms. In 1955 he graduated from the Ural Polytechnic Institute (now Ural State Technical University) with a degree in construction and started his first job on a building site the same year. Working in construction, he eventually grew to the head of an integrated house-building plant. In 1968, aged 37, he embarked on a party career but it wasn’t until Mikhail Gorbachev’s rise to power that he’s got his big break.

Date: 2015-01-29; view: 876