Leadership in the Uprising: Comparison of Different Uprising

When Mikhail Gorbachev became Secretary of the Communist Party, he had to deal with an ailing and frail Soviet Union. The country had entered a state of serious economic decline and the Soviet people, discontent with their political party, looked to Gorbachev to solve their problems. Spurred by patriotic duty, Gorbachev introduced democratic reforms known as perestroika and glasnost. These sought to free businesses and Soviet peoples from harsh government regulation and censorship, respectively. While Gorbachev believed these policies would strengthen the Soviet government, this was not the case. Perestroika did not do anything to

The era that preceded the formation of the Soviet Union was earmarked with social unrest, famine, and failed governments. After many struggles, many smaller soviet republics joined to form a large conglomerate nation, known as the Soviet Union in 1922. Vladimir Lenin, leader at the time, replaced the failing capitalist government with a communist government. . At the end of WWII, most of Eastern and Central Europe’s countries were being occupied by the soviet army. They came to be controlled by the Soviet government and pulled back behind an “iron Curtain”. Winston Churchill’s famed Iron curtain remark refers to the countries that fell under the spell of the Soviet Union and shut out the western world ways of capitalism. The countries of

The Czech Republic and Slovakia were now able to own their own businesses. They could move freely for jobs and homes. The countries are now able to vote as they wish. They did however change their language. All countries in the Soviet Union used to speak German. Now Czech is spoken in the Czech Republic and Slovak is spoken in Slovakia. The national anthem changed, both countries now have their own. In the Soviet Union the religion was Atheism, and now Czechoslovakia is free to believe whatever they want. The soviet Ruble was the currency in the Soviet Union and then it changed to the Czechoslovak Koruna and finally, when Czechoslovakia split, it changed to Czech Koruna in the Czech Republic and the Euro in Slovakia. The government in the Soviet Union was dictatorship. Now, a Parliamentary Republic is the form of government in Slovakia and Czech Republic. Although life after the Soviet Union collapsed was free, some people say it was easier to live in the Soviet Union because everything was already set and organized for you. They were not making many of their own decisions. However, when Czechoslovakia became free, the people realized that they had more freedom. They had to make decisions on their

The cold war made a significant change to Eastern Europe. After WWII the Soviet Union wanted to spread their ideologies of communism and in order for them to do that, they

Following the timeline of Josef Stalin’s ruling as a leader of Soviet Russia, it can be seen that his positive accomplishments brought Russia from a period of

First, before the Second World War, the nation of Czechoslovakia had been a strong democracy in Central Europe, but beginning in the mid 1930s it faced challenges from both the West and the East. Until the Soviet’s invasion where they installed a whole new communist government in Prague. For the next twenty

The Revolutions of 1989 during the late 20th century were events which resulted in the end of power under Communism throughout Eastern and Central Europe and parts of Asia. Several nations such as Poland, Ukraine, and East Germany abandoned a communist government and control of the Soviet Union. It was a period where the global superpower was slowing its pace in global dominance. Several reasons being that under a communist system people were persecuted for religious worship and had to face authoritarian rule by typically a dictatorship or a particular dominant party due to repression. The other reason also being poverty within the populations.

It could be argued that the collapse of the Eastern bloc was inevitable due to the moral bankruptcy of communism. The communist ideology stresses the equality and necessity of protecting the working class. Yet, the corruption of the communist party was increasingly apparent. Thus, it could be argued that the inherent failures of the communist system itself contributed to collapse of communism in Eastern Europe. Moreover, this moral bankruptcy resulted in an alienated population. The lack of competition in industry and lack of incentives resulted in low productivity which contributed to the worsening of the Soviets’ economic system. Additionally, due to the quotas enforced by the government, it was not uncommon for managers to lie about the quantity of their production. The fact that there was little

Communism not only had a large impact in Russia and the United States, it interrupted the lifestyles of many other countries, such as Europe. During this time frame, Europe was still very weak from the effects of World War II. The Soviet Union saw this as an opportunity to take control of Europe. “The Soviet Union wanted to

Victims of a new wave of political beliefs, namely collectivization were enforced by Stalin and his followers in the name of Communism.

Before World War II, Soviet troops occupied most of Eastern Europe. Stalin promised to hold “free elections” in these Eastern European nations. Later he broke that promise. By 1948, Communists controlled the governments of every Eastern country except Yugoslavia. In each country the Soviets placed dictators.

The demands, “adopted at the storm meetings held at the universities” (Doc 1) call for freedom in harsh and extreme tones. Instead of compromise with communists, the students request for the “withdrawal of all Soviet troops from Hungary” (Doc 1) and to have “no interference in Hungary’s internal affairs” (Doc 1). As an alternative to Soviet rule, the students desire for Hungary to be in control of its internal affairs. The people of Hungary wish for “equal rights for individual farms and cooperative members” (Doc 1). Hungarians envision a life without communist rule intervening with the responsibilities of the country and demonstrate the idea by “[cutting] out the hated hammer and sickle that the Communists had placed at [the] center [of the Hungarian flag]” and proclaiming that they have created a new flag of freedom. ( Doc

After he attained this position, he permitted himself to be known as the mortal who would succeed Antonin Novotnÿ. Novotnÿ could not solve the very difficult economic situation that Czechoslovakia was facing. Dubček succeeded Novotnÿ on January 5th, 1968. In early 1968, the people of Czechoslovakia were given more freedom. This arrived as a shock to most Communist leaders in Moscow, since earlier he had been known as a devoted communist.

The Soviet Union adapted a somewhat different approach, Stalin was quite happy for there to be conflict, revolution and war in Asia as it would draw away attention from his plans of primary importance in eastern Europe, were he wanted to maintain his influence in the so called "satellite countries" such as Czechoslovakia, Poland

The events that eventually led to the successful revolution in 1989 got their start in the “Prague Spring” in 1968. There was a brief period of political reform in Czechoslovakia in 1968, when Alexander Dubcek was elected to be the First Secretary of Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. Many of Dubcek’s reforms were trying to give more rights to the citizens as well as relaxing government censorship.