The History Of The Czech Republic

The December of 1991 marked the end of the Soviet Union—and with it, an entire era. Like the February Revolution of 1917 that ended tsardom, the events leading up to August 1991 took place in rapid succession, with both spontaneity and, to some degree, retrospective inevitability. To understand the demise of Soviet Union is to understand the communist party-state system itself. Although the particular happenings of the Gorbachev years undoubtedly accelerated its ruin, there existed fundamental flaws within the Soviet system that would be had been proven ultimately fatal. The USSR became a past chapter of history because it was impossible to significantly reform the administrative

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

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

On the other hand we had the USSR and their approach towards rebuilding Eastern Europe. “Modernization of production in the Soviet bloc opened new technical and bureaucratic careers, but economic development in satellite states remained slow because the USSR bought goods from these satellite states at bargain prices and sold to them exorbitant ones. Despite this inequity, peoples livelihoods

Since the fall of the Soviet Union 1991 many changes have been brought to Europe. After the fall of the Soviet Union newly formed countries of Eastern Europe found themselves brought into a new era, many of the people had relied on the Soviet Union’s system of socialism to help them with every detail of their lives and to dictate their lives but with this newfound freedom citizens had many changes forced upon them. All they once knew had been taken away so suddenly most didn’t know what to do with themselves. The Government, Economy and Marxist Idealism had all fallen with the Soviet Union. Citizens had no choice but to move on with their new lives because it was as their past lives

The economy could not keep pace with the United States. The standard of living for Soviet citizens were steadily declining since the 1970s (Miller 2016, 17). The military was embroiled in the Afghanistan conflict which was producing massive causalities for the Soviet public and consuming scarce resources for its military that was needed for domestic consumption (Gaddis 2007). Secondly, the Soviet Union was plagued by appointing leaders who had fought in World War II, but with Gorbachev, they appointed a younger generation to take the mantle of leadership of the Soviet Union (Gaddis 2007). Gorbachev announce his economic restructure, Perestroika, and openness of the government, glasnost. Perestroika started the process of introducing market based principles into the operation of the state (Miller 2016, xii). State industries were allowed to determine output based on the will of the consumers as along as the orders from state bureau were fulfilled. Individuals would have the ability to own small-scale businesses and the property rights of those businesses would be respected (Miller 2016, 89). It also introduced competition in terms of foreign trade by allowing each ministry to pursue policies in their direct control when dealing with foreign companies and nations (Miller 2016, 71). The last major element of this would be allowing foreign investment by coupling Soviet resources such as

In times of economic and infrastructural strife, the Stalinist-style of leadership appeared to be the appropriate solution to the immediate set of problems. A unilateral command system was deemed vital to coordinate a relatively swift industrial improvement to repair the damage done by World War II. This style of governance was only advantageous for so long as “the inflexibility of Comecon’s command structure” was unable to adapt to the economic environment that it was entering into (Stone 168). With the world focusing less with weaponry and more with consumer demands, Eastern European countries were unable to fulfill the promises they made to their constituents since some could see or hear about how green the grass was on the western side in comparison. As more people resorted to other means to find necessities and more funds were being tied up in military and defence spending, Eastern Europe gradually exhibited symptoms of a failing society that only grew as the decades went along until the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of communist dictatorships throughout the

The Russian state has been characterized by its strong heritage of powerful, autocratic leadership. This domination by small ruling elite has been seen throughout Russia's history and has transferred into its economic history. Throughout the Russian czarist period, to the legacy of seventy years of communism; Russia has been a country marked by strong central state planning, a strict command economy and an overall weak market infrastructure (Goldman, 2003). Self-interest, manipulation and corruption have all been present in the Russian economy, and have greatly helped the few as opposed to the many. To this day, Russia still struggles with creating a competitive and fair market.

Instead of increasing economic growth, Mikhail Gorbachev’s economic reform policies created the adverse effect, paving the road to economic crisis and series of events that would end with the Soviet Union dissolving. After attaining power in 1985, Gorbachev instituted, “perestroika, or “restructuring,” efforts to force the pace of growth combined with minor steps to redesign the administrative system” (Treisman, p. 16). The goal was to

Since 1990, after the collapse of socialism in many countries, liberal democratic ideal was became the ideal concept for some new born countries, including Eastern European countries, which were the parts of the former Soviet Union, by its political, economic, and societal means. Unfortunately, from the internationally accepted study or data, such as World Bank or the United Nation’s studies and data, it can be seen that those, especially, the Eastern European countries’ political and economic achievements have been stuck in the certain level of such developments. Even some of their political systems are returning into authoritarianism, while others have

Comparisons between countries and regions before and after the advent of capitalism in Eastern Europe, Russia and Central Europe as well as a comparison of Cuba and the ex-communist countries provide us with an adequate basis to draw some definitive conclusions. Fifteen years of "transition to capitalism" is more than adequate time to judge the performance and impact of capitalist politicians, privatizations, free market policies and other restoration measures on the economy, society and general welfare of the population.

Before China and Russia grew into two reputable countries with strong communist ruling system, Czechoslovakia existed first and was considered as one of the leading dictatorial regimes of the former century. Under the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, the state’s strongest political party, Czechoslovakia maintained a strong military power and official leaders was integrated into the core of the society. With this, myriad of regulations was imposed on the public and oppositions were curtailed. Half of the country was brainwashed by the obscured benefits of communism while the other half was left unconvinced by the government’s deception. Czechoslovakia was originally comprised by Czech Republic and Slovakia but due to their differing militia objectives, an initial gap was created which later led to the total division of Czechs and Slovaks. Coupled with such division, Czechoslovakia was demolished and Czechoslovak officials’ authority was placed in uncertainty. With the designation of the Czechoslovakian party as a criminal organization, the Czech Republic was committed in lustrating the former leaders and placing them under transitional justice while Slovakia remained passive. This paper will provide the foundation of Czechoslovakia’s “decommunization” to give a background of how this strong state fell apart. Then, an introduction of a resulting legislation, specifically lustration, will follow to furnish the impact of communism in the legal systems of Czech Republic and

In this chapter I will focus on four countries: Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Russia, and China. By the late 1980s the public in these countries believed that communist economic arrangements had failed and needed to be replaced rather than repaired. In response, these economies have rejected all or, in the case of China, some of central planning. In centrally planned economies (CPEs) prices do not represent actual costs, incentive systems are absent, losses of unprofitable state-owned enterprises are automatically

Even as Reagan struggled with communism in Central America, however, the Soviet Union was disintegrating. In reply to serious economic conflict and arising political spawn in the USSR, Premier Mikhail Gorbachev (1931-) started in 1985 and established two policies that redefined Russia’s relationship with the rest of the world. Starting from 1989, every state with a communist state in the region takes over its government with a non-communist

Under Mikhail Gorbachev the Soviet Union underwent massive social, political and economic reform that drifted away from communist ideology and this ultimately lead to the collapse of the Soviet Union and failure of communism in Eastern Europe. This essay will focus on how the Perestroika reform and Glasnost policy programs as well as other external and internal pressures contributed to the failure of communism under Gorbachev. The aim of the Perestroika and Glasnost reforms was to restructure and strengthen the Soviet political and economic system and provide more freedom and democracy within the Soviet Union while strengthening Communism. However, these changes had achieved exactly what they aimed to prevent when they were first elaborated and led to the failure of communism and collapse of the Soviet Union. While focusing on the policies this essay will also focus on the major increase in nationalism that occurred in the Soviet Republics as a result of the Glasnost. External pressure from the western world was also a factor and the role that the United States and the Ronald Reagan administration played in the downfall of communism under Gorbachev will be examined. The essay will also discuss how the disintegration of Yugoslavia and the 1991 Coup d’état led to the failure of the policies and failure of communism.