Political Changes in Europe Since the Fall of the Soviet Union

In April 1986, Mr. Gorbachev began the perestroika, translation â€Å"reconstruction†, which was to end the Cold War that effectively brought down the Iron Curtain. The split between West and East not only partitioned the world into two parts, but also divided the European family for over 40 years. With the fall of the Soviet Union came many changes that affected much if not all of Europe. At the end of the Brejnev era , the socialist bloc was severely outdated and far removed from the contemporary world.The economy was in a shambles, independent civil society was largely in exile, and corruption throughout and within the state via the Communist Party had become legendary. In addition, the USSR had to devote an enormous portion of its budget to the military. On the international level, the USSR had lost many allies, because its social model proved to be decreasingly successful in its deceit, and the ill-fated invasion of Afghanistan (1979 – 1989) did not help in any way .It was therefore necessary to undertake urgent measures, especially in countries where satellite totalitarian regimes were challenged and the USSR no longer had the support of local communist parties. The advent of Gorbachev to power marked the beginning of the reconstruction. His first step on his rise to power was the partial liberation of the press, also known as glasnost. The first free newspapers emerged and some major newspapers such as â€Å"Novii Mir (New World),† Argumenti i Fakti â€Å"(Arguments and Facts) or† Moskovskie Novosti (Moscow News) changed editors. Books banned by the Soviet censorship began to appear in stores.Also, films which had been censored until this time were finally appearing on the screen. The policy change was also considerable. Under Gorbachev, 140 dissidents, victims of Stalinist repression, were honored and rehabilitated. From exile in Gorky, Sakharov, who condemned the war in Afghanistan – was released. Several opposition po litical organizations emerged as a Democratic Union and in 1988 the first anti-communist demonstrations took place. Gorbachev, considering the difficulty and complexity of the political situation at the time, tried at any price to change the political elite in an effort to ensure reconstruction. Policy frameworks† began and brought fresh faces to power. â€Å"Without – parties† (political parties that were not members of the Communist Party) were authorized to occupy important positions in state bodies. In addition, elections were introduced within the party to make elected officials accountable to its voters. Before this time, the party presented a candidate for the post and members could only nod in approval. Despite all this progress, the USSR was unable to overcome the economic and social crisis that hit the country in the early 80s. The Soviet system was not adaptable by itself and reconstruction was doomed from the start.Gorbachev did not have the political capacity to push the desired reforms through. His strategy, in essence, triggered the collapse of the USSR, which was completely unexpected. Perestroika could not change the structure of the Soviet economy, and thus served as an obstacle to reforms. All means of production were under state control. In addition, factories managers and corrupt officials wanted at all costs to keep the economic system that afforded them considerable privilege, especially in a country where the deficit of consumer products was seen in everyday life.The political system, like the economy, rested on a foundation of lies. Political leaders from cities and regions fabricated domestic and foreign policy statistics, using propaganda, including the newspaper â€Å"Pravda† (Truth). This newspaper was later to become a symbol of Soviet exaggeration of the productivity of the communist state. The Soviet secret services were doing everything to prevent people from having information deemed undesirable; any foreign or independent press was prohibited. In launching his reforms, Gorbachev wanted to reform that which what was not reformable.Perestroika and glasnost had made the system fragile, because the lie was no longer there to blind people. Thus, in 1991 a political system that had seemed indestructible – unbeatable, all but disappeared from the world political map. Perestroika was ultimately the determining factor in the fall of the Iron Curtain. The forces it unleashed, such as freedom of speech (glasnost), by Gorbachev inside his country had devoured the communist parties of Eastern Europe. That was also the case with the fall of the Berlin Wall and subsequent German reunification.The fall of the Berlin Wall was largely provided for by the green light given by Moscow. Without such approval, it would have been very probably a repetition of the â€Å"coup de Prague† of 1968, as the forces of the Warsaw Pact entered the Czechoslovakian capital to put an end to the demo cratic reforms of Dubcek following the Prague Spring. After the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989, the reunification of Germany was inevitable. The non-intervention of Warsaw Pact forces during the fall of the Berlin Wall signaled the outbreak of the revolutions that occurred thereafter.Elsewhere in 1989 in Eastern Europe, democratic movements freed from the tutelage of Moscow out-punched Communism. This is the case in Romania with the fall of Ceausescu, Czechoslovakia and Poland with the resignation of the communist government and the start of negotiations between General Jaruzelski and the representatives of Solidarnosc. The policy of rapprochement between the West promoted by Gorbachev led to the collapse of the Warsaw Pact. Having neither the financial resources nor the political will to save this military alliance, the Soviets proposed in 1988 to repeal the pact against the dissolution of NATO.In December 1988, Gorbachev and Bush declared at a meeting in Malta that th e Cold War was over. Immediately after the fall of communism in Europe, former satellites of the Soviet Union chose to join the unified European family and NATO. Chronologically, in the first half of 90 years, almost all the countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) have submitted their applications to join the European Union and NATO. For these countries, membership in these structures is first and foremost a political symbol, to guarantee their freedom and sovereignty.European integration also meant the return of these countries into the European mainstream as equal partners and not merely as â€Å"little brothers†, as was the case with the USSR. Long oppressed by a regime imposed from outside, these countries could finally defend their interests in the democratic framework that the European Union offers. Without perestroika, the world today would not be the same. It is mainly through this process that democratization has been set up in the Central and Eastern Europe an d that Europe is no longer divided in two.