End of Cold War

End of Cold War: Timeline

The issues within the Soviet Union were present as far back as the 1970s, but it was during the 1980s that these accelerated and culminated in its demise. Here we chart the important events that contributed to its downfall and the end of the Cold War.

It was in 1989 when the end of the Cold War was truly in sight, given the mass revolutions across Central and Eastern Europe.

1989: Timeline

But what else contributed to the end of the Cold War?

Post-1989

1989 led to the speeding up of the end of the Cold War, with the destruction of the weakened Soviet Union now imminent.

In 1990, East and West Germany reunited. Boris Yeltsin replaced Mikhail Gorbachev as President of the Soviet Union and Soviet republics began to declare their independence. Finally, on Boxing Day in 1991, the Soviet Union ceased to exist and with that, countries such as Ukraine and Lithuania gained their own sovereignty.

Fig. 1 - East German leader Erich Honecker was powerless to halt the fall of the Berlin Wall

Causes of the End of the Cold War

Now we have sketched an idea of the key events that contributed to the End of the Cold War, we can examine the key factors that led to the ending of the decades-long sparring between the two superpowers.

Soviet Involvement in Afghanistan

Until the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, both nations had pursued the moderately successful Cold War policy of détente.

However, the use of the Brezhnev Doctrine led to a breach of this newfound thaw and resulted in a furious President Carter. The campaign itself was equally as detrimental to the Soviet Cold War effort and could have acted as a harbinger for the future United States invasion.

Despite initially installing a pro-Soviet leader, the USSR's troops were met with stiff resistance from Islamic groups known as the Mujahideen who received training from the American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). The Soviet Red Army and their allied Afghan Army found it difficult to combat these groups who used their knowledge of the mountainous terrain and guerrilla warfare to limit military progress.

Fig. 2 - Molvi Mohammad Nabi Mohammadi, a prominent Afghan Mujahideen leader during the Soviet invasion

As the stalemate dragged on, it became increasingly unpopular with the Muslim populations in the Central Asian Soviet republics. On top of this, during the 1980s, Gorbachev came under pressure from Reagan and Bush to sign a peace treaty. They eventually withdrew in 1989, the year when everything truly unravelled. This failed invasion was emblematic of their dwindling power.

Crumbling Satellite States

Alongside the failed military campaign in Afghanistan, there were whispers of discontent in the USSR's satellite states during the early 1980s. These originated in Poland, grew into clamours as the decade wore on and became positively deafening by the end of 1989.

The progress of Solidarity was not the only catalyst that drove the power of the USSR to the brink. For much of the 1980s, the Berlin Wall was no longer effective after Ostpolitik and the cooling of tensions between East and West Germany. This meant that people were migrating from East to West. East German leader Erich Honecker's campaigns of repression and hysteria were beginning to fall on deaf ears. The population realised the opportunities that the west provided. East Germany, an extension of the Soviet arm, was also suffering from economic stagnation. Ultimately the Soviet system could not modernise and keep up an Arms Race with socialism and their economy slowed due to a lack of reforms from Brezhnev in the 1970s.

Once the Berlin Wall fell in November 1989, a series of revolutions in other satellite states in December demonstrated the loss of Soviet power. Some of these were peaceful such as the 'Velvet Revolution' in Czechoslovakia. This was in stark contrast to the violent murder of the Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu!

Reagan: End of Cold War

Although the shortcomings of the Soviet Union and socialism, in the face of capitalism, contributed to the End of the Cold War, the role of the superpower leaders cannot be underestimated. Ronald Reagan, the American President from 1981 played a key role in exploiting the weakness of the Soviet regime and going on the offensive.

Reagan famously branded the Soviet Union an 'evil empire' in March 1983. During that speech, he unveiled the Strategic Defence Initiative (SDI), vowing to eliminate the Soviet threat in Europe. When the USSR leadership changed in 1985 with the entrance of a reformer after a chain of party loyalists (Brezhnev, Andropov and Chernenko), Reagan seized the opportunity.

Perhaps the two leader's most telling contribution was Gorbachev's allowance of the Berlin Wall to fall, after Reagan's instruction.

Facts about the End of the Cold War

Given the length and breadth of the Cold War, almost all-encompassing in its global nature, here are some facts to put it into context.

• During the proxy wars of the Cold War, 11 million people lost their lives.
• There were more bombs dropped in the Vietnam War than in World War II. 3.5 million people lost their lives during this conflict.
• George Orwell coined the term Cold War in its early stages.
• Gorbachev believed that the Cold War result was a common victory for all, though it is often argued that the Soviet Union lost.

The effects of such a conflict are still reverberating around the world today. Now we will dig into them with a critical eye!

Effects of the Cold War

It may have ended more than 30 years ago, but the effects of the Cold War continue, and will do for many more decades. The world is now as polarised as ever, with Vladimir Putin's Russia and their 2022 'Special Operation' in Ukraine symptomatic of a 'New Cold War'. It signifies the requirement for an alternative to capitalism and communism according to Halliday,

Time will tell if and when a new prevailing political philosophy will spread.