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Clash of Ideologies in Europe 1900–2000

Gorbachev, the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet bloc

  • 3 things to know
  • A2 Unit 1

Overview

New thinking after 1985, the INF Treaty, the abandonment of the Brezhnev Doctrine and the revolutions of 1989.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

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Key term

Give three reasons for the collapse of the Soviet empire in eastern Europe.

Key term

What did Gorbachev's new thinking mean for Soviet foreign policy after 1985?

Key term

Why did Gorbachev need to reduce Soviet commitments abroad?

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    What was new thinking in Soviet foreign policy?

    Model answer

    New thinking was Gorbachev's argument that security could not be bought at the expense of others, that nuclear war could never be won, and that the Soviet Union belonged in a common European home.

  2. 2

    Why did Gorbachev need to reduce Soviet commitments abroad?

    Model answer

    Perestroika required resources that were being consumed by the arms race, the war in Afghanistan and the subsidy of eastern Europe, so retrenchment abroad was the price of reform at home.

  3. 3

    What happened at the Reykjavik summit of 1986?

    Model answer

    Gorbachev and Reagan came close to agreeing the abolition of all their nuclear weapons at Reykjavik, and the deal foundered only on Reagan's refusal to give up the Strategic Defense Initiative.

  4. 4

    What did the INF Treaty of 1987 achieve?

    Model answer

    The treaty signed in Washington in 1987 removed all Soviet and American intermediate-range missiles from Europe, the first agreement ever to abolish an entire class of nuclear weapons.

  5. 5

    What did Gorbachev announce at the United Nations in 1988?

    Model answer

    Gorbachev declared a unilateral cut of half a million men in Soviet forces and stated that every nation must be free to choose its own path.

  6. 6

    What replaced the Brezhnev Doctrine?

    Model answer

    Moscow let it be known in 1989 that the satellites might go their own way, a change nicknamed the Sinatra Doctrine because each could now do it their way.

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