"Velvet revolutions" in the countries of Eastern Europe. Changing the regime of power in Bulgaria

The essence of the events of 1989 lies in the numerous interactions not only of one single society and party state, but also of many societies and states, in the course of interconnected three-dimensional chess games. Although the French Revolution of 1789 transcended the borders of the country, had external consequences, and became an international event that led to revolutionary wars, it originated as an internal movement in one large country. The European Revolution of 1989 was an international event from the very beginning, and by "international" I mean not only diplomatic relations between states, but also the interaction of countries and societies across borders.

Thus, causal relationships include the influence of a single state on its own society, the influence of societies on the corresponding states, the influence of some states on others, some societies on others, the influence of states on other societies (for example, the direct impact that Gorbachev had on the inhabitants of Central and Eastern Europe) and societies on other states (in particular, the impact of mass protests in Central and Eastern Europe on events in the Soviet Union).

Solidarity revolution in Poland

During the first part of 1989 a new, strange light appeared in Poland. It lit up the world in an unexpected way. An eerie sentence written by Winston Churchill around 1914 took on a new meaning: "And a strange light immediately began, but in noticeable gradations, to fall and rise on the map of Europe." The strange light that Churchill mentioned in 1914 was the flickering appearance of the First World War. A strange light in 1989 revealed the fatal weakening of communism in Eastern Europe.

Poland was one of the first Eastern European countries to embark on a path of change. In the summer of 1980, thousands of workers in Gdansk and other cities went on strike. They demanded high salaries, free trade advice, and political reforms. In the context of the deteriorating economic and political situation in the country, the outbreak of the strike wave, the leadership of the PUWP decided at the end of 1988 to convene a "round table", that is, to begin negotiations with the opposition on ways to further transform the country. Representatives of the reformist wing of the ruling Communist Party took part in the meetings of the "round table", the moderate part of the opposition that emerged from the ranks of Solidarity, there was also a third force - representatives of the episcopate of the Polish Catholic Church, which traditionally enjoyed considerable honor and respect in Polish society, this failed to emasculate and the years of communist rule. During the negotiations, a number of decisions were made regarding the future of Poland. They were formalized in three main documents: "Positions on the Issue of Political Reforms", "Positions on the Issue of Socio-Economic Policy and Systemic Reforms", "Positions on the Issue of Trade Union Pluralism".

In the political sphere, it was supposed to introduce political pluralism, freedom of speech, the principle of democratic formation of state power, independence of the courts, and expansion of the powers of local governments. The right to existence of legal political opposition was recognized. In the field of economics, the decisions of the "round table" essentially boiled down to the creation of a socially oriented market economy. It was supposed to develop market relations, to limit the functions of the state in terms of making economic decisions, to introduce a variety of forms of ownership, to promote the development of self-government of labor collectives.

In July 1989, the first "semi-free" elections were held in Poland. The ruling coalition was guaranteed 65% of the seats in the Sejm (including 37% for the PUWP), for the rest of the seats, as well as for all the seats in the Senate, an open struggle unfolded, which brought victory to the opposition in the person of Solidarity. The PUWP behaved sluggishly during the election campaign, its success was more than modest. As a result, the first non-communist government was formed, chaired by Solidarity adviser Tadeusz Mazowiecki. The defeat of the PUWP contributed to the further disintegration of this party. For Poland, a new page was opening in its history, which meant changes in all areas of society.

Replacing the political regime in the GDR

The GDR was a key object of the "velvet" revolution, since it was here that the western border of the Soviet geopolitical bloc passed. Here, the “demonstration effect” of the Western way of life and Western consumer standards was felt with particular acuteness, since people of the same people lived on both sides of the border. With the onset of a mass consumer society, all of Eastern Europe lost the competition with the West in the sphere of “prestigious” material living conditions, which played a decisive role in the success of the revolutions of 1989. In the GDR, this manifested itself extremely sharply.

Until the end of the 1980s, there were no mass demonstrations by the Germans. The coming to power in the USSR of MS Gorbachev and his perestroika policy radically changed the situation - an active destabilization of the statehood of the GDR began. West German television broadcasts, always freely available in the GDR, provided extensive coverage of reforms in Eastern Europe. An increasing number of people decided to write an application for leaving the FRG - in the first half of 1989 alone, there were 125,000 of them. Many intellectuals and church leaders began to openly criticize the regime for its lack of political and cultural freedoms.

The government responded by expelling some prominent dissidents from the country. However, the dissidents of the GDR increasingly referred to the demands of glasnost and perestroika, following the example of the USSR. The situation with the neighbors also influenced - on April 17, Solidarity was again allowed in Poland, on May 2, Budapest opened the borders for Hungarian citizens, on June 4, the opposition took part in parliamentary elections in Poland.

An even stronger signal in mid-June was Gorbachev's visit to Germany, during which a joint statement was signed in which Gorbachev proclaimed the right of each state to freely choose its own political and social system. By this time, attempts to organize rallies with the same purpose were already regularly made in the GDR, since the communal elections on May 7, which the opposition declared falsified, gave rise to this. Closely following the signals given by both the Soviet leadership and the West, the opposition was less and less afraid to openly challenge the regime. At the same time, the first independent parties had already emerged in the GDR (Democracy Now, New Forum, Democratic Departure, and the Social Democratic Party of the GDR).

The immediate cause of the destabilization was the problem of refugees caused by the opening of the Hungarian border for the latter. Hungary made the decision on this already on August 24, 1989 as a result of contacts between G. Kohl, the Prime Minister and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Hungarian People's Republic. September 9, 1989 Hungary fully opened its borders to citizens of the GDR. Until the end of September, about 25 thousand Germans passed through this "gap" to Austria, and through it to the Federal Republic of Germany. In Prague and Warsaw, thousands of GDR citizens waited on the territory of the FRG embassies until Bonn secured the right to leave for them. On October 4, trains with sealed cars brought more than seven thousand fugitives to the West.

On October 6, an official torchlight procession of about a hundred thousand members of the socialist youth organization took place in East Berlin, and two days later in Leipzig 70 thousand opponents of the regime took to the streets under the slogan "We are one people." Everything happened in a disciplined and peaceful manner. The dynamics are eloquent: on September 25, five thousand people came to the demonstration in Leipzig, only a week later already 20 thousand, and a week later - 70 thousand.

In early October, M.S. arrived at the celebration of the 40th anniversary of the GDR. Gorbachev, who made it clear that the Soviet Union would not interfere in the affairs of the GDR. On October 7, 1989, Gorbachev delivered his famous speech at the Berlin Palace of the Republic, where he warned the leadership of the GDR that "life will punish him if he is late." A rumor was spread that Gorbachev told the leadership of the GDR that the Soviet troops in the GDR would not act on his side. The leadership of the GDR, left to itself, was divided. Honecker, who had just recovered from a serious operation, advocated the use of forceful methods. Most members of the Politburo of the SED Central Committee did not agree, and in mid-October Honecker and his allies were forced to resign. Egon Krenz became the head of the party. He never appeared before the public.

In December 1989, Krenz, after serving as head of the party for 46 days, resigned. At a congress in January 1990, the SED was renamed the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS). Gregor Gisi, a lawyer who had defended East German dissidents under Honecker, became party chairman. The March 1990 elections were won by a bloc of parties allied with the West German Christian Democratic Union (CDU). Lothar de Maizière, leader of the East German CDU, was elected Prime Minister of the GDR. Under his leadership, a quick dismantling of the former control apparatus was carried out. On October 3, 1990, the GDR ceased to exist, having been annexed to the FRG. Previously reached agreements on the "unification" of the two Germanys were simply discarded.

The "velvet" revolution in the GDR took place in the shortest possible time, literally in one year. East Germans were able to “join the West” instantly, abruptly - simply by stepping over the rubble of the wall. Before other CMEA neighbors, they also experienced the shock of close acquaintance with the coveted West. N. Korovitsyna writes: “In 1990-1991. in all countries of the region, a clear preference for the social and economic system of capitalism dominated. The only exception was East Germany, where the new system was associated with corruption, selfishness, profit, and only in the long term - with justice and prosperity. The difference of this country from the rest was not least due to the disappointment of East Germans in the social consequences of the destruction of the Berlin Wall. The idealized image of capitalism that existed before among them, as well as among the other peoples of the region, was greatly shaken by a collision with reality. Here it happened earlier than in other countries.”

According to German sociologists, the liberal modernization of East Germany was a special path of the most rapid and profound changes against the general regional background - "transformation through unification." This is the only case in the post-socialist community of the most favorable development with active financial and economic participation from West Germany. Nevertheless, East Germans survived their shock therapy, which included, as elsewhere, deindustrialization, an abrupt increase in unemployment (in 1990-1992, a third of the employed lost their jobs), and an unprecedented demographic crisis. Despite the real growth in well-being that soon set in, the reduction in differences in the standard of living of the population of the western and eastern parts of the country, the dynamics of mass adaptation to changes in the second half of the 1990s slowed down. The “internal unity” of Germany was not achieved by the end of the decade of reforms.

Most recently, 76% of East Germans consider socialism "a positive idea that has been poorly implemented" - and only 1/3 are satisfied with the way "democracy" works.

Changing the regime of power in Bulgaria

During the late 1980s, government reforms led to greater freedom for people in the Soviet Union and other communist countries in Eastern Europe, influenced by these changes, people in Bulgaria held demonstrations against the Zhivkov government to demand democracy and more freedom.

The mildest change of power occurred in Bulgaria, although it was one of the last among the former socialist countries to embark on the path of change. Among other European CMEA countries, Bulgaria was politically and economically most closely connected with the USSR. Between 1973 and 1985 the country annually received assistance from the USSR in the amount of 400 million rubles to support agriculture. Bulgarian goods found reliable sales on the Soviet market. Soviet deliveries of raw materials and energy carriers to Bulgaria far exceeded its needs and often even without unloading the wagons, they were transported to the West.

T. Zhivkov quite reasonably stated in 1982 that in Bulgaria there are no political conflicts and clashes, there are no “organized political forces that would be against socialist development. The enemies of socialism in Bulgaria have no class base, no social positions. They are units, they are isolated and alone will wait for their end.

The "Soviet models" of development were especially close to Bulgaria due to the peculiarities of the national history and culture. Bulgaria did not experience conflicts with the USSR, similar to the Hungarian, Czechoslovak, Polish ones. Russophobia and anti-Sovietism have not received any noticeable spread in the country. The church, which could not claim to be the crystallizing nucleus of an alternative political subculture, did not enjoy influence, as in Poland. The real anti-communist opposition in Bulgaria was created later than in the USSR - only at the end of 1989, after the removal of T. Zhivkov from power.

It was not easy to find a suitable banner for it - it was necessary to adopt ecological slogans that were ridiculous compared to the scale of the upcoming breakdown of the social order. Among the first dissident associations, the most notable were the Ruse Committee for Environmental Protection, the Ecoglasnost Club. In November 1989, Ecoglasnost held a demonstration in front of the People's Assembly - 4 thousand people demanded to pay attention to the state of the environment. This was the beginning of the Bulgarian "Velvet Revolution". A national movement was also initiated, ethnic Turks were mobilized. In 1989, the government opened the border with Turkey, and within two months, about 300,000 Turks left Bulgaria, a significant part of them against their will.

At the same time, through all Soviet channels - diplomatic, intelligence, through direct ties between representatives of the intelligentsia of the two countries - negative information flowed both about the situation in Bulgaria and about T. Zhivkov. He noted in his memoirs that in 1988-1989. in Bulgaria “grouped people directly led by the Soviet diplomatic mission. Well-known Bulgarian figures were "processed" during their visits to the Soviet Union.

Under pressure from the leadership of the CPSU, the leadership of the party and the government of Bulgaria was replaced, the new team began an accelerated "perestroika" similar to Gorbachev's, and then was quickly dismissed itself. The course of events was described (in a series of six publications under the general title "Coup") on November 12 - 17, 1998 in the Bulgarian newspaper "Trud" by the well-known journalist T. Tomov, who relied on the memoirs of the Soviet diplomat V. Terekhov who worked in Sofia.

According to the latter, in addition to the author of the memoirs, the Soviet ambassador to Bulgaria V. Sharapov, KGB colonel A. Odintsov, and from the Bulgarian side, candidates for membership in the Politburo A. Lukanov and P. Mladenov, participated in the conspiracy against Zhivkov. Moscow approved of the candidacies of A. Lukanov and P. Mladenov as T. Zhivkov's successors, but the specific choice was left to the Bulgarian side. In addition, the point of view of the Soviet leadership, which reacted positively to the idea of his resignation, was firmly conveyed to T. Zhivkov. Moscow's unequivocal position prompted T. Zhivkov not to "cling" to power.

In April 1990, the BKP was renamed the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP). In the elections to the Great People's Assembly in June 1990, which was supposed to perform the functions of parliament and constitutional assembly. The BSP won 211 out of 400 seats, while the opposition Union of Democratic Forces (SDF) won 144 seats. On August 1, 1990, the parliament elected the chairman of the SDS as the president of the country. In December 1990, the Socialist government resigned, and a new, coalition cabinet of ministers was formed, which began to carry out market reforms.

The legacy of the socialist period retained a dominant position in Bulgaria longer than among its neighbors in the "Soviet bloc". Here, in the early 1990s, the benefits inherent in the former social system were valued higher than in other countries of the region, for example, the opportunity to show labor initiative, to educate children in determination and imagination, creative imagination. It was not until the mid-1990s that these values began to go underground.

The overthrow of the Ceausescu regime in Romania

The only violation of the non-violent style of revolutions in the CMEA countries was the replacement of power in Romania. The General Secretary of the Communist Party of Romania, Nicolae Ceausescu, pursued a policy independent of the USSR and in many cases condemned the actions of the Soviet leadership. Romania in 1968 refused to join the entry of Warsaw Pact troops into Czechoslovakia, and in 1979 did not support the entry of Soviet troops into Afghanistan.

These disagreements had a negative impact on the development of trade and economic relations between Romania and the countries that were members of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (CMEA). Since the CMEA countries accounted for more than 60% of Romania's total foreign trade, according to Romanian sources and the IMF, Romania's losses from complications in relations with the CMEA countries amounted to over 3 billion dollars in 1980-1985. Romania was an active participant in the Non-Aligned Movement, although it did not withdraw from the Warsaw Pact and CMEA.

The special position of Romania within the "Soviet bloc" suited the West quite well, so N. Ceausescu's policy enjoyed his support. Romania received preferential loans and credits, its goods were given access to Western markets, and in trade with all the G7 countries it had the most favored nation treatment. No other country that was a member of the Warsaw Pact and CMEA had such privileges.

From 1975 to 1987 Romania received about $22 billion in Western credits and loans, including $10 billion from the United States. Their maturity date was 1990-96. But, as noted in the press of the United States and Western Europe, financial magnates and Western officials suggested that Bucharest pay off its debts "politically" - it was hinted at the desirability of Romania's withdrawal from the Warsaw Pact and CMEA, i.e. open confrontation between Romania and the USSR and its allies. However, N. Ceausescu rejected these "ideas" and stated that Romania would pay off its debts ahead of schedule.

Debts were repaid by reducing imports and forcing the export of goods, including food and consumer goods. In an effort to gain economic independence, the Ceausescu regime began to accelerate the payment of external debt through "austerity" and "belt tightening". Romania had to exert every effort, firstly, to quickly pay off the West and, secondly, to reduce its dependence on trade with the CMEA countries. These goals were achieved in 1987-89, but at the cost of hardship for the population. In those years, in the evenings, the lights were turned off early in the streets and in houses, only 2-3 hours a day, television worked, and hot water was practically not supplied. The food problem has worsened.

In 1975-1989 Romania has repaid, with interest, debts totaling $22 billion. This sharply worsened relations with the West. He actually switched to a policy of blockade against Romania, and the "Gorbachev" USSR also joined the West. In 1988, for the first time in the post-war years, Romania's exports exceeded its imports by $5 billion. This made it possible to overcome many economic difficulties. In June 1989, Bucharest announced that it would stop borrowing from outside.

However, the patience of the masses began to wear thin. In the autumn of 1987 there were serious unrest among the workers in Brasov. It got to the point that the workers stormed the buildings of the county committee of the party and the mayor's office. During the suppression of unrest by the state security services, seven people were killed and more than two hundred people were arrested.

In the USSR and in the Western press, and then in the speeches of the officials of the G7 countries, Ceausescu was increasingly called a "dictator" and "Stalinist". In 1987, Western governments stopped inviting Ceausescu to visit Western countries. In 1988, Romania was deprived of the “most favored nation” regime in trade with the countries of the “Big Seven” and the EEC. The reason is that Ceausescu refused to support Gorbachev's perestroika, he argued that perestroika would lead to the collapse of socialism and the collapse of the Communist Party. Moreover, after 1985 Romania stepped up its ties with Cuba, North Korea, Albania and China, as well as with Iran and Iraq, Libya and Nicaragua, Vietnam and other countries hated by the West. On December 18, 1989, Ceausescu visited Iran, during which Tehran and Bucharest agreed on military-political and economic cooperation.

In November 1989, the 14th Congress of the Romanian Communist Party took place, at which Ceausescu declared perestroika "wrecking the cause of socialism" and "complicity with imperialism." The congress proposed to convene an international conference of communist and workers' parties, which had not met since 1969. Moreover, this proposal provided for the participation in the meeting of those communist parties that, after 1956, severed ties with the CPSU. Ceausescu offered to hold a meeting in Bucharest or Moscow. On December 15, the Central Committee of the CPSU sent a short telegram to Bucharest, expressing agreement "with the idea of holding a meeting."

In the US and British press in 1988-89, it was emphasized that Ceausescu was becoming "a problem for the West and Gorbachev", that Romania could rally all the socialist countries opposed to "perestroika", that "something needs to be done with Ceausescu". In the autumn of 1989 practical actions were started. Hungary played a significant role in the development of events in Romania.

On December 21, at the direction of Ceausescu, a rally was convened in Bucharest. From the balcony of the building of the Central Committee of the party, he began his speech, but an explosion was heard right in the crowd, which caused panic among the demonstrators. The broadcast was interrupted for several minutes, and when it resumed, the situation on the square had already changed. Cries of “Down with the tyrant!”, “Down with communism!” were heard from everywhere. By evening, tanks appeared on Palace Square, and shooting was heard.

In those days when the fighting took place in Bucharest, a real "psychological sabotage" was carried out by the media, already controlled by the new government. There were continuous reports that "terrorists" were attacking this or that object, that the water in the capital's water supply was poisoned, that the nuclear reactor in Pitesti was blown up, and so on. Everything was calculated to sow panic.

After fleeing from Bucharest, the Ceausescu couple reached the city of Targovishte, where they were detained and taken to the barracks of the local garrison. The organizers of the court arrived here on December 25, who quickly sentenced Ceausescu and his wife to death, the death sentence was executed immediately. A few days later, Shevardnadze visited Bucharest, congratulating the killers on "delivering Romania from the tyranny of Ceausescu." On December 26, television showed the trial of Ceausescu and his execution. Only the defendants were visible in the frame, the composition of the military tribunal and the main prosecutor were never shown.

Soon after the hasty execution of the Ceausescu couple, it turned out that the figure of “sixty thousand dead” named at the trial was far-fetched, in fact, about one thousand three hundred people died during the events in Romania. By May 1990, a new political system had taken shape in the country, which was consolidated by the constitution adopted in December 1991. Romania was no longer called a socialist state.

After many years, the real picture is being restored. Objective authors already admit that Ceausescu's dictatorship has never been bloody. According to an opinion poll, in 1999, 64% of Romanians believed that "life under Ceausescu was better than it is today". It was said, albeit very subtly, that Ceausescu managed to "do the impossible" and pay off all foreign debts, which immediately cast a different light on Ceausescu and partly explained the economic hardship and austerity of the 1980s.

"Velvet" revolution in Czechoslovakia

The economy of Czechoslovakia in the mid-1980s developed quite normally (this can be seen especially well 16 years after the change of the economic system). The level of well-being and social protection of the population was very high by Central European standards, and social stratification by income was the lowest in the region. Intensive construction of housing, infrastructure and cultural facilities was carried out in the country. Therefore, the protest movement against the political regime in Czechoslovakia unfolded under the slogans of democracy, independence and rapprochement with Europe.

The collapse of the Soviet state, initiated by perestroika, pushed the counter-elite in Czechoslovakia to take more decisive action. The campaign of street demonstrations provoking the authorities to use violence was chosen as the main method. At the same time, according to the Soviet scenario, a program of continuous "party meetings" was launched, at which the policies of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia were sharply criticized and demands were put forward for the most decisive personnel changes.

On October 28, 1989, a mass demonstration of youth on Wenceslas Square in Prague was dispersed by the police. Events repeated on 17 November. The situation in the state threatened to get out of control, and the authorities took a step towards the opposition. On November 19, mass organizations arose - in Prague "Civil Forum", and in Bratislava - "Public Against Violence". They declared their goal "a peaceful transition from a communist regime to democracy."

The beginning of the revolution, which was called "velvet", was put down by the suppression of a student demonstration in the center of Prague, on Narodnaya Street on November 17, 1989. But the detonator, so to speak, of anti-government protests was the rumors that spread a day later about the murder of one of the students (as it turned out later , it was misinformation). The “victim” was student M. Schmid, who allegedly died as a result of the use of force by the police during the dispersal of the demonstration.

This key event of the "Velvet Revolution" turned out to be a spectacle staged by the secret services of the Czechoslovak ruling regime itself. The role of the wounded student, who was put into an ambulance under the lenses of many television cameras, was played by a state security lieutenant.

On the fifth day of protest demonstrations, the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia resigned, and the government fell. The opposition was offered a quarter of the seats in the new government, but this offer was not accepted. Since the new government refused to unconditionally transfer power to the opposition, it moved on to the next act of "revolution". On November 26, a grand rally took place in the center of Prague, a day later a general strike began. The following week, however, a federal government was formed, in which the Communists and the opposition received the same number of seats.

On November 29, the parliament repealed the article of the constitution on the leading role of the communist party, on December 29, 1989, the reorganized parliament elected Alexander Dubcek as its chairman, and Vaclav Havel, head of the Civic Forum, as president of Czechoslovakia. On July 1, 1991, the heads of the Warsaw Pact states signed a protocol in Prague dissolving the Warsaw Pact, and on January 1, 1993, Czechoslovakia ceased to exist, and 2 new states arose in its place. A few years later, the Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary joined NATO.

The change in the political system led to the rapid entry of new people into the state elite. One of the main sources of the formation of a new political elite in Czechoslovakia was the "revolutionary street", or more precisely, those persons from the opposition, whose unifying principle was the rejection of the previous regime. The core of this new political elite was made up of dissidents who existed in Czechoslovakia in the 1970s and 1980s.

The revolution in Czechoslovakia was called "velvet" because. not a single armed clash took place during the rallies and demonstrations. The students themselves, who started the strike on November 20, could not even imagine that they would win "victory." But even then, it seemed strange to many such a rapid fall of the regime, the strength of which was taken for granted. The second, also very common, version can be called "the unsuccessful Gorbachevization of the Warsaw Pact." Its essence is that the new Soviet leadership sought to replace the old Brezhnev "leaders" in the CMEA countries with new leaders who could support perestroika, but could not cope with the spontaneous course of events. This version is not very plausible, since no significant changes occurred in the system of control by the USSR leadership over the situation in Czechoslovakia in the second half of the 1980s. It was possible to “not cope” with the course of events only if this course of events corresponded to the plans of the Soviet leadership.

The official Soviet influence in November 1989 manifested itself precisely in passivity. And for the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, and for the Civil Forum, which led the "velvet revolution", the question of whether the Soviet troops would remain neutral was vital. As soon as it became clear that this would be the case, they lost interest in the Soviet embassy in Prague. It became clear to everyone that Gorbachev had surrendered Eastern Europe to his geopolitical adversary.

A comparative analysis of the process of development of "velvet" revolutions in the Eastern European socialist countries allows us to formulate a number of general conclusions. First of all, the cultural background of these revolutions was the departure of mass consciousness from the norms of rational thinking and reasoning - a religious-mythological type of consciousness dominated in society, only "sacred symbols" changed. The main of these symbols - "market" and "west" - acquired an emotional and mystical character.

Potential (rather even illusory) material gain has become a key factor in mass support for revolutionary change. A comparative study of the countries of Western and Eastern Europe at the beginning of 1990 showed a positive attitude towards the concept of "capitalism". In general, Eastern Europeans rated its benefits higher than residents of the capitalist countries themselves. This was the “culmination” of the formation of a market-democratic orientation that began in 1980. The very beginning of the liberalization processes, accompanied by a sharp drop in living standards, turned out to be exactly the opposite of what was expected.

The UN report puts it this way: “The transition from a centrally planned economy to a market economy was accompanied by huge changes in the distribution of national wealth and wealth. The data show that this was the most rapid change ever made. In transitional economies, these trends have been dramatic and have been paid for at great human cost.”

The UN Special Report on the situation in these countries gives the following assessment: “Until the early 1990s, social security in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe and the CIS was at an extremely high level. Full and universal employment was guaranteed. Although in monetary terms, incomes were small, they were stable and guaranteed. Many consumer goods and services were subsidized and made available to everyone on a regular basis. There was enough for all food, clothing and a roof over their heads. Pensions were guaranteed and people could enjoy many other forms of social protection... Today, a decent education, a healthy life and sufficient food are no longer guaranteed. Rising deaths and new, potentially deadly epidemics are an ever-increasing threat to life.”

The intelligentsia, the spiritual driving force of this turn, experienced the most severe consequences of the "velvet" revolution. N. Korovitsyna writes: “The tragedy of this revolution, as well as the fate of its participants, lies in the fact that the values and ideals of November 1989 turned out to be incompatible with the “post-November” reality ... The real result of the systemic transformation was not only a significant impoverishment of spiritual life and a weakening of creative society's potential. Together with the intelligentsia, its originality, the basis of all development, has gone out of Eastern European reality.

The collapse of the socialist system was inevitable, but the scenarios for changing the state system depended on the legacy of the socialist era. M. V. Karpov in his article “The Shine of Poor Democracies” writes that at the very beginning of the 1990s, pessimistic forecasts of the further development of the CEE states prevailed in Western European and American political science and economic literature. The main reasons for pessimism were the absence or extreme weakness in these countries of such prerequisites for democracy as a developed system of a multi-party system, groups of professional politicians, an adequate degree of development of civil society, the effectiveness of the state, ideas about the rule of law, etc.

Page 2 of 8

Poland

Democratic, anti-totalitarian revolution of 1989 in Poland was the first revolution of this type in Central and Eastern Europe. At the same time, IMEPI RAS specialists emphasize that “in terms of its prerequisites, driving forces and course, it was very different from most revolutions of that time in Eastern European countries, since it was the result of a mass social movement in Poland in 1980-1981”

In 1989, changes occurred as a result of the conclusion of an agreement between the reformist wing of the Polish United Workers' Party (PZPR) and the moderate part of the political opposition that emerged from the socio-political movement "Solidarity", which was formed in 1980-1981. This agreement was concluded between the parties during the work of the "round table" in February-April 1989. With the support of the reformist wing of the PZPR, the government organized several round tables with the participation of representatives of the state administration, PZPR, public organizations, the Catholic Church and trade unions. The final documents of the round table, signed in April, consolidated the strategy for the reform of the political system. The first elections to the Sejm on an alternative basis were scheduled for June. By mutual agreement, “60% of the deputy mandates were initially guaranteed for the PUWP and its coalition allies, and the remaining 40% of the seats were given to non-partisan deputies and opposition representatives” [35]. In accordance with the decisions of the round table in April, the institution of the president was also restored and the second chamber of parliament was established. At the same time, the law on trade unions was amended, allowing the existence of independent trade union associations.

The June elections showed a rapid decline in the influence of the PZPR and an increase in the popularity of opposition movements, including Solidarity. The new composition of the parliament elected V. Jaruzelski to the post of president only by a one-vote majority. In December, constitutional amendments were adopted declaring Poland a democratic constitutional state. Articles about the PUWP as the leading political force of Polish society and the socialist character of the Polish state were excluded, and a multi-party system was consolidated.

In general, "in Poland there was no serious resistance to reforms, both on the part of political elites and on the part of a significant part of the population." In January 1990, the XI Congress of the PZPR announced the termination of the party's activities. At the suggestion of Jaruzelski, extraordinary presidential elections were held in November-December 1990, which brought victory to L. Walesa. Thus, a new page in its history was opened for Poland, which meant changes in all areas of society.

In the summer of 1980, workers began to protest in Poland, the reason for which was another price increase. Gradually, they covered the cities of the northern coast of the country. In Gdansk, on the basis of an interfactory strike committee, the trade union association "Solidarity" was formed.

Under the banner of Solidarity

Its participants presented "21 demands" to the authorities. This document contained both economic and political demands, including: to recognize free trade unions independent of the state and the right of workers to strike, to stop persecution for their beliefs, to expand the access of public and religious organizations to the media, etc. The head of the All-Polish Commission of the trade union association "Solidarity", an electrical worker L. Walesa was elected.

The expanding influence of the trade union association and its beginning to develop into a political movement prompted the government to introduce martial law in the country in December 1981. The activities of Solidarity were banned, its leaders were interned (subjected to house arrest). But the authorities could not eliminate the imminent crisis.

In June 1989 parliamentary elections were held in Poland on a multi-party basis. They won "Solidarity". The new coalition government was headed by the representative of "Solidarity" T. Mazowiecki. In December 1990, L. Walesa was elected president of the country.

Lech Walesa was born in 1943 into a peasant family. He graduated from the school of agricultural mechanization, began working as an electrician. In 1967, he entered the shipyard as an electrician. Lenin in Gdansk. In 1970 and 1979-1980. - member of the strike committee of the shipyard. One of the organizers and leaders of the Solidarity trade union. In December 1981 he was interned, in 1983 he returned to the shipyard as an electrician. In 1990-1995 - President of the Republic of Poland. The extraordinary political fate of L. Walesa was generated both by time and by the personal qualities of this person. Publicists noted that he was a "typical Pole", a deeply believing Catholic, a family man. At the same time, it is no coincidence that he was called the "flexible man of iron." He was distinguished not only by his pronounced abilities as a political fighter and orator, but also by the ability to choose his own path, to perform actions that neither opponents nor comrades-in-arms expected from him.

1989-1990s: big changes

Panorama of events

August 1989- The first Solidarity government in Poland was formed.
November - December 1989- mass demonstrations of the population and the displacement of the communist leadership in the GDR, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Bulgaria.
By June 1990 as a result of multi-party elections in all countries of Eastern Europe (except Albania), new governments and leaders came to power.
March - April 1991- The first parliamentary elections on a multi-party basis in Albania, since June a coalition government has been in power.

In less than two years, power has changed in eight Eastern European countries. Why did it happen so? This question can be asked for each country separately. One might also ask: why did this happen in all countries at almost the same time?

Let's consider specific situations.

German Democratic Republic

Dates and events

1989

October- mass anti-government demonstrations in different cities, their dispersal, arrests of participants, the rise of a social movement for the renewal of the existing system.
November 9- The Berlin Wall fell.
By the end of November more than 100 political parties and social movements emerged in the country.
December 1- Article 1 of the Constitution of the GDR (on the leading role of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany) was abolished.
December- the mass exit of SED members from the party, by January 1990, out of the previous 2.3 million, 1.1 million people remained in the party.
December 10-11 and 16-17- Extraordinary Congress of the SED, its transformation into the Party of Democratic Socialism.

Fall of the Berlin Wall

1990

March- parliamentary elections, the victory of the conservative bloc "Alliance for Germany" led by the Christian Democratic Union.
April- A “grand coalition” government was formed, half of the posts in which were occupied by representatives of the CDU.
July 1- the agreement between the GDR and the FRG on economic, monetary and social union came into force.
October 3 The German Unification Treaty entered into force.

Czechoslovakia

Events named afterwards "velvet revolution", began on November 17, 1989. On this day, students organized a demonstration in Prague in connection with the 50th anniversary of the anti-Nazi speech of Czech students during the years of German occupation. During the demonstration, demands were made for the democratization of society and the resignation of the government. Law enforcement forces dispersed the demonstration, detained some of the participants, and several people were injured.

November 19 a protest demonstration took place in Prague with anti-government slogans, calls for a strike. On the same day, the Civil Forum was established - a public movement that put forward demands to remove a number of country leaders from their posts, and the Socialist Party (dissolved in 1948) was also restored. Supporting the public outcry, Prague theatres, including the National Theatre, have canceled performances.

20 November in Prague, a 150,000-strong demonstration took place under the slogan “End of the rule of one party!”, demonstrations began in various cities of the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

The government had to enter into negotiations with representatives of the Civil Forum. Parliament repealed articles of the constitution on the leading role of the Communist Party in society and the defining role of Marxism-Leninism in upbringing and education. On December 10, a coalition government was created, which included the Communists, representatives of the Civil Forum, the Socialist and People's Parties. Some time later, A. Dubcek became the chairman of the Federal Assembly (parliament). V. Havel was elected President of the country.

Vaclav Havel born in 1936. Received an economic education. In the 1960s he began working in the theater and became known as a playwright and writer. Member of the "Prague Spring" in 1968. After 1969, he was deprived of the opportunity to practice his profession, worked as a laborer. Between 1970 and 1989 he was imprisoned three times for political reasons. Since November 1989 - one of the leaders of the Civil Forum. In 1989-1992 - President of the Czechoslovak Republic. Since 1993 - the first president of the newly formed Czech Republic (he held this post in 1993-2003).

Romania

While serious changes had already taken place in neighboring countries, in Romania on November 20-24, 1989, the XIV Congress of the Communist Party was held. The five-hour report of the General Secretary of the Party, Nicolae Ceausescu, on the successes achieved, was met with endless applause. The slogans "Ceausescu and the people!", "Ceausescu - communism!" sounded in the hall. With stormy joy, the congress greeted the announcement of the election of Ceausescu to his post for a new term.

From publications in Romanian newspapers of that time:

“To the imperialist forces, which are stepping up efforts to undermine and destabilize socialism, speaking of its “crisis”, we respond with deeds: the whole country has turned into a huge construction site and a flowering garden. And this is because Romanian socialism is the socialism of free labor, and not of the "market", it does not leave the cardinal problems of development to chance and does not understand improvement, renewal, perestroika as the restoration of capitalist forms.
“The unanimous commitment to the decision to re-elect Comrade N. Ceausescu to the post of General Secretary of the RCP is a political vote for the continuation of the tried and tested constructive course, as well as recognition of the heroic example of a revolutionary and patriot, the leader of our party and state. Together with the entire Romanian people, writers, with a sense of full responsibility, join the proposal to re-elect Comrade N. Ceausescu to the post of head of our party.

A month later, on December 21, at an official rally in the center of Bucharest, instead of toasts, shouts of “Down with Ceausescu!” were heard from the crowd. The actions of the army units directed against the demonstrators soon stopped. Realizing that the situation was out of control, N. Ceausescu and his wife E. Ceausescu (a well-known party leader) fled Bucharest. The next day they were arrested and put on trial by a tribunal held in strict secrecy. On December 26, 1989, the Romanian media reported on the court that sentenced the Ceausescu couple to death (they were shot 15 minutes after the verdict was announced).

Already on December 23, Romanian television announced the creation of the Council of the National Salvation Front, which assumed full power. Ion Iliescu, once a member of the Communist Party, who was repeatedly removed from party posts in the 1970s for opposition sentiments, became the chairman of the Council of the Federal Tax Service. In May 1990, I. Iliescu was elected president of the country.

The overall result of the events of 1989-1990. was the fall of communist regimes in all countries of Eastern Europe. Communist parties collapsed, some of them were transformed into parties of the social democratic type. New political forces and leaders came to power.

At a new stage

The “new people” in power were most often liberal politicians (in Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, and the Czech Republic). In some cases, for example in Romania, these were former members of the communist parties who had gone over to social democratic positions. The main activities of the new governments in the economic sphere provided for the transition to a market economy. Privatization (transfer to private hands) of state property began, price controls were abolished. Significantly reduced social spending, "frozen" wages. The breaking of the previously existing system was carried out in a number of cases by the most severe methods in the shortest possible time, for which it was called “shock therapy” (this option was carried out in Poland).

By the mid-1990s, the economic and social costs of the reforms became apparent: a decline in production and the ruin of hundreds of enterprises, mass unemployment, rising prices, the stratification of society into the few rich and thousands of people living below the poverty line, etc. The governments responsible for the reforms and their consequences, began to lose the support of the population. In the elections of 1995-1996. in Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, representatives of the socialists won. Strengthened the position of the Social Democrats in the Czech Republic. In Poland, as a result of a change in public sentiment, L. Walesa, the most popular politician in the early 1990s, lost the presidential election. In 1995, the Social Democrat A. Kwasniewski became the President of the country.

Changes in the foundations of the social system could not but affect national relations. Previously, rigid centralized systems tied each state into a single whole. With their fall, the road was opened not only for national self-determination, but also for the actions of nationalist and separatist forces. In 1991 -1992 the Yugoslav state collapsed. The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia retained two of the six former Yugoslav republics - Serbia and Montenegro. Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia became independent states. However, the state demarcation was accompanied by an aggravation of ethno-national contradictions in each of the republics.

Bosnian crisis. An intractable situation has developed in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Serbs, Croats and Muslims historically coexisted here (the concept of “Muslims” in Bosnia is considered as a definition of nationality, although we are talking about the Slavic population that converted to Islam after the Turkish conquest in the 14th century). Ethnic differences were supplemented by religious ones: in addition to the division into Christians and Muslims, the Serbs belonged to the Orthodox Church, and the Croats belonged to the Catholic Church. In a single Serbo-Croatian language, there were two alphabets - Cyrillic (among the Serbs) and Latin (among the Croats).

Throughout the 20th century strong central authority in the Yugoslav kingdom, and then in the federal socialist state, kept national contradictions in check. In the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which broke away from Yugoslavia, they manifested themselves with particular severity. The Serbs, who made up half of the population of Bosnia, refused to recognize secession from the Yugoslav federation, and then proclaimed the Serbian Republic in Bosnia. In 1992-1994 armed conflict broke out between Serbs, Muslims and Croats. It led to numerous casualties not only among those who fought, but also among the civilian population. In the camps for prisoners, in settlements, people were killed. Thousands of residents left their villages and cities and became refugees. To contain the internecine struggle, UN peacekeeping troops were sent to Bosnia. By the mid-1990s, military operations in Bosnia were stopped by the efforts of international diplomacy.

In 2006, Montenegro seceded from Serbia following a plebiscite. The Republic of Yugoslavia ceased to exist.

AT Serbia after 1990, a crisis arose associated with the autonomous province of Kosovo, 90% of the population of which were Albanians (Muslims by religion). The limitation of the province's autonomy led to the self-proclamation of the "Republic of Kosovo". An armed conflict broke out. At the end of the 1990s, with international mediation, a negotiation process began between the leadership of Serbia and the leaders of the Kosovo Albanians. In an effort to put pressure on Serbian President S. Milosevic, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization - NATO intervened in the conflict. In March 1999, NATO troops began bombing the territory of Yugoslavia. The crisis has grown to a European scale.

The peoples have chosen a different way of settling national problems Czechoslovakia. In 1992, as a result of a referendum, a decision was made to divide the country. The division procedure was thoroughly discussed and prepared, for which the publicists called this event "a divorce with a human face." On January 1, 1993, two new states appeared on the world map - the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic.

The changes that took place in the Eastern European countries had significant foreign policy consequences. In the early 1990s, the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance and the Warsaw Pact ceased to exist. In 1991, Soviet troops were withdrawn from Hungary, East Germany, Poland, and Czechoslovakia. The economic and military-political organizations of Western European countries, primarily the European Union and NATO, have become the center of attraction for the countries of the region. In 1999 Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic joined NATO, and in 2004 another 7 states (Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia) joined NATO. In the same 2004, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia and the Czech Republic became EU members, and in 2007 - Romania and Bulgaria.

At the beginning of the XXI century. in most countries of Central and Eastern Europe (as the region began to be called), left and right governments and state leaders were replaced in power. So, in the Czech Republic, the center-left government was supposed to cooperate with President W. Klaus, who occupies the right positions (elected in 2003), in Poland, the leftist politician A. Kwasniewski was replaced as president of the country by the representative of the right forces L. Kaczynski (2005-2010). It is noteworthy that both the “left” and “right” governments, in one way or another, solved the common tasks of accelerating the economic development of countries, bringing their political and economic systems in line with European standards, and resolving social problems.

References:
Aleksashkina L. N. / General History. XX - the beginning of the XXI century.

5.2.4. Anti-communist revolutions in Eastern Europe

Since 1990, the Soviet Union began to cut aid to other pro-communist regimes in the third world, which in 1986-1989. was about $93 billion. At the same time, the Kremlin continued to provide large-scale assistance to some regimes, primarily Cuba, Vietnam, Ethiopia, Iraq and Syria, until the collapse of the USSR in the fall of 1991. In May 1989, for the first time in 30 years, the head of the Soviet Union visited Beijing, starting the normalization of relations with China and negotiations on the Soviet-Chinese border. Also in 1989-1991. diplomatic relations were established with South Korea, negotiations were held with Japan (unsuccessful) on the settlement of the territorial problem of the "northern territories" (that is, the Kuril Islands).

The peoples of Poland, Hungary, Romania, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, East Germany, taking advantage of the radical changes in the position of the Soviet leadership, showed a firm intention to leave the socialist camp in which they found themselves forty years ago at the behest of the Stalinist leadership. In Eastern Europe, people realized that with the "new thinking" the threat of Soviet military intervention, such as in 1953 in East Germany, in 1956 in Hungary and in 1968 in Czechoslovakia, was gone. As a result, communist governments were swept away in Eastern European countries within a few months, and Gorbachev took these events with satisfaction as "the will of the people." June 12, 1989 Gorbachev and German Chancellor Helmut Kohl sign in Bonn a document on the right of the European peoples to choose their own form of government.

Poland had a reputation as "the most cheerful barracks in the socialist camp", and the collapse of the communist bloc began there. General Wojiech Jaruzelski, who announced in 1981-1982. martial law in order to suppress the workers' Solidarity and prevent the invasion of Soviet troops, entered into negotiations with the Civil Committee, created in late 1988, after fierce strikes, under the chairmanship of Solidarity leader Lech Walesa. In the elections of June 4, 1989, the Civic Committee wins. In September 1989, the first non-communist government came to power in Poland. It was headed by the publisher of a Catholic newspaper, a native of the old Polish aristocracy, Tadeusz Mazowiecki.

In Hungary, the cautious weakening of the communist regime began already in the 1970s. Janos Kadar, who had ruled the country since 1957, resigned in 1988. The radical reformers who came to power, led by Imre Poschgai, abandoned in January 1989 the “leading and guiding” role of the Communist Party, approved by the constitution, and allowed the formation of other parties. In September they open the border with Austria, in October they renounce Hungary's status as a "people's democracy" - with the Communist Party of Hungary voting for self-dissolution - and in December 1989 they lead the country to free elections. They are won by the Democratic Forum - a party of the Christian Democratic persuasion, headed by Josef Antall. The communist emblem with a red star above the shield with the colors of the Hungarian Navy is being replaced by the ancient coat of arms of the Kingdom of Hungary, topped with the crown of St. Stephen.

In Czechoslovakia, the Velvet Revolution was more difficult. In August, demonstrations began to mark the 20th anniversary of the Soviet occupation. The new opposition groups that emerged on the site of the repressed Charter-77 create the Civil Forum and organize mass demonstrations. Under their pressure, on November 24, 1989, the communist government resigned. Parliament cancels the article of the constitution on the leading role of the Communist Party and elects the leader of the Prague Spring of 1968, Alexander Dubcek, as its chairman, and on December 29, the leader of the Charter-77, who spent several years in prison playwright Vaclav Havel, as the President of the country. He promises to lead the country to free elections, which were held in June 1990. The following year, the last Soviet troops left the country, and a year later, the peaceful divorce of the federation of Czechs and Slovaks is completed: on January 1, 1993, the Czech Republic and Slovakia become two independent states.

In East Germany, the opening of the Austrian border by the Hungarians in September 1989 caused an influx of citizens into the Hungarian and Czech consulates, eager to go to their compatriots in the West. Under the slogan "We are the people", mass demonstrations are spreading demanding political reforms. Gorbachev also recommends reforms, but the chief of the GDR, Erich Honecker, said: "I am not obliged to glue new wallpapers if the neighbor is busy rebuilding his apartment." However, he was unable to stop the demonstrations and the flow of refugees through Hungary. Egon Krenz, who succeeded him, in the face of mass demonstrations on both sides, opened on November 9, 1989, a passage through the Berlin Wall and the border with West Germany. After 28 years of separation, the rejoicing of the people knew no bounds. Gorbachev declared non-interference in the unification process, and at the meetings that followed with German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, he supported the complete unification of Germany and agreed with the membership of a united Germany in NATO.

In December, a non-communist government came to power in East Berlin, the following summer the West German currency was introduced into the GDR, and on October 3, 1990, the GDR legally became part of the Federal Republic of Germany in accordance with § 23 of the 1949 Constitution. Gorbachev took from Germany 13 billion German marks. Incomparably large sums of Western Germany had to be invested in Eastern Germany for many years in order to somewhat equalize the living and cultural level of the Germans of the former communist part with the rest of the country.

In Romania, the regime of Nicolae Ceausescu brought the country to complete poverty and political powerlessness of the people. By the beginning of the 1980s. in order to save electricity, it was forbidden to sell light bulbs more powerful than 40 watts, during the day the electric light was turned off forcibly. Store shelves were empty. It was impossible to buy not only meat, but also bread, milk, eggs - and this in a predominantly agricultural country rich in natural resources! To top it off with economic difficulties, Ceausescu began to incite conflict between Romanians and Hungarians, Orthodox and Protestants, presenting himself as a champion of the "Orthodox Romanian civilization." The fact is that the Hungarians of Transylvania demanded the restoration of the autonomous region, abolished by Ceausescu in the 1970s, and were drawn to a freer ethnic homeland. In the country, the secret police carried out a lot of kidnappings and murders.

When Ceausescu ordered the expulsion from Romania of the Transylvanian pastor-Hungarian and well-known anti-communist Laszlo Tekes, on December 16, 1989, demonstrations began in Timisoara. They tried to suppress them by military force, but the shooting at the people blew up society - both Hungarians and Romanians. A nationwide uprising began, to which the army joined. Ceausescu was deposed on December 22 and shot three days later along with his wife, an accomplice in his crimes. In May 1990, the National Salvation Front wins the elections. Instead of the communist one, the old royal coat of arms is again placed on the national flag of Romania.

In Bulgaria, on November 10, 1989, by the decision of the plenum of the Central Committee of the Bulgarian Communist Party, the communist dictator Todor Zhivkov was removed (they joked about him in Bulgaria: “Do you know who the best Michurinian in Bulgaria is? - This is Todor Zhivkov’s father - he raised a talking pumpkin”). In the conspiracy to remove Zhivkov, in addition to candidates for members of the Politburo of the Bulgarian Communist Party, Lukanov and Mladenov, the Soviet embassy (Ambassador V. Sharapov, KGB representative in Bulgaria, Colonel A. Odintsov) also took an active part. The Bulgarian Communist Party, having freed itself from Zhivkov, renamed itself the Bulgarian Socialist Party and won the first competitive elections in June 1990. But after lengthy discussions in parliament, Zhelyu Zhelev, leader of the anti-communist Union of Democratic Forces, was elected president of the country. The victory of the former communists in the 1990 elections delayed the decommunization reforms in Bulgaria until the mid-1990s.

In September 1989, Slovenia adopted a constitutional amendment to secede from Yugoslavia, which it did in June 1991 at the same time as Croatia. In 1992, Macedonia declared independence. The fate of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina was different. For many years it was plunged into the fire of a brutal sectarian war between Orthodox, Catholics and Muslims (they all speak practically the same Serbo-Croatian language, although they use different graphics). In the rest of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro), the national communist regime of Slobodan Milosevic held on.

For 1989-1991 8 communist dictatorships collapsed in Eastern Europe.

In China, during Gorbachev's visit from May 17 to May 20, 1989, there were joyful rallies for democratization everywhere, but after his departure, on June 3, two days after free elections in Poland, 2,000 demonstrators were shot dead in the Square of Heavenly Peace. Already in 1978, the Chinese leadership began a cautious transition to market relations in the economy, but did not think about changing the political system and ideology, believing that it could ensure “order and prosperity”, while in the USSR there was neither.

With the liberation of Eastern Europe and the reunification of Germany, which happened unexpectedly for him, partly even against his will, although he decided not to resist it, Gorbachev earned enormous prestige in the West, received the Nobel Peace Prize. By the voluntary consent of the Soviet leadership in February 1991, the Warsaw Pact was liquidated, and with it the socialist military-political bloc. On June 27, 1991, the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance of Socialist Countries also ceased to exist. The withdrawal of Soviet troops from the former allied countries of the USSR began and was quickly carried out.

All these events meant the elimination of the world system of socialism - the Soviet bloc, and at the same time the end of the worldwide confrontation between two opposing camps and the end of the Cold War. There were neither winners nor losers in the Cold War - the Russian people benefited from its completion no less than the peoples of Europe and North America, most likely even more: the war of the communist regime with the entire non-communist world for 70 years, then "hot", then “cold”, completely exhausted and bled Russia. But who really lost in this war is the communist regime of the USSR. Less than a year after the end of the Cold War, communist power collapsed in Russia itself.

Opinion of a participant in the events: “The communist regime ... for 70 years waged a permanent civil war against its subjects in all conceivable and inconceivable ways ... The end of the seventy-year civil war in Russia, unleashed by Lenin and claiming tens of millions of lives of our compatriots, is the main merit of Gorbachev’s team ...” (A. N. Yakovlev, “Bolshevism is a social disease of the 20th century,” Chernaya kniga kommunizma, Moscow, 1999, p. 15).

Literature: History of anti-communist revolutions of the late XX century / Under. ed. Yu.S. Novopashin. M.: Institute of Slavonic Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences; Science, 2007.

In the USSR, it began with the Polish People's Republic, followed by mass protests that led to a change of power in the GDR, the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic and the People's Republic of Bulgaria, as well as reforms initiated by the communist authorities in the Hungarian People's Republic. The change of power took place in a non-violent way (except for Romania).

There was a "snowball" effect, and there was no dependence on the presence of economic and social conditions favorable for democracy, but there was an acceleration of the course of events. After the USSR in August 1989 came to terms with the coming to power of non-communist forces in Poland, a tide of democratization swept one after another Hungary in September, the GDR in October, Czechoslovakia and Bulgaria in November, Romania in December. The conditional formula of the English political scientist Timothy Garton-Ash for the duration of events is widely known:

In Poland it took ten years, in Hungary ten months, in East Germany ten weeks, in Czechoslovakia ten days, in Romania ten hours.

Poland

GDR

These demonstrations had a huge impact on the political processes going on in the GDR, they formed first as democratic associations, and then as parties, such organizations as the New Forum, Social Democratic Party, Union 90.

When on September 11, 1989, the Hungarian government announced the opening of the borders, the Berlin Wall lost its meaning: within three days of the GDR, 15 thousand citizens left through the territory of Hungary.

As a result of mass protests, the leadership of the SED resigned (October 24 - Erich Honecker, November 7 - Willi Shtof, November 13 - Horst Zinderman, Egon Krenz, who replaced Erich Honecker as General Secretary of the SED Central Committee and Chairman of the State Council of the GDR, was also removed 3 December 1989). Grigor Gizi became chairman of the SED, Manfred Gerlach became chairman of the State Council of the GDR, Hans Modrow became chairman of the Council of Ministers.

In October 1990, the entry of the lands of the former GDR into the FRG followed, and the Berlin Wall was demolished in a few months. It was decided to preserve only small parts of it as a monument for future generations.

Czechoslovakia

The Czechs witnessed the fall of the so-called iron curtain that came with the fall of the Berlin Wall. In response to the events in East Germany, and in the absence of any reaction from the USSR, mass rallies began. On November 17, 1989, students clashed with the police. On November 27, a general two-hour strike took place in the country; on November 20, the number of demonstrators increased from 200,000 to half a million. On November 28, the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia announced that it was giving up its monopoly on power.

On December 10, Communist leader Gustav Husak took over the first non-communist government since 1948, and resigned. The dismantling of fortifications on the border of Czechoslovakia with West Germany began.

In February 1990, the Bulgarian Communist Party gave up its monopoly on power and the Marxist-Leninist model of social development. In April 1990, after a general party referendum of the Bulgarian communists, the party was transformed into the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP), which took a social democratic position.

In June 1990, the first free elections since 1931 were held. They were won by the BSP, which received 211 places out of 400, but it was a Pyrrhic victory. The runner-up with 144 mandates, the SDF won in major cities, including the capital. Opposition supporters launched a campaign of civil disobedience, and SDF deputies in parliament used obstructionist tactics. The power belonged to the BSP, but it was forced to do what the street dictated, directed by the SDS. As a result, on July 6, Pyotr Mladenov resigned from the presidency. On July 23, the body of G. Dimitrov was taken out of the mausoleum. On August 1, the parliament elected J. Zhelev as president.

On August 26, a strong fire broke out in the building of the Central Committee of the BSP under unclear circumstances. Mutual accusations of the socialists and the opposition, not supported by evidence, were accompanied by street skirmishes. The economic situation worsened, the shortage of essential goods grew, and food stamps were introduced in September. New and traditional unions held protest rallies. The socialist government, headed since February 1990 by Andrei Lukanov, was forced to resign on November 29, despite the majority of the BSP in parliament.

In December, a coalition government of the SDS, BSP and the Bulgarian Agricultural People's Union was formed, headed by non-partisan lawyer Dimitar Popov. On February 1, 1991, economic reform began with price liberalization and currency devaluation. The price jump was very strong. The Law on Land, adopted in February, provided for the restitution of landed property, cooperatives were subject to liquidation.

On July 12, Bulgaria was the first post-socialist country to adopt a new constitution. In October, parliamentary elections were held, as a result of which the SDS formed a coalition government, which won first place with 110 mandates out of 240, and the Movement for rights and freedoms, representing the interests of Turkish-speaking citizens (24 mandates). The BSP came second with 106 deputies.

Although Todor Zhivkov was put on trial in 1991, he escaped the fate of Nicolae Ceausescu.

Romania

In Romania, unlike other Eastern European countries, there was not even limited de-Stalinization. In November 1989, 71-year-old Nicolae Ceausescu was re-elected for another 5-year term as leader of the ruling Romanian Communist Party.

As Mikhail Gorbachev later argued, the USSR's consent to the unification of Germany was given in exchange for a promise that the countries of Eastern Europe would not be included in NATO. The Western Powers reject the fact of such a promise.

Notes

See usage of the term Autumn of Nations in English-language publications, as well as the Polish term Jesień Ludow or Jesień Narodow in Polish language publications.
Foreign press:
Huntington S. Third wave. Democratization at the end of the 20th century. - M.: ROSSPEN, 2003.
History of anti-communist revolutions at the end of the 20th century: Central and South-Eastern Europe / Managing editor Yu. S. Novopashin. - Science, 2007.
Alexander Smolyar. Polish radicals in power. "Pro et Contra", Moscow Center Carnegie, № 5-6, 2006
International historical magazine № 7, 2000 N. Bukharin. Internal factors Polish revolution 1989
Laszlo Kontler. History of Hungary. Millennium in the center of Europe. - M.: All world, 2002. - S. 612.
Dmitry Travin, Otar Margania. Chapter 6. Hungary: Small steps for big changes// European modernization. - AST, 2004.
Friedensgebete und Montagsdemonstrationen auf jugendopposition.de(Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung / Robert-Havemann-Gesellschaft e.V.). August 10, 2010
Vgl. Bahrman, Hannes; Links, Christoph: Chronik der Wende. Die DDR zwischen 7. October and 18. December 1989. Ch. Links Verlag, Berlin 1994, S. 32 und 47, dort wird die Anzahl der Besucher bei der zweiten Demonstration auf "über 300000" geschätzt.
Theguardian. Christianity ended the cold war peacefully
« We, the Heads of State and Government of the participating States of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, have gathered in Paris at a time of profound change and historic expectations. The era of confrontation and division of Europe is over. We declare that from now on our relations will be based on mutual respect and cooperation.» / Charter of Paris
Database "Modern Russia". Press
A. Lebed. “Russia thrown dead cat”