History of Berlin Wall and the collapse of Communism

What distinguishes between East and West Germany 20 years ago? First, the Berlin Wall. Second, communism. Both of them collapsed starting from 9 November 1989, 20 years ago. Two years after the Berlin Wall disappeared, the Soviet Union, the largest communist country in the world when it collapsed. A lot people still wonder: what exactly is happening with the Soviets and the Berlin Wall? Are they deposed? Or collapse from within?

A series of events that happen one after another in quick time at the end of the Cold War was not a debate. Poland's historic talks between the banned Solidarity trade union and the ruling Communist Party occurred in the spring of 1989. In a matter of months, Hungary has re-introduced the multiparty system. At the end of the year, the Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia Vaclav Havel as president-elect. That series has significant effect on the Soviet political stability.

And peak, on the night of November 3, tens of thousands of Berliners flocked to the wall that had divided their city since 1961. Chronology of events was clear. However, the controversy is why Soviet communism collapsed so quickly.

Early Collapse of Communism

U.S. has never sure will win against the Soviets. American Hollywood movies is pathetic satire of rivalry with the Soviets. Call it, James Bond and Rambo. So do not wonder, if until now, Hollywood has never made ​​a heroic film a hero in Iraq, because America really win in two wars in the country of Saddam Hussein's.

Communism when it actually is something solid. Observers agree that the collapse of communism would happen by itself-not by force from outside in the form of military attacks and so forth. Sure enough, communism in late 1989 was too weak, old and empty without meaning, but still scratching to keep on living.

Joseph Nye is a foreign policy expert and former high-ranking influential Bill Clinton administration. He said that since the 1970s, the Soviet economy proved unable to adjust to the global production system that is controlled by information. Nye also pointed to what he calls the exhaustion of communist ideas which he has become authoritarian and dictatorial under Stalinism.

According to Nye, when the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, communism did not collapse because of invasion of artillery, but by hammers and bulldozers wielded by people who had lost faith in the ideas of communism. Choices made ​​by Mikhail Gorbachev after his appointment as secretary general of the Soviet Communist Party in 1985 to accelerate the collapse of the country. Gorbachev wanted to save communism but what power, in the process he even accelerating its demise. Policy of perestroika (economic restructuring) and glasnost (openness) that digagasnya actually accelerate the disintegration of the Soviet empire.

Richard Pipes, a former anti-Soviet fighters which became official in the Reagan era, Gorbachev also emphasized the key role. He linking conversations with close advisers of former Soviet leader, Alexander Yakovlev, about how the Kremlin officials see the system as a permanent error.

"Yakovlev said that 'At first we tried, in the first three years of Gorbachev, to improve the system, keeping it intact. But in 1988 we found that the system can no longer be reformed. We can not change them. Therefore, taken steps to remove virtual ', "said Pipes.

Others say that the Soviet system collapsed because of opposition of Eastern Europe successfully broke the communist monopoly of information. At that time, bermunculanlah new generation who are aware that they do not have the opportunity to change the system. They only act with the moral. Reforms undertaken by the communist dictatorship was never led to systemic changes in the absence of opposition that actively creates what is called "civil society movement. "

In July 1989, Gorbachev officially announced back Brezhnez doctrine, a policy that justifies the application of communist party rule by the Soviet satellite countries of Eastern Europe.

The destruction of the Berlin Wall

East Germany, as one powerful symbol of communist presence in Europe would not want to participate is affected by global conditions are alarming. During the 1980s, West Germany's capitalist economy to prosper, while the East German communist economic slump.

In addition, the supply of goods and services to the East German make income sources affect the West. Industries that had no need to compete because it is supported by the East German government should be privatized, often this has resulted in their bankruptcy.

As a result of re-union, most areas of East Germany had lost industry, which could lead to an unemployment amounted to approximately 25% in some parts of the region. Since then, hundreds of thousands of former East Germany in berkesinambung emigrated to the western region to seek work. This causes loss of power-eastern region of the professional workforce.

Predictably, the effects of the collapse of communism in dopler also penetrating the Soviet East Germany. As a symbol of prosperity of communism, the absence of East German make communism more and drowned and then increasingly unpopular, it's no longer heard in the international repercussions.