Historical Geography
of Post-Soviet Era
Choices in late 1980s
Democracy, then reform
– Open up society to reform it
– U.S. thought “totalitarian”
system not reformable
Reform, then democracy
–Shock the economy,
then (maybe) open up
–Models of Chile, China
Mikhail Gorbachev, 1985-91
• Democracy,
then reform
• Socialism with
a human face
• Openness
• Restructuring
Glasnost (Openness)
• End to secrecy
– After Chernobyl 1986
• Freedom to
assemble, speak, etc.
• Open discussion of problems
Glasnost: Unanticipated effects
• Unleashed nationalisms
• Decentralization spreads
conflict to local scale
• No one calls shots;
little democratic experience
Perestroika (Restructuring)
Political:
Reduce Party control
Economic:
Privatize non-industrial
economy
Place name changes:
De-Sovietization
Leningrad
St. Petersburg
Gorky
Nizhny Novgorod
Frunze
Bishkek
Place name changes:
Indigenization
Byelorussia
Belarus
Yakutia
Sakha
Kishinev
Chisinau
,
Place name changes:
Transliteration
Gomel
Homyel
Tadzhikistan
Tajikistan
Nakhichevan
Naxçivan
Kirghizstan
Kyrgyzstan
Perestroika: Unanticipated effects
• Reluctance to give up security
• Mistrust competition, inequality
• Economic output lower,
food shortages/lines
Gorbachev Era
• Reversed “Brezhnev
Doctrine” in E. Europe
• Some allies more
hard-line than USSR
• Hard-liners tested him
– Lithuania, Georgia,
Azerbaijan massacres
Afghanistan war, 1979-89
• Underestimated Muslim
mujahadin rebels
• Bogged down like Vietnam
• Stinger missiles shot
down helicopters
Afghanistan war, 1979-89
• Withdrew 1989
• Pro-Soviet regime
ousted 1992
• Bitter Afghantsy
(veterans)
Poland & Hungary
• Western-oriented
• Soured on socialism
after repression
– Hungary 1956
– Poland 1970 & 1981
• Regimes liberalized
Better-off first to revolt
Poland, Hungary in Warsaw Pact
Baltic States in USSR
Slovenia, Croatia in Yugoslavia
Czech Rep. in Czechoslovakia
Better-off first to revolt
Socialist state prevented full development
Resented supporting poorer areas
“Pull” of European Union integration
Western TV signals
• Finnish TV in Estonia
• W. German TV in GDR,
Czech., Poland
• Austrian TV in Hungary
TV stations
as battlegrounds
Ostankino tower clashes,
Moscow, 1991, 1993
Lithuania
massacre 1990
Romanian Revolution 1989
U.S. bombs Serbia 1999
Poland 1989
• Solidarity strikes,
peasant party force election
• 1st non-Communist
prime minister appointed;
Lech Walesa later pres.
Hungary 1989
• Party drops power monopoly
• Declares republic, opens
discussion of 1956
• Opens western border
East Germany
(GDR) 1989
• “Tourists” cross Hungarian
border to Austria (brain drain)
• Huge youth rallies spread
from Leipzig
• Fear of Stasi secret police lost
• Gorbachev prevents crackdown
Berlin Wall 1989
• Minister on TV ends
travel restrictions
• Berlin Wall falls overnight
after 28 years
• GDR dissolves 1990,
becomes FRG poor region
Post-Soviet paths, 1989
• “Reformed” Communist parties
• Pro-West consumer capitalism
• “Third Way”: democratic socialism / Greens
• Right-wing ethnic nationalism
Czechoslovakia 1989
• Student protests
repressed
• “Velvet Revolution”
returns leaders from
1968 Prague Spring
• Dissident writer
Vaclav Havel president
Czechoslovakia
ends 1993
• Czech Rep. More developed than Slovakia
• Czechs want quick NATO, EU entry
• “Velvet Divorce” of leaders, not people
Bulgaria 1989
• Russians popular in
Slav Orthodox country
• Communists win 1990
election; lose 1991
• Economic reforms difficult
Romanian Revolution 1989
• Dictator Ceaucescu
wooed West
• Autocratic “personality
cult,” secret police
• Military revolt executed
him, poverty remained
Baltics
1990
• Lithuania declares
full independence
• Soviet crackdown
• Latvia, Estonia
declare sovereignty
(own laws supreme)
Boris Yeltsin,
1991-99
• Party official from Urals; resigned 1990
• Modernizer; Russian Federation Pres. 1991
• Russia needs own identity apart from USSR,
declares republic laws supreme
August 1991 Coup
• Day before Union of
Sovereign States declared
• Gorbachev under arrest
by KGB; VP in power
• Moscow KGB declined
to arrest Yeltsin (on tank)
• Gorbachev rescued,
coup collapses
Coup Aftermath
• Yeltsin undercut
Gorbachev as main leader
• Baltics independence
recognized in Sept.
• Other republics start to
declare as “sovereign”
December 1991 Endgame
• Russia, Ukraine, Belarus independent
• Declare “Commonwealth of Independent States”
• 8 independent republics join CIS (Georgia later)
• Gorbachev resigns, Soviet flag lowered
Russia successor
state to USSR
• Ukraine, Belarus,
Kazakstan disarm nukes
• Economic, military
ties disrupted
between republics
• Rise of “mafia”
economy, crime
Aftermath
“Shock therapy”
• Close command industries
•Reduce or end subsidies
• Privatize industrial economy
•High unemployment,
inflation, inequality
Spatial economy
• Winning regions
Hub cities
Gateway
• Losing regions
Older military-industrial
Agricultural, Resources
Ethnic minority
Post-Communists, 1990s
• Elected in Poland, Hungary, Lithuania!
• Slowing down shock therapy?
• Seen as capitalist/modern,
not nationalist, social conservative
Opposition to Yeltsin
•Communists & nationalists
lament loss of Empire
•Slavophile populists mistrust
West; often anti-Semitic
•Yeltsin tanks fire on
Parliament, 1993
• Candidates: Rutskoi, Lebed, Zhirinovsky, Zyuganov
Yeltsin’s Demise
• Financial crash
• Health problems
• Drunk as a skunk
• Corruption extended to family
• Ethnic minority autonomy
(soft on Chechens?)
Vladimir Putin, 2000-?
• Underestimated as
Yeltsin puppet
• Ex-KGB in Germany;
knows West well
• Yet also placates
“Eurasians,”
Soviet memories
Chechnya
• Won vs. Russia in
1990, 1994-96
• Declared independence
• Key Caspian oil pipeline
Putin’s ruthless brutality won admirers
Russians flatten Grozny,
capital of Chechnya, 2000
Authoritarianism returning
• Media controls
• Centralization in Moscow
• Ethnic autonomy lessened
• Economic heavy hand