Zachary Lampman

End of the Cold War

20 April 2015
Poland was one of the biggest factors that led to the sudden end
of the Cold War. Let us be clear though, to brand the collapse of the
Cold War with one significant event from that time period is
fundamentally impossible. Many factors played a role in ending the
Cold War. It is ironic how the end of the Soviet Union came to past the
same way how Trotski said capitalism would come to past and
socialism would take root; with a revolution. The idea was that once
socialism rooted itself, it would spread like wildfire, the world would
topple capitalism, and implement a socialist structure to their
government joining the USSR. Well, the opposite happened. Poland
became fed up with the socialist government and kicked it out of
power setting a precedent that soon followed in many other Eastern
European countries causing the end of the Cold War.
Poland, along with many other Soviet bloc countries, were
experiencing planned economies. These economies led to unrest
within the society since they were unable to provide for the demand of
a product. Soviet economies were set up to supply a set amount of
products in a given year. Hypothetically, if a demand for cars became
popular a certain year, there was only a set amount of cars made
causing for a shortage of supply. Queues in grocery stories and other
markets became a common sight in Poland. In a market economy,

price adjustments would of taken care of these queues and met the
needs of supply and demand. Instead of taking care of these problems,
there was a 40% price increase on food. On the West side of the wall,
the economy was booming. One huge influence was lower oil prices
because it left money in the pockets of Western Poles. In East
Germany, low employment and higher costs on goods only ripened the
economy for revolution.
Huge demonstrations in Leipzig and the efforts of the Roundtable
Talks were the catalyst for the expulsion of the Soviet government, the
SED, from Poland. Peaceful demonstrations were carried out, like the
Leipzig demonstrations, and Gorbachev refused to use the Red Army to
suppress the movement. One would then think that then Gorbachev
would be the biggest factor in the downfall of the Cold War. This is a
valid assumption, but it is my belief that these peaceful
demonstrations would have just turned violent and ousted the Red
Army anyways. In my readings, it has been quoted that the Leipzig
demonstrations got as large as 500,000 demonstrators and the
Solidarity movement at 1.2 million. The Red Army would not be able to
suppress this amount, especially when demonstrations like this began
to root in other Eastern European blocs. The Leipzig demonstrations led
to the Destruction of the Berlin Wall in November of 1989. Shortly
after, others followed Polands example. In November, Bulgarias
communist party leaders resign and free elections happened in June

1990. Romania executes its communist leaders in December. In June

1991, Yugoslavia splits into Serbia, Slovenia, Bosnia, Herzegovina, and
Kosovo.
The Eastern Block was officially dismantled. The loss of a
majority of Soviet territory, amongst other policies, led the
conservative Soviet hardliners to lead a coup that was later put down
by Boris Yeltsin. When the RSFSR withdrew from the USSR, the Baltic
States and Ukraine followed after Russias lead. Almost over night,
Gorbachev became a president with no one to rule. In summary,
Polands actions ignited the spark that led to the revolution that ended
the USSR.