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Karol Wotjyla: first Roman Catholic Pope of Polish nationality. Led by Solidarity and the Catholic Church, the growing anti-Communist opposition in Poland overthrows the government in elections to become the first non-Communist government in Eastern Europe since the Cold War.
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Trade union free of government control formed: Solidarity, led by Lech Walesa.
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A $1.5 trillion defense program including the MX ICBM and the Trident II SLBM. Resumed production of the B-1 bomber that Reagan's predecessor, Jimmy Carter, had canceled for budget reasons. Funded the Strategic Defense Initiative. Reagan's effort to increase militry spending while cutting taxes led to a hefty budget deficit and pressure from Capitol Hill, making Reagan more receptive to Gorbachev's offers of negotiation.
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Summer 85: Gorbachev announces a unilateral temporary moratorium on nuclear testing and challenges US to follow. Signals his sincerity in ending the arms race.
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Gorbachev replaces Andrei Gromyko, representing Soviet toughness in the CW, with Eduard Shevardnadze, reformist party leader from Georgia.
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Economic restructuring; political transparency and public openness
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Gorbachev makes sweeping concessions: he accepts Reagan's 'zero option' plan where all Soviet SS-20 intermediate-ranged missiles in Europe would be dismantled in exchange for the removal of the Pershing IIs and the GLMCs that NATO had recently deployed.
The leaders agree (in principle) to a 50% reductin in all ballistic missiles within 5 years, and total abolition in 10.
Problem: Reagan was unwilling to scrap the SDI, rendering useless Gorbachev's extensions of cooperation. -
Decreed total elimination of an entire class of already-operational nuclear weapons. Reduction was drastically asymmetrical (incl. 1836 Soviet missiles to 867 US missiles).
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Gorbachev calls for fresh approach to international relations, encouraging constructive dialogue free of ideology. He also announces a unilateral Soviet reduction of armed forces by half a million men over the next 2 years. Eastern Europe is set for substantial cuts in military tanks, artillery pieces, and combat aircraft.
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Yeltsin had revolutionary plans for dismantling the command economy and exposing it to the free market, and he outlawed the Communist Party. Gorbachev wanted to rescue the system; Yeltsin wanted to destroy and refresh it completely.
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All member states of NATO and the Warsaw Pact sign to establish a balance of conventional forces in Europe by prescribinh substantial reductions in Soviet conventional weapons.
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In protest to Gorbachev's get-tough policy (forging a tactical alliance with defenders of the old Sovt system).
Gorbachev then reshuffles his goverment to include notorious hardliners, undermining his commitment to political reform. -
Hardliners in Gorbachev's inner circle mount a strike and place Gorbachev under house arrest.
The next day a "State Committee on National Emergency" (incl. PM Pavlov, Def Minister Yazov, KGB Chairman Kryuchkov) seizes power in Moscow.
Eventually Yeltsin is able to renounce the coup and rally public support against the conspirators, broadcasting decrees as the Russian president and bolstering domestic+foreign support.
