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Josip Tito & Independent Communism
(1892-1980)- Josip Broz Tito was a Yugoslav revolutionary & statesman; first president of Yugoslavia; a huge member of the Communist party; a popular figure because of his successful economic and diplomatic policies; leader of the Non-Aligned movement; General Secretary of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia; Tito was a very active member within Communism especially in Yugoslavia; he united nations in Yugoslavia to create peace; promoted ideas of nonalignment independence from the USSR & USA -
Imre Nagy
he was a Hungarian Communist politician; he was appointed Chairmen of the Council of Minister's of the People's Republic of Hungary 2 times; executed on charges of treason 2 years after the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 & given an unmarked grave because of his un-loyalty and lies to Hungary; became a member of the Russian Communist Party & joined the Red Army; promoted his “New Course” in Socialism; withdrew Hungary from the Warsaw Pact; led the Hungarians in the 1956 Hungarian Uprising; -
Vaclav Havel
he was a Czech playwright, essayist, poet, dissident, & politician; he was the 9th & last president of Czechoslovakia & first president of the Czech Republic; Havel was one of the signatories of the Charter 77 manifesto along with lots of other people; completely against Communism & its spread across Europe; he ended 4 decades of repression in Czech. & turned the country around after the problems they faced because of Communism; he made a difference as president & stopped Communism in Czech. -
Lech Walesa
he is currently 70 yrs old; he is a polish politician, human rights activist, & trade union organizer; he was the 2nd president of Poland after the fall of Communism; co-founded Solidarity; he was a dissident trade-union activist & was persecuted by Communist authorities; he presided over Poland during their transformation from a Communist nation to a post-Communist nation; he was a big part of politics & trade-unions & pushed to make things better in Poland for workers & to get rid of Commuism -
Hungarian Uprising
Hungary & the rest of Eastern Europe were controlled by the Communist Russia & Moscow had a huge grip on Eastern Europe & Hungary; February 1956 the new Russian ruler Khruschev made an attack on Stalin & his policies; in July 1956 Rakosi (made leader of Hungary by Stalin) stepped down; October 23rd 1956 students & workers issued their Sixteen Points in order to get freedom & the removal of Russian Communist control; & on October 31st, Hungary under Nagy removed itself from the Warsaw Pact. -
"Prague Spring"
a period of political liberalization where the government that was led by Alexander Dubcek in CZ wanted to democratize the nation & weaken the hold Moscow had on the nation's affairs; it ended with the Soviet invasion, the removal of Dubcek as party leader, & an end to reform within CZ; problems began in 1966 & a series of reforms occurred because of them; the reforms were an attempt to give additional rights to the citizens by Dubcek but stopped by the Soviet Union & members of the Warsaw Pact; -
"Solidarity" Movement in Poland
began on August 14, 1980 at the Lenin Shipyards; a Polish non-gov't-al trade union movement & the first labor union in a Soviet-bloc country; solidarity gave help to a non-violent & anti-communist social movement with about 9.4 million members; contributed to the fall of Communism; Poland's gov't tried to stop it with the martial law in 1981 & years of repression but it came down to negotiation; got semi-free election in 1989 during Roundtable Talks; Walesa elected & communist gov't system ended -
Disintegration of Communist Rule in Hungary
came to an end in 1989 & the Communist rule in Hungary was gone; the revolutions started in Poland then worked it's way through the rest of Eastern & Central Europe; Communism began to collapse in the early 1980's, but didn't officially end until 1989; the fall of communism led to the end of the cold war; helping w/ the fall was the Hungarian Uprising in 1956, changes, inflation, food shortages & national issues pushed the people to fight back & stop Communism; became Hungarian People's Republic -
Velvet Revolution (CZ)
November 17-December 29, 1989 many demonstrations & protests occurred sparked by the International Students Day on November 17th; a non-violent transition of power in Czechoslovakia; against the one-party government of the Communist Party in CZ; it ended the 41 years of Communist rule in Czechoslovakia & transition to the parliamentary republic on November 28th with the Communist announcing their stepping down & no more a single-party state; June 1990 the first democratic elections since 1946
