Factor behind the fall of communism in Eastern Europe - Essay Example

? Factor behind the fall of communism in Eastern Europe Introduction   By definition offered by (Lorimer, 1997, p.3), communism is a world community in which all classes and class distinctions have been overcome and all systems and relations of exploitation abolished as opposed to capitalism that is an economic system based on private ownership of capital goods and acquiring instruments to establish and expand private businesses and companies for income generation and self-gains. Communisms can also be well-defined as the principle of the circumstances of the public or waged people. This is a category of people in the society who live totally from the sale of their labour without profit and capital gains.  The proletariat in a word is the working class of the 19th century. The lay man’s understanding of communism is that it is the rule of the gun in which the elite minority control the masses through all manner of oppression and exploitation, it started in 1945 and ended in 1991. Before the end of cold war in 1991 the world was divided into two blocs the Eastern and the Western (Western Europe and America). The Eastern Bloc which was the communist comprised of the Soviet Union, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Romania, East Germany, Hungry and Yugoslavia, with Poland being the largest communist country apart from the Soviet Union however there were other communist countries outside Europe such as Cuba (Levesque, 2010, p. 7). Many factors were responsible for the collapse of communism, in this essay only three are explored namely nationalism, economic and ideology. Great emphasis is placed on economic as the main cause that affected Eastern Europe. Communism collapsed in 1989 and the iron curtain was dismantled with the demolition of the Berlin wall (Zubok, 2010, p.7). A long period of silence existed known as the cold war and set the world in two separate blocs the western and the eastern plus their allies. The standoff resulted into tension, suspicion, anxiety and fear among the rivaling blocs. An opaque situation existed known as the Iron Curtains that promoted heinous acts of oppression, nepotism, corruption and lack of accountability between the two blocs. This resulted into separation of Europe with a manmade Berlin wall. The insecurity and tension felt on both sides led to the nuclear arms race giving rise to the development of defense organizations in Europe i.e. the WARSAW pact and the NETO (Howard, 2003, p. 10). Before looking at the factors that led to the overthrow of communism it is imperative to consider some of the benefits of communism to the Eastern bloc. Communism revolutionized millions of people through breath taking industrialization and collectivization to achieve targets beyond ordinary standards. It also brought about equally drastic changes in the environment of people and in their attitude towards life. The Soviet Union developed into a powerful super power that competed equally with Western countries. There was assured job security, free education, free medical services but most of these services were not fully realized which led to massive revolts. The world was rapidly becoming a global village by early 1990s and this was the beginning of the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe. There was need by the ex-communist parties therefore to influence the future political development in order to sustain communism. That resulted into futile consequences because the founding elections of 1990 dealt a big blow to the ex-communist parties. The subsequent elections that followed there after completely made the ex-communist parties unable to hold ground. (1992–1995) surprised many analysts: they renamed and “reformed” communist parties (Ziblatt 1998, p 120). This in itself was trickle-down effect of communism aimed at colonizing the entire Europe. European countries were to fall under communism either through military invasion, internal revolts or through elections Factors that led to the overthrow of communism in Eastern Europe Many factors were responsible for the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe that are synonymous to the main communist countries. It is therefore proper to collectively analyze these factors. Nationalism Western Europe found it impossible to contain the advancement of the Bolshevik revolution because they tried to avoid another major war after the Second World War. Stalin and his hires created a dictatorial rule that consequently resulted in the Bolshevik revolution of 1917. The doctrines of the Bolsheviks were extreme and completely isolated from the rest of the public. They affirmed that the Bolshevik was the most democratic party not seen anywhere in the world in the world. The party membership was a fusion of cohorts of the older revolutionary activists who had survived the oppressive dictatorship of the tsarist regime and a new generation of aggressive workers drawn from the party by its adamant struggle to free Russia from poverty and exploitation (Lorimer 1997, p.5) There were police informers everywhere in the setup of the communal systems that compelled individuals not to discuss or criticize aspects of communist systems openly; they could only do that in the confines of their privacy and relative safety of the kitchen away from police informers. The industrialization drastically changed the social life of the Soviet Union with the growth of the Soviet middle class rapidly expanding. The number of specialist referred to as intelligentsia also increased from two million before the World War II to over 30 million in the 1980s. There merged the middle class force within the society that had immense strength and loyalty to the political and economic liberalization of the Soviet community that gave rise to the embryonic civil society that existed in autonomy from the party-state totality. The population was influenced by the industrialization, urbanization and growing specialization of the economy (Petrasova 2003, p. 4 and p. 5) After a civil war in Russia that claimed so many lives, Lenin came to power; the war was between his supporters and opponents of the Soviet rule. Lenin didn’t believe in defeat and he made sacrifices to win the war and save the revolution (Crawford and Lijphart 1995, p.172). The requisition of food supplies by force was approved by Lenin. This was achievable only by use of the gun and enforcement of high level discipline at every level of society. Lenin assumed the absolute role of a dictator and applied terror as the chief instruments of power. This became synonymous and symbols of communist regimes but it overwhelmingly met with strong resistances and uprisings which eventually led to the collapse of communism. Sovereignty breaded solidarity which spread broadly throughout the fabric of Soviet society made rebellion difficult to contain. Part of the dilemma that had confronted opponents of Soviet communism throughout its history was that past East European revolts against Soviet control had exerted only limited influence inside the Soviet Union and had been repeatedly cut short by Soviet intervention and pressure. In1989, however, extensive revolt inside the Soviet Union was occurring at the same time as east Europeans pressed for their own freedom, so that the Kremlin for the first time faced a situation of multiple, simultaneous revolts both within and outside the country. The modular spread of revolt across the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe represented an unusual period of heightened contention that transcended cultural and international borders and in which challenges to the state multiplied and fed off one another, overwhelming the capacity of the state to contain them and evoking large-scale tectonic change in the character of the system. (Beissinger 2009, p.341). In the years 1925-27, the Stalinist bureaucracy reached out to the West, known as capitalist counties for alliances though with strings attached because the communist parties in these countries were under instruction to secure and maintain such alliances to themselves or to the workers, movement in general (Lorimer 1997, p.34). This mate resentment widely thus it eventually resulted into revolutions. Gorbachev came to power in the USSR. Among the reforms he instituted, perhaps the most important two were perestroika, restructuring of the economy and political system, and glasnost openness in the media and culture. Through these sets of gradual reforms, the Soviet Union began to move in the direction of a market economy, with a decrease in centralization and the emergence of private firms, and the increase in the freedom of people to express their views on a range of topics without fear of retribution. An important consequence of glasnost was that people could now openly air their dissatisfaction with the Communist regime. This freedom spread to the Soviet satellites, and was a contributing factor in revolutions that heralded the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Communist regimes in the Satellite countries in the last few months ( Abramitzy, 2012, p.6).  The demonstration that swept through Eastern Europe, lead to formation of small movements and parties that advocated for reforms. This parties had leader who represented the educated them on the need for reforms to improve the deteriorating economies and to upgrade the political system. These movements held a series of strikes and pushed for anticommunism to frustrate the hostile leadership of communist regimes in Poland. The communist party held round table negotiations after the public unrest could not be contained. Solidarity party which was a trade union advocating for reforms lead by Walesa was formalized after the communist could not contain endless demonstrations in Poland. It was recognized as a political party. The arrest of political leaders by Jaruzelski orders worsened the situation, and more and more demonstrations were experienced. This was also as a result of increase of public support for union and decrease support on communist regime. The opposition party in Poland, Solidarity was allowed to compete for parliamentary seats after the round table negotiations. Gorbachev spoke to leaders of Europe and addressed people from the West Europe to advocate for his policies. The Hungarian Socialist Workers Party led to transformation of the government to a democratic state. Hungary was also the best in welcoming the efforts of reforms and experimenting of foreign policies despite hostility from the Soviet Union. Janos Kadar who was the leader of Hungary Socialist Workers Party succeeded in his policy of reconciling people and inclusion of market mechanism in the economy of Hungary (Gaddis 1997). Economic factors By the time the civil war was coming to an end in 1920 USSRs national income was less than one third of the 1913 figure and industrial production less than one fifth of the prewar level. Disaster hit Russia as the civil war came to an end with a resounding victory to the Red Army over the land-lord capitalists White Armies. The main agricultural regions were simultaneously hit by draught, sand storms and locusts. It was one of the worst famines in history affecting 36 million peasants and living two million people dead (Lorimer 1997, p. 5). In 1970 in Poland price hikes led to numerous strikes especially in Gdansk and other cities. Police interventions led to riots and eventually the army was sent to end the unrest and at least 45 people were killed and scores injured. The ensuring unfair price increases by the government of Poland is also repeated in 1976 leading to more strikes in Radom, Warsaw. (Melvyn 2010, p.312).   In 1980 another wave of strikes hit Poland involving 300,000 workers after the government announced food price increases of close to 100 percent in some cases in order to slow the growth of Poland’s imports coming from foreign debt. To end the unrest, the government had to make a major political concession it then had to accept the first independent trade union in the communist world. (Melvyn 2010, p.313). Few rich individuals in Russia willingly  without minding the economy by  furthering the infamous doctrine of ‘Pocket banks’ funneled money from the central bank to their personal business affiliates resulting to negative interest rates (Barnes 2011, p. 8). Russian got into a state of panic and lend money without restraints. The law required supervising agents to guarantee or loan state enterprises that had run short of cash. The agricultural direct production stood at 11% GDP by the end of 1980s while agro-industrial complex subsidies were much higher than total budget deficit (Brooks 1990, p.35; Liefert 1993, p.31). The reckless lending practices resulted into exploitation of the budget deficit and to the over-active monetary emissions. Cooperatives in Russia also allowed enterprises to raise wages which eventually increased the circulation of cash thus leading to a terrible inflation and eventually the fall of the value of the currency. All of these forces put contributed in raising prices of commodities most of which the state refused to free instead it periodically promised to raise them in future which led to panic buying and hoarding (Barnes 2011, p. 8). At the same period Russia lacked enough skilled labour due to a high percentage of illiteracy that presented inadequate manpower not capable of rebuilding an industrial economy as was the case in the West. The First World War claimed lives of the highly organized and political conscious working class that had taken power in 1917, others fled to the countryside in search of food. The population of Moscow had drastically fallen by 50%, that of Petrograd by one third’ (Lorimer 1997, p. 5).  Ideological factors The ideological reasons were both internal and external; the minds of the Soviet people were filled with strong urges for freedom from oppression and any ideological enlightenment was practiced to the later. In an article written by Karl Mark in 1843 he described the nature of bureaucracy as a type of leadership that was exercised by the few advantaged elites in the society subjecting the rest of the masses to total obedience and conformity: “There were terms and conditions well above the ordinary man as indicated in this phrase. “The universal spirit of administration is secrecy, it is a mystery and a special preserve for the advantaged few that conceals and protects outside intervention. These confines protected communist doctrines and gave no room to any sort of disloyalty. The Purpose of the state became private purposes to the greedy who hunted for promotions careers” (Lorimar 1997 p, 6) This became an ideological infection and the Bolshevik party members began to adopt this ideology thus ending up into corrupt way of allocating jobs and power to themselves. It was very clear all over the world that Russia could not keep up the armed race with USA. Russian nuclear weapons were produced in large quantities and were of low quality. The USA took a big step forward when president Ronald Reagan who renewed defense spending on the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) commonly known as the Star Wars that required a huge budget out of the reach by the Russians (Seleny, 2007, p. 116). The Iron curtains were no longer sealed but open to the outside world to learn about what was happening in Russia. It became clear that Russia could not feed itself; there was failure everywhere in technology and declining standards of living. This opened room for the Western leaders to start calling for freedom of the Russian people. The resounding remarks by President Ronald Reagan calling for freedom for the Russians can be remembered to the present time….. “Freedom is the victor. General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union, if you seek liberalization: come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” (Barmes 2011, p. 8). The free market ideology furthered by the west took over the communist states by storm. The bankruptcy of administratively centralized systems of governance in the East became more than obvious in the 1980s. All other party affiliates i.e. Social Democrats and Euro-Communists begun to accept free market economy and to a large extend rejected social planning. Russia was isolated and identified with Marxism, Leninism, Stalinism with their administrative suppression of free market economy and all-universal state ownership were typical examples of “Marxian Socialism” (Lorimar 1997, p. 20) Communist ideologies were seen as a system of dictatorship by the people. The communist single leadership and communal ownership of land was not received well across Easter Europe as it lead to emergence of corrupt governorship and instability of the economy. The term communism itself was an ideology. The communist government deprived people to enjoy the fruits of their hard work by not allowing private ownership of resources. Communism was seen as a good idea that was wrongly implemented. This lead to resistance among some people leading to advocating of reforms. The political ideologies of the communists was also protested. The rule of single party and arrest of political opposition leaders was seen as political dictatorship. Strikes and demonstrations that swept across Europe also advocated for democratic leadership. The communist ideologies slowed down growth of the economy, which later led to economic inflation. The rate of dependent in the West increased leading to numerous debts by European countries. The gap of economical indifference between the West and East grew bigger and bigger. This lead to demand in the change of communist ideologies and demand for policy reforms (Dockrill 2005). Post communism world The collapse of communism reduced tension in Europe, dismantled the Berlin wall and reunified Germany, it opened up free market economy in Eastern Europe, free trade and movement between the former Western and the eastern blocs (Lorimer 1992). Massive secession of Russian territories resulted because the economy was adversely affected that the country could not support a mighty army. A good number of Russian states gained independence from the mainstream USSR thus reducing the size and dominancy of the former powerful Soviet Union. Some of the countries like Ukraine were the heart of Russian industrialization. The post-communist world affected the rest of the world including developing countries some of which were allies of the Soviet Union. The Russian people found challenges in trying to compete with the rest of the world because they were used to government systems that provided everything making them lazy. The UNDP was more empowered to introduce the principles of transparency and accountability to developing countries thus giving rise to the introduction of multiparty politics and free democracy though this process has not been fully embraced on a wide scale (Seleny 2007, p 165). The collapse of communism facilitated the emergency of alternative supper power to match the USA and China came in hand. Conclusion For the communist regime to collapse, it took the people of Eastern Europe a great deal of struggle. They fostered togetherness and solidarity. This made them able to maintain revolution at the time the governments was totalitarian. Economic factors were mostly responsible to the collapse of communism. People grumbled largely over unnecessary hikes in prices and this often led into extensive strikes. The manner in which this strikes were quelled made the people even more resistant to oppression. The value of communism instilled in the people the need for solidarity. This was very evident in Poland and Russia. Little did the communist states know that this solidarity would be used against them in a quest for freedom from oppression? Economic calls of free market economy served as foreign influences that made the communist states to change their mode of doing business and there dire desire to adopt this new system led to the collapse of communism. We should also credit the collapse of communism to the rise of democratization because communism was based on the rule of the gun people revolted against communism and largely preferred democracy. Despite its end communism lived longer to haunt the countries which practiced it this was manifested in the post communism party formations.       References Barnes A, 2011, ‘Do We Have A Winner? Disentangling the Competing Explanations for the End of the Soviet System’, George Washington University, Washington. 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