for a video discussing the aftermath of the cold war it's only natural for the sponsor of today's video to be conflict of nations a free pvp strategy game that offers in-depth weeks-long strategic matches with up to 128 players on pc or mobile devices construct your forces using dozens of authentically depicted units from the classic infantry and tanks to exotic units like high-speed jets and stealthy nuclear submarines push across the map alone or form your own version of nato or the warsaw pact with other players in cooperative alliances i especially like the elaborative tech tree that allows you to either accurately recreate the arsenals of the cold war or create your own wild card military force that can take unsuspecting enemies by storm use the link in the description within 30 days to get 13 000 gold and 1 month of premium subscription for free hi i'm griffin johnson the armchair historian mighty empires rarely die quietly and the union of soviet socialist republics was no exception by 1987 the enormous soviet system was in shambles and the ascension of dedicated reformer mikhail gorbachev would only accelerate its demise in this video we'll explore how the many countries of the eastern bloc dealt first with the benign neglect of gorbachev's regime then the sudden collapse of the ussr in 1991 from the relatively secure adaptation of countries like hungary and poland to the explosive breakup of yugoslavia the modern history of the eastern bloc provides a fascinating look at how different cultures react to the sudden disillusion of the political entity that had kept them forcibly united for an entire generation unlike previous leaders gorbachev was eager to maintain a modest and congenial attitude towards both his own citizens and the rest of the world endearing him to the russian people at the cost of immediately alienating the powerful elites of moscow gorbachev would go on to personally pound the nails into the soviet coffin with his twin policies of perestroika reconstruction and glasnost openness the former was intended to bring the ussr's planned centralized economy into the modern era by selectively adopting proven methods from liberal democratic systems while the latter loosened the brutal soviet censorship laws unfortunately for gorbachev glasnost was primarily used as an excuse for the press to air a laundry list of grievances that previous general secretaries had kept under wraps from revelations about the 1986 chernobyl disaster to the horrific mismanagement of the soviet afghan war glasnost arguably did more to destroy the soviet union than any other single policy this was combined with gorbachev's reluctance to directly interfere with the affairs of the many soviet satellite states after decades of living under a system where even a whiff of political dissent could spark massive reprisals the member states of the ussr suddenly woke up to a strange new reality of benign neglect under gorbachev one they were quick to take advantage of in 1989 poland east germany romania and czechoslovakia all underwent spectacular political upheavals in poland the solidarity trade union emerged from hiding after being outlawed since 1980 for acts of civil disobedience in pursuit of workers rights and social change despite being officially banned the union had persevered from the shadows and even entered negotiations with the ruling communist government after the latter realized support from moscow had all but disappeared as a result of these talks the solidarity trade union won the 1989 elections and became the first non-communist coalition government since 1947. this was the first big domino to fall for the eastern bloc as poland had been a staunch enemy of communism since the earliest days of the russian revolution [Applause] even before gorbachev's reforms discontent had been brewing in east germany with protests against the government restrictions on travel between the two halves of berlin to appease the masses the german democratic republic begrudgingly agreed to relax the restrictions in the near future however the press statement about the relaxation was mishandled giving the impression it was already in effect enormous crowds were soon lining up at the border checkpoints and the dispirited guards were in no mood to use lethal force against them by the time evening fell thousands of german citizens were busily dismantling the wall with hammers and pickaxes [Music] but not all expressions of discontent against the soviet system were as peacefully resolved as those in poland and berlin just two weeks later the velvet revolution ignited in czechoslovakia after the public celebration of international students day turned into an anti-government protest riot police intervened and many of the protesters were savagely beaten but these reprisals only led to rumors that protesters had actually been murdered by the police causing thousands to return to the streets the very next day hundreds of thousands were soon on the march bringing commerce and industry to a standstill in the affected cities faced with uncompromising opposition from various different action groups the communist party of czechoslovakia capitulated on november 28th and formally ended one party rule yet all three of these incidents would soon be overshadowed by the abrupt fall of one of the most dedicated communist strongholds in europe romania held in the iron grip of the infamous dictator nikolai ciaosescu romania was a brutal police state that had so far weathered the tide of revolution without so much as a crack in its facade but on december 15th the displacement of a radical calvinist pastor for the crime of decrying ceausescu's persecution of ethnic hungarians sparked a local revolt causing the sekuritate to open fire on the protesters on chaucesky's orders dozens were killed and hundreds wounded and exaggerated rumors quickly spread among the populace that the actual death toll was far higher far from being cowed into submission tens of thousands gathered in the main square of timisora proclaiming a romanian democratic front while strikes and demonstrations exploded all across the nation in response to the continued civil upheaval ceausescu organized a pro-government rally in bucharest on the 21st this turned out to be a terrible idea as when chaucesky went to address the crowd in a televised event he was drowned out by jiren when the dictator raised his hand for silence the jeers only got louder showcasing his weakness to the entire nation the next day ceausescu again attempted to speak but the crowd stormed through the police line and attacked his party headquarters and after narrowly escaping by helicopter ceausescu learned that most of his military staff had already defected from his regime after 15 years as president ceausescu was arrested and given a hasty show trial on december 25th where he was convicted of genocide and economic sabotage fearful that the sekuri tate might rally and free their leader the organizers of the trial elected to execute the dictator and his wife on the spot and the firing squad did not even wait for orders before riddling the man known as the romanian fuhrer with over 120 bullets [Music] the death of chaoshesku sent shockwaves through the entire eastern bloc for decades communist authorities had seemed untouchable but the execution of one of its leading figures emboldened the enemies of the ussr to make their own bids for independence meanwhile in russia itself gorbachev's policies left him politically isolated with his most prominent opponent being boris yeltsin former head of the moscow communist party in 1991 yeltsin was elected head of the russian republic placing him just a step below gorbachev as one of the most powerful men in the ussr he would play a key role in the events to follow it should be noted that mikhail gorbachev's goal seems to have been to educate the masses and breathe new life into an economic and political system surviving only by leeching resources from its numerous client states but his best efforts only resulted in giving the people a glimpse of freedom and once they realized what they had been denied for so long there was no stopping the exodus in an effort to placate the satellite states now itching for independence gorbachev proposed the creation of a new union of sovereign republics with increased freedoms for member states but this only caused the old guard of soviet loyalists to openly accuse him of selling out socialism and abandoning the principles that had made the ussr a juggernaut of world affairs driven to desperation the loyalists finally launched a coup in 1991 just after gorbachev had left for his annual holiday in crimea but the radicals were unprepared and deeply out of touch allowing boris yeltsin to quickly rally civilian support faced with the prospect of having to slaughter thousands of their own people the organizers lost heart and the coup attempt collapsed revealing to the entire world just how weak the communist party had become on december 25th mikhail gorbachev formally resigned leaving boris yeltsin in charge of the russian government that evening the soviet flag was lowered over the kremlin and the state flag of the russian federation raised in its place a day later the last vestige of the soviet parliamentary system issued declaration 142-h officially dissolving the ussr with their self-governance now assured and no possibility of interference from the now defunct central soviet authority the former satellite states and ex-soviet republics were suddenly plunged into a severe identity crisis only the oldest citizens remembered a time before soviet domination and though many of the younger generations had now glimpsed democratic reform they were completely inexperienced in its implementation furthermore the deep ethnic and cultural divisions forcefully welded shot by the blowtorch of communism were starting to pull apart again leading to some of the bloodiest civil wars in history of course not every division resulted in violence the velvet revolution in czechoslovakia was followed up in 1992 by the so-called velvet divorce when the czechs and slovaks repeatedly failed to produce any coherent agenda for the future of the nation unable to reconcile their differences the two ethnic groups set about peacefully dissolving the country into two independent republics and czechoslovakia officially ceased to exist on january 1st of 1993. meanwhile germany had already reunified as a single nation on the 3rd of october 1990.
of all of the soviet satellites east germany had always been one of the most powerful possessing a highly trained modern army that could have easily rebuffed any attempt at reintegration but with the ussr gone even the most hardcore german socialists knew that the writing was on the wall and east germany was fully absorbed by the west reuniting millions of families separated at the end of the second world war meanwhile belarus took the opposite approach declaring independence in 1991 but holding a single election that elevated alexander lukashenka to the office of president lukashenka then promptly dissolved the legislature and took authoritarian control over the whole republic where he remains in power to this day further south along the adriatic coast the breakup of the soviet union caused simmering ethnic tensions within yugoslavia to boil over in spectacular fashion things had been brewing ever since the rise of slobodan milosevic to leader of the serbian communist party milosevic had initially ridden a wave of serbian nationalism all the way to the presidency of serbia then promptly began centralizing power over the yugoslavian federal system in response slovenia and croatia legalized non-communist political activity and promised multi-party elections in 1990. the collapse of the ussr proceeded to kneecap the serbian communist party and finally prompted slovenia to declare independence on the 25th of june 1991. the yugoslav people's army immediately invaded only for croatia to also declare independence a few days later unable to fight a two-front war milosevic quickly arranged a ceasefire and pulled out of slovenia in order to defend the serbian population now trapped in croatia what followed was a brutal war of attrition in which both sides committed hideous atrocities resulting in the ethnic cleansing of more than half a million serbians in croatia and tens of thousands of croatians murdered by the yugoslav people's army as well as various paramilitaries though war had opened up a wound in the middle of yugoslavia the country remained intact then in 1992 the united states and european commission declared they were prepared to recognize the independence of bosnia provided all communities within it could agree on a decision in a national referendum naturally this was an unmitigated disaster as the serbian population boycotted the vote and promptly began to engage in violent acts of civil unrest the u.
s and european commission then went ahead and recognized bosnian independence on the 6th of april causing the jna to besiege the city of sarajevo and the militant bosnian serbs to form the republic serb army and seize control of most of the country while un troops ran around yugoslavia performing stern acts of finger wagging at anyone found massacring civilians or engaged in cultural genocide the small state of moldova was experiencing its own brief period of upheaval the nation broke away from the ussr in august of 1991 only for the ethnic russians in transnistria to revolt backed by the russian 14th army after a few unsuccessful attempts to reclaim the region moldova begrudgingly agreed to allow the transnistrians to govern themselves however the resulting pridnestrovian moldavian soviet socialist republic failed to secure international recognition trapping its roughly 500 000 citizens in a strange political and economic limbo that remains to this day as transnistria was making its bid for independence the breakup of yugoslavia was in full swing after years of passive resistance the albanians in kosovo organized the kosovo liberation army and struck out at the yugoslav security forces prompting a merciless government crackdown that killed 700 and displaced over 250 000 when nato demanded milosevic enter into negotiations or face military intervention milosevic continued his offensive prompting nato to commence bombing operations in march of 1999 unable to counter this new threat the serbian president doubled down on his ethnic cleansing program forcing hundreds of thousands of albanians out of kosovo at gunpoint but after 78 days of continuous aerial assaults the shattered remnants of the jna were unable to offer further resistance and milosevic was forced to accept the creation of an autonomous kosovo government under un's supervision of course the ethnically motivated violence within kosovo would continue for years with native albanians targeting serb enclaves in revenge for jna atrocities despite the unmitigated train wreck that was yugoslavia in the 90s not all of the nations of the former eastern bloc limped into the 21st century with such a sorry condition after regaining independence the newly democratized nations of poland hungary and the czech republic formally joined nato in 1999 just five years later bulgaria romania slovakia slovenia lithuania latvia and estonia would all make the same move freed from the tyranny of the soviet command economy many of these ex-communist states would experience considerable economic and cultural growth but others would remain stagnant this was in large part due to emigration as younger generations preferred to simply move to more prosperous countries than to try to revive the institutions left behind by the soviet union unfortunately many of the fledging democracies that sprung up to replace the authoritarian ussr quickly fell to corruption one great example was ukraine one of the most powerful ex-soviet republics ukraine had overwhelmingly voted for independence in 1991 and elected leonid krafchuk as its first president but ukraine had a problem in the form of nearly 2 000 russian nuclear warheads a third of the entire ussr arsenal within its borders with the united states aggressively pushing denuclearization on the eastern bloc kraftchuck agreed to surrender the warheads and nuclear infrastructure in 1994. in exchange russia the us and britain all formally agreed to respect ukraine's sovereignty but ukrainian democracy soon became little more than a sham in the 2004 elections western advocate viktor yushenko ran against pro-russian viktor yanukovych for the presidency only to be disfigured in a mysterious poisoning that nearly claimed his life undeterred yushenko persevered only to be declared the loser in an election whose results could charitably be described as slightly suspicious in response yushenko's supporters launched the orange revolution a nationwide protest that forced the ukrainian supreme court to rerun the election which was this time called in favor of the pro-western candidate though debatably a win for democracy yushenko's new government was at the mercy of the russian federation's hostile economic policies and the entrenched ukrainian oligarchy resulting in minimal change the 2000s also saw many former eastern bloc nations move towards membership in the newly founded european union this was a multi-faceted process that was often somewhat adversarial with the eu maintaining tariffs against eastern goods while trying to dominate eastern markets with their own brands and international franchises while countries like poland hungary and the baltic states were quick to adopt capitalist practices other nations like romania bulgaria and croatia dragged their feet for years resulting in severe unemployment and a stunted gdp still between 2004 and 2013 11 former soviet republics joined the eu while ukraine moldova and georgia have all recently applied for membership due to russian aggression kosovo would also finally wrench itself away from serbia in 2008 with eu support a move that was fiercely opposed by both serbia and the russian federation in fact it was the resurgence of russia in the early 2000s that placed the most pressure on the eastern bloc with the rise of everyone's favorite political animal vladimir putin as a replacement for the increasingly unpopular and unhealthy boris yeltsin russia again began asserting itself as a world power after defeating the chechen rebels in the second chechen war putin spent his first term consolidating power upon securing the backing of the russian oligarchy putin looked outwards toward the former eastern bloc and immediately began taking steps to prevent further integration with either nato or the european union but russia's first open move against nato actually occurred in 2008 after provocation by georgia whose president mikio sakashvile unwisely took news of his nation's potential qualification for nato membership as a license to invade the russian-backed separatist region of south ossetia russia immediately counter-attacked extracting a ceasefire agreement within five days and causing nato to quietly drop their relationship with the defeated nation however it was not until the revolution of dignity in ukraine that putin would actually deploy military forces to support his agenda in europe after six years of political maneuvering viktor yanukovych wrestled his way to the ukrainian presidency in the 2010 election and proceeded to sell out his nation to russian influence while blatantly lining his own pockets via corruption in late 2013 yanukovych refused to sign the eu ukraine association agreement and instead attempted to pursue closer ties with russia as a result ukraine exploded in massive protests which culminated in a massacre at maiden square in kiev on the 20th of february 2014 when snipers opened fire on the demonstrators from government buildings with the blood of at least 70 people on his hands yanukovych fled to russia two days later leaving pro-western billionaire oligarch petro poroshenko to be elected ukraine's next president by 2014 ukraine's international position was the weakest it had been in decades causing vladimir putin to abruptly seize control of the crimean peninsula which had been part of ukraine since 1954.
