The History of~The Cold War (Part 9: Warm At Last)

As we left off from our last page (click here) we were talking about how things in the USSR were turning from bad to worse, East Germans were migrating to Hungary and Czechoslovakia to move to the west. Poland and Hungary held free elections, and Romania had a violent revolution which saw them overthrow their Communist Government, and the Berlin Wall came down as well.

This is the final part of this wiki page series about The Cold War. It'll cover the final events of the USSR and its demise, and the end of the half-century-long tensions between the east and west.

As you may know that with the USSR's Warsaw Pact members withdrawing and holding free elections as well as the Fall of the Berlin Wall, the USSR is now on Critical life Support, and it would take a miracle for it to get it back up on its feet again.

But, that's wishful thinking. Because by 1990, the USSR's fate was sealed.

Not only did Germany reunify (and the East joining NATO soon after) but the Baltic nation of Lithuania also managed to succeed in seceding from the USSR and become its independent nation (Georgia, Estonia, Latvia, Moldova, and Armenia would soon follow)

So, things weren't looking good for Gorbachev trying to keep the USSR afloat.

Because Gorbachev also gave freedom of speech and freedom of press, they began to negatively criticize the Soviet Politburo. This forced Gorbie to decide that the USSR would also hold free elections, in the first (and only) time in the history of the Soviet Union, the people (not just Government Officials) can elect their leader.

Because of this, political opposition grew immensely in the USSR, and the new leader of the Russian Democratic Federation Party *Boris Yeltsin*had his eyes and heart set on sending Russia into a new golden age. Yeltsin quickly became an obstacle for Gorbachev and the Soviet Politburo as their icy grip on Russia began to loosen.

In August of 1991, (and in a \*huge\* mess of a situation) Soviet Hard-Liners kidnap Gorbie and try to establish an emergency Communist Government in hopes to keep the USSR alive.

Yeltsin and new Russian Forces stormed into Moscow, and for 3 days, there was a standoff in the Soviet Capital. In the end, however, the Hard-Liners would surrender and release Gorbie.

Of course, Gorbie was grateful for being rescued. But, Yeltsin also told him that he already secured a political deal with other Soviet states such as Belarus and Ukraine. Thus, the writing was now on the wall for both Gorbie and the USSR.

By December of 1991, Gorbie's efforts to keep the USSR alive had been in vain as he tried to negotiate a deal with both Belarus and Ukraine but failed.

On Christmas Day in 1991, Gorbie announced that he will step down from the Soviet Premier position and announced: "We now live in a new world." The next day, the USSR was pronounced dead on arrival.

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, which had dominated Russian society for over 70 years, is now no more. Yeltsin has accomplished his goal to create what is known as the *Commonwealth of Independent States* (CIS for short) and the entire world entered a new age.

Czechoslovakia would also dissolve (into the Czech Republic and Slovakia respectively), followed by Yugoslavia (a communist nation not aligned with the Warsaw Pact) would also dissolve, but a war would ensue in the nations that took its place (like Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Kosovo).

But, in all, The Cold War (which had dominated societies all over the world) had ended.

That will do it for this 9-part wiki page of The Cold War. Don't forget to check out my other pages as well as my Games and Movies wikis as well. Until next time, this is JohnnyOTGS singing out.