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NSWModern HistoryQuick questions
Section IV (Change in the Modern World): The Cold War 1945-1991
Quick questions on Gorbachev, glasnost and perestroika 1985-1989: HSC Modern History Cold War
7short Q&A pairs drawn directly from our worked dot-point answer. For full context and worked exam questions, read the parent dot-point page.
What is the Soviet inheritance?Show answer
By the early 1980s the Soviet system was in deep stagnation (zastoi). Annual growth had fallen from 5 per cent in the 1960s to about 2 per cent in the 1970s and below 2 per cent in the early 1980s. Oil and gas (now generating 60 per cent of export earnings) made the economy hostage to commodity prices; the 1986 collapse of oil to about $10 per barrel removed the rentier cushion. Military spending consumed an estimated 15 to 20 per cent of GDP.
What is glasnost?Show answer
Glasnost (openness) was less a policy than a permission. Pravda and Ogonyok published criticism of past leaders; Doctor Zhivago (1988), The Children of the Arbat (1987), and Gulag Archipelago (1989) were finally published. The Chernobyl disaster (26 April 1986) tested and broke the culture of secrecy when initial denials gave way under foreign and domestic pressure to disclosure.
What is new Thinking?Show answer
New Thinking (novoye myshlenie) was articulated by Gorbachev's 1987 book Perestroika and operationalised by Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze (replaced Andrei Gromyko, July 1985) and Politburo adviser Aleksandr Yakovlev. Core ideas: nuclear weapons made class war between systems impossible; security must be mutual; Europe was "our common European home" (Strasbourg, 6 July 1989); intervention in other socialist countries was no longer legitimate.
What is the Sinatra Doctrine?Show answer
The Brezhnev Doctrine (Pravda, 26 September 1968) had asserted Soviet right to intervene in any socialist country threatening "the foundations of socialism." Gorbachev replaced it with what Foreign Ministry spokesman Gennady Gerasimov dubbed (October 1989) the "Sinatra Doctrine": Eastern European states could do it "my way."
What is q1?Show answer
Source A is the INF Treaty (8 December 1987), Article 1 eliminating ground-launched intermediate-range missiles. Using Source A and your own knowledge, explain the significance of the INF Treaty. [5 marks]
What is q2?Show answer
Evaluate the extent to which Gorbachev's New Thinking was the decisive factor in ending the Cold War. [25 marks]
What is q3?Show answer
Compare the views of Archie Brown and John Lewis Gaddis on the end of the Cold War. [10 marks]
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