Cold War EndNB 154-155

Source: Making the History of 1989http://chnm.gmu.edu/1989/items/

show/23

Essential Question

• What caused popular unrest in Eastern Europe?

Butcher Shop in Poland, 1982

Chris Niedenthal, "The Butcher Shop, Warsaw," Making the History of 1989, Item #23, http://chnm.gmu.edu/1989/items/show/23

Cold War End: Cornell Notes• Question • L1: Who are the

people pictured? • L2: What are the

sources of the problem?

• L3: What does this data show about the economy?

• Notes• I see a woman behind a

counter waiting on two customers.

• The shelves look empty

Butcher Shop

• In the 1980s average citizens of East European countries faced many challenges, including daily difficulties created from ongoing and severe shortages of consumer goods.

• This 1982 photograph, taken in a butcher shop in Poland's capital city of Warsaw, clearly conveys the problem of acquiring basic necessities, such as meat.

Shopping queue in Wroclaw

• Chris Niedenthal, "Shopping queue in Wrocław," Making the History of 1989, Item #24, http://chnm.gmu.edu/1989/items/show/24

Shopping queue in Wroclaw

• In this 1982 photograph, a large crowd stands in front of a department store (Dom Mody) in the city of Wrocław in Western Poland. Such lines were a daily sight in Soviet Bloc countries, where the state was unable to meet its citizens' everyday needs. Declining living standards and daily hardships throughout Eastern Europe in the 1980s contributed to the building resentment toward State Socialism, eventually leading to the collapse of the system.

One of the most important indicators of a societies transition to what economists often call “modern industrial society” is a decline in infant mortality rates. This rate reflects the number of children who die before age one out of each 1,000 live births. Professor T Mills Kelly, "Infant Mortality: Eastern Europe: 1970-1989," Making the History of 1989, Item #668, http://chnm.gmu.edu/1989/items/show/668

• On the one hand the data indicate the degree to which the regimes of Communist Eastern Europe were able to make substantial progress in reducing infant mortality in their countries between 1970 and 1989.

• On the other hand the data also demonstrate that while in some cases the Communist regimes were able to reduce the rate of infant mortality more rapidly than was the case in the United States, the actual number of infant deaths per thousand in several of these countries—especially Romania and Yugoslavia—was significantly higher than it was in the United States.

Apartments

• Some 83 percent of all apartments had a bathroom or a shower and a lavatory in 1986; only 1 in 15 apartments was without either a bathroom or without a lavatory, and only 1 in 10 apartments had neither.

• Source: "Rudé Pravo, Housing," Making the History of 1989, Item #274, http://chnm.gmu.edu/1989/items/show/274

Women’s Attitudes Toward the Transition to Democracy

• “Before we had money but we didn’t have products. Now we have products and we don’t have money. How good do you think it is for a woman to go to the market and not be able to buy the fruit that is needed for her kid? You are not able to spend money on fruit because you need to pay rent and other living expenses… it’s so expensive. The price of electricity, gas, rent--it’s like in the West--but the salaries are like in Romania.”

•  

Women’s Attitudes Toward the Transition to Democracy

• Interview:  M. born 1955, worked as an electrician under communism, currently unemployed, married, two children, interviewed in Braşov, Romania, summer, 2003.  Jill Massino, "Women’s Attitudes Toward the Transition to Democracy," Making the History of 1989, Item #563, http://chnm.gmu.edu/1989/items/show/563

Excerpt “Is Poland Lost” by Sabine Rosenbladt

• The river around which the port city of Gdansk grew is called the Vistula. On its way through the heart of Poland, the Vistula passes through many large and small cities, most of which dump their raw sewage directly into it. Half of the 813 Polish communities that line the banks of the Vistula, including the capital city of Warsaw, have no sewage treatment facilities.

• Sabine Rosenblatt, "Is Poland Lost?" Making the History of 1989, Item #687, http://chnm.gmu.edu/1989/items/show/687 (accessed May 10 2015, 10:33 pm).

Essential Question

• What caused popular unrest in Eastern Europe?

• 1 pg written response• Due Monday

Warm up NB 152-153

• Read pp. 537-538• 1. Why did the command economy stagnate in

the Soviet Union? • 2. What cracked under the burden of military

commitments?• 3. Why was Afghanistan compared to the

Soviet “Vietnam?

Warm up NB 152-153

• Read pp. 537-538• 1. Why did the command economy stagnate?• Collectivized agriculture was unproductive, central

planning led to inefficiency and waste, workers were paid low wages

• 2. What cracked under the burden of military commitments? The arms race strained the economy.

• 3. Why was Afghanistan compared to the Soviet “Vietnam?” It was a long and costly war fueled by guerilla fighters.