Caleb Garstecki Changing The World Analysis

Changing the World: The Fall of Communism by Caleb Garstecki On the fateful day in November the “symbol” of communism, the Berlin Wall, was tore down by both the West in East Germans. This act signified the culminating point of the Revolutionary changes sweeping Europe, and the eventual fall of the Soviet Union and most Communism as people. Throughout the Soviet era, the side of West Germany was under harsh Communist rule. This breaking down of the wall had such a greater meaning, it was the birth of freedom to all those currently oppressed. Such an action had great repercussions on the world, back then and yet still today. First, a reflection, the Russian Revolution began in March, 1917, the Bolsheviks, the leaders of Russia at the time,
were unprepared. When Lenin returned from exile in April, he called for seizure of power, despite opposition within the party. With a total party membership of about 200,000, they faced the problem of governing alone or sharing power. Lenin and Leon Trotsky demanded party dictatorship and destroyed all opposition from Mensheviks and other socialist groups. Despite seemingly impossible odds, the party apparatus was strengthened at all levels. (Schapiro 2013)
After the death of Lenin in 1924, dissident elements in the party were silenced as Joseph Stalin emerged as Lenin 's successor. While party debates in the party congresses of the 1920s were stormy and intraparty democracy was still evident, by the 16th party congress Stalin established virtual supremacy. A series of purges in the 1930s decimated the party. Former leaders Trotsky, Bukharin, Zinoviev, Kamenev, Rykov, and others were accused of treason, convicted in spectacular show trials, and executed or exiled. As the purges drew to a close by 1938, party membership had greatly declined. There was an immediate upturn in membership with the approach of World War II; in the period after the war membership grew more slowly.
The whole Stalinist period (1930-53), was dominated by a repressive and omnipotent dictatorship over all Soviet citizens, including party members. In 1952 the party was renamed the Communist party of the Soviet Union. (Laqueur 1994) By the mid-1980s the atmosphere in Russia was tense.
The miracle of doing well in the WII had been wearing out. The total deficit of everything and the black markets did not contribute to keeping the morale up. The Chernobyl disaster as well as war action in Afghanistan had drained the country both financially and psychologically. The public resentment was growing. For years the government had been running in the red but it did not catch up with them till late 1980s, and by then it was too little too late for a change. (Schapiro 2013)
In 1991, when Boris Yeltsin seized the power and the Belavezha Accords were signed, the decision to disband the Soviet Union had been made and supported by the governments of Ukraine and Belarus. On December 12, 1991 Russia’s secession from the Union was sealed, the Belavezha Accords were ratified and the 1922 treaty on the creation of the Soviet Union was denounced. It had been a long road, and arguably it was predictable. It was finally time for change.
Almost immediately after the fall of the Soviet Union change was seen across the whole world. The effect and aftershock of this collapse is still present until these days. Some of the effects were immediate, while some of them became apparent much later
time.

Immediately after the collapse of USSR, the world had changed from bipolar to unipolar, where USA became the leading state in the planet (to good and bad to the world and USA alone) and until this moment, there is no country, entity, or association that would match USA. This led to deformation of foreign policies around the world and increasing rejection of American culture, politics, and values everywhere in the world. USA still benefits from the collapse of USSR, but did not fully materialize an economic opportunities to it in the 1990 's as did China and Europe economically and politically.
The collapse also enabled to create much more powerful and stronger Europe that is, at present time, expanded into territories of former USSR. The wealth of Europe would not be possible, if Russia and former communist satellite would not supply material and raw resources to much richer western states. The Europe without collapse of communist block would be less vital and more economically stagnant. Today all countries have access to enormous mineral wealth of USSR and cheap manufacturing capacities of the former COMECON, which cut cost to many goods exported from Europe to the rest of the world.
The biggest beneficiary of the collapse on the arena is probably China. It understood that economic model of USSR was not viable and forced to China modernize, while other hand did not allowed political openness predating the collapse. China while still managed by communist party transformed into different economic entity than it was in the 1980 's. (Hutt 2005) However what sums the change up the best is how the two areas of West and East Germany came together with the collapse of the Berlin Wall. The area On November 9, 1989, as the Cold War began to thaw across Eastern Europe, the spokesman for East Berlin’s Communist Party announced a change in his city’s relations with the West. Starting at midnight that day, he said, citizens of the GDR were free to cross the country’s borders.
As the scene was described by a former East German guard: “East and West Berliners flocked to the wall, drinking beer and champagne and chanting “Tor auf!” (“Open the gate!”). At midnight, they flooded through the checkpoints. “ (Kappel 2004)

More than 2 million people from East Berlin visited West Berlin that weekend to participate in a celebration that was, one journalist wrote, “the greatest street party in the history of the world.” People used hammers and picks to knock away chunks of the wall, while cranes and bulldozers pulled down section after section.
Soon the wall was gone and Berlin was united for the first time since 1945. “Only today,” one Berliner spray-painted on a piece of the wall, “is the war really over.” The reunification of East and West Germany was made official on October 3, 1990, almost one year after the fall of the Berlin Wall. (Kappel
2004)
The fall of the Berlin Wall signified that the people were ready for change. People in the Soviet controlled countries began to take notice of their new found freedom. Not too soon after, the Soviet Union officially came to an end in 1991 and split into republics (a system of government in which an elected official leads). These republics are self-governed, rather than ruled by the Soviet Union. When the Soviet Union dissolved, it led to a domino effect of communist nations collapsing. Thus changing the world further, allowing individual freedoms for the people in those countries also.

Works Cited
Schapiro, See L. "Encyclopedia: Communist Party, in Russia and the Soviet Union." Yahoo.com, n.d. Web. 24 May 2013.
Laqueur, Walter. The Dream That Failed: Reflections on the Soviet Union. New York: Oxford Universal Publishing, 1994. Print.
Hutt, Justin T. "The Cold War" Cold War Museum, Jan.-Feb. 2005. Web. 27 May 2013.
Kappel, Robert L. "Berlin Wall." History.com. A&E Television Networks, 5 Apr. 2004. Web. 27