Democratization of Eastern Europe
The Glorious Revolutions of 1989

How did they happen?
 
 

Multi-variate Explanation

 “the unmoved mover” Gorbachev

 
 
Unsustainable economic system

Pressures “from below”              

    Civil Society as a strategy

Anti-politics, living as if

Solidarity movement

Pope John Paul II

   

 

 
Pacted transition
Negotiation between regime and opposition forces to broker terms to hold election

 

Elections
Rationale on the part of the Communist parties
 

 
Timeline

1988
August _ strike wave in Poland

October _ negotiations on terms of Round Table

November _ Walesa debates head of OPZZ

December _ Gorby promises troop withdrawals
 

1989
February _ April Polish Round Table

Solidarity re-legalized; Monday evening peace marches begin in GDR

 

March _ Hungarian Round Table convenes

June _ Solidarity _wins_ 1989 semi-free Parliamentary elections;

[Tiananmen Square massacre happens in China]

 

July _ Jaruzelski elected president (by Sejm)

 

August _ Solidarity’s Mazowiecki chosen as PM; first GDR refugees escape thru Hungary

 

September _ Hungarian Round Table concludes; refugee crisis builds; New Forum forms in GDR

 

October _ Hungarian Socialist Workers_ Party disbands;

Monday marches in GDR reach critical mass _ hundreds of thousands!

November _ Berlin Wall opens

December _ Havel elected president of Czechoslovakia; GDR Round Table opens; Helmut Kohl visits Dresden;

Romanian revolution ends with execution of Ceausescus