Introduction
The revolutions of 1989 refer to a series of revolutions that were realized especially in Eastern Europe as a protest against the communist system of government. Regardless of the wide spread of the protest across a number of countries, the revolutions were carried out in a non violent way except in few isolated cases. This paper seeks to discuss the reasons for the peaceful revolutions in the year 1989 contrary to previous revolutions that were marked by high levels of violence. The paper will also look at uprisings in Hungary in 1956 and Czechoslovakia in 1968 which were violently countered. Overall this paper will clearly show why the 1989 revolutions were carried out in a peaceful manner as compared to the early revolutions.
Uprising in Hungary in 1956
The Hungarian revolution of the year 1956 was started in October by students and workers who boycotted classes and work respectively in order to protest against the country’s oppressive system of governance as was exercised by the communist system of government. The demonstrators made demands for general changes in the government’s system and enforcement of rule of law on leaders who were violating laws through application of justice on those who had done wrongs to the country. In response to the revolution, the government dispatched its “secret police” to disperse the citizens who had then been branded rebels.1 The secret police were, however, violent on the demonstrators as they used excessive force in their attempt to disperse the crowds and restore order in the streets.
They, in the process, arrested some of the demonstrators a move that further annoyed the demonstrating group. As a result, the demonstrators organized themselves to rescue their arrested colleagues consequently triggering the secret police to open fire on the demonstrating citizens. The general police then offered their weapons to the demonstrators who used the guns to fight the secret police. Even as soldiers were brought in to counter the demonstrators, their efforts did not yield much fruit as most of them joined the revolution and the remaining was defeated. The Soviet Union seemingly yielded to the protestors and withdrew its forces from Hungary allowing them to form their government under their desired reforms. The soldiers were, however, later to be returned for a violent mission that killed men, women and even children.2
The soviet made a violent move to counter what it had realized was a revolution to rebel against the communist form of government. The revolution was thus purely marked by extreme violence from both the demonstrating civilians and the Soviet government.3 The Soviet forces attacked Hungary with full military equipments that included “katyusha rockets from their multiple launchers, mortars and cannons from the T-54 Stalin tanks”4 among other weapons. They attacked any group that appeared to have a resistance possibility including neutral military bases. Seemingly, the main aim of the attack was a massive killing of the Hungarian people as the Soviet Union soldiers were explicitly required to fire into people. There were reported cases of military officers who were killed by their colleagues for failing to comply with orders to kill the Hungarians.5
Uprising in Czechoslovakia in 1968
Czechoslovakia, like Hungary, was in an attempt to break away from the communism form of governance that it had realized to be unfavorable to its economy. Though the revolution in Czechoslovakia was not as violent as that in Hungary in terms of the use of military by the people of Czechoslovakia, the communist society did not welcome the move and launched an attack on the country. Czechoslovakia had undertaken reforms to facilitate its developments following its poor economic performance. Its revolution was characterized by a number of liberations in terms of human rights among other things.6
Following the reform process that was undertaken by Czechoslovakia that also included economic reforms the communist world felt uncomfortable with the country and entered into talks with the aim of suppressing the reform process that Czechoslovakia was undertaking. An agreement was made between the two groups that the rate at which the reforms were being affected would be reduced. The communist countries however made a surprise military visit to Czechoslovakia in august of the year 1968 with troops from the then Soviet Union and other five allies. The military invasion of Czechoslovakia was supposed to use any possible level of force to counter any form of military resistance by Czechoslovakia.
The military resistance was however not encountered as the host was caught unprepared and the government of Czechoslovakia ordered its military against any resistance action to the invasion. The invaders were however met with serious civilian revolt against the invasion. A wide protest was registered with initial violent civilian attacks on the visiting military personnel. The revolution however settled to be a civilian revolution by the Czechoslovakian population. Leaders of Czechoslovakia were then moved to Moscow in the Soviet Union in an attempt by the communist alliance to establish a new government in the country followed by a conviction over the arrested leaders.
The protest in Czechoslovakia together with the unwillingness of its leaders to cooperate with the country’s invaders in establishing a new government however reshaped the move that shifted to negotiations for the country to reduce its pace of reform agenda which was viewed as a form of revolution against the communist society. This became the adopted solution though the people of Czechoslovakia were greatly disappointed in their leaders who entered into such agreement. Though the revolution by Czechoslovakia was not a violent one, the response that the communist alliance resorted to use was a military based violent approach that was only abated following the move by the then government of Czechoslovakia to stop its military from fighting the invading troops.7
The 1989 Revolutions
After the Second World War, there were divisions and alignments of countries in the influence of the cold war. Consequently, most of the eastern European countries found themselves under the influence of the communist government system that was the characteristic of the Soviet Union. There were however levels of discontent among civilians in these countries who felt that the communist government system was not favorable to their countries’ economies. Most significant resentments of the communist government system were among workers in most of the eastern European countries. Feelings and moves to break away from communist ideologies existed in the region prior to the year 1989 with specific cases of revolutions that were recorded in Hungary in the year 1956 and Czechoslovakia in the year 1968.
Logically the extreme measures that the Soviet government took were anticipated. It should be noted that the Soviet Union was trying to assert its influence in the region surrounding it and any successful revolution against its system of governance would mean a reduction in the influence of the Soviet Union. It is also logical to note that the Soviet Union was trying to outdo the United States as it also wanted to be recognized as a superpower and this could not be achieved if nations under its influence were continuously making attempts to break away from its system of governance. Ideally, this was a war meant to ensure that communism was moving ahead and not declining. It is correct to argue that the Soviet Army moved in to eliminate the threat that was being posed to the demonstrators who seemingly had viewed capitalism to be better placed to serve their interests than communism.
The revolution which was widely felt among communist countries started in Poland before spreading to other countries.8 The mass protests that started in Poland before spreading to other countries such as Bulgaria among others was a people led initiative in the communist countries to break away from the dictatorial government system that was characterized by a single party political system. It was a war in fight for democracy for people in the countries and freedom from the communist ideologies that had proved to be costly to the countries in economic and other terms.9
Causes of the Revolutions
The revolutions that widely swept through Eastern Europe in the year 1989 were as a result of a number of factors that drove people into protesting against the communist system of governance. One of the major reasons for the revolutions was the economic downfall that was widely realized among the communist countries. The economic problems had been a long term issue that the governments had for one reason or another failed to adequately react to. The economic instability was, for example, one of the reasons for the uprisings that had been previously realized in countries such as Hungary and Czechoslovakia. Economic ideologies that were adopted by the communist states which were characterized by heavy borrowing proved to be harmful to the economies of the states.
The strained economies that were definitely transferred to the citizens thus angered the people who blamed the problems entirely on their governments and the communist ideologies. It was this dissent towards the government systems that contributed to people’s rise for change. The Soviet Union that acted as the center for the communist community had also grown weak in its own economic system. Following the cold war with the United States, the Soviet Union had immensely spent on manufacturing military equipments at the expense of its economy. Following the country’s direct influence and control over the communist world, this economic compromise was passed over to the other countries leading to their economic instability.
The declaration of non interference by the Soviet Union on the affair of other communist states was another step for the call for reforms in these countries. Previously, the countries were directly under the Soviet and any uprising mandated the use of soviet forces that was always supplemented by forces from other communist states. This declaration therefore enabled people in these countries to make their revolutions without threats from the soviet military that they greatly dreaded. Other forms of government systems, such as capitalism, that the people in communist states realized were better than their system was another factor that led to the uprising in the bid to establish better economies.10 According to Kumar, the revolutions were driven by the people upon influence by leaders who were keen to see the development of democratic processes in the communist states.11
Soviet’s reaction to the 1989 revolutions
Following the resolution by the Soviet Union to grant autonomy to the communist states for any possible reforms, it withdrew its forces and influence over the countries. The former central administrative office that was seemingly located in Moscow ceased and the states were free to manage their affairs and reforms without any further influence from Moscow. As a result, the Soviet played a passive role in watching the revolutions contrary to the military actions that were previously taken against Hungary and Czechoslovakia that had earlier attempted such revolutions. It is noted that except for the case in Romania, other states underwent peaceful revolutionary processes that were free from violent.
It was only in Romania that violence was witnessed in the process of revolution. However, the violence was not from the Soviet Union administration but from internal rebels since the Romanian government refused to yield to the protests.12 In Bulgaria, for example, the revolution saw the president who had been greatly influenced by forces from the Soviet Union loose his post besides other numerous changes that were effected in the country’s government system. Other communist countries however encountered an entirely peaceful revolutionary transition. Apart from the liberating order that the Soviet Union had given over the communist countries, the Soviet was itself straining with its own instability which could have not allowed it to suppress the other countries.13 Wrangles in the Soviet Union that included threats by some of its states to secede from the union were factors to the weakened Soviet Union.14
Conclusion
Following the Second World War, the communist community grouped themselves under the Warsaw movement. The Soviet Union assumed supremacy of the communist world and power over the communist countries which the Soviet Union used to suppress any move in the community that undermined the communist ideals like in the initial cases of Hungary and Czechoslovakia. Things however changed with Soviet granting military autonomy leading to non suppressed revolutions in the year 1989. The non violent revolutions were therefore as a result of the events that led to the Soviet Union’s restraint of military interference over affairs of the other communist states.
Bibliography
Armbruster, C, Discerning the global in the European revolutions of 1989, Cengage, New York, 2008.
Byrne, M, The 1956 Hungarian revolution: A history in documents, National security archives, 2004, Web.
Davies, P, The Romanian revolution of December 1989, Ornell University Press, New York, 2005.
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Footnotes
- Needham, Hungary’s revolt against communism. (needham, n.d). p 1.
- Ibid
- Byrne, The 1956 Hungarian revolution: A history in documents. (National security archives, 2004). P 1
- Mathews, Explosion: The Hungarian revolution of 1956. (New York, NY: Hippocrene Books, 2007). P 361
- Ibid
- Gordon, The Czechoslovakia uprising, The cold war museum, n.d, p. 1
- Fragment, Civilian resistance in Czechoslovakia, fragments web, n.d. p. 1
- New World, Revolutions of 1989, New world encyclopedia, 2009, P. 1
- Kato, Japanese perception of the 1989 Eastern European revolution, Hi totsubashi journal, 1991, P. 1
- Sowards, The failure of Balkan communism and the cause of the revolutions of 1989, staff.lib, 2009), p. 1
- Kumar, 1989: revolutionary ideas and ideals, Minneapolis, MN: U of Minnesota press, 2001, p. 136
- Davies, The Romanian revolution of December 1989, New York, NY: Cornell University Press, 2005, P. 46
- Parker, Revolutions and the revolutionary tradition in the West, 1560-1991, New York, NY: Routledge, 2000, P. 214
- Armbruster, Discerning the global in the European revolutions of 1989,Research network, 2008, P. 4, 5