P1 JPJC 2019 COLLAPSE OF COMMUNISM IN EASTERN EUROPE 1989

1 Name:__________________________________________Class:_____________ JURONG PIONEER JUNIOR COLLEGEJC2 Preliminary Examination 2019HISTORY9752/01Higher 224 September 2019Paper 1 Shaping the International Order (1945 – 2000)3 hoursAdditional materials:Writing PaperREAD THESE INSTRUCTIONS FIRSTFor Candidate’sUseFor Examiner’s UseQuestionNumberMarksObtained1(a)/101(b)/30/30/30Total/100 Write your name and civics class on all the work you hand in.Write in dark blue or black pen on both sides of the paper.Do not use staples, paper clips, glue or correction fluid.Section AAnswer Question 1. Section BAnswer two questions.At the end of the examination, fasten all your work securely together.The number of marks is given in brackets [ ] at the end of each question or part question.You are reminded of the need for grammatically correct English and clear presentation in your answers.This document consists of 5 printed pages.[Turn over

2 Section AYou must answer Question 1.THE COLLAPSE OF COMMUNISM IN EASTERN EUROPE, 1989Source AAnd now the Soviets themselves may, in a limited way, be coming to understand the importance of freedom. We hear much from Moscow about a new policy of reform and openness. Some political prisoners have been released. Certain foreign news broadcasts are no longer being jammed. Some economic enterprises have been permitted to operate with greater freedom from state control.Are these the beginnings of profound changes in the Soviet state? Or are they token gestures, intended to raise false hopes in the West, or to strengthen the Soviet system without changing it?General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalisation: Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!Speech by Ronald Reagan in West Berlin, 12 June 1987.Source BToday we rejoice in the demise of the Berlin Wall that was permanently breached just one year ago. A new Soviet leader appeared on the scene, untainted by the past, unwilling to be shackled by crumbling orthodoxies. With the rise of Mikhail Gorbachev came the end of numbing oppression. Glasnost introduced openness to the world's most closed society. Perestroika held out the promise of a better life, achieved through democratic institutions and a market economy. And real arms control came to pass, as an entire class of weapons was eliminated for the first time in the atomic age.Within months the Soviet Empire began to melt like a snowbank in May. One country after another overthrew the privileged cliques that had bled their economies and curbed their freedoms. Last month Germany itself was reunited, in the shadow of “The Brandenburg Gate” and under the democratic umbrella of NATO. Back in June 1987 I stood in the free city of West Berlin and asked Mr. Gorbachev to tear down the wall.Was he listening? Whether he was, or not, neither he nor the rulers of Eastern Europe could ignore the much louder chants of demonstrators in the streets of Leipzig and Dresden and dozens of other German cities. In the churches and the school, in the factories and on the farms, a once silent people found their voice and with it a battering ram to knock down walls, real and imagined. Because of them, the political map of Europe has been rewritten.Speech by Ronald Reagan in Berlin, 19 November 1990.

3 Source CDissatisfaction with the [East German] regime was already spreading into open mass demonstrations. Activists in local youth movements, young members of the East German Communist Party … [shouted] slogans and were chanting in their ranks: “Gorbachev! Help us!” They were demanding: “Gorbachev, save us!”. I had sensed that something was wrong when we were driving into Berlin from the airport. Along almost the entire route to the residence there were solid rows of young people chanting, ‘Gorbachev! Gorbachev!’- even though Honecker (leader of East German Communist Party) was sitting next to me. No one paid any attention to him. By the way, I also heard the words ‘Gorbachev save us’ from schoolchildren giving me flowers. Thousands of boys and girls were there. Honecker could not hide his inner agitation – he tried to put the best face on things but it was obvious that he was not feeling right, and he behaved as if he was in a trance.From Gorbachev’s memoirs, in which he wrote about a visit to East Germany in October 1989, published in 1996.Source D A cartoon depicting Ronald Reagan and the Berlin Wall published in an American newspaper in 2004, shortly after Reagan’s passing.

4 Source EThe crowds themselves were decisive. But the Soviet empire had been rocked by mass protests for decades and the communist governments, with Soviet aid, had only tightened their grip through brutal crackdowns. What it was that changed in the minds of the communist leaders - especially Mikhail Gorbachev, whose refusal to lend Soviet support to any crackdown forced the hand of those Eastern European governments more reluctant to change. In nearly every historian’s account, the central figure in the end of the Cold War is Gorbachev. Ronald Reagan may have disturbed the status quo with his bellicose rhetoric, and West Germany’s Helmut Kohl may have seized the initiative on uniting the two Germanys soon after the wall came down, but it was Gorbachev who bore the most responsibility, by steadfastly refusing to act as the dominos in communist Eastern Europe fell. He acceded to the political liberalization the Hungarian regime pursued in 1988 and 1989. In the summer of 1989, when Poland elected a non-communist government Gorbachev did not object. Most importantly, that fall, when Eastern European leaders like Erich Honecker in East Germany and Ceausescu in Romania pleaded with Gorbachev to use Soviet troops to suppress the swelling crowds, he repeatedly rejected the notion. Without the threat of a Soviet crackdown, the crowds only grew.An article from The Boston Globe Newspaper Company, 2009.Source FEven before November 1989, dissatisfaction across the Eastern bloc rose, people started to peacefully take to the streets, and later some fled to the West German embassies in Budapest and Prague hoping for passage to the West. We wanted freedom of speech, travel opportunities, Levi’s jeans, bananas and Western cars. On November 9, 1989, I was working the evening shift at the news agency. Early in the evening, the spokesman for the politburo hesitantly read from a piece of paper that travel restrictions had been lifted and the citizens of the GDR were allowed to leave the country. To the one-word question “when?” he answered prematurely: “Immediately.” We all watched in disbelief, and one older colleague muttered “This is the beginning of the end.” Within hours the tide of people clamouring to cross the border was unstoppable and beleaguered border guards gave way. You’ve all seen the images on TV. Extracted from an interview with a former East German citizen, 2014.Now answer the following questions:(a)Compare and contrast Sources A and B as evidence regarding how the USSR was portrayed. [10](b)To what extent do Sources A – F show that People Power brought down communism in Eastern Europe by 1989? [30]

5 Section BYou must answer two questions from this section. EITHER2‘The debt crisis of the 1980s was more devastating to the global economy than the oil crises of the 1970s.’ How far do you agree with this statement? [30] OR3Assess the view that international developments were pivotal in explaining Taiwan’s economic transformation between 1970 and 1990. [30] AND EITHER4How far would you agre