Kristina Spohr - Post Wall, Post Square - Rebuilding the World after 1989

William Collins

An imprint of HarperCollins Publishers

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

www.WilliamCollinsBooks.com

This eBook first published in Great Britain by William Collins in 2019

Copyright © Kristina Spohr 2019

Cover design by Heike Schüssler

Kristina Spohr asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

Maps by Martin Brown

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins

Source ISBN: 9780008280086

Ebook Edition © October 2019 ISBN: 9780008280109

Version: 2019-09-11

For my godchildren

Anna Lisa (*1997)

Daniel (*2004)

James (*2007)

Clio (*2013)

born into the post-Wall world

If 1989 was the year of sweeping away, 1990 must become the year of building anew.

James A. Baker, 1990

We don’t care what others say about us. The only thing we really care about is a good environment for developing ourselves. So long as history eventually proves the superiority of the Chinese socialist system, that’s enough .

Deng Xiaoping, 1989

France is our homeland, Europe is our future.

François Mitterrand, 1987

Peace is not unity in similarity but unity in diversity, in the comparison and conciliation of differences.

Mikhail Gorbachev, 1991

Politics needs a sense of the possible, also of what is acceptable to others.

Helmut Kohl, 2009

Contents

Cover

Title Page POST WALL POST SQUARE Rebuilding the World after 1989 Kristina Spohr

Copyright Copyright Copyright Dedication Epigraph List of Maps Introduction 1 Reinventing Communism: Russia and China 2 Toppling Communism: Poland and Hungary 3 Reuniting Germany, Dissolving Eastern Europe 4 Securing Germany in the Post-Wall World 5 Building a Europe ‘Whole and Free’ 6 ‘A New World Order’ 7 Russian Revolution 8 ‘Dawn of a New Era’ 9 Glimpsing a ‘Pacific Century’ Epilogue: Post Wall, Post Square: A World Remade? Abbreviations Footnotes Notes Index List of Illustrations Acknowledgements About the Author Also by Kristina Spohr About the Publisher William Collins An imprint of HarperCollins Publishers 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF www.WilliamCollinsBooks.com This eBook first published in Great Britain by William Collins in 2019 Copyright © Kristina Spohr 2019 Cover design by Heike Schüssler Kristina Spohr asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work Maps by Martin Brown A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins Source ISBN: 9780008280086 Ebook Edition © October 2019 ISBN: 9780008280109 Version: 2019-09-11

Dedication

Epigraph

List of Maps Maps Cold War Europe, 1985 Post Wall Europe, 1992 Europe ‘Reunified’ within EU and NATO The Soviet Union’s Sphere of Influence, 1985 The Post Soviet Space and the Remaining Communist Countries, 2015 China’s Economic Reach, 2015

Introduction

1 Reinventing Communism: Russia and China

2 Toppling Communism: Poland and Hungary

3 Reuniting Germany, Dissolving Eastern Europe

4 Securing Germany in the Post-Wall World

5 Building a Europe ‘Whole and Free’

6 ‘A New World Order’

7 Russian Revolution

8 ‘Dawn of a New Era’

9 Glimpsing a ‘Pacific Century’

Epilogue: Post Wall, Post Square: A World Remade?

Abbreviations

Footnotes

Notes

Index

List of Illustrations

Acknowledgements

About the Author

Also by Kristina Spohr

About the Publisher

Cold War Europe, 1985

Post Wall Europe, 1992

Europe ‘Reunified’ within EU and NATO

The Soviet Union’s Sphere of Influence, 1985

The Post Soviet Space and the Remaining Communist Countries, 2015

China’s Economic Reach, 2015

Economic crisis in the Soviet Union … War in the Gulf … Chaos in Yugoslavia … A Stalinist coup against Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev … Mobilisation across the whole Eastern bloc … Soviet invasion of the Balkans … The West calls up reservists and puts civil defence on highest alert …

At dawn on 24 February 1989, thousands of Warsaw Pact tanks begin rolling into West Germany, from the Baltic right down to the border with Czechoslovakia. The main attack comes across the North German Plain, with a secondary strike toward Frankfurt. At first Western armoured forces manage to keep the enemy in check, despite a tidal wave of refugees. But then the Kremlin resorts to the use of poison gas against Great Britain and northern Germany. On 5 March, Allied forces start to break and NATO authorises the first use of tactical nuclear weapons. Undeterred, the Soviets press home their attacks, so NATO moves to a second and this time massive nuclear strike on 9 March with twenty-five nuclear bombs and missiles, a third of which are launched from West Germany. The Soviet leadership reciprocates in kind. An atomic firestorm engulfs most of West and East Germany. The radiation spreads across Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary … [1]