Flashcards: 29 Europe Since 1970
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Created by:
HistoryofCrawford on April 12, 2011
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Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
 Helsinki Conference | August 1975; all countries recognized borders set out after WWII, including invasion of Germany; agreed to respect human rights - freedom of speech and freedom to move from country to country |
| Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) | Known as Star Wars; space-based nuclear defense idea by US against the Soviet |
| Boris Pasternak | Russian writer whose best known novel "Dr. Zhivago" was banned by Soviet authorities but translated and published abroad (1890-1960) |
| Alexander Solzhenitsyn | Russian writer of Gulag Archipelago who was expelled from Russia for describing the horrors of labor camps |
| Mikhail Gorbachev | Soviet dictator from 1985 to 1991 began reforms that caused the end of the Soviet Union |
| Perestroika | Term used in the 1980's in USSR to describe the political and economic restructuring and decentralization |
| Glasnost | Term used in the 1980's in USSR meaning openness or freedom of expression |
| Boris Yeltsin | President of the Russian 1991- |
| Solidarity | First organization of trade unions in Soviet Bloc. Started in Poland by Lech Walesa |
| Velvet divorce | The peaceful split of Czechoslovakia into Czech republic and Slovakia. |
| Helmut Kohl | Chancellor of Germany in 1982. He led Germany in a more conservative route. Instrumental in the re-unification of the two Germanys in 1990 |
| Ethnic cleansing | The attempt in the 1990's by Yugoslavian and Bosnian Serbs to eliminate Muslims from Bosnia by killing them. Had to be brought under control by coalition forces including U.S., U.K., NATO, and France. Since then, another term for genocide, usually used by perpetrators |
| Margaret Thatcher | Europe's first women Prime Minister (1979); Conservative; worked to cut welfare and housing expenses, promote free enterprise |
| Francois Mitterrand | French socialist elected as president in 1981. turned France more to the left. Nationalized business, etc. |
| Single European Act | Agreement in 1986 that by 1992 there would be no restrictions of movement of goods, services, workers, capital within the European community. |
| European Union | The European community became this on January 1, 1994 and the plan for common currency and foreign policy were continued. |