half note

Gale Stokes in his book “The Walls Came Tumbling Down: Collapse and Rebirth in Eastern Europe” puts forth the idea that Eastern Europe was entering a phase of pluralism in which non governmental groups used their influence to bring about change basically starting with the Prague Spring of 1968 in Czechoslovakian which was put down when invaded by armies of Warsaw Pact countries.  He creatively weaves his narrative through the Romanian, Bulgarian, and Hungarian attempts to foster change during the 1970’s through the Polish Solidarity movements in 1980’s.  Stokes’ says that the fall of the Iron Curtain is the latest in the evolution of 20th century Eastern European experiments moving from antirationalist fascism such as Nazi Germany and Mussolini’s Italy to the hyper rationalist communism of the Soviet Block to pluralism. Stokes goes on to say that the heavy handed response to the Prague Spring was the beginning of the end of the socialist experiment which came tumbling down in 1989.  He does emphasize the role of Mikhail Gorbachev glasnost and perestroika initiates as a big step.

I would like to know a bit more about the Chernobyl meltdown and how that disaster influenced the political affairs of the block countries.  It certainly made Gorbachev’s glasnost initiative more imperative.  He had to let the world know what the situation was surrounding Chernobyl.  What were the economic consequences of the meltdown?  I believe it cost around 18 billion dollars to clean up.  What were the political ramification?  The Soviet Union was already economically challenged as were the other block countries.  Did this event signify to the populace of the countries under the sphere of  Soviet influence that the Soviet Union was on its last legs and give them more initiative to push for change?