25. When and why did the Cold War end?
There can, of course, be no one specific date for the end of the Cold War, but most candidates should be able to point to the period 1989-90. Many may give November 1989 with the opening of the Berlin Wall, or early 1990, with the break up of the Soviet Union. They can also indicate events earlier in 1989, such as the opening of Hungary's borders with the West, and Solidarity's election victory in Poland, as the beginning of the end.
Most of the answer should be devoted to the second part of the question, which requires candidates to assess why Communism collapsed. Candidates can discuss economic weaknesses, the Communist bloc's financial debt to the West, political problems, the
impossibility of keeping the people in ignorance of Western standards, growth of opposition,
(especially in Poland and Czechoslovakia), policies of the Soviet leader Gorbachev,
(from 1985), of Glasnost and Perestroika.
[0 to 7 marks] for inaccurate or inadequate knowledge.
[8 to 10 marks] for narrative accounts with implicit "why".
[11 to 13 marks] for explicit attention to "when and why".
[14 to 16 marks] for structured, focused and analytical answers.
[17+ marks] for perceptive analysis, balance and chronology.