Collapse of Communism in Eastern

Collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union in 1989 / 90 was one of the key events of the 20th century, marking the end of the Cold War and the start of a new era in international politics. The relatively sudden collapse took many observers by surprise but signs of its failure had been evident for some time.

For example, the rise of Solidarity, an anti-Communist trade union in Poland, a decade earlier was a sign of things to come. When Mikhail Gorbachev took over as the Soviet Communist Party leader in 1985, he introduced Glasnost and Perestroika, thinking that a measure of restructuring, democratization, and openness would enable him to tide over a stagnating economy while remaining within the Communist system. Gorbachev also abandoned the Soviet Union's policy of intervening with military force to preserve Communist rule in the region and encouraged the Eastern European leaders to introduce their own democratic reforms. The reform policy backfired as, after decades of repression, the openness unleashed forces of pent up forces of freedom. (Lorimer, 1992)

Soon, pro-democracy movements had sprung up all over Eastern Europe, forcing their governments to introduce reforms. As a result multiparty elections were held in Hungary in 1989; Poland held its first democratic the same year, which was won by Solidarity; East Germans took to the streets in the summer and fall of 1989, tore down the Berlin Wall and reunited their country.