The
Revolutions of 1989
Revolutions of 1989 formed part of a revolutionary wave in the
late 1980s and early 1990s that resulted in the end of communist rule
in
Central and Eastern Europe
.png/500px-European_sub-regions_(according_to_EuroVoc,_the_thesaurus_of_the_EU).png)
Central and Eastern Europe and beyond. The period is sometimes
called the Fall of Nations or the Autumn of
Nations,[4][5][6][7][8] a play
on the term
Spring of Nations
Spring of Nations that is sometimes used to describe the
Revolutions of 1848.
The events of the full-blown revolution first began in
Poland
Poland in
1989[9][10] and continued in Hungary, East Germany,
Bulgaria,
Czechoslovakia
.svg/250px-Flag_of_Slovakia_(1939–1945).svg.png)
Czechoslovakia and Romania. One feature common to most of
these developments was the extensive use of campaigns of civil
resistance, demonstrating popular opposition to the continuation of
one-party rule and contributing to the pressure for
change.[11]
Romania
Romania was the only
Eastern Bloc
Eastern Bloc country whose
citizens overthrew its
Communist regime
Communist regime violently.[12]
Protests in
Tiananmen Square
Tiananmen Square (April–June 1989) failed to stimulate
major political changes in China, but influential images of courageous
defiance during that protest helped to precipitate events in other
parts of the globe. On 4 June 1989, the trade union Solidarity won an
overwhelming victory in a partially free election in Poland, leading
to the peaceful fall of
Communism
Communism in that country in the summer of
1989. Also in June 1989,
Hungary
Hungary began dismantling its section of the
physical Iron Curtain, leading to an exodus of East Germans through
Hungary, which destabilised East Germany. This led to mass
demonstrations in cities such as
Leipzig
Leipzig and subsequently to the fall
of the
Berlin Wall
Berlin Wall in November 1989, which served as the symbolic
gateway to
German reunification
German reunification in 1990.
The
Soviet Union
.jpg/460px-Soviet_Union-1964-stamp-Chapayev_(film).jpg)
Soviet Union dissolved in December 1991, resulting in eleven new
countries (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan,
Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan,
Ukraine
Ukraine and
Uzbekistan), which had declared their independence from the Soviet
Union in the course of the year, while the
Baltic states
Baltic states (Estonia,
Latvia
Latvia and Lithuania) regained their independence in September 1991.
The rest of the Soviet Union, which constituted the bulk of the area,
became the
Russian Federation
Russian Federation in December 1991. Albania and Yugoslavia
abandoned
Communism
Communism between 1990 and 1992. By 1992, Yugoslavia had
split into five successor states, namely Bosnia and Herzegovina,
Croatia, Macedonia,
Slovenia
Slovenia and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia,
which was later renamed
Serbia and Montenegro
.svg/250px-Flag_of_Serbia_and_Montenegro_(1992–2006).svg.png)
Serbia and Montenegro in 2003 and eventually
split in 2006 into two states,
Serbia
Serbia and Montenegro.
Serbia
Serbia was then
further split with the breakaway of the partially recognised state of
Kosovo
Kosovo in 2008.
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia dissolved three years after the end of
Communist rule, splitting peacefully into the
Czech Republic
Czech Republic and
Slovakia
Slovakia in 1992.[13] The impact of these events was felt in
many Socialist countries.
Communism
Communism was abandoned in countries such as
Cambodia
Cambodia (1991),
Ethiopia
Ethiopia (1990), Mongolia (which in 1990
democratically re-elected a Communist government that ran the country
until 1996) and
South Yemen
South Yemen (1990).
During the adoption of varying forms of market economy, there was a
general decline in living standards for many former Communist
countries.[14] Political reforms were varied, but in only four
countries were
Communist parties
Communist parties able to retain a monopoly on power,
namely China, Cuba,
Laos
Laos and
Vietnam
Vietnam (
North Korea
North Korea went through a
constitutional change in 2009 that made it nominally no longer
Communist, but still de facto organised on
Stalinist
Stalinist lines). Many
communist and socialist organisations in the West turned their guiding
principles over to social democracy and democratic socialism.
Communist parties
Communist parties in
Italy
Italy and
San Marino
San Marino suffered and the reformation
of the Italian political class took place in the early 1990s. In South
America, the
Pink tide
Pink tide began with
Venezuela
Venezuela in 1999 and swept through
the early 2000s. The European political landscape changed drastically,
with several former
Eastern Bloc
Eastern Bloc countries joining
NATO
.svg/440px-North_Atlantic_Treaty_Organization_(orthographic_projection).svg.png)
NATO and the
European Union, resulting in stronger economic and social integration
with Western Europe and the United States.
Contents
1 Background
1.1 Development of the Eastern Bloc
1.2 Emergence of Solidarity in Poland
1.3 Mikhail Gorbachev
1.4 Soviet republics
1.5 Impact of Solidarity grows
1.6 Regime changes outside of Eastern Europe
2 National political movements
2.1 Poland
2.2 Hungary
2.3 East Germany
2.4 Czechoslovakia
2.5 Bulgaria
2.6 Romania
2.7 Yugoslavia
2.8 Albania
2.9 Mongolia
2.10 China
3 Malta Summit
4 Election chronology in Central/
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe and Central Asia
5 Dissolution of the Soviet Union
5.1 Baltic states
5.2 Belarus,
Ukraine
Ukraine and Moldova
5.3 Transcaucasia
5.4 Chechnya
5.5 Central Asia
5.6 Post-Soviet conflicts
6 Other events
6.1 Communist and Socialist countries
6.1.1 Africa
6.1.2 Middle East
6.1.3 Asia
6.1.4 Latin America
6.1.5 Oceania
6.2 Other countries
7 Political reforms
8 Economic reforms
9 Ideological continuation of Communism
10 Interpretations
11 Remembrance
11.1 Organizations
11.2 Events
11.3 Places
11.4 Other
12 See also
13 References
14 Further reading
15 External links
Background[edit]
Development of the Eastern Bloc[edit]
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Further information:
Eastern Bloc
Eastern Bloc and List of socialist states
Socialism
Socialism had been gaining momentum among working class citizens of
the world since the 19th century. These culminated in the early 20th
century when several states and colonies formed their own communist
parties. Many of the countries involved had hierarchical structures
with monarchic governments and aristocratic social structures with an
established nobility.
Socialism
Socialism was undesirable within the circles of
the ruling classes (which had begun to include industrial business
leaders) in the late 19th/early 20th century states; as such,
communism was repressed. Its champions suffered persecution while
people were discouraged from adopting it. This had been the practice
even in states which identified as exercising a multi-party system.
The Russian
Revolution
Revolution of 1917 saw the first communist state in the
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), when the Bolsheviks
overthrew the provisional government.
During the period between the world wars, communism had been on the
rise in many parts of the world, especially in towns and cities. This
led to a series of purges in many countries to stifle the movement.
Violent resistance to this repression led to an increase in support
for communism in Central and Eastern Europe.
In the early stages of World War II, both Nazi
Germany
Germany and the USSR
invaded and occupied the countries of
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe after the
Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact.
Germany
Germany then turned against and invaded the
USSR: the battles of this Eastern Front were the largest in history.
The USSR joined with the Allies and in conferences at Tehran and
Yalta, the Allies agreed that
Central and Eastern Europe
Central and Eastern Europe would be in
the "Soviet sphere of political influence.". The USSR fought the
Germans to a standstill and finally began driving them back, reaching
Berlin before the end of the war. Nazi ideology was violently
anti-communist, and the Nazis brutally suppressed communist movements
in the countries it occupied. Communists played a large part in the
resistance to the Nazis in these countries. As the Soviets forced the
Germans back, they assumed temporary control of these devastated
areas.
After World War II, the Soviets ensured that communists loyal to
Moscow
Moscow took power in the countries it occupied. The Soviets retained
troops throughout these territories. The
Cold War
Cold War saw these states,
bound together by the Warsaw Pact, have continuing tensions with the
capitalist west, bound together by NATO. The Chinese Revolution
established communism in
China
China in 1949.
During the Hungarian
Revolution
Revolution of 1956, a spontaneous nationwide
anti-authoritarian revolt, the
Soviet Union
Soviet Union invaded
Hungary
Hungary to assert
control. Similarly, in 1968, the USSR repressed the
Prague Spring
Prague Spring by
organizing the
Warsaw Pact
.svg/360px-Warsaw_Pact_in_1990_(orthographic_projection).svg.png)
Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia.
Emergence of Solidarity in Poland[edit]
Main article: Solidarity (Polish trade union)
Labour turmoil in
Poland
Poland during 1980 led to the formation of the
independent trade union Solidarity, led by Lech Wałęsa, which over
time became a political force. On 13 December 1981, Polish Prime
Minister
Wojciech Jaruzelski
Wojciech Jaruzelski started a crackdown on Solidarity by
declaring martial law in Poland, suspending the union, and temporarily
imprisoning all of its leaders.
Mikhail Gorbachev[edit]
Main articles: Mikhail Gorbachev, Perestroika, Glasnost, and
Democratisation in the Soviet Union
Although several
Eastern bloc
Eastern bloc countries had attempted some abortive,
limited economic and political reform since the 1950s (e.g. the
Hungarian
Revolution
Revolution of 1956 and
Prague Spring
Prague Spring of 1968), the ascension
of reform-minded Soviet leader
Mikhail Gorbachev
.png/440px-Gorbachev_(cropped).png)
Mikhail Gorbachev in 1985 signaled the
trend toward greater liberalization. During the mid-1980s, a younger
generation of Soviet apparatchiks, led by Gorbachev, began advocating
fundamental reform in order to reverse years of Brezhnev stagnation.
After decades of growth, the
Soviet Union
Soviet Union was now facing a period of
severe economic decline and needed Western technology and
credits[clarification needed] to make up for its increasing
backwardness. The costs of maintaining its military, the KGB, and
subsidies to foreign client states further strained the moribund
Soviet economy.
The first signs of major reform came in 1986 when Gorbachev launched a
policy of glasnost (openness) in the Soviet Union, and emphasized the
need for perestroika (economic restructuring). By the spring of 1989,
the
Soviet Union
Soviet Union had not only experienced lively media debate, but had
also held its first multi-candidate elections in the newly established
Congress of People's Deputies. While glasnost ostensibly advocated
openness and political criticism, these were only permitted within a
narrow spectrum dictated by the state. The general public in the
Eastern bloc
Eastern bloc was still subject to secret police and political
repression.
Gorbachev urged his Central and Southeast European counterparts to
imitate perestroika and glasnost in their own countries. However,
while reformists in
Hungary
Hungary and
Poland
Poland were emboldened by the force of
liberalization spreading from the east, other
Eastern bloc
Eastern bloc countries
remained openly skeptical and demonstrated aversion to reform.
Believing Gorbachev's reform initiatives would be short-lived,
hardline communist rulers like East Germany's Erich Honecker,
Bulgaria's Todor Zhivkov, Czechoslovakia's
Gustáv Husák
Gustáv Husák and
Romania's
Nicolae Ceauşescu
Nicolae Ceauşescu obstinately ignored the calls for
change.[15] "When your neighbor puts up new wallpaper, it
doesn't mean you have to too," declared one East German politburo
member.[16]
Soviet republics[edit]
An animated series of maps showing the fall of the Communist regimes
in
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe and the disintegration of the Soviet Union, which
later led to conflicts in the post-Soviet space
By the late 1980s, people in the
Caucasus
Caucasus and
Baltic states
Baltic states were
demanding more autonomy from Moscow, and the Kremlin was losing some
of its control over certain regions and elements in the Soviet Union.
In November 1988, the
Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic
Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic issued a
declaration of sovereignty,[17] which would eventually lead to
other states making similar declarations of autonomy.
The
Chernobyl disaster
Chernobyl disaster in April 1986 had major political and social
effects that catalyzed or at least partially caused the revolutions of
1989. One political result of the disaster was the greatly increased
significance of the new Soviet policy of
glasnost.[18][19] It is difficult to establish the
total economic cost of the disaster. According to Gorbachev, the
Soviet Union
Soviet Union spent 18 billion rubles (the equivalent of US$18 billion
at that time) on containment and decontamination, virtually
bankrupting itself.[20]
Impact of Solidarity grows[edit]
Main article: Solidarity (Polish trade union)
The 20–21 March 1981 issue of Wieczór Wrocławia (This Evening in
Wrocław) shows blank spaces remaining after the government censor
pulled articles from page 1 (right, "What happened at Bydgoszcz?") and
from the last page (left, "Country-wide strike alert"), leaving only
their titles as the printers—Solidarity-trade-union
members—decided to run the newspaper with blank spaces intact. The
bottom of page 1 of this master copy bears the hand-written Solidarity
confirmation of that decision.
Throughout the mid-1980s, Solidarity persisted solely as an
underground organization, supported by the Catholic Church. However,
by the late 1980s, Solidarity became sufficiently strong to frustrate
Jaruzelski's attempts at reform, and nationwide strikes in 1988 forced
the government to open dialogue with Solidarity. On 9 March 1989, both
sides agreed to a bicameral legislature called the National Assembly.
The already existing
Sejm
Sejm would become the lower house. The Senate
would be elected by the people. Traditionally a ceremonial office, the
presidency was given more powers[21] (Polish Round Table
Agreement).
On 7 July 1989, President
Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Gorbachev implicitly renounced the
use of force against other Soviet-bloc nations. Speaking to members of
the 23-nation Council of Europe, Mr. Gorbachev made no direct
reference to the so-called Brezhnev Doctrine, under which
Moscow
Moscow had
asserted the right to use force to prevent a
Warsaw Pact
Warsaw Pact member from
leaving the Communist fold. He stated, "Any interference in domestic
affairs and any attempts to restrict the sovereignty of
states—friends, allies or any others—are
inadmissible".[22] The policy was termed the Sinatra Doctrine,
in a joking reference to the
Frank Sinatra
Frank Sinatra song "My Way". Poland
became the first
Warsaw Pact
Warsaw Pact country to break free of Soviet
domination.
Regime changes outside of Eastern Europe[edit]
See also: Third Wave Democracy
In February 1986, in one of the first peaceful, mass-movement
revolutions against a dictatorship, the People Power
Revolution
Revolution in the
Philippines
Philippines peacefully overthrew dictator
Ferdinand Marcos
Ferdinand Marcos and
inaugurated
Cory Aquino
Cory Aquino as president.
The domino effect of the revolutions of 1989 affected other regimes as
well. The South African apartheid regime and Pinochet's military
dictatorship in
Chile
Chile were gradually dismantled during the 1990s as
the West withdrew their funding and diplomatic support. Argentina,
Ghana, Indonesia, Nicaragua, South Korea, Suriname, Republic of China
(Taiwan), and North and South Yemen, among many others, elected
democratic governments.
Exact tallies of the number of democracies vary depending on the
criteria used for assessment, but by some measures by the late 1990s
there were well over 100 democracies in the world, a marked increase
in just a few decades.[citation needed]
National political movements[edit]
Poland[edit]
Main article: History of
Poland
Poland (1945–89) § Final years of
communist rule (1980–90)
Queue waiting to enter a store, a typical view in
Poland
Poland in the
1980s
A wave of strikes hit
Poland
Poland in April and May 1988. A second wave
began on 15 August, when a strike broke out at the
July Manifesto
July Manifesto coal
mine in Jastrzębie-Zdrój, with the workers demanding the
re-legalisation of the Solidarity trade union. Over the next few days,
sixteen other mines went on strike followed by a number of shipyards,
including on 22 August the Gdansk Shipyard, famous as the epicentre of
the 1980 industrial unrest that spawned Solidarity.[23] On 31
August 1988 Lech Wałęsa, the leader of Solidarity, was invited to
Warsaw by the Communist authorities, who had finally agreed to
talks.[24]
On 18 January 1989 at a stormy session of the Tenth Plenary Session of
the ruling United Workers' Party, General Wojciech Jaruzelski, the
First Secretary, managed to get party backing for formal negotiations
with Solidarity leading to its future legalisation, although this was
achieved only by threatening the resignation of the entire party
leadership if thwarted.[25] On 6 February 1989 formal Round
Table discussions began in the Hall of Columns in Warsaw. On 4 April
1989 the historic Round Table Agreement was signed legalising
Solidarity and setting up partly free parliamentary elections to be
held on 4 June 1989 (incidentally, the day following the midnight
crackdown on Chinese protesters in Tiananmen Square). A political
earthquake followed as the victory of Solidarity surpassed all
predictions. Solidarity candidates captured all the seats they were
allowed to compete for in the Sejm, while in the Senate they captured
99 out of the 100 available seats (with the one remaining seat taken
by an independent candidate). At the same time, many prominent
Communist candidates failed to gain even the minimum number of votes
required to capture the seats that were reserved for them.
Solidarity Chairman
Lech Wałęsa
Lech Wałęsa (center) with President George H.
W. Bush (right) and Barbara Bush (left) in Warsaw, July 1989
On 15 August 1989, the Communists' two longtime coalition partners,
the United People's Party (ZSL) and the Democratic Party (SD), broke
their alliance with the PZPR and announced their support for
Solidarity. The last Communist Prime Minister of Poland, General
Czesław Kiszczak, said he would resign to allow a non-Communist to
form an administration.[26] As Solidarity was the only other
political grouping that could possibly form a government, it was
virtually assured that a Solidarity member would become prime
minister. On 19 August 1989, in a stunning watershed moment, Tadeusz
Mazowiecki, an anti-Communist editor, Solidarity supporter, and devout
Catholic, was nominated as Prime Minister of
Poland
Poland and the Soviet
Union voiced no protest.[27] Five days later, on 24 August
1989, Poland's Parliament ended more than 40 years of one-party rule
by making Mazowiecki the country's first non-Communist Prime Minister
since the early postwar years. In a tense Parliament, Mazowiecki
received 378 votes, with 4 against and 41 abstentions.[28] On
13 September 1989, a new non-Communist government was approved by
parliament, the first of its kind in the Eastern Bloc.[29] On
17 November 1989 the statue of Felix Dzerzhinsky, Polish founder of
the
Cheka
Cheka and symbol of Communist oppression, was torn down in Bank
Square, Warsaw.[30] On 29 December 1989 the
Sejm
Sejm amended the
constitution to change the official name of the country from the
People's Republic of Poland
.svg/250px-Flag_of_Poland_(1928–1980).svg.png)
People's Republic of Poland to the Republic of Poland. The communist
Polish United Workers' Party
Polish United Workers' Party dissolved itself on 29 January 1990 and
transformed itself into the Social
Democracy
Democracy of the Republic of
Poland.[31]
In 1990, Jaruzelski resigned as Poland's president and was succeeded
by Wałęsa, who won the 1990 presidential elections[31] held
in two rounds on 25 November and 9 December. Wałęsa's inauguration
as president on 21 December 1990 is thought by many to be the formal
end of the Communist
People's Republic of Poland
People's Republic of Poland and the beginning of
the modern Republic of Poland. The
Warsaw Pact
Warsaw Pact was dissolved on 1 July
1991. On 27 October 1991 the first entirely free Polish parliamentary
elections since 1945 took place. This completed Poland's transition
from Communist Party rule to a Western-style liberal democratic
political system. The last Russian troops left
Poland
Poland on 18 September
1993.[31]
Hungary[edit]
Main article: End of
Communism
Communism in
Hungary
Hungary (1989)
See also:
Removal of Hungary's border fence
Removal of Hungary's border fence and Pan-European Picnic
Following Poland's lead,
Hungary
Hungary was next to switch to a non-Communist
government. Although
Hungary
Hungary had achieved some lasting economic
reforms and limited political liberalization during the 1980s, major
reforms only occurred following the replacement of
János Kádár
.jpg/440px-János_Kádár_(fototeca.iiccr.ro).jpg)
János Kádár as
General Secretary of the Communist Party on 23 May 1988 with Károly
Grósz.[32] On 24 November 1988
Miklós Németh
Miklós Németh was appointed
Prime Minister. On 12 January 1989, the Parliament adopted a
"democracy package", which included trade union pluralism; freedom of
association, assembly, and the press; a new electoral law; and a
radical revision of the constitution, among other
provisions.[33] On 29 January 1989, contradicting the official
view of history held for more than 30 years, a member of the ruling
Politburo, Imre Pozsgay, declared that Hungary's 1956 rebellion was a
popular uprising rather than a foreign-instigated attempt at
counterrevolution.[34]
Magyars demonstrate at state TV headquarters, 15 March 1989
Mass demonstrations on 15 March, the National Day, persuaded the
regime to begin negotiations with the emergent non-Communist political
forces. Round Table talks began on 22 April and continued until the
Round Table agreement was signed on 18 September. The talks involved
the Communists (MSzMP) and the newly emerging independent political
forces Fidesz, the
Alliance of Free Democrats
Alliance of Free Democrats (SzDSz), the Hungarian
Democratic Forum (MDF), the Independent Smallholders' Party, the
Hungarian People's Party, the Endre Bajcsy-Zsilinszky Society, and the
Democratic Trade Union of Scientific Workers. At a later stage the
Democratic Confederation of Free Trade Unions and the Christian
Democratic People's Party (KDNP) were invited.[35] At these
talks a number of Hungary's future political leaders emerged,
including László Sólyom, József Antall, György Szabad, Péter
Tölgyessy and Viktor Orbán.[36]
On 2 May 1989, the first visible cracks in the
Iron Curtain
Iron Curtain appeared
when
Hungary
Hungary began dismantling its 240-kilometre (150 mi) long
border fence with Austria.[37] This increasingly destabilized
East Germany
East Germany and
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia over the summer and autumn, as
thousands of their citizens illegally crossed over to the West through
the Hungarian-Austrian border. On 1 June 1989 the Communist Party
admitted that former Prime Minister Imre Nagy, hanged for treason for
his role in the 1956 Hungarian uprising, was executed illegally after
a show trial.[38] On 16 June 1989 Nagy was given a solemn
funeral on Budapest's largest square in front of crowds of at least
100,000, followed by a hero's burial.[39]
The Round Table agreement of 18 September encompassed six draft laws
that covered an overhaul of the Constitution, establishment of a
Constitutional Court, the functioning and management of political
parties, multiparty elections for National Assembly deputies, the
penal code and the law on penal procedures (the last two changes
represented an additional separation of the Party from the state
apparatus).[40][41] The electoral system was a
compromise: about half of the deputies would be elected proportionally
and half by the majoritarian system.[42] A weak presidency was
also agreed upon, but no consensus was attained on who should elect
the president (parliament or the people) and when this election should
occur (before or after parliamentary elections). On 7 October 1989,
the Communist Party at its last congress re-established itself as the
Hungarian Socialist Party.[43] In a historic session from 16
to 20 October, the parliament adopted legislation providing for a
multi-party parliamentary election and a direct presidential election,
which took place on March 24, 1990.[44] The legislation
transformed
Hungary
Hungary from a
People's Republic
People's Republic into the Republic of
Hungary, guaranteed human and civil rights, and created an
institutional structure that ensured separation of powers among the
judicial, legislative, and executive branches of
government.[45] On 23 October 1989, on the 33rd anniversary of
the 1956 Revolution, the
Communist regime
Communist regime in
Hungary
Hungary was formally
abolished. The Soviet military occupation of Hungary, which had
persisted since World War II, ended on 19 June 1991.
East Germany[edit]
Main articles: Die Wende, German reunification, and Peaceful
Revolution
Berlin Wall
Berlin Wall at the Brandenburg Gate, 10 November 1989
On 2 May 1989,
Hungary
Hungary started dismantling its barbed-wire border with
Austria, opening a large hole through the
Iron Curtain
Iron Curtain to the West
that was used by a growing number of East Germans. By the end of
September 1989, more than 30,000 East Germans had escaped to the West
before the GDR denied travel to Hungary, leaving
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia as the
only neighboring state to which East Germans could escape. Thousands
of East Germans tried to reach the West by occupying the West German
diplomatic facilities in other Central and Eastern European capitals,
notably the
Prague Embassy
Prague Embassy and the Hungarian Embassy, where thousands
camped in the muddy garden from August to November waiting for German
political reform. The GDR closed the border to the
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia on 3
October, thereby isolating itself from all its neighbors. Having been
shut off from their last chance for escape, an increasing number of
East Germans participated in the Monday demonstrations in
Leipzig
Leipzig on
4, 11, and 18 September, each attracting 1,200 to 1,500 demonstrators.
Many were arrested and beaten, but the people refused to be
intimidated. On 25 September, the protests attracted 8,000
demonstrators.
After the fifth successive Monday demonstration in
Leipzig
Leipzig on 2
October attracted 10,000 protesters, Socialist Unity Party (SED)
leader
Erich Honecker
Erich Honecker issued a shoot and kill order to the
military.[46] Communists prepared a huge police, militia,
Stasi, and work-combat troop presence, and there were rumors a
Tiananmen Square-style massacre was being planned for the following
Monday's demonstration on 9 October.[47]
On 6 and 7 October,
Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Gorbachev visited
East Germany
East Germany to mark the
40th anniversary of the German Democratic Republic, and urged the East
German leadership to accept reform. A famous quote of his is rendered
in German as "Wer zu spät kommt, den bestraft das Leben" ("The one
who comes too late is punished by life."). However, Honecker remained
opposed to internal reform, with his regime even going so far as
forbidding the circulation of Soviet publications that it viewed as
subversive.
In spite of rumors that the Communists were planning a massacre on 9
October, 70,000 citizens demonstrated in
Leipzig
Leipzig that Monday, and the
authorities on the ground refused to open fire. This victory of the
people facing down the Communists' guns encouraged more citizens to
take to the streets. The following Monday, 16 October, 120,000 people
demonstrated on the streets of Leipzig.
Erich Honecker
Erich Honecker had hoped that the Soviet troops stationed in the GDR
by the
Warsaw Pact
Warsaw Pact would restore the communist government and suppress
the civilian protests. By 1989 the Soviet government deemed it
impractical for the
Soviet Union
Soviet Union to continue asserting its control
over the Eastern Bloc, so it took a neutral stance regarding the
events happening in East Germany. Soviet troops stationed in eastern
Europe were under strict instructions from the Soviet leadership not
to intervene in the political affairs of the
Eastern Bloc
Eastern Bloc nations and
remained in their barracks. Faced with ongoing civil unrest, the SED
deposed Honecker on 18 October and replaced him with the
number-two-man in the regime, Egon Krenz. However, the demonstrations
kept growing, and on Monday 23 October the
Leipzig
Leipzig protesters numbered
300,000 and remained as large the following week.
The border to
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia was opened again on 1 November, and the
Czechoslovak authorities soon let all East Germans travel directly to
West
Germany
Germany without further bureaucratic ado, thus lifting their part
of the
Iron Curtain
Iron Curtain on 3 November. On 4 November the authorities
decided to authorize a demonstration in Berlin and were faced with the
Alexanderplatz demonstration, where half a million citizens converged
on the capital demanding freedom in the biggest protest the GDR ever
witnessed. Unable to stem the ensuing flow of refugees to the West
through Czechoslovakia, the East German authorities eventually caved
in to public pressure by allowing East German citizens to enter West
Berlin and West
Germany
Germany directly, via existing border points, on 9
November 1989, without having properly briefed the border guards.
Triggered by the erratic words of regime spokesman Günter Schabowski
in a TV press conference, stating that the planned changes were in
effect "immediately, without delay," hundreds of thousands of people
took advantage of the opportunity. The guards were quickly overwhelmed
by the growing crowds of people demanding to be let out into West
Berlin. After receiving no feedback from their superiors, the guards,
unwilling to use force, relented and opened the gates to West Berlin.
Soon new crossing points were forced open in the
Berlin Wall
Berlin Wall by the
people, and sections of the wall were literally torn down as this
symbol of oppression was overwhelmed. The bewildered guards were
unaware of what was happening and meekly stood by as the East Germans
took to the wall with hammers and chisels.
Berlin Wall, October 1990, Saying "Thank You, Gorbi"
On 13 November, GDR Prime Minister
Willi Stoph
.jpg/440px-Bundesarchiv_Bild_183-1986-0617-024,_Willi_Stoph_(b).jpg)
Willi Stoph and his entire cabinet
resigned. A new government was formed under a considerably more
liberal Communist, Hans Modrow. On 1 December, the
Volkskammer
Volkskammer removed
the SED's leading role from the constitution of the GDR. On 3 December
Krenz resigned as leader of the SED; he resigned as head of state
three days later. On 7 December Round Table talks opened between the
SED and other political parties. On 16 December 1989, the SED was
dissolved and refounded as the SED-PDS, abandoning Marxism-Leninism
and becoming a mainstream democratic socialist party.
On 15 January 1990, the Stasi's headquarters was stormed by
protesters. Modrow became the de facto leader of
East Germany
East Germany until
free elections were held on 18 March 1990—the first held in that
part of
Germany
Germany since 1933. The SED, renamed the Party of Democratic
Socialism, was heavily defeated.
Lothar de Maizière
Lothar de Maizière of the East
German Christian Democratic Union became Prime Minister on 4 April
1990 on a platform of speedy reunification with the West. The two
Germanies were reunified on 3 October 1990.
The Kremlin's willingness to abandon such a strategically vital ally
marked a dramatic shift by the Soviet superpower and a fundamental
paradigm change in international relations, which until 1989 had been
dominated by the East-West divide running through Berlin itself. The
last Russian troops left the territory of the former GDR, now part of
a reunited Federal Republic of Germany, on 1 September 1994.
Czechoslovakia[edit]
Main article: Velvet Revolution
Protests beneath the monument in Wenceslas Square, in Prague
Memorial of the
Velvet Revolution
.jpg/480px-Praha_1989-11-25,_Letná,_dav_(01).jpg)
Velvet Revolution in
Bratislava
Bratislava (Námestie SNP),
Slovakia
The "Velvet Revolution" was a non-violent transition of power in
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia from the Communist government to a parliamentary
republic. On 17 November 1989, riot police suppressed a peaceful
student demonstration in Prague, although controversy continues over
whether anyone died that night. That event sparked a series of popular
demonstrations from 19 November to late December. By 20 November the
number of peaceful protesters assembled in
Prague
Prague had swelled from
200,000 the previous day to an estimated half-million. Five days
later, the Letná Square protest held 800,000 people.[48] On
24 November, the entire Communist Party leadership, including general
secretary Miloš Jakeš, resigned. A two-hour general strike,
involving all citizens of Czechoslovakia, was successfully held on 27
November.
With the collapse of other Communist governments, and increasing
street protests, the Communist Party of
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia announced on 28
November 1989 that it would relinquish power and dismantle the
single-party state. Barbed wire and other obstructions were removed
from the border with West
Germany
Germany and
Austria
_6.jpg/440px-Grassalkovich-kastély_(7051._számú_műemlék)_6.jpg)
Austria in early December. On 10
December, President
Gustáv Husák
Gustáv Husák appointed the first largely
non-Communist government in
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia since 1948, and resigned.
Alexander Dubček
Alexander Dubček was elected speaker of the federal parliament on 28
December and
Václav Havel
Václav Havel the President of
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia on 29
December 1989. In June 1990
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia held its first democratic
elections since 1946. On 27 June 1991 the last Soviet troops were
withdrawn from Czechoslovakia.[49]
Bulgaria[edit]
In October and November 1989, demonstrations on ecological issues were
staged in Sofia, where demands for political reform were also voiced.
The demonstrations were suppressed, but on 10 November 1989 (the day
after the
Berlin Wall
Berlin Wall was breached) Bulgaria's long-serving leader
Todor Zhivkov
Todor Zhivkov was ousted by his Politburo. He was succeeded by a
considerably more liberal Communist, former foreign minister Petar
Mladenov.
Moscow
Moscow apparently approved the leadership change, as Zhivkov
had been opposed to Gorbachev's policies. The new regime immediately
repealed restrictions on free speech and assembly, which led to the
first mass demonstration on 17 November, as well as the formation of
anti-communist movements. Nine of them united as the Union of
Democratic Forces (UDF) on 7 December.[50] The UDF was not
satisfied with Zhivkov's ouster, and demanded additional democratic
reforms, most importantly the removal of the constitutionally mandated
leading role of the Bulgarian Communist Party.
Mladenov announced on 11 December 1989 that the Communist Party would
abandon its monopoly on power, and that multiparty elections would be
held the following year. In February 1990, the Bulgarian legislature
deleted the portion of the constitution about the "leading role" of
the Communist Party. Eventually, it was decided that a round table on
the Polish model would be held in 1990 and elections held by June
1990. The round table took place from 3 January to 14 May 1990, at
which an agreement was reached on the transition to democracy. The
Communist Party abandoned
Marxism–Leninism
Marxism–Leninism in April 1990 and renamed
itself as the Bulgarian Socialist Party. In June 1990 the first free
elections since 1931 were held, won by the Bulgarian Socialist Party.
Romania[edit]
Main article: Romanian Revolution
After having suppressed the Braşov
Rebellion
Rebellion in 1987, Nicolae
Ceauşescu was re-elected for another five years as leader of the
Romanian Communist Party
Romanian Communist Party (PCR) in November 1989, signalling that he
intended to ride out the anti-Communist uprisings sweeping the rest of
Europe. As Ceauşescu prepared to go on a state visit to Iran, his
Securitate
Securitate ordered the arrest and exile of a local Hungarian Calvinist
minister, László Tőkés, on 16 December, for sermons offending the
regime. Tőkés was seized, but only after serious rioting erupted.
Timişoara
Timişoara was the first city to react on 16 December and civil unrest
continued for five days.
Armed civilians during the Romanian Revolution. The revolution was
the only violent overthrow of a
Communist state
Communist state in the Warsaw Pact.
Returning from Iran, Ceauşescu ordered a mass rally in his support
outside Communist Party headquarters in Bucharest on 21 December.
However, to his shock the crowd booed and jeered him as he spoke.
Years of repressed dissatisfaction boiled to the surface throughout
the Romanian populace and even among elements in Ceauşescu's own
government, and the demonstrations spread throughout the country.
At first the security forces obeyed Ceauşescu's orders to shoot
protesters. However, on the morning of 22 December, the Romanian
military suddenly changed sides. This came after it was announced that
defense minister
Vasile Milea
Vasile Milea had committed suicide after being
unmasked as a traitor. Believing Milea had actually been murdered, the
rank-and-file soldiers went over virtually en masse to the
revolution.[51] Army tanks began moving towards the Central
Committee building with crowds swarming alongside them. The rioters
forced open the doors of the
Central Committee building in an attempt
to capture Ceauşescu and his wife, Elena, coming within a few meters
of the couple. However, they managed to escape via a helicopter
waiting for them on the roof of the building.
Although elation followed the flight of the Ceauşescus, uncertainty
surrounded their fate. On Christmas Day, Romanian television showed
the Ceauşescus facing a hasty trial, and then being executed by
firing squad. An interim National Salvation Front Council led by Ion
Iliescu took over and announced elections for April 1990, the first
free elections held in
Romania
Romania since 1937. These were, however,
postponed until 20 May 1990. The
Romanian Revolution
Romanian Revolution was the bloodiest
of the revolutions of 1989: over 1,000 people died, one hundred of
which were children, the youngest only one month old. Unlike its
kindred parties in the Warsaw Pact, the PCR simply melted away; no
present-day Romanian party claiming to be its successor has ever been
elected to the legislature since the change of system. However,
former PCR members have played significant roles in post-1989 Romanian
politics; every
Romanian President
Romanian President until the election of Klaus
Iohannis in 2014 was a former Communist Party member.
Yugoslavia[edit]
Main articles:
Breakup of Yugoslavia
Breakup of Yugoslavia and Yugoslav Wars
The
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
.svg/250px-Flag_of_Yugoslavia_(1946-1992).svg.png)
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was not a part of the
Warsaw Pact
Warsaw Pact but pursued its own version of
Communism
Communism under Josip Broz
Tito. It was a multi-ethnic state which Tito was able to maintain
through a Yugoslav patriotic doctrine of "Brotherhood and unity".
Tensions between ethnicities began to escalate, however, with the
Croatian Spring
Croatian Spring of 1970–71, a movement for greater Croatian
autonomy, which was suppressed. Constitutional changes were instituted
in 1974, and the
1974 Yugoslav Constitution
1974 Yugoslav Constitution devolved some federal
powers to the constituent republics and provinces. After Tito's death
in 1980 ethnic tensions grew, first in Albanian-majority SAP Kosovo
with the 1981 protests in Kosovo.
Parallel to the same process,
Slovenia
Slovenia initiated a policy of gradual
liberalization in 1984, somewhat similar to the Soviet Perestroika.
This provoked tensions between the League of Communists of Slovenia
and the central Yugoslav Party and federal army. By the late 1980s,
many civil society groups were pushing towards democratization, while
widening the space for cultural plurality. In 1987 and 1988, a series
of clashes between the emerging civil society and the Communist regime
culminated with the so-called Slovene Spring, a mass movement for
democratic reforms. The
Committee for the Defence of Human Rights was
established as the platform of all major non-Communist political
movements. By early 1989, several anti-Communist political parties
were already openly functioning, challenging the hegemony of the
Slovenian Communists. Soon, the Slovenian Communists, pressured by
their own civil society, came into conflict with the Serbian Communist
leadership.[citation needed]
Ethnic groups in Yugoslavia
Ethnic groups in Yugoslavia in 1991
In January 1990, an extraordinary Congress of the League of Communists
of Yugoslavia was called in order to settle the disputes among its
constituent parties. Faced with being completely outnumbered, the
Slovenian and Croatian Communists walked out of the Congress on 23
January 1990, thus effectively bringing to an end to Yugoslavia's
communist party. Both parties of the two western republics negotiated
free multi-party elections with their own opposition movements.
On 8 April 1990, the democratic and anti-Yugoslav
DEMOS coalition
DEMOS coalition won
the elections in Slovenia, while on 24 April 1990 the Croatian
elections resulted in a landslide victory for the nationalist Croatian
Democratic Union (HDZ) led by Franjo Tuđman. The results were much
more balanced in
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina and in Macedonia in November
1990, while the parliamentary and presidential elections of December
1990 in
Serbia and Montenegro
Serbia and Montenegro consolidated the power of Milošević
and his supporters. Free elections on the level of the federation were
never carried out.
The Slovenian and Croatian leaderships started preparing plans for
secession from the federation, while a part of the Serbs of Croatia
started the so-called Log Revolution, an insurrection organized by
Serbia
Serbia that would lead to the creation of the breakaway region of SAO
Krajina. In the Slovenian independence referendum on 23 December 1990,
88.5% of residents voted for independence.[52] In the Croatian
independence referendum on 2 May 1991, 93.24% voted for independence.
The escalating ethnic and national tensions were exacerbated by the
drive for independence and led to the following Yugoslav wars:
War in
Slovenia
Slovenia (1991)
Croatian War of Independence
Croatian War of Independence (1991–1995)
Bosnian War
Bosnian War (1992–1995)
Kosovo
Kosovo War (1998–1999), including the
NATO
NATO bombing of Yugoslavia.
In addition, the insurgency in the Preševo Valley (1999–2001) and
the insurgency in the Republic of Macedonia (2001) are also often
discussed in the same context.[53][54][55]
Albania[edit]
Main article:
Fall of communism in Albania
Fall of communism in Albania
In the People's Socialist Republic of Albania, Enver Hoxha, who led
Albania for four decades, died on 11 April 1985. His successor, Ramiz
Alia, began to gradually open up the regime from above. In 1989, the
first revolts started in
Shkodra
Shkodra and spread in other cities.
Eventually, the existing regime introduced some liberalization,
including measures in 1990 providing for freedom to travel abroad.
Efforts were begun to improve ties with the outside world. March 1991
elections—the first free elections in Albania since 1923, and only
the third free elections in the country's history—left the former
Communists in power, but a general strike and urban opposition led to
the formation of a coalition cabinet including non-Communists.
Albania's former Communists were routed in elections held in March
1992, amid economic collapse and social unrest.
Mongolia[edit]
Main article: Mongolian
Revolution
Revolution of 1990
Mongolia declared independence in 1911 during the fall of the Qing
dynasty. The
Mongolian People's Party
Mongolian People's Party took power in 1921, and the
party renamed itself the Mongolian People's Revolutionary
Party.[56] During these years, Mongolia was closely aligned
with the Soviet Union. After
Yumjaagiin Tsedenbal
Yumjaagiin Tsedenbal left in 1984, the
new leadership under
Jambyn Batmönkh
Jambyn Batmönkh implemented economic reforms,
but failed to appeal to those who, in late 1989, wanted broader
changes.[57] The "Mongolian Revolution" was a democratic,
peaceful revolution that started with demonstrations and hunger
strikes and ended 70-years of
Marxism-Leninism
Marxism-Leninism and eventually moved
towards democracy. It was spearheaded by mostly younger people
demonstrating on
Sükhbaatar Square
Sükhbaatar Square in the capital Ulaanbaatar. It
ended with the authoritarian government resigning without bloodshed.
Some of the main organizers were Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj,
Sanjaasürengiin Zorig, Erdeniin Bat-Üül, and Bat-Erdeniin Batbayar.
During the morning of 10 December 1989, the first public demonstration
occurred in front of the Youth Cultural Center in the capital of
Ulaanbaatar.[58] There, Elbegdorj announced the creation of
the Mongolian Democratic Union,[59] and the first
pro-democracy movement in Mongolia began. The protesters called for
Mongolia to adopt perestroika and glasnost. Dissident leaders demanded
free elections and economic reform, but within the context of a "human
democratic socialism".[57] The protesters injected a
nationalist element into the protests by using traditional Mongolian
script—which most Mongolians could not read—as a symbolic
repudiation of the political system which had imposed the Mongolian
Cyrillic alphabet. In late December 1989, demonstrations increased
when news came of Garry Kasparov's interview in Playboy, suggesting
that the
Soviet Union
Soviet Union could improve its economic health by selling
Mongolia to China.[57] On 14 January 1990, the protesters,
having grown from three hundred to some 1,000, met in a square in
front of Lenin Museum in Ulaanbaatar, which has been named Freedom
Square since then. A demonstration in
Sükhbaatar Square
Sükhbaatar Square on 21 January
(in weather of -30 C) followed. Protesters carried banners
alluding to Chinggis Khaan (also referred to Genghis Khan),
rehabilitating a figure whom Soviet schooling neglected to
praise.[60]
In subsequent months of 1990, activists continued to organize
demonstrations, rallies, protests and hunger strikes, as well as
teachers' and workers' strikes.[61] Activists had growing
support from Mongolians, both in the capital and the countryside and
the union's activities led to other calls for democracy all over the
country.[62] After numerous demonstrations of many thousands
of people in the capital city as well as provincial centers, on 4
March 1990, the MDU and three other reform organizations held a joint
outdoor mass meeting, inviting the government to attend. The
government sent no representative to what became a demonstration of
over 100,000 people demanding democratic change.[63] This
culminated with Jambyn Batmönkh, chairman of Politburo of MPRP's
Central Committee decided to dissolve the Politburo and to resign on 9
March 1990.[64][65]
Mongolia's first free, multi-party elections for a bicameral
parliament took place on 29 July 1990.[63][66] Parties
ran for 430 seats in the Great Hural. Opposition parties were not able
to nominate enough candidates. The opposition nominated 346 candidates
for the 430 seats in the Great Hural (upper house). The Mongolian
People's Revolutionary Party (MPRP) won 357 seats in the Great Hural
and 31 out of 53 seats in the Small Hural (which was later abolished)
as well.[67] The MPRP enjoyed a strong position in the
countryside. The
State Great Khural
State Great Khural first met on 3 September 1990 and
elected a president (MPRP), vice president (Social Democrat) who was
also a chairman of the Baga Hural, prime minister (MPRP), and 50
members to the Baga Hural (lower house). In November 1991, the
People's Great Hural began discussion on a new constitution, which
entered into force on 12 February 1992. In addition, the new
constitution restructured the legislative branch of government,
creating a unicameral legislature, the State Great Hural (SGH). The
MPRP retained its majority, but lost the 1996 elections. The final
Russian troops, which had stationed in Mongolia in 1966, fully
withdrew in December 1992.
China[edit]
Main article:
Tiananmen Square
Tiananmen Square protests of 1989
While
China
China did not undergo a revolution in 1989, a popular national
movement led to large demonstrations in favor of democratic reforms.
Chinese leader
Deng Xiaoping
.jpg/440px-Deng_Xiaoping_and_Jimmy_Carter_at_the_arrival_ceremony_for_the_Vice_Premier_of_China._-_NARA_-_183157-restored(cropped).jpg)
Deng Xiaoping (1982–1987) had developed the concept
of socialism with Chinese characteristics and enacted local market
economy reforms around 1984, but the policy had stalled.[68]
The first Chinese student demonstrations, which eventually led to the
Beijing protests of 1989, took place in December 1986 in Hefei. The
students called for campus elections, the chance to study abroad and
greater availability of Western pop culture. Their protests took
advantage of the loosening political atmosphere and included rallies
against the slow pace of reform. Hu Yaobang, a protégé of Deng
Xiaoping and a leading advocate of reform, was blamed for the protests
and forced to resign as the CCP general secretary in January 1987. In
the "Anti Bourgeois Liberalization Campaign", Hu would be further
denounced.
The
Tiananmen Square
Tiananmen Square protests were sparked by the death of Hu Yaobang
on 15 April 1989. By the eve of Hu's state funeral, some 100,000
students had gathered at
Tiananmen Square
Tiananmen Square to observe it; however, no
leaders emerged from the Great Hall. The movement lasted for seven
weeks.[69]
Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Gorbachev visited
China
China on 15 May during the protests,
bringing many foreign news agencies to Beijing, and their sympathetic
portrayals of the protesters helped galvanize a spirit of liberation
among the Central, South-East and Eastern Europeans who were watching.
The Chinese leadership, particularly Communist Party general secretary
Zhao Ziyang, who had begun to radically reform the economy earlier
than the Soviets, was open to political reform, but not at the cost of
a potential return to the disorder of the Cultural Revolution.
The movement lasted from Hu's death on 15 April until tanks rolled
into
Tiananmen Square
Tiananmen Square on 4 June 1989. In Beijing, the military
response to the protest by the PRC government left many civilians in
charge of clearing the square of the dead and severely injured. The
exact number of casualties is not known and many different estimates
exist.
Malta Summit[edit]
Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Gorbachev and President
George H. W. Bush
.jpg/440px-George_H._W._Bush,_President_of_the_United_States,_1989_official_portrait_cropped(b).jpg)
George H. W. Bush on board the
Soviet cruise ship Maxim Gorky, Marsaxlokk Harbour
The
Malta Summit
Malta Summit consisted of a meeting between U.S. President George
H. W. Bush and U.S.S.R. leader Mikhail Gorbachev, taking place between
2–3 December 1989, just a few weeks after the fall of the Berlin
Wall, a meeting which contributed to the end of the Cold
War[citation needed] partially as a result of the broader
pro-democracy movement. It was their second meeting following a
meeting that included then President Ronald Reagan, in New York in
December 1988. News reports of the time[70] referred to the
Malta Summit
Malta Summit as the most important since 1945, when British Prime
Minister Winston Churchill, Soviet premier
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin and U.S.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt agreed on a post-war plan for Europe
at the Yalta Conference.
Election chronology in Central/
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe and Central Asia[edit]
Between June 1989 and April 1991, every Communist or former Communist
country in
Central and Eastern Europe
Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia—and in the
case of the USSR and Yugoslavia, every constituent republic—held
competitive parliamentary elections for the first time in many
decades. Some elections were only partly free, while others were fully
democratic. The chronology below gives the details of these historic
elections, and the dates are the first day of voting as several
elections were split over several days for run-off contests:
Poland
Poland – 4 June 1989
Turkmenia – 7 January 1990
Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan – 18 February 1990
Lithuania
Lithuania – 24 February 1990
Moldavia- 25 February 1990
Kirghizia – 25 February 1990
Tajikistan
Tajikistan – 25 February 1990
Byelorussia – 4 March 1990
Russia
.svg/240px-Medium_emblem_of_the_Armed_Forces_of_the_Russian_Federation_(27.01.1997-present).svg.png)
Russia – 4 March 1990
Ukraine
Ukraine – 4 March 1990
East Germany
East Germany – 18 March 1990
Estonia
Estonia – 18 March 1990
Latvia
Latvia – 18 March 1990
Hungary
Hungary – 25 March 1990
Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan – 25 March 1990
Slovenia
Slovenia – 8 April 1990
Croatia
Croatia – 24 April 1990
Romania
Romania – 20 May 1990
Armenia
Armenia – 20 May 1990
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia – 8 June 1990
Bulgaria
Bulgaria – 10 June 1990
Mongolia – 22 June 1990
Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan – 30 September 1990
Georgia – 28 October 1990
Macedonia – 11 November 1990
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina – 18 November 1990
Serbia
Serbia – 8 December 1990
Montenegro
Montenegro – 9 December 1990
Albania – 7 April 1991
Dissolution of the Soviet Union[edit]
Main article: Dissolution of the Soviet Union
Eastern Bloc
Soviet Socialist Republics
Armenia
Azerbaijan
Byelorussia
Estonia
Georgia
Kazakhstan
Kirghizia
Latvia
Lithuania
Moldavia
Russia
Tajikistan
Turkmenia
Ukraine
Uzbekistan
Allied states
Afghanistan
Albania
Angola
Benin
Bulgaria
China
Congo
Cuba
Czechoslovakia
East Germany
Ethiopia
Grenada
Hungary
Kampuchea
Laos
Mongolia
Mozambique
North Korea
Poland
Romania
Somalia
South Yemen
Vietnam
Yugoslavia
Related organizations
Cominform
Comecon
Warsaw Pact
World Federation of Trade Unions
World Federation of Democratic Youth
Dissent and opposition
Anti-Soviet partisans
Albania
Bulgaria
Croatia
Estonia
Latvia
Lithuania
Poland
Romania
Serbia
Ukraine
Guerrilla war in the Baltic states
Forest Brothers
Operation Jungle
Soviet occupation
Protests and uprisings
Plzeň 1953
East Germany
East Germany 1953
Georgia 1956
Poznań 1956
Hungary
Hungary 1956
Novocherkassk 1962
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia 1968
Invasion
Red Square
Red Square 1968
Charter 77
Charter 77 (Czechoslovakia)
Solidarity (Poland)
Jeltoqsan
Jeltoqsan (Kazakhstan)
Braşov rebellion (Romania)
January Events
January Events (Lithuania)
The Barricades
The Barricades (Latvia)
April 9 tragedy
April 9 tragedy (Georgia)
Black January
Black January (Azerbaijan)
Cold War
Cold War events
Marshall Plan
Czechoslovak coup
Tito–Stalin split
Berlin Blockade
Korean War
Secret Speech
Sino-Soviet Split
Berlin Wall
Cuban Missile Crisis
Vietnam
Vietnam War
Cuban intervention in Angola
Afghan War
Moscow
Moscow Olympics
Decline
Singing Revolution
Polish Round Table Agreement
Revolutions of 1989
Fall of the Berlin Wall
January Events
in Latvia
Breakup of Yugoslavia
Yugoslav Wars
End of the Soviet Union
Fall of communism in Albania
Dissolution of Czechoslovakia
vte
On 1 July 1991, the
Warsaw Pact
Warsaw Pact was officially dissolved at a meeting
in Prague. At a summit later that same month, Gorbachev and Bush
declared a US–Soviet strategic partnership, decisively marking the
end of the Cold War. President Bush declared that US–Soviet
cooperation during the 1990–1991
Gulf War
Gulf War had laid the groundwork
for a partnership in resolving bilateral and world problems.
As the
Soviet Union
Soviet Union rapidly withdrew its forces from Central and
Southeast Europe, the spillover from the 1989 upheavals began
reverberating throughout the
Soviet Union
Soviet Union itself. Agitation for
self-determination led to first Lithuania, and then Estonia, Latvia
and
Armenia
Armenia declaring independence. However, the Soviet central
government demanded the revocation of the declarations and threatened
military action and economic sanctions. The government even went as
far as controversially sending
Soviet Army
Soviet Army troops to the streets of
the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius, to suppress the separatist movements
in January 1991, causing the deaths of 14 people.
Disaffection in other Soviet republics, such as Georgia and
Azerbaijan, was countered by promises of greater decentralization.
More open elections led to the election of candidates opposed to
Communist Party rule.
Glasnost had inadvertently released the long-suppressed national
sentiments of all peoples within the borders of the multinational
Soviet state. These nationalist movements were further strengthened by
the rapid deterioration of the Soviet economy, whose ramshackle
foundations were exposed with the removal of Communist discipline.
Gorbachev's reforms had failed to improve the economy, with the old
Soviet command structure completely breaking down. One by one, the
constituent republics created their own economic systems and voted to
subordinate Soviet laws to local laws. In 1990, the Communist Party
was forced to surrender its seven-decade monopoly of political power
when the Supreme Soviet rescinded the clause in the Soviet
Constitution that guaranteed its sole authority to rule. Gorbachev's
policies caused the Communist Party to lose its grip over the media.
Details of the Soviet Union's past were quickly being declassified.
This caused many to distrust the 'old system' and push for greater
autonomy and independence.
Tanks in Moscow's
Red Square
Red Square during the 1991 coup attempt
After a referendum confirmed the preservation of the
Soviet Union
Soviet Union but
in a looser form, a group of Soviet hard-liners represented by
Vice-President
Gennadi Yanayev
Gennadi Yanayev launched a coup attempting to overthrow
Gorbachev in August 1991. Boris Yeltsin, then president of the Russian
SFSR, rallied the people and much of the army against the coup and the
effort collapsed. Although restored to power, Gorbachev's authority
had been irreparably undermined. Gorbachev resigned as General
Secretary of the Communist Party following the coup, and the Supreme
Soviet dissolved the Party and banned all Communist activity on Soviet
soil. Just a few weeks later, the government granted the Baltic states
their independence on 6 September.
Over the next three months, one republic after another declared
independence, mostly out of fear of another coup. Also during this
time, the Soviet government was rendered useless as the new Russian
government began taking over what remained of it, including the
Kremlin. The penultimate step came on 1 December, when voters in the
second most powerful republic, Ukraine, overwhelmingly voted to secede
from the
Soviet Union
Soviet Union in a referendum. This ended any realistic chance
of keeping the
Soviet Union
Soviet Union together. On 8 December, Yeltsin met with
his counterparts from
Ukraine
Ukraine and
Belarus
Belarus and signed the Belavezha
Accords, declaring that the
Soviet Union
Soviet Union had ceased to exist.
Gorbachev denounced this as illegal, but he had long since lost any
ability to influence events outside of Moscow.
Changes in national boundaries after the end of the Cold War
Two weeks later, 11 of the remaining 12 republics—all except
Georgia—signed the Alma-Ata Protocol, which confirmed the Soviet
Union had been effectively dissolved and replaced by a new voluntary
association, the Commonwealth of Independent States. Bowing to the
inevitable, Gorbachev resigned as Soviet president on 25 December, and
the Supreme Soviet ratified the
Belavezha Accords
Belavezha Accords the next day,
legally dissolving itself and the
Soviet Union
Soviet Union as a political entity.
By the end of 1991, the few Soviet institutions that hadn't been taken
over by
Russia
Russia had dissolved. The
Soviet Union
Soviet Union was officially
disbanded, breaking up into fifteen constituent parts, thereby ending
the world's largest and most influential Socialist state, and leaving
to
China
China that position. A constitutional crisis dissolved into
violence in
Moscow
Moscow as the
Russian Army
Russian Army was called in to reestablish
order.
Baltic states[edit]
Main article: Singing Revolution
Baltic Way
Baltic Way was a human chain of approximately two million people
dedicated to liberating the
Baltic Republics
Baltic Republics from the Soviet Union.
Estonia,
Latvia
Latvia and
Lithuania
Lithuania implemented democratic reforms and
achieved independence from the Soviet Union. The Singing
Revolution
Revolution is
a commonly used name for events between 1987 and 1991 that led to the
restoration of the independence of Estonia,
Latvia
Latvia and
Lithuania.[71][72] The term was coined by an Estonian
activist and artist, Heinz Valk, in an article published a week after
the 10–11 June 1988 spontaneous mass night-singing demonstrations at
the Tallinn Song Festival Grounds.[73]
Estonia
Estonia declared its
sovereignty from the
Soviet Union
Soviet Union on 16 November 1988. Lithuania
followed on 18 May 1989 and
Latvia
Latvia on 28 July 1989.
Lithuania
Lithuania declared
full independence on 11 March 1990 and on 30 March,
Estonia
Estonia announced
the start of a transitional period to independence, followed by Latvia
on 4 May. These declarations were met with force from the Soviet Union
in early 1991, in confrontations known as the "January Events" in
Lithuania
Lithuania and "The Barricades" in Latvia. The
Baltic states
Baltic states contended
that their incorporation into the
Soviet Union
Soviet Union had been illegal under
both international law and their own law, and they were reasserting an
independence that still legally existed.
Soon after the launching of the August coup,
Estonia
Estonia and Latvia
declared full independence. By the time the coup was foiled, the USSR
was no longer unified enough to mount a forceful resistance, and it
recognized the independence of the
Baltic states
Baltic states on 6 September.
Belarus,
Ukraine
Ukraine and Moldova[edit]
Belarus
Belarus declared full independence from the USSR on August 25,
1991. The main political changes of the early 1990s were driven by the
Belarusian Popular Front
.svg/400px-Flag_of_Belarus_(1918,_1991-1995).svg.png)
Belarusian Popular Front and its fraction in the Supreme Soviet of
Belarus. A few years later, a new postcommunist leader, Alyaksandr
Lukashenka, obtained power. After a short period he increased his
power as a result of two controversial referendums (1995–96) and has
been criticized for repressing political opposition ever since.
Moldova
Moldova participated in the
War of Transnistria
War of Transnistria between Moldova
and Russian-connected forces in the separatist region of Transnistria.
Communists came back to power in a 2001 election under Vladimir
Voronin, but faced civil unrest in 2009 over accusations of rigged
elections.
Ukraine
Ukraine declared its independence in August 1991. Presidencies
of former Communists
Leonid Kravchuk
Leonid Kravchuk and
Leonid Kuchma
Leonid Kuchma were followed
by the Orange
Revolution
Revolution in 2004, in which Ukrainians elected Viktor
Yushchenko (also former member of CPSU).
Transcaucasia[edit]
Photos of 9 April 1989 victims of the
Tbilisi massacre
Tbilisi massacre on a
billboard in Tbilisi
Following Georgia’s declaration of independence in 1991, South
Ossetia and
Abkhazia
Abkhazia declared their desire to leave Georgia and remain
part of the Soviet Union/Russia.[74]
Georgia and the North
Caucasus
Caucasus have been marred by ethnic and
sectarian violence since the collapse of the USSR. In April 1989 the
Soviet Army
Soviet Army massacred demonstrators in Tbilisi; in November 1989, the
Georgian SSR officially condemned the Red Army invasion of Georgia.
Democracy
Democracy activist
Zviad Gamsakhurdia
Zviad Gamsakhurdia served as president from 1991 to
1992.[74]
Russia
Russia aided break-away republics in wars in South
Ossetia and
Abkhazia
Abkhazia during the early 1990s, conflicts that have
periodically reemerged, and
Russia
Russia has accused Georgia of supporting
Chechen rebels during the Chechen wars. A coup d'état installed
former Communist leader
Eduard Shevardnadze
Eduard Shevardnadze as President of Georgia
until the Rose
Revolution
Revolution in 2003.
Armenia's independence struggle included violence as the
Nagorno-Karabakh War
Nagorno-Karabakh War was fought between
Armenia
Armenia and Azerbaijan.
Armenia
Armenia became increasingly militarized (with the ascendancy of
Kocharian, a former president of Nagorno-Karabakh, often viewed as a
milestone), while elections have since been increasingly
controversial, and government corruption became more rife. After
Kocharyan, notably,
Serzh Sargsyan
.jpg/500px-Solvita_Āboltiņa_tiekas_ar_Armēnijas_prezidentu_(5511444053).jpg)
Serzh Sargsyan ascended to power. Sargsyan is
often noted as the "founder of the Armenian and Karabakh militaries"
and was, in the past, defense minister and national security minister.
Azerbaijan's Popular Front Party won the first elections with
the self-described pro-Western, populist nationalist Elchibey.
However, Elchibey planned to end Moscow's advantage in the harvesting
of Azeri oil and build much stronger links with
Turkey
Turkey and Europe, and
as a result was overthrown by former Communists in a coup backed by
Russia
Russia and Iran (which viewed the new country as a compelling threat,
with territorial ambitions within Iranian borders and also being a
strong economic rival).[75] Mutallibov rose to power, but he
was soon destabilized and eventually ousted due to popular frustration
with his perceived incompetence, corruption and improper handling of
the war with Armenia. Azerbaijani
KGB
KGB and Azerbaijani SSR leader
Heydar Aliyev
Heydar Aliyev captured power and remained president until he
transferred the presidency to his son in 2003. The Nagorno-Karabakh
War was fought between
Armenia
Armenia and Azerbaijan, and has largely defined
the fates of both countries. However, unlike Armenia, which remains a
strong Russian ally,
Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan has begun, since Russia's 2008 war
with Georgia, to foster better relations with
Turkey
Turkey and other Western
nations, while lessening ties with Russia.[76]
Chechnya[edit]
Chechen women praying for Russian troops not to advance towards
Grozny
.png/500px-Montage-of-Grozny-(2016).png)
Grozny during the First Chechen War, December 1994.
In
Chechnya
Chechnya (an autonomous republic within Russian SFSR that had a
strong desire for independence), using tactics partly copied from the
Baltics, anti-Communist coalition forces led by former Soviet general
Dzhokhar Dudayev
Dzhokhar Dudayev staged a largely bloodless revolution, and ended up
forcing the resignation of the Communist republican president. Dudayev
was elected in a landslide in the following election and in November
1991 he proclaimed Checheno-Ingushetia's independence as the Republic
of Ichkeria. Ingushetia voted to leave the union with Chechnya, and
was allowed to do so (thus it became the Chechen Republic of
Ichkeria). Due to Dudayev's desire to exclude
Moscow
Moscow from all oil
deals, Yeltsin backed a failed coup against him in 1993. In 1994,
Chechnya, with only marginal recognition (one country: Georgia, which
was revoked soon after the coup landing Shevardnadze in power), was
invaded by Russia, spurring the First Chechen War. The Chechens, with
considerable assistance from the populations of both former-Soviet
countries and from Sunni Muslim countries repelled this invasion and a
peace treaty was signed in 1997. However,
Chechnya
Chechnya became increasingly
anarchic, largely due to the both political and physical destruction
of the state during the invasion, and general Shamil Basaev, having
evaded all control by the central government, conducted raids into
neighboring Dagestan, which
Russia
Russia used as pretext for reinvading
Ichkeria. Ichkeria was then reincorporated into
Russia
Russia as Chechnya
again, though insurgency continues.[77]
Central Asia[edit]
Kazakhstan's independence struggle began with the Jeltoqsan
uprising in 1986. Former Communist leader
Nursultan Nazarbayev
Nursultan Nazarbayev has
been in power since 1990 when he started serving as President of
Kazakh SSR.
Kyrgyzstan's
Askar Akayev
Askar Akayev retained power until the Tulip
Revolution
Revolution in 2005.
Tajikistan's
Rahmon Nabiyev
Rahmon Nabiyev retained power, which led to the
civil war in Tajikistan.
Emomali Rahmon
Emomali Rahmon has succeeded Nabiyev and has
retained power since 1992.
Turkmenistan's
Saparmurat Niyazov
Saparmurat Niyazov retained power until his death
in 2006 and was criticized as one of the world's most totalitarian and
repressive leaders, maintaining his own cult of personality.
Uzbekistan's
Islam Karimov
Islam Karimov retained power until his death in
2016, and was widely criticized for repressing the political
opposition throughout his tenure.
Post-Soviet conflicts[edit]
Georgian Civil War
Georgian Civil War and the War in
Abkhazia
Abkhazia in August–October 1993
Russia
Russia was involved in a number of conflicts, including the
Nagorno-Karabakh War, the War of Transnistria, the 1991–1992 South
Ossetia War, the First Chechen War, the War in Abkhazia, the
Ossetian–Ingush conflict, and the Crimea and Donbass conflicts in
Ukraine.
Other events[edit]
Communist and Socialist countries[edit]
See also: List of socialist states
Reforms in the
Soviet Union
Soviet Union and its allied countries also led to
dramatic changes to Communist and Socialist states outside of Europe.
Africa[edit]
Algeria
Algeria – 1988 October Riots, democratization through the 1989
constitutional referendum, victory of, an Islamist party, the FIS in
the 1990 local elections and in the 1991 legislative elections,
leading to a military coup in January 1992, sparking the Algerian
Civil War, until 2002.
Angola
Angola – The ruling
MPLA
.png)
MPLA government abandoned
Marxism-Leninism
Marxism-Leninism in
1991 and agreed to the
Bicesse Accords in the same year, however the
Angolan Civil War
Angolan Civil War between the
MPLA
MPLA and the conservative UNITA
continued for another decade.
Benin
Benin – Mathieu Kérékou's regime was pressured to abandon
Marxism-Leninism
Marxism-Leninism in 1989.
Burkina Faso
Burkina Faso – democratization in 1990.
Cape Verde
Cape Verde – The ruling African Party for the Independence of
Cape Verde
Cape Verde party cut down its Socialist ideology and foreign donors
pressured the government to allow multiparty elections in 1991.
Chad
Chad – democratization in 1990.
Congo-Brazzaville – Denis Sassou Nguesso's regime was pressured to
abandon
Marxism-Leninism
Marxism-Leninism in 1991. The nation had elections in 1992 and
First
Republic of the Congo
Republic of the Congo Civil War in 1993.
Djibouti
Djibouti –
Djiboutian Civil War
Djiboutian Civil War in 1991 and democratization in
1992.
Eritrean War of Independence
Eritrean War of Independence against
Ethiopia
Ethiopia ended in 1991
Ethiopia
Ethiopia – A new constitution was implemented in 1987 and,
following the withdrawal of Soviet and Cuban assistance, the Communist
military junta
Derg
.svg/250px-Flag_of_Ethiopia_(1975–1987).svg.png)
Derg led by
Mengistu Haile Mariam
Mengistu Haile Mariam was defeated by the
rebel EPRDF in the
Ethiopian Civil War
Ethiopian Civil War and fled in 1991.
Ghana
Ghana – Coup; Distance from the Soviet Union
Guinea-Bissau
Guinea-Bissau – democratization in 1991.
Madagascar
Madagascar – Socialist President
Didier Ratsiraka was ousted.
Mali
Mali –
Moussa Traoré was ousted,
Mali
Mali adopted a new
constitution; held multi-party elections.
Rebellion
Rebellion in 1990 and coup
d'état in 1991.
Mozambique
Mozambique – The
Mozambican Civil War
.jpg/440px-Land_mine_victim_1_(4364925531).jpg)
Mozambican Civil War between the socialist FRELIMO
and the
RENAMO
.png)
RENAMO conservatives was ended via treaty in 1992. FRELIMO
subsequently abandoned
Marxism–Leninism
Marxism–Leninism in favor of democratic
socialism with the support of the UN, held multiparty elections.
São Tomé and Príncipe
São Tomé and Príncipe – The ruling Movement for the
Liberation of São Tomé and Príncipe/Social Democratic Party cut
down its Socialist ideology and foreign donors pressured the
government to allow multiparty elections in 1991.
Seychelles
Seychelles – democratization in 1991.
Somalia
Somalia – Rebelling Somalis overthrew Siad Barre's Communist
military junta during the Somali Revolution.
Somalia
Somalia has been in a
constant state of civil war ever since.
Sudan
Sudan – End the reign of the Democratic Unionist Party by coup
d'état Omar al-Bashir in 1989
Tanzania
Tanzania – The ruling
Chama Cha Mapinduzi
Chama Cha Mapinduzi party cut down its
Socialist ideology and foreign donors pressured the government to
allow multiparty elections in 1995.
Tunisia
Tunisia – Renaming the Tunisian Communist Party in Ettajdid
Movement in 1993 and renaming the Socialist Destourian Party in
Democratic Constitutional Rally in 1988.
Zambia
Zambia – The ruling
United National Independence Party
United National Independence Party cut
down its Socialist ideology and foreign donors pressured the
government to allow multiparty elections in 1991.
Middle East[edit]
Afghanistan
Afghanistan – Renamed Republic of
Afghanistan
Afghanistan in 1987, Soviet
occupation ended and the Communist government under Mohammad
Najibullah fell to the
Mujahideen
Mujahideen in 1992.
Iraq
Iraq – Uprisings in 1991. Remained under Saddam Hussein's Ba'athist
regime until 2003 with American invasion overthrowing his regime.
Kuwait
Kuwait – Annexed by
Iraq
Iraq in 1990. Then liberated during the Gulf
War.
Palestinian Territories – The Palestine Liberation Organization
lost one of its most important diplomatic patrons, due to the
deterioration of the Soviet Union, Arafat's failing relationship with
Moscow
Moscow and loss of a one-party government and Suspension PFLP-GC of
the PLO in 1984.
First Intifada
First Intifada occurred from 1987 to 1991, leading to
the PLO recognition of Israel.
South Yemen
South Yemen –
South Yemen
South Yemen Civil War in 1986; Abandoned
Marxism-Leninism
Marxism-Leninism in 1990; it reunified with the more capitalist North
Yemen that year, though this later led to a civil war.
Syria
Syria – The
Syrian Communist Party
Syrian Communist Party was divided to two parties
in 1986.
Syria
Syria participated in the
Madrid Conference of 1991
Madrid Conference of 1991 and met
its
Cold War
Cold War enemy
Israel
Israel in peace negotiations. The Syrian Democratic
People's Party from the Left-wing to center-left.
Asia[edit]
Bangladesh
Bangladesh – Internal conflict from 1989.
Burma – The
8888 Uprising
8888 Uprising in 1988 saw the demise of the Burma
Socialist Programme Party, but failed to bring democracy, although
Marxism was abandoned. The country was led by a military government
under the
State Peace and Development Council
.svg/250px-Flag_of_Myanmar_(1974-2010).svg.png)
State Peace and Development Council until 2011, following
2010 elections viewed by many Western countries as fraudulent. End of
the Communist insurgency in 1989.
Cambodia
Cambodia – The Vietnam-supported government, which had been in
power since the fall of the Khmer Rouge, lost power following
UN-sponsored elections in 1993, the CGDK was dissolved in 1993 and the
Party of Democratic Kampuchea was dissolved in 1992.
China
China – The Communist Party of
China
China began implementing
liberalizing economic reforms during the late 1970s under Deng
Xiaoping. However, the pro-democracy protests of 1989 were crushed by
the military. Unrest in Tibet in 1987. The URFET and the ETPRP was
dissolved.
India
India – Indian economic reforms were launched in 1991. And
Resolution of the People's Party of Arunachal. The Rashtriya Samajwadi
Congress was dissolved in 1989,
Tripura National Volunteers was
dissolved in 1988 and
Hmar People's Convention was dissolved in 1986.
Begin of the
Insurgency
Insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir in 1989.
Laos
Laos – Remained Communist under the Lao People's Revolutionary
Party.
Laos
Laos was forced to ask
France
France and
Japan
Japan for emergency
assistance, and also to ask the
World Bank
World Bank and the Asian Development
Bank for aid. Finally, in 1989, Kaisôn visited Beijing to confirm the
restoration of friendly relations, and to secure Chinese aid. The red
star and the hammer and sickle was taken out from the crest in 1991.
North Korea
North Korea –
Kim Il-sung
Kim Il-sung died in 1994, passing power to his
son Kim Jong-il. Unprecedented floods and the dissolution of the
Soviet Union
Soviet Union led to the North Korean famine, which resulted in the
deaths of an estimated 2.5 million to 3 million North
Koreans. All references to
Marxism-Leninism
Marxism-Leninism were replaced by
Juche
.jpg/440px-1730_-_Nordkorea_2015_-_Pjöngjang_-_Juche_Turm_(22791978320).jpg)
Juche in
1992, thus signifying an apparent downplaying of the role of Communism
in North Korea.
Sri Lanka
.svg/440px-Sri_Lanka_(orthographic_projection).svg.png)
Sri Lanka – 1989 Revolt
Vietnam
Vietnam – The Communist Party of
Vietnam
Vietnam has undertaken Doi
Moi reforms since 1986, liberalizing certain sectors of the economy in
a manner similar to China.
Vietnam
Vietnam is still a single-party Communist
state.
Latin America[edit]
Cuba
Cuba – The end of Soviet subsidies led to the
Special
Special Period.
Introduction of non-selectable parties in 1992. An unsuccessful
protest was held in 1994.
Nicaragua
Nicaragua – Daniel Ortega's Sandinista lost the multi-party
elections in 1990, and the
National Opposition Union
National Opposition Union won.
Suriname
Suriname – democratization in 1987 and
Suriname
Suriname Guerrilla War
1986–1992.
Oceania[edit]
Vanuatu
.svg/250px-Flag_of_Vanuatu_(official).svg.png)
Vanuatu – Vanua'aku Pati lost the multi-party elections in
1991, and the Union of Moderate Parties won.
Other countries[edit]
Many Soviet-supported political parties and militant groups around the
world suffered from demoralization and loss of financing.
Australia
Australia – The Communist Party of
Australia
Australia was dissolved in
1991.
Austria
Austria – The Communist Party of
Austria
Austria lost its East German
financing and 250 million euros in assets.
Belgium
.jpg/440px-Belgium-6015_-_Most_Photographed_Dog_in_Burges_(13902076955).jpg)
Belgium – The Communist Party of
Belgium
Belgium was divided to two
parties in 1989.
Burundi
Burundi – 1996 Burundian coup d'état
Canada
Canada - In 1990 the Communist Party was de-registered and had
its assets seized, forcing it to begin an ultimately successful
thirteen-year political and legal battle to maintain registration of
small political parties in
Canada
Canada known as Figueroa v. Canada, thus
changing the legal definition of a political party in
Canada
Canada in 2003
and now operates without any elected political representation.
Finland
Finland – The
Finnish People's Democratic League was dissolved
in 1990 and the bankrupt Communist Party of
Finland
Finland collapsed in 1992,
and absorbed to the Left Alliance.
France
France – The collapse of the
Eastern Bloc
Eastern Bloc came as a shock to
the French Communist Party. The crisis is called la mutation. Fusion
of the Unified Socialist Party with the New Left for Socialism,
Ecology and Self-management for Red and Green Alternatives in 1989.
Gambia – 1994 Gambian coup d'état
West
Germany
Germany – The
Red Army Faction
Red Army Faction lost its long-term
supporter, the Stasi, after the fall of the Berlin Wall.[78]
Greece
Greece – The Organisation of Marxist-Leninist Communists of
Greece
Greece was dissolved in 1993 and merged into the Movement for a United
Communist Party of Greece.
Greek Left was dissolved in 1992.
Ireland – The
Communist Party of Ireland
Communist Party of Ireland declined
significantly. Democratic Socialist Party was dissolved.
Italy
Italy – The collapse caused the
Italian Communist Party
Italian Communist Party to
reform itself, creating two new groups, the larger Democratic Party of
the Left and the smaller Communist Refoundation Party. The
disappearance of the Communist party in part led to profound changes
within the Italian political party system in 1992–1994 and collapse
of the Radical Party in 1989 and the
Italian Socialist Party
.svg/360px-Italian_Socialist_Party_(Logo).svg.png)
Italian Socialist Party in 1994.
Disintegration of the
Red Brigades
Red Brigades in 1988.
Japan
Japan – The
Japanese Communist Party
Japanese Communist Party issued a statement titled
"We welcome the end of a great historical evil of imperialism and
hegemonism".
Lebanon
Lebanon – End of the Civil War
Liberia
Liberia – First Liberian Civil War
Malaysia
Malaysia – The
Malayan Communist Party
Malayan Communist Party laid down its arms in
1989, ending an insurgency that had lasted decades.
Maldives
Maldives – the failed 1988
Maldives
Maldives coup d'état
Mexico
Mexico – The
Mexican Communist Party
Mexican Communist Party and a number of other
Communist parties
Communist parties were dissolved in 1989 and absorbed first into the
Mexican Socialist Party
Mexican Socialist Party and then into the Party of the Democratic
Revolution. And collapse of the
Socialist Mexican Party
Socialist Mexican Party in 1989.
Morocco
Morocco – End of the
Western Sahara War
Western Sahara War in 1991.
Nepal
Nepal – The Communist Party of
Nepal
Nepal (Janamukhi) and the Communist
Party of
Nepal
Nepal (Fourth Convention) was dissolved in 1990.
Netherlands
Netherlands – The Communist Party of the
Netherlands
Netherlands was
dissolved in 1991 and absorbed to the GreenLeft. League of Communists
in the
Netherlands
Netherlands was dissolved in 1992.
Niger
Niger –
Coup d'état
Coup d'état in 1996.
Norway
Norway – The Communist Party of
Norway
Norway changed their
pro-Soviet line.
Oman
Oman – The Popular Front for the Liberation of
Oman
Oman was
dissolved in 1992.
Peru
Peru – The Shining Path, responsible for killing tens of
thousands people, shrunk in the 1990s.
Philippines
Philippines – The Communist Party of the Philippines
experienced criticism and the debates that ensued between the leading
party cadres resulted to the expulsion of advocates of "left and right
opportunism" notably forming the so-called "rejectionists" and
"reaffirmist" factions. Those who affirmed the Maoist orthodoxy were
called the "Reaffirmists", or RA, while those who rejected the
document were called "Rejectionists" or RJ. In July 1993, the Komiteng
Rehiyon ng Manila-Rizal (KRMR), one of the Rejectionists, declared its
autonomy from the central leadership. Within a few months, several of
the Party's regional formations and bureaus followed suit, permanently
formalizing and deepening the schism.[79]
San Marino
San Marino – The
Sammarinese Communist Party was dissolved in
1990.
Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone – The beginning of the
Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone Civil War in
1990 and coup d'état in 1992.
Singapore
Singapore – The
Barisan Sosialis
Barisan Sosialis was dissolved in 1988.
Spain
Spain – The
Workers' Party of Spain–Communist Unity
Workers' Party of Spain–Communist Unity was
dissolved in 1991. Alternative Left was dissolved in 1993. Communist
Party of
Spain
Spain (Marxist–Leninist) (historical) was dissolved in
1992. The
Communist Party of Galicia (Revolutionary Marxist) was
dissolved in 1989.
Sweden
Sweden – The
Communist Association of Norrköping was
dissolved in 1990 and Kommunistiska Förbundet Marxist-Leninisterna
ceased to function as nationwide party. The pro-Albanian Kommunistiska
Partiet i Sverige and the Maoist Communist Workers' Party of Sweden
were dissolved in 1993. The main leftist party, Vänsterpartiet
kommunisterna, VPK (Left Party – Communists), abandoned the
Communist part of its name, and became simply
Vänsterpartiet
_logo.png)
Vänsterpartiet (Left
Party).
Turkey
Turkey – The Communist Labour Party of
Turkey
Turkey was split.
United Kingdom
United Kingdom – The
Communist Party of Great Britain
Communist Party of Great Britain was
dissolved.
Concurrently, many anti-Communist authoritarian states, formerly
supported by the US, gradually saw a transition to democracy.
Brazil
Brazil – had the first democratic presidential election since
1960 due to reforms started a few years earlier.
Chile
Chile – The military junta under Augusto
Pinochet
Pinochet was
pressured to implement democratic elections, which saw Chile's
democratization in 1990. The
Broad Party of Socialist Left
Broad Party of Socialist Left Merged into
Socialist Party of Chile.
Colombia
.jpg/500px-Colombia-_Lindsay_Croisdale-Appleby_(8591837687).jpg)
Colombia – The conservative constitution of 1886 was repealed
in 1991. The 19th of April Movement, the Quintin Lame Armed Movement
and mostly of the
Popular Liberation Army
Popular Liberation Army gave up their weapons and
began to participate in politics.
El Salvador
El Salvador – The
Salvadoran Civil War
Salvadoran Civil War ended in 1992 following
the Chapultepec Peace Accords. The rebel FMLN movement became a legal
political party and participated in subsequent elections.
Guatemala
Guatemala – The
Guatemalan Civil War
Guatemalan Civil War ended in 1996 and the
rebel
Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity
Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity became a legal party.
Haiti
Haiti – Haitian
Revolution
Revolution of 1986
Kenya
Kenya – Restoration of multi-party democracy in
1991[80]
Panama
Panama – The
Manuel Noriega
Manuel Noriega regime was overthrown by the US
invasion in 1989 as a result of his suppression of elections,
drug-trafficking activities and the killing of a US serviceman.
Paraguay
Paraguay – The dictatorship of
Alfredo Stroessner
Alfredo Stroessner came to an
end when he was deposed in a military coup d'état. In 1992, the
country's new constitution established a democratic system of
government.
Philippines
Philippines – People Power
Revolution
Revolution in 1986.
Rwanda
Rwanda –
Rwandan Civil War
Rwandan Civil War in 1990.
Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia – Following the Soviet-Afghan War, Osama bin
Laden, the founder of the Islamist militant group al-Qaeda, proposed
to the Saudi monarchy not to rely on the
United States
United States after the fall
of Kuwait. Bin Laden later denounced the Saudi invitation of the U.S.
82nd Airborne Division
.svg/360px-Patch_of_the_82nd_Airborne_Division_(OCP).svg.png)
82nd Airborne Division and was eventually expelled from the country in
1992 due to the criticism. His citizenship was revoked in 1994.
South Korea
South Korea – The June
Democracy
Democracy Movement's protests led to
the fall of the
Chun Doo-hwan
Chun Doo-hwan government in 1987, and the country's
first democratic elections. In 2000, North and
South Korea
South Korea agreed in
principle to work towards peaceful reunification in the future.
South Africa
South Africa – Negotiations were started in 1990 to end the
Apartheid
Apartheid system.
Nelson Mandela
.jpg/320px-Nelson_Mandela-2008_(edit).jpg)
Nelson Mandela was elected as the President of South
Africa in 1994.
Taiwan
Taiwan (Republic of China) – The nationalist
Kuomintang
Kuomintang party
that had ruled under strict martial law since the end of the Chinese
Civil War introduced democratizing reforms.
United States
United States – Following the end of the Cold War, the United
States became the world's sole superpower. It ceased to support many
of the military dictatorships it had during the Cold War, pressing
more nations to adopt democracy.
Zaire
Zaire – Civil War in 1996.
Countries that emerged into socialist-styled governments beyond 1991:
Nepal
Nepal –
Monarchy
.svg/200px-Heraldic_Royal_Crown_(Common).svg.png)
Monarchy was overthrown in 2008 and the
republic has been ruled by Communist Party since then.
Venezuela
Venezuela –
Hugo Chavez
Hugo Chavez led the
Fifth Republic Movement
Fifth Republic Movement which
led to the establishment of the Bolivarian Republic in 1999 and ruled
the country until his death in 2013.
Other impacts:
Israel
Israel – In 1990, the
Soviet Union
Soviet Union finally permitted free
emigration of Soviet Jews to Israel. Prior to this, Jews trying to
leave the USSR faced persecution; those who succeeded arrived as
refugees. Over the next few years some one million Soviet citizens
migrated to Israel. Although there was concern that some of the new
immigrants had only a very tenuous connection to Judaism, and many
were accompanied by non-Jewish relatives, this massive wave of
migration brought large numbers of highly educated Soviet Jews and
slowly changed the demographic nature of Israel.
Political reforms[edit]
Main article: Decommunization
Decommunization
Decommunization is a process of overcoming the legacies of the
Communist state
Communist state establishments, culture, and psychology in the
post-Communist states.
Decommunization
Decommunization was largely limited or
non-existent.
Communist parties
Communist parties were not outlawed and their members
were not brought to trial. Just a few places even attempted to exclude
members of communist secret services from decision-making. In a number
of countries the Communist party simply changed its name and continued
to function.[81] In several European countries, however,
endorsing or attempting to justify crimes committed by Nazi or
Communist regimes became punishable by up to 3 years of
imprisonment.[82]
Economic reforms[edit]
Russian GDP since the end of the
Soviet Union
Soviet Union (from 2014 are
forecasts)
State run enterprises in socialist countries had little or no interest
in producing what customers wanted, which resulted in shortages of
goods and services.[83] In the early 1990s, the general view
was that there was no precedent for moving from socialism to
capitalism",[84] and only some elderly people remembered how a
market economy worked. As a result the view that Central, Southeastern
and
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe would stay poor for decades was common.[85]
The collapse of the Soviet Union, and the breakdown of economic ties
which followed, led to a severe economic crisis and catastrophic fall
in the standards of living in the 1990s in post-Soviet states and the
former Eastern bloc.[86][87] Even before Russia's
financial crisis of 1998, Russia's GDP was half of what it had been in
the early 1990s.[88]
There was a temporary fall of output in the official economy and an
increase in black market economic activity.[83]
Countries implemented different reform programs. One example,
generally regarded as successful was the "shock therapy" Balcerowicz
Plan in Poland. Eventually the official economy began to
grow.[83]
In a 2007 paper, Oleh Havrylyshyn categorized the speed of reforms in
the Soviet Bloc:[84]
Sustained Big-Bang (fastest): Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Czech
Republic, Poland, Slovakia
Advance Start/Steady Progress: Croatia, Hungary, Slovenia
Aborted Big-Bang: Albania, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Kyrgyzstan, Russia
Gradual Reforms: Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine,
Tajikistan, Romania
Limited Reforms (slowest): Belarus, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan
NATO
NATO has added 13 new members since the
German reunification
German reunification and the
end of the Cold War.
The 2004 enlargement of the
European Union
European Union included the Czech
Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, and
Slovenia. The 2007 enlargement of the
European Union
European Union included Romania
and Bulgaria, and
Croatia
Croatia joined the EU in 2013. The same countries
have also become
NATO
NATO members. In Mongolia, however, the economy was
reformed in a similar fashion to the Eastern European counterparts.
Chinese economic liberalization began in 1978 and has helped lift
millions of people out of poverty, bringing the poverty rate down from
53% of the population in the Mao era to 12% in 1981. Deng's economic
reforms are still being followed by the CPC today, and by 2001 the
poverty rate became only 6% of the population.[89]
Economic liberalization in
Vietnam
Vietnam was initiated in 1986, following
the Chinese example.
Economic liberalization in
India
India was initiated in 1991.
Harvard University Professor
Richard B. Freeman
Richard B. Freeman has called the effect
of reforms "The Great Doubling". He calculated that the size of the
global workforce doubled from 1.46 billion workers to
2.93 billion workers.[90][91] An immediate effect
was a reduced ratio of capital to labor. In the long-term China,
India, and the former Soviet bloc will save and invest and contribute
to the expansion of the world capital stock.[91]
Ideological continuation of Communism[edit]
Further information:
Decommunization
Decommunization in
Russia
Russia and Neo-Stalinism
Five double-headed Russian coat-of-arms eagles (below) substituting
the former state emblem of the
Soviet Union
Soviet Union and the CCCP letters
(above) in the facade of the
Grand Kremlin Palace
Grand Kremlin Palace after the
dissolution of the Soviet Union
Compared with the efforts of the other former constituents of the
Soviet bloc and the Soviet Union, decommunization in
Russia
Russia has been
restricted to half-measures, if conducted at all.[92] As of
2008, nearly half of Russians viewed Stalin positively, and many
supported restoration of his previously dismantled
monuments.[93][94] Neo-
Stalinist
Stalinist material such as
describing Stalin's mass murder campaigns as "entirely rational" has
been pushed into Russian textbooks.[95]
In 1992, President Yeltsin's government invited
Vladimir Bukovsky
Vladimir Bukovsky to
serve as an expert to testify at the
CPSU
CPSU trial by Constitutional
Court of Russia, where the Communists were suing Yeltsin for banning
their party. The respondent's case was that the
CPSU
CPSU itself had been
an unconstitutional organization. To prepare for his testimony,
Bukovsky requested and was granted access to a large number of
documents from Soviet archives (then reorganized into TsKhSD). Using a
small handheld scanner and a laptop computer, he managed to secretly
scan many documents (some with high security clearance), including KGB
reports to the Central Committee, and smuggle the files to the
West.[96] The event that many expected would be another
Nuremberg Trial
Nuremberg Trial and the beginnings of reconciliation with the
Communist past, ended up in half-measures: while the
CPSU
CPSU was found
unconstitutional, the Communists were allowed to form new parties in
the future. Bukovsky expressed his deep disappointment with this in
his writings and interviews: "Having failed to finish off conclusively
the Communist system, we are now in danger of integrating the
resulting monster into our world. It may not be called Communism
anymore, but it retained many of its dangerous characteristics...
Until the Nuremberg-style tribunal passes its judgment on all the
crimes committed by Communism, it is not dead and the war is not
over."[97]
Interpretations[edit]
The events caught many by surprise. Predictions of the Soviet Union's
impending demise had been often dismissed.[98]
Bartlomiej Kaminski's book The Collapse of State
Socialism
Socialism argued that
the state Socialist system has a lethal paradox, saying that "policy
actions designed to improve performance only accelerate its
decay".[99]
By the end of 1989, revolts had spread from one capital to another,
ousting the regimes imposed on Central, South-East and Eastern Europe
after World War II. Even the isolationist
Stalinist
Stalinist regime in Albania
was unable to stem the tide. Gorbachev's abrogation of the Brezhnev
Doctrine was perhaps the key factor that enabled the popular uprisings
to succeed. Once it became evident that the feared
Soviet Army
Soviet Army would
not intervene to crush dissent, the Central, South-East and Eastern
European regimes were exposed as vulnerable in the face of popular
uprisings against the one-party system and power of secret police.
Coit D. Blacker wrote in 1990 that the Soviet leadership "appeared to
have believed that whatever loss of authority the
Soviet Union
Soviet Union might
suffer in Central and South-East Europe would be more than offset by a
net increase in its influence in western Europe."[100]
Nevertheless, it is unlikely that Gorbachev ever intended for the
complete dismantling of
Communism
Communism and the Warsaw Pact. Rather,
Gorbachev assumed that the
Communist parties
Communist parties of Central and South-East
Europe could be reformed in a similar way to the reforms he hoped to
achieve in the CPSU. Just as perestroika was aimed at making the
Soviet Union
Soviet Union more efficient economically and politically, Gorbachev
believed that the
Comecon
Comecon and
Warsaw Pact
Warsaw Pact could be reformed into more
effective entities. However, Alexander Yakovlev, a close advisor to
Gorbachev, would later state that it would have been "absurd to keep
the system" in Central and South-East Europe. Yakovlev had come to the
conclusion that the Soviet-dominated
Comecon
Comecon could not work on
non-market principles and that the
Warsaw Pact
Warsaw Pact had "no relevance to
real life".[101]
Remembrance[edit]
Organizations[edit]
Memorial, an international historical and civil rights society that
operates in a number of post-Soviet states which focuses on recording
and publicising the Soviet Union's totalitarian aspect of the past,
but also monitors human rights in post-Soviet states at the present
time, for example in Chechnya[102]
Events[edit]
German Unity Day
German Unity Day in Germany, a national holiday commemorating the
anniversary of
German reunification
German reunification in 1990
Statehood Day in
Slovenia
Slovenia commemorates the country's declaration of
independence from Yugoslavia in 1991
Independence and Unity Day in
Slovenia
Slovenia commemorates the country's
independence referendum
Day of National Unity in Georgia is a public holiday commemorating
victims of the 9 April tragedy
National Day
National Day in Hungary
Constitution Day in Mongolia commemorates the country's transition to
democracy in 1992
Constitution Day in
Romania
Romania commemorates the 1991 Romanian
Constitution that enshrined the return to democracy after the fall of
the Communist regime
Struggle for Freedom and
Democracy
Democracy Day in the Slovak Republic
Struggle for Freedom and
Democracy
Democracy Day in the Czech Republic
Restoration of Independence Day in
Latvia
Latvia commemorates the 1990
declaration restoring the country's independence
Places[edit]
This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.
Checkpoint Charlie Museum
Checkpoint Charlie Museum in Berlin, Germany
Dawn of Liberty in Kazakhstan, a monument dedicated to Jeltoqsan
DDR Museum
_Schriftzug.jpg/440px-DDR-Museum_(Berlin)_Schriftzug.jpg)
DDR Museum in Berlin, Germany
European Solidarity Centre
European Solidarity Centre in Poland
Gdańsk Shipyard
Gdańsk Shipyard in Poland
Global Museum on Communism
Grūtas Park
Grūtas Park in Lithuania
House of Terror
House of Terror in Hungary
Lennon Wall
Lennon Wall in the Czech Republic
Memento Park
Memento Park in Hungary
Memorial of Rebirth in Romania
Memorial to the Victims of
Communism
Communism in the Czech Republic
Museum of Genocide Victims
Museum of Genocide Victims in Vilnius, Lithuania
Museum of Communism, Czech Republic
Museum of Communism, Poland
Museum of Occupations (Estonia)
Museum of Occupation (Lithuania)
Museum of the Occupation of Latvia
Museum of Socialist Art in Bulgaria
Museum of Soviet occupation in Kiev, Ukraine
Museum of Soviet Occupation in Tbilisi, Georgia
Museum of Victims of
Communism
Communism in Moldova
Museum of Victims of Occupational Regimes "Prison on Lontskoho" in
Lviv, Ukraine
Sighet Memorial Museum in the old prison in Sighetu Marmației,
Romania
Stasi
Stasi Museum in the former
Stasi
Stasi headquarters, Berlin, Germany
Transalpina Square
Transalpina Square divided between the towns of Gorizia, Italy, and
Nova Gorica, Slovenia
Victims of Political
Persecution
Persecution Memorial Museum in Ulaanbaatar,
Mongolia
Other[edit]
This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.
The Soviet Story, an award-winning documentary film about the Soviet
Union
The Singing Revolution, a documentary film about the Singing
Revolution
Heaven on Earth: The Rise and Fall of Socialism, a book and a
documentary film based on the book
Lenin's Tomb: The Last Days of the Soviet Empire, a Pulitzer
Prize-awarded book
A Political Tragedy in Six Acts, biography of dissident Václav Havel
Right Here, Right Now, an international hit written by Mike Edwards
and performed by his rock band
Jesus Jones
Jesus Jones and released in September
1990
"Wind of Change", a hit song by the German heavy-metal band Scorpions
that celebrates
Perestroyka
Perestroyka and the fall of
Communism
Communism in Central and
Eastern Europe
See also[edit]
Arab Spring
Atlantic Revolutions
Baltic Tiger
Breakup of Yugoslavia
Carpat Tiger
Chinese democracy movement
Civil resistance
Colour revolutions
Commonwealth of Independent States
Enlargement of NATO
Enlargement of the European Union
Euromaidan
History of Solidarity
Ján Čarnogurský
January Events
JBTZ-trial
Jeans Revolution
Orange Revolution
Overthrow of Slobodan Milošević
People Power Revolution
Pink tide
Polish Round Table Agreement
Reagan Doctrine
Revolutions of 1820
Revolutions of 1830
Revolutions of 1848
Revolutions of 1917–23
Rose Revolution
Yugoslav Wars
Social movements portal1980s portal1990s portal
Communism
Communism portal
References[edit]
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Nationalities Papers. 30 (3): 403–33.
doi:10.1080/0090599022000011697.
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ISBN 1-57181-895-2.
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Further reading[edit]
Ash, Timothy Garton (5 November 2009). "1989!". The New York Review of
Books. 56 (17).
De Nevers, Renée (2003). Comrades No More: The Seeds of Change in
Eastern Europe. MIT Press. ISBN 0-262-54129-7.
Template:Cite booik
Falk, Barbara J (2003). The Dilemmas of Dissidence in East-Central
Europe. Central European University Press. ISBN 963-9241-39-3.
Heenan, Patrick; Lamontagne, Monique (1999). The Central and Eastern
Europe Handbook. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 1-57958-089-0.
Judah, Tim (17 February 2011). "Yugoslavia: 1918–2003". BBC.
Retrieved 1 April 2012.
Leffler, Melvyn P.; Westad, Odd Arne, eds. (2010). The Cambridge
History of the Cold War. III. Endings. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press. ISBN 978-0-521-83721-7.
Lévesque, Jacques (1997). The Enigma of 1989: The USSR and the
Liberation of Eastern Europe. University of California Press.
p. 275. ISBN 978-0-520-20631-1.
Naimark, Norman; Case, Holly M. (2003). Yugoslavia and Its Historians:
Understanding the Balkan Wars of the 1990s. Stanford University Press.
ISBN 0-8047-4594-3.
Roberts, Adam (1991). Civil Resistance in the East European and Soviet
Revolutions (PDF). Cambridge, MA: Albert Einstein Institution.
ISBN 1-880813-04-1.
Roberts, Adam; Ash, Timothy Garton, eds. (2009). Civil Resistance and
Power Politics: The Experience of Non-violent Action from Gandhi to
the Present. Oxford: University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-955201-6.
Contains chapters on the
Soviet Union
Soviet Union (Mark Kramer), Czechoslovakia
(Kieran Williams),
Poland
Poland (Alexander Smolar), Baltic States (Mark R.
Beissinger),
China
China (Merle Goldman), and
East Germany
East Germany (Charles Maier).
Rogel, Carole (2004). The
Breakup of Yugoslavia
Breakup of Yugoslavia and Its Aftermath.
Greenwood. ISBN 0-313-32357-7.
Sarotte, Mary Elise (2014). The Collapse: The Accidental Opening of
the Berlin Wall. Basic Books. ISBN 978-0-465-06494-6.
Sebestyen, Victor (2009).
Revolution
Revolution 1989: The Fall of the Soviet
Empire. Phoenix. ISBN 978-0-7538-2709-3.
Wałęsa, Lech (1991). The Struggle and the Triumph: An Autobiography.
Arcade. ISBN 1-55970-221-4.
Wilson, James Graham (2014). The Triumph of Improvisation: Gorbachev's
Adaptability, Reagan’s Engagement, and the End of the Cold War.
Ithaca: Cornell University Press. ISBN 0-8014-5229-5.
External links[edit]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Fall of Communism.
"The History of 1989: The Fall of
Communism
Communism in Eastern Europe". GMU..
"Syndrome of Socialism". RU: Narod.. Some of aspects of state national
economy evolution in the system of the international economic order.
"A look at the collapse of Eastern European
Communism
Communism two decades
later". Dissent Magazine.
"History of the public sphere" (annotated bibliography). SSRC.
|chapter= ignored (help)
Kloss, Oliver (2005), "Revolutio ex nihilo? Zur methodologischen
Kritik des soziologischen Modells 'spontaner Kooperation' und zur
Erklärung der
Revolution
Revolution von 1989 in der DDR", in Timmermann, Heiner
(ed.), Agenda DDR-Forschung. Ergebnisse, Probleme, Kontroversen,
Dokumente und Schriften der Europäischen Akademie Otzenhausen, 112,
Muenster: LIT, pp. 363–79, ISBN 3-8258-6909-1 +
Ergänzender Anhang A – F.
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