Background Information
In 1968 Soviet tanks rolled into the Czech capital of Prague to crush the new liberal style of Communism which was developing there. After this there seemed little chance of the USSR relaxing its grip on Eastern Europe. Superpower relations improved in the 1970s in the period of detente, but it seemed that control of Eastern Europe was not one of the issues under discussion. Yet by 1989 the Berlin Wall was the scene of joyous celebrations as East and West Germans met each other freely for the first time in nearly thirty years. What had changed?
The USSR had changed. By the early 1980s detente had virtually collapsed with the arrival of an aggressive new American President Ronald Reagan. The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan had damaged superpower relations and involved the USSR in its own Vietnam. During this turbulent period Brezhnev died but no strong leader succeeded him. A succession of very old, sick communist leaders came and went in a period of two and a half years. The real crisis came with the virtual collapse of the Soviet economy, when it finally became clear that the USSR could not compete with the USA in spending on nuclear weapons.
By 1985 the situation called for urgent action. The man to take such action was Mikhail Gorbachev. Gorbachev introduced radical new policies. The general direction came to be known as perestroika (restructuring) and glasnost (openness). He brought market forces into the Soviet economy but more importantly he began to cut spending on defence. After almost fifty years on a war footing the Red Army began to shrink. At the same time, Gorbachev brought a new attitude to the USSR's relations with the wider world.
Gorbachev was popular but he soon had enormous problems to deal with. The Soviet economy could not be modernised as quickly as people wanted and some of the republics which made up the USSR began to demand separation and independence. His reforms had created a demand for freedom across all of the communist world. Gorbachev admitted that his reforms were in trouble and made it clear to the communist leaders in Eastern Europe that they would no longer be propped up by the Red Army - they would have to listen to their people. The following months saw an extraordinary turnaround in Eastern Europe.
In Hungary the Communist Party changed its name to the Socialist Party. More importantly, Hungary created a huge hole in the iron curtain by allowing free passage across the border between Hungary and non-communist Austria. In Poland free elections were held for the first time since the Second World War and Eastern Europe got its first ever non communist leader in the former trade union leader Lech Walesa.
The cracks in the Soviet domination of Eastern Europe began to appear. There followed a true 'domino effect' in Eastern Europe and the collapse began in East Germany. Large numbers of East Germans fled to West Germany through the open borders in Hungary. Soon there were demands for East Germany’s borders to be opened. Gorbachev made it clear to the East German Communist leader Erich Honecker that he would not be supported. In November, the Berlin Wall checkpoints were opened to a flood of jubilant Germans.
Huge demonstrations led to the collapse of communism in Czechoslovakia and the Czech nationalist leader and writer Vaclav Havel became the new president. In Rumania there was a short but very bloody revolution which ended with the execution of the communist dictator Nikolai Ceausescu. The new Socialist Party in Hungary declared that free elections would be held in 1990. The final Eastern bloc country to fall was Bulgaria, again as the result of huge popular demonstrations against the Communists.
