Anti-communist revolution of 1989 which is sometimes referred in Western countries to «Autumn of Nations», was a wave of regime change in Central and Eastern Europe in the autumn of 1989. During several months this waves have removed pro-Soviet communist regimes. In the Western countries this event is compared with «Spring of Nations» in 1848.
Epochal events of the late 1980s and early 1990s were the main reason of collapse of communism in Eastern Europe and Soviet Union. In 1989-1991 system that was held on violence, coercion, usurpation of civil liberties, has fallen so fast and landslide that there is only one conclusion that can be made: preconditions for the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe and Soviet Union were raising during a long period of time and only the fear of Soviet Union tanks, which in 1956 stopped massive demonstrations in Hungary and were a threat for any country where the idea of quitting communism could have raised.
With the collapse of communism «bipolar» world and confrontation between East and West has disappeared. At the same time raised a wave of national liberation movements that were particularly strong in the former Soviet Union countries, Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia.
The fall of the communist regimes was associated with the restructuring of the Soviet Union and began with the Poland, this event was followed by peaceful mass protests that led to the change of power in the German Democratic Republic, the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic and in the Bulgaria and the reforms initiated by the communist authorities in the Hungarian People Republic. The Socialist Republic of Romania is the only country where a change of power took place by force, and the former head of state Nicolae Ceausescu was shot.
The coming to power of Mikhail Gorbachev in 1985 led to the victory of the doctrine of "new thinking", "universal values" and "peaceful coexistence between the two systems." In 1987 he declared a policy of "openness", in 1989, the first competitive elections of People's Deputies of the USSR took place. Party actually refused the idea to censor medias, the political opposition began to appear in magazines, newspapers, and on Soviet television. Political liberalization took place against a background of growing economic crisis and the growing dependence of the Soviet leadership from Western loans.
Mikhail Gorbachev reforms were met with skepticism among different communist leaders such as Erich Honecker, Todor Zhivkov, Gustav Husak. Mikhail Gorbachev's visit to China on May 15, 1989 caused massive protests in Tiananmen Square.
At the same time during the Cold War there were three attempts to start reforms in Eastern Europe but Soviet Union with its great military force has stopped this attempts: in year 1956 in Hungary, in 1968 in Czechoslovakia, in 1980 in Poland.
Soviet military factor played a large enough role in the stability of the communist government and after stated above events, but with the development of the processes of rebuilding of Soviet Union began to gradually move away from the "Brezhnev Doctrine", and on 25 October 1989 Soviet Union officially declared not to use force against its satellites. This was a turning point in Soviet foreign policy. In Western countries the new policy of the Soviet Union has been unofficially named "Sinatra Doctrine». To sum up stated, that actually was the collapse of communism in Soviet Union and in Eastern Europe countries.
On my opinion, the number one benefit from the collapse of communism was that this event has actually caused the end of the Cold War. The world leading countries had no military threats anymore, and have received and opportunity to spend funds in order to gain economic benefits, instead of waisting a great amount of recourses on army and military development of the country in order to uphold military strength.
Secondly, the former Soviet Union countries and Eastern Europe countries have finally achieved an opportunity for gaining de-facto and de-jure independence. For example, Ukraine which was in deep dependence from Russia during the whole period of Soviet Union existence has become an independent state and by now can be influenced by Russia only in the sphere of international relations.
Bibliography
Gwertzman, Bernard M, and Michael T Kaufman. The Collapse Of Communism. New York, N.Y.: Times Books, 1990. Print.
Rice, Earle. The Cold War. San Diego: Lucent Books, 2000. Print.
Weigel, George. The Final Revolution. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992. Print.
Meyer, Alfred G. Communism. New York: Random House, 1967. Print.
Watson, William E. The Collapse Of Communism In The Soviet Union. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1998. Print.
