Mikhail Gorbachev and the Collapse of Communism

In 1982, a man named Leonid Brezhnev died, and the Politburo (a leading committee of the Communist party) was trying to hold on to the powers of the communist states. However, Brezhnev's successors died after only a year in office. So, Mikhail Gorbachev, with the committee backing him up, became the new general secretary. However, he didn't agree with the original government laws, and decided to pursuit new ideas.

In 1985, he created a policy known as glasnost, which encourages Soviets to discuss ideas that will improve their society. Eventually, the policy reopened the churches, republished the books whose authors were banned, and released political prisoners from jail. In the same year, he introduced the idea of perestroika which allows the economy of the Soviet Union to reconstruct.

The Collapse of Communism

Communism in the eastern side on Europe started to collapse in the 1980s due to their rejection of communism. Democratic revolutions and reforms caused the whole Soviet Union to break up. In East Germany, the people forced the totalitarian government to step down and made the new president to allow free elections. On November 9, 1989, he gave orders to obliterate the Berlin Wall that separated the Western world from the Eastern world during the Cold War. On October 23, 1990, both sides of Germany united together once again.

On New Year's Eve in 1991, the whole Soviet Union collapsed, after the rest of the countries overthrew their communist leaders. However, there were still communist countries in the world. By the beginning of the 21st century, only the countries of China, Cuba, Laos, North Korea, and Vietnam were still under Communist rule. They still needed to stimulate growth in the economy, so China, Cuba, Laos, and Vietnam reduced state control of the economy.