The Collapse of Communism

The reason why Communism collapsed in Eastern Europe and the USSR was because a very large amount of people started to oppose communist governments and President Mikhail Gorbachev wouldn't send Soviet troops to help them out. The wave of reforms and democratic revolutions that took place during the end years of the 80s broke down the Soviet Union. After the old Stalinist government was forced to be taken down, a new president held free elections and gave orders to break down the Berlin Wall, which separated the East and West during the Cold War years, on November 9, 1989.

Due to the encouragement of the rejection of communism in Poland, countries on the Eastern bloc, such as Hungary and East Germany, overthrew their communist leaders. On New Year's Eve in the year of 1991, the USSR, or Soviet Union collapsed. Although the Soviet Union collapsed and countries in Europe overthrew their communist governments, there were still communist governments alive in other places of the world at that time. These places included China, Cuba, North Korea, and Vietnam. These countries allowed economic reforms but still didn't give in to the democratic movements.