Collapse of Communism

Communism seemed to have a permanent establishment in Europe at one point. They controlled nearly all of Eastern Europe, and established an Iron Curtain that prevented any sort of information to get into, or leave the USSR. Its stagnant hold on Europe during the Cold War looked as if it would never be perturbed and disintegrate. But instead, that’s actually what happened: its was severely perturbed with reforms and did disintegrate. When Mikhail Gorbachev was elected the General Secretary of the Soviet Union, his democracy-inspired reforms had ultimately set the course for the collapse of Communism in the Soviet Union.

The surge of reforms in the Soviet Union began to fuel the people’s imaginations for more freedom. Being granted so much more freedom than they ever had since its becoming Communist by Vladimir Lenin, they decided they wanted more. The mixed USSR nationalities started to fight to obtain their freedom. The first to take action for freedom was Lithuania, who declared their freedom in March 1990. Gorbachev feared that more of the USSR’s republics would follow in the same footsteps as Lithuania, so he first issued a blockade against the nation, but then in January 1991, Soviet troops launched an assault on civilians in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania. This shocking event lowered the people’s respect for Mikhail Gorbachev, allowing for a tidal wave victor of Boris Yeltsin to assume control of the Soviet Union as president in June 1991.

Maybe the USSR and Communism had a certain critical turning point in August hadn’t happened. August 18trh, 1991, the conservatives of the Communist regime’ attempted a coup against Gorbachev and the Soviet Union’s capital, Moscow. Two days later, the State Committee under the conservatives were ordered to destroy the parliament building. But they refused to. That night, the forces were withdrawn. Ironically, that same night, Gorbachev returned to Moscow. Because of the failed coup, the other members of the USSR became infuriated. Rebellions and mass riots broke out in many countries. Sudden chaos forced Yeltsin to make drastic changes to the government, or else the doom of the Soviet Union was impendent. He issued a free market economy, hoping that the people would quickly adapt and that the problems facing the union would cease. But it failed horribly instead. Inflation soared. As more economical and political problems erupted all over the sate, Yeltsin became increasingly dictator like, just as Russia first began Communist, developed democratic influences under Lenin, and converted to a totalitarian under Stalin sixty years earlier. Soon, the entire state was racked, and Communism had collapsed under the pressure of numerous rebellions, economical failure, and government failure.

Besides the fall of communism in the USSR (which became the CIS, or Commonwealth of Independent States in 1991, Germany was undergoing its own major change. In August 1961, the Berlin Wall was constructed in the center of Germany, with its purpose being to separate the Communist East Germany from the Western side. It was a strong fortification, and anyone who tried to trespass were either quickly shot down, or gassed. Even when fording the wall in groups, they were all killed. For 28 years, this stalemate between the two sides of Germany remained, that is until 1989. In that November, demolition work was taken up, and grew to hundreds of people coming with sledgehammers to tear down the wall. And soon, it fell. The barrier between communism and the outside had finally been broken down. Not to mention, it was not the government who broke it down. It was the people. Sledgehammer wielding people. They grew tired of communism and made the change.