Mikhail Gorbachev and the Collapse of Communism

Like I mentioned in my last blog Mikhail Gorbachev was one of the reasons as to why Communism had failed in Easter Europe. Gorbachev was different than some of the other political leaders because for one he was young and knew a lot about politics. Gorbachev was not a fan of Communism and when he became leader he was around54 years old at the time he decided to finish off Communism.

The difference between him and the old leader Stalin was that, Stalin was very ferocious as a leader and anyone who opposed him would be dealt with but after his reign of terror ended Gorbachev decided to put an end to his reign. One thing he did to start off his position in office was take people that were originally jailed by Stalin for opposing his power and system. Another change the Gorbachev made was he allowed banned books to be open to the public. You can Basically say that he took many steps forward to the people away from all the totalitarian governing ways that Stalin had instilled on his people.

Mikhail introduced a new policy's during his reign. One of which is called "Glasnost:" according to dictionary.com it means "the declared public policy within the Soviet Union of openly and frankly discussing economic and political realities." Another policy he introduced was Perestroikas which also by dictionary.com means "the program of economic and political reform." This allowed people to start their own business's which in communism didn't exist. Everything Gorbachev did was a way of giving the community what they have been in need of for a long time.

The Collapse of Communism

Communism started to collapse in the Eastern side of Europe, or former Warsaw Pact countries, during the 1980's. The collapse had to start at the base of Communism or better known as the Soviet Union. Once the USSR started to break due to Democratic revolutions and reforms. In the Eastern part of Germany people pressured the old Stalinist government to step out of position and let themselves take control by having their own president take charge. This new president order on November 9th of 1989 to take down the Berlin Wall or Iron Curtain as many might call it during the Cold War era.

I mentioned in earlier blogs that East Germany re-uniting with West Germany was one of the few sparks that led to the collapse of the Warsaw Pact. October 2rd of 1990 was the day they re-united and it also lead to the collapse of Communism. A while afterwards the Soviet Union had collapsed on the New Years of Eve of 1991. The reason for them collapsing was due to the other Communist governed countries witnessing what Germany did and thought of doing and overthrow themselves. The Soviet Union themselves had a new leader and that was Mikhail Gorbachev who I will talk about in the next blog. With Gorbachev as a leader Communism would cease to exist but there are several other countries that remained Communist.