View source for Revolutions of 1989

{{Short description|Revolutionary wave overthrowing most communist states}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2022}}
{{Infobox civil conflict
| title = Revolutions of 1989
| partof = the [[Cold War]] (until 1991)
| image = {{Multiple image|border=infobox|perrow=2/2/1|total_width=300
| image1 = Solidarność (14190622617).jpg
| image2 = Thefalloftheberlinwall1989.JPG
| image3 = Praha 1989-11-25, Letná, dav (01).jpg
| image4 = Revolutia Bucuresti 1989 000.JPG
| image5 = 1991 coup attempt1.jpg|thumb}}
| caption = '''Top to bottom, left to right''':{{flatlist|
*''[[Solidarność]]'' poster from the June 1989 Polish parliamentary election which led to the [[History of Poland (1945-1989)#Political transformation|first dissolution of a Communist regime]] in August 1989
*[[Fall of the Berlin Wall]], November 1989
*Demonstration in [[Prague]] during the [[Velvet Revolution]], November 1989
*Tanks and [[Miliția (Romania)|Miliția]] in [[Bucharest]] during the [[Romanian revolution]], December 1989
*Tanks in [[Moscow]] during the [[1991 Soviet coup attempt|Soviet coup attempt]], August 1991
}}
| date = 14 August 1980 – 28 June 1996<br/>({{age in years, months, weeks and days|month1=8|day1=14|year1=1980|month2=6|day2=28|year2=1996}})<br/>'''Main phase:'''<br/>12 May 1988 – 26 December 1991<br/>({{age in years, months, weeks and days|month1=5|day1=12|year1=1988|month2=12|day2=26|year2=1991}})
| place = [[Central and Eastern Europe]], [[Latin America]], [[Africa]], and [[Asia]]
| coordinates = 
| causes = * [[Political repression]]
* [[Totalitarianism]] 
* [[Authoritarianism]]
* [[Democratization]]
* [[Nationalism]]
* [[Religious persecution]]
* [[Austerity]]
* [[Economic crises]] and [[Consumerism|consumerist]] pressure<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kochanowicz, Jacek |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=f6RGpe1mjzQC |title=Backwardness and Modernization: Poland and Eastern Europe in the 16th–20th Centuries |publisher=Ashgate |date=2006 |isbn=978-0-7546-5905-1 |editor-last=Berend |editor-first=Ivan T. |editor-link=Iván T. Berend |series=Collected studies: Studies in East-Central Europe |volume=858li |location=Aldershot |page=198 |quote=Within the communist world, certain strata of population were particularly sensitive to Western influences. Late communism produced sizable, specific middle classes of relatively well-educated professionals, technicians and even highly skilled blue-collar workers. These classes had no attachment whatsoever to Marxist–Leninist ideology, while they became attracted to the Western way of life. Many members of the ruling 'nomenklatura' shared the same sentiments, as Western consumerism and individualism seemed more attractive to them than communist collective Puritanism. There were two very important consequences of this, one economic, and the second political. The economic one was the attractiveness of consumerism. The political consequence was the pressure to increase the margins of political freedom and public space.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Cross |first=Gary S. |url=https://archive.org/details/allconsumingcent00cros_0 |title=An All-consuming Century: Why Commercialism Won in Modern America |publisher=Columbia University Press |date=2000 |isbn=978-0-2311-1312-0 |location=New York |page=[https://archive.org/details/allconsumingcent00cros_0/page/8 8] |chapter=1: The Irony of the Century |quote=For East Europeans, the promise of mass consumption was preferable to the nightmare of solidarity even if it meant also the dominance of money and the private control of wealth. In reality, the fall of communism had more to do with the appeals of capitalist consumerism than political democracy. |url-access=registration}}</ref>
* [[Anti-communism]]
| methods = {{plainlist|
* [[Reform]]
* [[Mass protest]]s
* [[Civil resistance]]
* [[Riot]]s
* [[War]]
}}
| result = End of most [[communist state]]s and the end of the [[Cold War]] 
}}
{{Revolution sidebar}}
{{History of the Soviet Union}}
{{Anti-communism|History}}
The '''revolutions of 1989''', also known as the '''Fall of Communism''',<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Gehler |first1=Michael |title=Christian Democracy and the Fall of Communism |last2=Kosicki |first2=Piotr H. |last3=Wohnout |first3=Helmut |publisher=[[Leuven University Press]] |date=2019 |isbn=978-9-4627-0216-5}}</ref> were a wave of [[liberal democracy]] movements that resulted in the collapse of most [[Communist state|Marxist–Leninist governments]] in the [[Eastern Bloc]] and other parts of the world. This wave is sometimes referred to as the ''Autumn of Nations'',<ref name="NedelmannSztompka1993">{{Cite book |last1=Nedelmann |first1=Birgitta |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cOqTuIDuuMMC&pg=PA1 |title=Sociology in Europe: In Search of Identity |last2=Sztompka |first2=Piotr |date=1 January 1993 |publisher=Walter de Gruyter |isbn=978-3-1101-3845-0 |pages=1–}}</ref><ref name="BernhardSzlajfer2010">{{Cite book |last1=Bernhard |first1=Michael |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YE29dvVxvdgC&pg=PA221 |title=From the Polish Underground: Selections from Krytyka, 1978–1993 |last2=Szlajfer |first2=Henryk |author-link2=Henryk Szlajfer |date=1 November 2010 |publisher=Penn State Press |isbn=978-0-2710-4427-9 |pages=221–}}</ref><ref name="Luciano2008">{{Cite book |last=Luciano |first=Bernadette |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eBdKQYm4tyYC&pg=PA77 |title=Cinema of Silvio Soldini: Dream, Image, Voyage |publisher=Troubador |date=2008 |isbn=978-1-9065-1024-4 |pages=77ff}}</ref><ref name="Grofman2001">{{Cite book |last=Grofman, Bernard |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SuIZ0wkeTmIC&pg=PA85 |title=Political Science as Puzzle Solving |publisher=University of Michigan Press |date=2001 |isbn=0-4720-8723-1 |pages=85ff}}</ref><ref name="SadurskiCzarnota2006">{{Cite book |last1=Sadurski |first1=Wojciech |author-link1=Wojciech Sadurski |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_c9HAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA285 |title=Spreading Democracy and the Rule of Law?: The Impact of EU Enlargemente for the Rule of Law, Democracy and Constitutionalism in Post-Communist Legal Orders |last2=Czarnota |first2=Adam |last3=Krygier |first3=Martin |date=30 July 2006 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-1-4020-3842-6 |pages=285–}}</ref> a play on the term [[Spring of Nations]] sometimes used to describe the [[revolutions of 1848]]. The revolutions of 1989 were a key factor in the [[dissolution of the Soviet Union]]—one of the two [[superpower]]s—and abandonment of communist regimes in many parts of the world, some of which were violently overthrown. These events drastically altered the world's [[Balance of power (international relations)|balance of power]], marking the end of the [[Cold War]] and beginning of the [[post-Cold War era]].

The earliest recorded protests, which led to the revolutions, began in [[Polish People's Republic|Poland]] on 14 August 1980, the massive general strike which led to the [[August Agreements]] and establishment of [[Solidarity (Polish trade union)|Solidarity]], the first and only independent trade union in the Eastern Bloc, whose peak membership reached 10 million. The main region of the 1989 revolutions was [[Central Europe]], starting in [[Polish People's Republic|Poland]]<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Antohi |first1=Sorin |author-link1=Sorin Antohi |title=Between Past and Future: The Revolutions of 1989 and Their Aftermath |last2=Tismăneanu |first2=Vladimir |author-link2=Vladimir Tismăneanu |date=January 2000 |publisher=Central European University Press |isbn=9-6391-1671-8 |page=85 |chapter=Independence Reborn and the Demons of the Velvet Revolution |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1pl5T45FwIwC&pg=PA85}}</ref><ref name="lead">{{Cite news |last=Boyes |first=Roger |date=4 June 2009 |title=World Agenda: 20 years later, Poland can lead eastern Europe once again |url=https://www.thetimes.com/travel/destinations/europe-travel/germany/berlin/world-agenda-20-years-later-poland-can-lead-eastern-europe-once-again-mf5vbbdgmhz |access-date=4 June 2009 |work=[[The Times]]}}</ref> with the [[1988 Polish strikes]], and continued in [[People's Republic of Hungary|Hungary]], [[East Germany]], [[People's Republic of Bulgaria|Bulgaria]], [[Czechoslovak Socialist Republic|Czechoslovakia]], and [[Socialist Republic of Romania|Romania]]. On 4 June 1989, Poland conducted the [[1989 Polish legislative election|first elections]] that led to the dissolution of the [[Polish United Workers' Party|communist government]], with Solidarity winning an overwhelming victory, leading to the peaceful [[fall of communism in Poland]]. Influenced by Poland, [[Hungary]] organised round table-format talks and began [[Removal of Hungary's border fence with Austria|dismantling its section]] of the [[Iron Curtain]]. In August 1989, over a quarter of the [[Baltic states]] population physically [[Human chain (politics)|chained]] for {{convert|675|km}} in the [[Baltic Way]] protesting the [[Occupation of the Baltic states|occupation by the Soviet Union]],<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/690394-longest-human-chain-multiple-countries|title=Longest human chain (multiple countries)|website=Guinness World Records|access-date=28 January 2025}}</ref> while the opening of a border gate between [[Austria]] and Hungary set in motion a peaceful chain reaction, in which the [[Eastern Bloc]] disintegrated. This led to [[Monday demonstrations in East Germany|mass demonstrations]] in cities of East Germany and the [[fall of the Berlin Wall]] in November 1989, which served as the symbolic gateway to  [[German reunification]] in 1990. A feature common to these developments was the extensive use of [[Political campaign|campaigns]] of [[civil resistance]], demonstrating popular opposition to the continuation of [[one-party rule]] and contributing to pressure for change.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Roberts |first=Adam |author-link=Adam Roberts (scholar) |url=http://www.aeinstein.org/organizationse3a7.html |title=Civil Resistance in the East European and Soviet Revolutions |publisher=Albert Einstein Institution |date=1991 |isbn=1-8808-1304-1 |format=[[Portable document format|PDF]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110130071418/http://www.aeinstein.org/organizationse3a7.html |archive-date=30 January 2011 |url-status=dead}}</ref> Romania was the only country in which [[Romanian revolution|citizens and opposition forces used violence to overthrow its communist regime]],<ref>{{Cite book |last=Sztompka |first=Piotr |author-link=Piotr Sztompka |title=Society in Action: the Theory of Social Becoming |date=27 August 1991 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=0-2267-8815-6 |page=16 |chapter=Preface |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sdSw3FgVOS4C&pg=PP16}}</ref> although Romania was politically isolated from the rest of the Eastern Bloc.

The Soviet Union became a multi-party semi-presidential republic from March 1990 and held [[1990 Soviet Union presidential election|its first presidential election]], marking a drastic change as part of [[Perestroika|its reform program]]. The Soviet Union dissolved in December 1991, resulting in seven new countries which had declared their [[independence]] from the Soviet Union, while the [[Baltic states]] [[Occupation of the Baltic states|regained]] their independence in September 1991 along with [[Ukraine]], [[Georgia (country)|Georgia]], [[Azerbaijan]] and [[Armenia]]. The rest of the Soviet Union continued with the establishment of the [[Russian Federation]]. [[People's Socialist Republic of Albania|Albania]] and [[Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia|Yugoslavia]] abandoned communism between 1990-92, by which time Yugoslavia had [[Breakup of Yugoslavia|split into five new countries]]. [[Czechoslovakia]] dissolved three years after the [[Velvet Revolution|end of communist rule]], splitting peacefully into the [[Czech Republic]] and [[Slovakia]] on 1 January 1993.<ref>{{Citation |title=Constitution |date=27 April 1992 |access-date=16 September 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171019113955/http://www.cecl.gr/RigasNetwork/databank/Constitutions/Yugoslavia.html |archive-date=19 October 2017 |url-status=dead |chapter=Yugoslavia |chapter-url=http://www.cecl.gr/RigasNetwork/databank/Constitutions/Yugoslavia.html |place=Greece |publisher=CECL |mode=cs1}}</ref> [[North Korea]] abandoned Marxism–Leninism in 1992.<ref name=":8">{{Cite journal |date=2003 |title=The Constitution of North Korea: Its Changes and Implications |url=https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://www.google.com.ph/&httpsredir=1&article=1934&context=ilj&sei-redir=1 |journal=Fordham International Law Journal |volume=27 |author-last=Yoon |author-first=Dae-kyu}}</ref> The Cold War is considered to have ended on 3 December 1989 during the [[Malta Summit]] between the Soviet and American leaders.<ref>{{Cite web |date=3 December 2010 |title=A Day That Shook The World: Cold War officially ends |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/history/a-day-that-shook-the-world-cold-war-officially-ends-2149069.html |website=[[The Independent]]}}</ref> However, many historians argue that the dissolution of the Soviet Union on 26 December 1991 was the true end of the Cold War.<ref>{{Cite book |first=Robert |last=Service |title=The End of the Cold War: 1985–1991 |publisher=Macmillan |date=2015}}</ref>

The impact of these events were felt in many [[third world]] [[List of non-communist socialist states|socialist states]]. Concurrently with events in Poland, [[1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre|protests in Tiananmen Square]] (April–June 1989) failed to stimulate major political changes in China, but [[Tank Man|influential images]] helped to precipitate events in other parts of the globe. [[Democratic Republic of Afghanistan|Afghanistan]], [[People's Republic of Kampuchea#Transition and State of Cambodia (1989–1993)|Cambodia]]<ref>{{Cite book |last=Findlay |first=Trevor |title=Cambodia: the legacy and lessons of UNTAC |publisher=Oxford University Press |date=1995 |isbn=0-1982-9185-X |edition=reprinted 1997 |location=Oxford |page=96}}</ref> and [[People's Republic of Mongolia|Mongolia]], had abandoned communism by 1992–93, either through reform or conflict. Eight countries in Africa or its environs also abandoned it, namely [[People's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia|Ethiopia]], [[People's Republic of Angola|Angola]], [[People's Republic of Benin#Overturning of the revolution|Benin]], [[People's Republic of the Congo#Transition|Congo-Brazzaville]], [[People's Republic of Mozambique|Mozambique]], [[Somali Democratic Republic|Somalia]], as well as [[South Yemen]], which unified with [[Yemen Arab Republic|North Yemen]] to form [[Yemen]]. Political [[reforms]] varied, but [[communist parties]] lost a monopoly on [[Power (social and political)|power]] in all but five countries; namely [[China]], [[Cuba]], [[Laos]], [[North Korea]], and [[Vietnam]]. Vietnam, Laos, and China made economic reforms to adopt some forms of [[market economy]] under [[market socialism]]. The [[Politics of Europe|European political landscape]] changed drastically, with former Eastern Bloc countries joining [[NATO]] and the [[European Union]], resulting in stronger [[economic integration|economic]] and [[social integration]] with [[Western Europe]] and North America. Many communist and socialist [[organisations]] in the [[Western world|West]] turned their guiding principles over to [[social democracy]] and [[democratic socialism]]. In South America, a [[pink tide]] began in [[Venezuela]] in 1999 and shaped politics in the other parts of the continent through the early 2000s. Meanwhile, in certain countries the aftermath of these revolutions resulted in conflict and wars, including [[post-Soviet conflicts]] that remain, as well as large-scale wars, most notably the [[Yugoslav Wars]] which led to the [[Bosnian genocide]].<ref>{{Cite book |first=Padraic |last=Kenney |title=The Burdens of Freedom: Eastern Europe Since 1989 |date=2006 |pages=3, 57}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Glazer |first=Sarah |date=27 August 2004 |title=Stopping Genocide |url=https://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/document.php?id=cqresrre2004082700 |journal=CQ Researcher |volume=14 |issue=29 |pages=685–708}}</ref>
<!-- Per MOS:LEAD: do not add extra paragraphs. -->

== Background ==
=== Emergence of Solidarity in Poland ===

{{main|Solidarity (Polish trade union)}}
Labour turmoil in Poland during 1980 led to the formation of the independent [[trade union]] [[Solidarity (Polish trade union)|Solidarity]], led by [[Lech Wałęsa]], which over time became a political force, nevertheless, on 13 December 1981, Polish prime minister [[Wojciech Jaruzelski]] started a crackdown on Solidarity by declaring [[martial law in Poland]], suspending the union, and temporarily imprisoning all of its leaders.<ref>Andrzej Paczkowski, ''Revolution and Counterrevolution in Poland, 1980–1989: Solidarity, Martial Law, and the End of Communism in Europe'' (Boydell & Brewer, 2015).</ref>

=== Mikhail Gorbachev ===
[[File:RIAN archive 644463 First stage in the Soviet troop withdrawal from Afghanistan.jpg|thumb|The first stage of [[Soviet forces]] withdrawing from [[Democratic Republic of Afghanistan|Afghanistan]], 20 October 1986]]
{{main|Mikhail Gorbachev|Perestroika|Glasnost|Democratization (Soviet Union)}}
Although several Eastern Bloc countries had attempted some abortive, limited economic and political reform since the 1950s (e.g. the [[Hungarian Revolution of 1956]] and [[Prague Spring]] of 1968), the ascension of reform-minded Soviet leader [[Mikhail Gorbachev]] in 1985 signaled the trend toward greater [[liberalization]]. During the mid-1980s, a younger generation of Soviet [[apparatchiks]], led by Gorbachev, began advocating fundamental reform in order to reverse years of [[Brezhnev stagnation]]. After decades of growth, the Soviet Union was now facing a period of severe economic decline and needed Western technology and credits{{clarify|date=March 2017}} to make up for its increasing backwardness. The costs of maintaining its military, the [[KGB]], and subsidies to foreign client states further strained the moribund [[Soviet economy]].<ref>David Lane, "The Gorbachev revolution: The role of the political elite in regime disintegration." ''Political studies'' 44.1 (1996): 4–23.</ref>

[[File:President Ronald Reagan greets a young boy while touring Red Square during the Moscow Summit in the USSR.jpg|thumb|left|US President [[Ronald Reagan]] and Mikhail Gorbachev in [[Red Square]], [[Moscow]], 31 May 1988]]
Mikhail Gorbachev succeeded to the [[General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union]] and came to power in 1985. The first signs of major reform came in 1986 when Gorbachev launched a policy of ''[[glasnost]]'' (openness) in the Soviet Union, and emphasized the need for ''[[perestroika]]'' (economic restructuring). By the spring of 1989, the Soviet Union had not only experienced lively media debate but had also held its first multi-candidate elections in the newly established [[Congress of People's Deputies of the Soviet Union|Congress of People's Deputies]]. While glasnost ostensibly advocated openness and political criticism, these were only permitted within a narrow spectrum dictated by the state. The general public in the Eastern Bloc was still subject to [[secret police]] and [[political repression]].<ref>Brian McNair,  ''Glasnost, perestroika and the Soviet media'' (Routledge, 2006).</ref>

Gorbachev urged his Central and Southeast European counterparts to imitate ''perestroika'' and ''glasnost'' in their own countries. However, while reformists in Hungary and Poland were emboldened by the force of liberalization spreading from the east, other Eastern Bloc countries remained openly skeptical and demonstrated aversion to reform. Believing Gorbachev's reform initiatives would be short-lived, hardline communist rulers like [[East Germany]]'s [[Erich Honecker]], [[Communist Bulgaria|Bulgaria]]'s [[Todor Zhivkov]], [[Communist Czechoslovakia|Czechoslovakia]]'s [[Gustáv Husák]] and [[Communist Romania|Romania]]'s [[Nicolae Ceaușescu]] obstinately ignored the calls for change.<ref>{{Citation |contribution-url=http://countrystudies.us/romania/75.htm |contribution=Romania – Soviet Union and Eastern Europe |place=US |publisher=Library of Congress |title=Country studies}}.</ref> "When your neighbor puts up new wallpaper, it doesn't mean you have to too," declared one East German [[politburo]] member.<ref name="steele 1994" />

=== Soviet republics ===
[[File:USSR Map timeline.gif|thumb|An animated series of maps showing the fall of the communist regimes in Eastern Europe and the [[dissolution of the Soviet Union]], which later led to conflicts in the post-Soviet space]]

By the late 1980s, people in the [[Caucasus]] and [[Baltic states]] were demanding more autonomy from [[Moscow]], and the Kremlin was losing some of its control over certain regions and elements in the [[Soviet Union]]. Cracks in the Soviet system had begun in December 1986 in [[Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic|Kazakhstan]] when its citizens [[Jeltoqsan|protested]] over an ethnic Russian who had been appointed as the secretary of the [[Communist Party of Kazakhstan|CPSU's Kazakh republican branch]]. These protests were put down after three days.

In November 1988, the [[Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic]] issued a [[Estonian Sovereignty Declaration|declaration of sovereignty]],<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1988-11-17-mn-458-story.html|title=Parliament in Estonia Declares 'Sovereignty'|work=Los Angeles Times|date=17 November 1988}}</ref> which would eventually lead to other states making similar declarations of autonomy.

The [[Chernobyl disaster]] in April 1986 had major political and social effects that catalyzed or at least partially caused the Revolutions of 1989. One political result of the disaster was the greatly increased significance of the new Soviet policy of glasnost.<ref name="ShlyGlasnost">{{cite journal |doi=10.1080/00139157.1992.9931445 |title=Chernobyl andGlasnost: The Effects of Secrecy on Health and Safety |year=1992 |last1=Shlyakhter |first1=Alexander |last2=Wilson |first2=Richard |journal=Environment: Science and Policy for Sustainable Development |volume=34 |issue=5 |pages=25|bibcode=1992ESPSD..34e..25S }}</ref><ref name="PetrynaSarc">{{cite journal |doi=10.1525/can.1995.10.2.02a00030 |title=Sarcophagus: Chernobyl in Historical Light |year=1995 |last1=Petryna |first1=Adriana |journal=Cultural Anthropology |volume=10 |issue=2 |pages=196–220|s2cid=144062565 }}</ref> It is difficult to establish the total economic cost of the disaster. According to Gorbachev, the Soviet Union spent 18 billion [[Soviet rouble|roubles]] (the equivalent of US$18 billion at that time) on containment and decontamination, virtually bankrupting itself.<ref name="GorbachevBoC">Gorbachev, Mikhail (1996), interview in Johnson, Thomas, ''{{YouTube|dd-QBnAd5qY|The Battle of Chernobyl}}'', [film], Discovery Channel, retrieved 19 February 2014.</ref>

=== Impact of Solidarity grows ===
{{main|Solidarity (Polish trade union)}}
[[File:WieczorWroclawia20marca1981.jpg|thumb|The 20–21 March 1981 issue of ''Wieczór Wrocławia'' (''This Evening in [[Wrocław]]'') shows blank spaces remaining after the government censor pulled articles from page 1 (right, "What happened at [[Bydgoszcz]]?") and from the last page (left, "Country-wide strike alert"), leaving only their titles as the printers—[[Solidarity (Polish trade union)|Solidarity-trade-union]] members—decided to run the newspaper with blank spaces intact. The bottom of page 1 of this master copy bears the hand-written Solidarity confirmation of that decision.]]

Throughout the mid-1980s, [[Solidarity (Polish trade union)|Solidarity]] persisted solely as an underground organization, supported by the Catholic Church. However, by the late 1980s, Solidarity became sufficiently strong to frustrate [[Wojciech Jaruzelski|Jaruzelski's]] attempts at reform, and [[1988 Polish strikes|nationwide strikes in 1988]] forced the government to open dialogue with Solidarity. On 9 March 1989, both sides agreed to a [[bicameral legislature]] called the [[National Assembly (Poland)|National Assembly]]. The already existing [[Sejm]] would become the lower house. The Senate would be elected by the people. Traditionally a ceremonial office, the presidency was given more powers<ref>[http://www.2facts.com Poland:Major Political Reform Agreed], ''Facts on File World News Digest'', 24 March 1989. Facts on File News Services. 6 September 2007</ref> ([[Polish Round Table Agreement]]).

On 7 July 1989, General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev implicitly renounced the use of force against other Soviet-bloc nations. Speaking to members of the 23-nation Council of Europe, Mr. Gorbachev made no direct reference to the so-called [[Brezhnev Doctrine]], under which Moscow had asserted the right to use force to prevent a Warsaw Pact member from leaving the communist fold. He stated, "Any interference in domestic affairs and any attempts to restrict the sovereignty of states—friends, allies or any others—are inadmissible".<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/07/07/world/gorbachev-spurns-the-use-of-force-in-eastern-europe.html?scp=714&sq=Hungary&st=nyt&gwh=8324637C96A56F9E0671EC017DB71D98 |work=The New York Times |first=James M. |last=Markham |title=Gorbachev spurns the use of force in Eastern Europe |date=7 July 1989}}</ref> The policy was termed the [[Sinatra Doctrine]], in a joking reference to the [[Frank Sinatra]] song "[[My Way]]". Poland became the first Warsaw Pact country to break free of Soviet domination.

=== Protests and revolutions in the Western Bloc ===

{{see also |Third Wave Democracy}}
The 1980's revolutions occurred in [[Western Bloc]] regimes as well.

In February 1986, the [[People Power Revolution]] in the [[Martial law under Ferdinand Marcos|Philippines]] peacefully overthrew dictator [[Ferdinand Marcos]] and inaugurated [[Corazon Aquino|Corazon "Cory" Aquino]] as the [[President of the Philippines|president]].<ref>{{cite journal | url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/01436598608419897 | doi=10.1080/01436598608419897 | title=From the ashes: The rebirth of the Philippine revolution—a review essay | year=1986 | last1=Bello | first1=Walden | journal=Third World Quarterly | volume=8 | pages=258–276 | url-access=subscription }}</ref>

In 1987, the [[South Korea]]n [[June Democratic Struggle]] against the [[Fifth Republic of Korea|military dictatorship]] of [[Chun Doo-hwan]] occurred after [[Roh Tae-woo]] was designated as Chun's successor without a direct election. Not wanting to escalate violence before the [[1988 Summer Olympics]] being hosted in [[Seoul]] next year, the government made [[June 29 Declaration|concessions with the protestors demands]], including free elections, amnesty to political prisoners, restoring [[press freedom]] and revisions to the [[Constitution of South Korea|constitution]].

The [[South Africa]]n [[apartheid]], the [[Military dictatorship of Chile (1973–1990)|Pinochet military dictatorship in Chile]], and the [[New Order (Indonesia)|Suharto regime in Indonesia]] were gradually declining during the 1990s as the West withdrew their funding and diplomatic support. The [[First Intifada]] against [[Israeli-occupied territories|Israeli occupation]] of the [[Palestinian territories]] occurred, giving rise of militant movement [[Hamas]]. Dictatorships such as [[Proceso de Reorganización Nacional|Argentina]], [[Third Republic of Ghana|Ghana]], [[Dictatorship of Alfredo Stroessner|Paraguay]], [[National Military Council (Suriname)|Suriname]], [[Temporary Provisions against the Communist Rebellion|Republic of China]] and [[Yemen Arab Republic|North]]-[[South Yemen]], among others, elected democratic governments.

Exact tallies of the number of democracies vary depending on the criteria used for assessment, but by some measures by the late 1990s there were well over 100 democracies in the world, a marked increase in just a few decades.<ref>[[Freedom House]], ''Freedom in the World 1999–2000'' (New York, 2000).</ref>

==History==

=== National political movements ===
==== Poland ====
{{main|History of Poland (1945–1989)#Final decade of the Polish People's Republic (1980–1989)}}
[[File:Kolejka.jpeg|thumb|People queue waiting to enter a store, a typical view in [[Polish People's Republic|Poland in the 1980s]]]]

A [[1988 Polish strikes|wave of strikes]] hit Poland from 21 April then this continued in May 1988. A second wave began on 15 August, when a strike broke out at the [[July Manifesto]] coal mine in [[Jastrzębie-Zdrój]], with the workers demanding the re-legalisation of the Solidarity trade union. Over the next few days, sixteen other mines went on strike followed by a number of shipyards, including on 22 August the [[Gdansk Shipyard]], famous as the epicentre of the [[History of Solidarity|1980 industrial unrest]] that spawned Solidarity.<ref>{{cite book|last=Wałęsa |first=Lech |year=1991|title=The Struggle and the Triumph: An Autobiography |publisher=Arcade|isbn=1-55970-221-4|author-link=Lech Wałęsa |page=151}}</ref> On 31 August 1988 [[Lech Wałęsa]], the leader of Solidarity, was invited to Warsaw by the communist authorities, who had finally agreed to talks.{{Sfn|Wałęsa|1991|p=157}}

On 18 January 1989, at a stormy session of the Tenth Plenary Session of the ruling [[Polish United Workers' Party|United Workers' Party]],  General [[Wojciech Jaruzelski]], the First Secretary, managed to get party backing for formal negotiations with Solidarity leading to its future legalisation, although this was achieved only by threatening the resignation of the entire party leadership if thwarted.{{Sfn |Wałęsa |1991 |p = 174}} On 6 February 1989 formal Round Table discussions began in the Hall of Columns in Warsaw. On 4 April 1989 the historic [[Polish Round Table Agreement|Round Table Agreement]] was signed legalising Solidarity and setting up partly free [[1989 Polish legislative election|parliamentary elections]] to be held on 4 June 1989, incidentally, the day following the midnight massacre of Chinese protesters in Tiananmen Square.

A political earthquake followed as the victory of Solidarity surpassed all predictions. Solidarity candidates captured all the seats they were allowed to compete for in the [[Sejm]]. In [[Senate of Poland|the Senate]] they captured 99 out of the 100 available seats, with the one remaining seat taken by an independent candidate. At the same time, many prominent communist candidates failed to gain even the minimum number of votes required to capture the seats that were reserved for them.

[[File:Lech Walesa George H Bush.PNG|thumb|Solidarity Chairman [[Lech Wałęsa]] (center) with President [[George H. W. Bush]] (right) and Barbara Bush (left) in Warsaw, July 1989]]

On 15 August 1989, the communists' two longtime coalition partners, the [[United People's Party (Poland)|United People's Party]] (ZSL) and the [[Democratic Party (Poland)|Democratic Party]] (SD), broke their alliance with the PZPR and announced their support for Solidarity. The last communist Prime Minister of Poland, General [[Czesław Kiszczak]], said he would resign to allow a non-communist to form an administration.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/08/15/world/poland-s-premier-offering-to-yield-to-non-communist.html?scp=187&sq=Poland&st=nyt&gwh=1619ADC23679717BAA7BEEB89D42F7C7 |work=The New York Times |first=John |last=Tagliabue |title=Poland's premier offering to yield to non-Communist |date=15 August 1989}}</ref> As Solidarity was the only other political grouping that could possibly form a government, it was virtually assured that a Solidarity member would become prime minister.<ref name="apple 1989">{{Cite news |last=Apple |first=R. W. Jr. |date=20 August 1989 |title=A New orbit: Poland's Break Leads Europe And Communism To a Threshold |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/08/20/weekinreview/a-new-orbit-poland-s-break-leads-europe-and-communism-to-a-threshold.html?scp=825&sq=Hungary&st=nyt&gwh=6C7A9946FB31BA34FCA893628C2ECB2B |work=The New York Times}}</ref>

On 19 August 1989, in a stunning watershed moment, [[Tadeusz Mazowiecki]], an anti-communist editor, Solidarity supporter, and devout Catholic, was nominated as Prime Minister of Poland and the Soviet Union voiced no protest.<ref name="apple 1989" /> Five days later, on 24 August 1989, Poland's Parliament ended more than 40 years of one-party rule by making Mazowiecki the country's first non-communist Prime Minister since the early postwar years. In a tense Parliament, Mazowiecki received 378 votes, with 4 against and 41 abstentions.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/08/25/world/opening-new-era-poles-pick-leader.html?scp=117&sq=Poland&st=nyt&gwh=F25D35FF96685DE091584BA304075DFB |work=The New York Times |first=John |last=Tagliabue |title=Opening new era, Poles pick leader |date =25 August 1989}}</ref> On 13 September 1989, a new non-communist government was approved by parliament, the first of its kind in the [[Eastern Bloc]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/09/13/opinion/poles-approve-solidarity-led-cabinet.html?scp=7&sq=Poland&st=nyt&gwh=ADFB73DF2E2E33BE8ECFB353BC221D80 |work=The New York Times |first=John |last=Tagliabue |title=Poles Approve Solidarity-Led Cabinet |date=13 September 1989}}</ref>

On 17 November 1989, the statue of [[Felix Dzerzhinsky]], Polish founder of the [[Cheka]] and symbol of communist oppression, was torn down in [[Bank Square, Warsaw]].<ref>{{cite news|title=Across Eastern Europe, Remembering the Curtain's Fall|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB124051894535749519 |newspaper=Wall Street Journal|date=24 April 2009}}</ref> On 29 December 1989 the Sejm amended the constitution to change the official name of the country from the People's Republic of Poland to the Republic of Poland. The communist Polish United Workers' Party dissolved itself on 29 January 1990 and transformed itself into the [[Social Democracy of the Republic of Poland]].<ref name="PWN_historia" />

In 1990, Jaruzelski resigned as Poland's president and was succeeded by Wałęsa, who won the [[1990 Polish presidential election|1990 presidential elections]]<ref name="PWN_historia">{{Citation |language=pl |contribution-url=http://encyklopedia.pwn.pl/haslo.php?id=4575043 |contribution=Polska. Historia |title=Internetowa encyklopedia PWN |trans-title=PWN Internet Encyklopedia |access-date=11 July 2005 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061001084717/http://encyklopedia.pwn.pl/haslo.php?id=4575043 |archive-date=1 October 2006|title-link=Internetowa encyklopedia PWN}}.</ref> held in two rounds on 25 November and 9 December. Wałęsa's inauguration as president on 21 December 1990 is considered by many as the formal end of the communist [[People's Republic of Poland]] and the start of the modern [[Poland|Republic of Poland]]. The [[Warsaw Pact]] was dissolved on 1 July 1991. On 27 October 1991 the [[1991 Polish parliamentary election|first entirely free Polish parliamentary elections]] since 1945 took place. This completed Poland's transition from communist Party rule to a Western-style liberal democratic political system. The last Russian troops left Poland on 18 September 1993.<ref name="PWN_historia" />

==== Hungary ====
{{main|End of Communism in Hungary (1989)}}
{{see also|Removal of Hungary's border fence|Pan-European Picnic}}
Following Poland's lead, Hungary was next to switch to a non-communist government. Although Hungary had achieved some lasting economic reforms and limited political liberalization during the 1980s, major reforms only occurred following the replacement of [[János Kádár]] as General Secretary of the communist Party on 23 May 1988 with [[Károly Grósz]].<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/05/23/world/hungarian-party-replaces-kadar-with-his-premier.html?scp=135&sq=Hungary&st=nyt&gwh=E283E53C9144CEB5DC839A7740A35E80 |work=The New York Times |first=Henry |last=Kamm |title=Hungarian Party replace Kadar with his premier |date= 23 May 1988}}</ref> On 24 November 1988 [[Miklós Németh]] was appointed prime minister. On 12 January 1989, the Parliament adopted a "democracy package", which included trade union pluralism; freedom of association, assembly, and the press; a new electoral law; and a radical revision of the constitution, among other provisions.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/01/12/world/hungary-eases-dissent-curbs.html?scp=432&sq=Hungary&st=nyt&gwh=92733275AEC8E1D4866E0147173B702E |work=The New York Times |title=Hungary Eases Dissent Curbs |date=12 January 1989}}</ref> On 29 January 1989, contradicting the official view of history held for more than 30 years, a member of the ruling Politburo, [[Imre Pozsgay]], declared that Hungary's 1956 rebellion was a popular uprising rather than a foreign-instigated attempt at counterrevolution.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/01/29/world/hungary-in-turnabout-declares-56-rebellion-a-popular-uprising.html?scp=461&sq=Hungary&st=nyt&gwh=4FAE12DBE2835A0221C2EB3EBE50910D |work=The New York Times |title=Hungary, in Turnabout, Declares '56 Rebellion a Popular Uprising |date=29 January 1989}}</ref>

[[File:Nemzeti Ünnep - Szabadság tér 1989.03.15 (4).jpg|thumb|Hungarians demonstrate at state TV headquarters, 15 March 1989]]
Mass demonstrations on 15 March, the National Day, persuaded the regime to begin negotiations with the emergent non-communist political forces. [[Hungarian Round Table Talks|Round Table talks]] began on 22 April and continued until the Round Table agreement was signed on 18 September. The talks involved the communists (MSzMP) and the newly emerging independent political forces [[Fidesz – Hungarian Civic Union|Fidesz]], the [[Alliance of Free Democrats]] (SzDSz), the [[Hungarian Democratic Forum]] (MDF), the [[Independent Smallholders, Agrarian Workers and Civic Party|Independent Smallholders' Party]], the [[National Peasant Party (Hungary)|Hungarian People's Party]], the [[Endre Bajcsy-Zsilinszky]] Society, and the Democratic Trade Union of Scientific Workers. At a later stage the [[Democratic Confederation of Free Trade Unions]] and the [[Christian Democratic People's Party (Hungary)|Christian Democratic People's Party]] (KDNP) were invited.<ref>{{cite book|last=Falk |first=Barbara J|title=The Dilemmas of Dissidence in East-Central Europe|year=2003|publisher=[[Central European University Press]]|isbn=963-9241-39-3 |page=147}}</ref> At these talks a number of Hungary's future political leaders emerged, including [[László Sólyom]], [[József Antall]], [[György Szabad]], Péter Tölgyessy and [[Viktor Orbán]].<ref>{{Citation |first=József |last=Bayer |contribution-url=http://www.europainstitut.hu/pdf/bayer22.pdf |contribution=The Process of Political System Change in Hungary |title=Schriftenreihe |publisher=Europa Institutes |place=Budapest, [[Hungary|HU]] |year=2003 |page=180 |access-date=27 May 2012 |archive-date=21 July 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110721104934/http://www.europainstitut.hu/pdf/bayer22.pdf |url-status=dead}}.</ref>

On 2 May 1989, the first visible cracks in the [[Iron Curtain]] appeared when [[People's Republic of Hungary|Hungary]] began [[Removal of Hungary's border fence with Austria|dismantling its {{convert|240|km|adj=on}} long border fence]] with Austria.<ref>{{Citation |last=Stokes |first=G |title=The Walls Came Tumbling Down |page=131 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |year=1993}}.</ref> This increasingly destabilized East Germany and [[Czechoslovakia]] over the summer and autumn, as thousands of their citizens illegally crossed over to the West through the Hungarian-Austrian border. On 1 June 1989 the Communist Party admitted that former prime minister [[Imre Nagy]], hanged for treason for his role in the 1956 Hungarian uprising, was executed illegally after a show trial.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/06/01/world/hungarian-party-assails-nagy-s-execution.html?scp=654&sq=Hungary&st=nyt&gwh=AB4FDDAFE5F0111C9B81EEA7B377A93F |work=The New York Times |title=Hungarian Party Assails Nagy's Execution |date=1 June 1989}}</ref> On 16 June 1989 Nagy was given a solemn funeral on Budapest's largest square in front of crowds of at least 100,000, followed by a hero's burial.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/06/17/world/hungarian-who-led-56-revolt-is-buried-as-a-hero.html?scp=678&sq=Hungary&st=nyt&gwh=1CA5680B13F144C9AD6C2CA30484B16C |work=The New York Times |first=Henry |last=Kamm |title=Hungarian Who Led '56 Revolt Is Buried as a Hero |date=17 June 1989}}</ref>

The initially inconspicuous opening of a border gate of the Iron Curtain between Austria and Hungary in August 1989 then triggered a chain reaction, at the end of which the GDR no longer existed and the Eastern Bloc had disintegrated. It was the largest escape movement from East Germany since the Berlin Wall was built in 1961. The idea of opening the border came from [[Otto von Habsburg]] and was brought up by him to [[Miklós Németh]], who promoted the idea.<ref name="miklós 2019">Miklós Németh in Interview, Austrian TV – ORF "Report", 25 June 2019.</ref> The local organization in Sopron took over the Hungarian Democratic Forum, the other contacts were made via Habsburg and [[Imre Pozsgay]].<ref name="szabo otmar">Hilde Szabo: ''Die Berliner Mauer begann im Burgenland zu bröckeln'' (The Berlin Wall began to crumble in Burgenland – German), in Wiener Zeitung 16 August 1999; Otmar Lahodynsky: ''Paneuropäisches Picknick: Die Generalprobe für den Mauerfall'' (Pan-European picnic: the dress rehearsal for the fall of the Berlin Wall – German), in: ''Profil'' 9 August 2014.</ref><ref name="ludwig 2014">Ludwig Greven "Und dann ging das Tor auf", in Die Zeit, 19 August 2014.</ref>

Extensive advertising for the planned picnic was made by posters and flyers among the GDR holidaymakers in Hungary. The Austrian branch of the [[Paneuropean Union]], which was then headed by [[Karl von Habsburg]], distributed thousands of brochures inviting them to a picnic near the border at Sopron.<ref name="szabo otmar" /><ref name="ludwig 2014" /> After the pan-European picnic, [[Erich Honecker]] dictated the ''Daily Mirror'' of 19 August 1989: "Habsburg distributed leaflets far into Poland, on which the East German holidaymakers were invited to a picnic. When they came to the picnic, they were given gifts, food and Deutsche Mark, and then they were persuaded to come to the West."<ref name="frank 2010">Michael Frank: Paneuropäisches Picknick – Mit dem Picknickkorb in die Freiheit (German: Pan-European picnic – With the picnic basket to freedom), in: ''Süddeutsche Zeitung'', 17 May 2010.</ref><ref name="Rödder 2009">Andreas Rödder, Deutschland einig Vaterland – Die Geschichte der Wiedervereinigung (2009).</ref>

With the mass exodus at the Pan-European Picnic, the subsequent hesitant behavior of the Socialist Unity Party of East Germany and the non-intervention of the Soviet Union broke the dams. Now tens of thousands of the media-informed East Germans made their way to Hungary, which was no longer ready to keep its borders completely closed or to oblige its border troops to use force of arms. In particular, the leadership of the GDR in East Berlin no longer dared to completely block the borders of their own country.<ref name="frank 2010" /><ref name="Rödder 2009" />

The [[Hungarian Round Table Talks|Round Table agreement]] of 18 September encompassed six draft laws that covered an overhaul of the [[Constitution of Hungary|Constitution]], establishment of a [[Constitutional Court of Hungary|Constitutional Court]], the functioning and management of political parties, multiparty elections for National Assembly deputies, the penal code and the law on penal procedures. The last two changes represented an additional separation of the Party from the state apparatus.<ref>{{cite book|author=Heenan, Patrick|author2=Lamontagne, Monique|title=The Central and Eastern Europe Handbook|year=1999|publisher=[[Taylor & Francis]]|isbn=1-57958-089-0 |page=13}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=De Nevers, Renée|title=Comrades No More: The Seeds of Change in Eastern Europe|year=2003|publisher=[[MIT Press]]|isbn=0-262-54129-7 |page=130}}</ref> The electoral system was a compromise: about half of the deputies would be elected proportionally and half by the majoritarian system.<ref>{{cite book|author=[[Jon Elster|Elster, Jon]]|author2=Offe, Claus|author3=Preuss, Ulrich K|title=Institutional Design in Post-communist Societies|year=1998|publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]]|isbn=0-521-47931-2|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/institutionaldes0000elst |page=66}}</ref> A weak presidency was agreed upon. No consensus was attained on who should elect the president, the parliament or the people, and when this election should occur, before or after parliamentary elections.<ref name="kamm 1989">{{Cite news |last=Kamm |first=Henry |date=8 October 1989 |title=Communist party in Hungary votes for radical shift |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/10/08/world/communist-party-in-hungary-votes-for-radical-shift.html |work=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref>

On 7 October 1989, the Communist Party, at its last congress, re-established itself as the [[Hungarian Socialist Party]].<ref name="kamm 1989" /> In a historic session from 16 to 20 October, the parliament adopted legislation providing for [[1990 Hungarian parliamentary election|a multi-party parliamentary election]] and a direct presidential election, which took place on 24 March 1990.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/10/19/world/hungary-purges-stalinism-from-its-constitution.html?scp=61&sq=Hungary&st=nyt&gwh=142906DE0FC1FFA303D77A84282021BB |work=The New York Times |title=Hungary Purges Stalinism From Its Constitution |date=19 October 1989}}</ref> The legislation transformed Hungary from a [[People's Republic]] into the [[Republic of Hungary]], guaranteed human and civil rights, and created an institutional structure that ensured separation of powers among the judicial, legislative, and executive branches of government.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/10/20/world/hungary-legalizes-opposition-groups.html |work=The New York Times |title=Hungary legalizes opposition groups |date=20 October 1989}}</ref> On 23 October 1989, on the 33rd anniversary of the 1956 Revolution, the communist regime in Hungary was formally abolished. The [[Soviet occupation of Hungary|Soviet military occupation of Hungary]], which had persisted since World War II, ended on 19 June 1991.

==== East Germany ====
{{main|History of Germany (1945-1990)|Peaceful Revolution|Fall of the Berlin Wall|German reunification}}
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-1990-0922-002, Leipzig, Montagsdemonstration.jpg|thumb|[[Monday demonstrations in East Germany|Monday demonstration]] against the government in [[Leipzig]] on 16 October 1989]]
On 2 May 1989, [[Hungarian People's Republic|Hungary]] [[Removal of Hungary's border fence with Austria|started dismantling its barbed-wire border]] with [[Austria]]. The [[border]] was still heavily guarded, but it was a political sign. The [[Pan-European Picnic]] in August 1989 finally started a movement that could not be stopped by the rulers in the Eastern Bloc. It was the largest escape movement from East Germany since the Berlin Wall was built in 1961. The patrons of the picnic, [[Otto von Habsburg]] and the Hungarian Minister of State [[Imre Pozsgay]] saw the planned event as an opportunity to test the reaction of Mikhail Gorbachev and the Eastern Bloc countries to a large opening of the border including flight.<ref name="Rödder 2009" /><ref name="roser 2018">Thomas Roser: DDR-Massenflucht: Ein Picknick hebt die Welt aus den Angeln (German – Mass exodus of the GDR: A picnic clears the world) in: Die Presse 16 August 2018.</ref><ref name="miklós 2019" /><ref name="lahodynsky 2014">Otmar Lahodynsky: Paneuropäisches Picknick: Die Generalprobe für den Mauerfall (Pan-European picnic: the dress rehearsal for the fall of the Berlin Wall – German), in: Profil 9 August 2014.</ref><ref name="faz 2009">"Der 19. August 1989 war ein Test für Gorbatschows" (German – 19 August 1989 was a test for Gorbachev), in: FAZ 19 August 2009.</ref><ref name="hilde 1999">Hilde Szabo: Die Berliner Mauer begann im Burgenland zu bröckeln (The Berlin Wall began to crumble in Burgenland – German), in Wiener Zeitung 16 August 1999.</ref>

After the pan-European picnic, Erich Honecker dictated the Daily Mirror of 19 August 1989: "Habsburg distributed leaflets far into Poland, on which the East German holidaymakers were invited to a picnic. When they came to the picnic, they were given gifts, food, and Deutsche Mark, and then they were persuaded to come to the West." But with the mass exodus at the Pan-European Picnic, the subsequent hesitant behavior of the Socialist Unity Party of East Germany and the non-intervention of the Soviet Union broke the dams. Now tens of thousands of the media-informed East Germans made their way to Hungary, which was no longer ready to keep its borders completely closed or to oblige its border troops to use force of arms.<ref name="Rödder 2009" /><ref name="roser 2018" /><ref name="miklós 2019" /><ref name="lahodynsky 2014" /><ref name="faz 2009" /><ref name="hilde 1999" />

[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-R0518-182, Erich Honecker.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Erich Honecker]], [[East German]] communist leader]]
By the end of September 1989, more than 30,000 East Germans had escaped to the West before the [[East Germany|GDR]] denied travel to Hungary, leaving [[Czechoslovakia]] as the only neighboring state to which East Germans could escape. Thousands of East Germans tried to reach the West by occupying the West German diplomatic facilities in other Central and Eastern European capitals, notably the [[Prague Embassy]] and the Hungarian Embassy, where thousands camped in the muddy garden from August to November waiting for German political reform. The GDR closed the border to Czechoslovakia on 3 October, thereby isolating itself from all its neighbors. Having been shut off from their last chance for escape, an increasing number of East Germans participated in the [[Monday demonstrations in East Germany|Monday demonstrations]] in Leipzig on 4, 11, and 18 September, each attracting 1,200 to 1,500 demonstrators. Many were arrested and beaten, but the people refused to be intimidated. On 25 September, the protests attracted 8,000 demonstrators.<ref>David Childs, ''The Fall of the GDR'' (Routledge, 2014).</ref>

After the fifth successive Monday demonstration in [[Leipzig]] on 2 October attracted 10,000 protesters, [[Socialist Unity Party of Germany|Socialist Unity Party]] (SED) leader [[Erich Honecker]] issued a ''shoot and kill'' order to the military.<ref name="Pritchard">{{cite book|title=Reconstructing education: East German schools and universities after unification|first=Rosalind MO |last=Pritchard|page=10}}</ref> Communists prepared a huge police, militia, [[Stasi]], and work-combat troop presence, and there were rumors a Tiananmen Square-style massacre was being planned for the following Monday's demonstration on 9 October.<ref>{{cite book|title=History of Germany, 1918–2000: the divided nation |first=Mary |last=Fulbrook|page=256}}</ref>

On 6 and 7 October, [[Mikhail Gorbachev]] visited East Germany to mark the 40th anniversary of the German Democratic Republic, and urged the East German leadership to accept reform. A famous quote of his is rendered in German as "Wer zu spät kommt, den bestraft das Leben" ("The one who comes too late is punished by life."). However, Honecker remained opposed to internal reform, with his regime going so far as forbidding the circulation of Soviet publications that it viewed as subversive.

In spite of rumors that the communists were planning a massacre on 9 October, 70,000 citizens demonstrated in Leipzig that Monday and the authorities on the ground refused to open fire. The following Monday, 16 October 120,000 people demonstrated on the streets of Leipzig.

Erich Honecker had hoped that the [[Group of Soviet Forces in Germany|Soviet troops]] stationed in the GDR by the [[Warsaw Pact]] would restore the communist government and suppress the civilian protests. By 1989, the Soviet government deemed it impractical for the Soviet Union to [[Sinatra Doctrine|continue asserting its control]] over the Eastern Bloc, so it took a neutral stance regarding the events happening in East Germany. Soviet troops stationed in eastern Europe were under strict instructions from the Soviet leadership not to intervene in the political affairs of the Eastern Bloc nations, and remained in their barracks. Faced with ongoing civil unrest, the SED deposed Honecker on 18 October and replaced him with the number-two-man in the regime, [[Egon Krenz]]. However, the demonstrations kept growing. On Monday, 23 October, the Leipzig protesters numbered 300,000, and remained as large the following week.

[[File:BerlinWall-BrandenburgGate.jpg|thumb|People on the [[Berlin Wall]] at the [[Brandenburg Gate]], 10 November 1989]]
The border to Czechoslovakia was opened again on 1 November, and the Czechoslovak authorities soon let all East Germans travel directly to West Germany without further bureaucratic ado, thus lifting their part of the Iron Curtain on 3 November. On 4 November the authorities decided to authorize a demonstration in Berlin and were faced with the [[Alexanderplatz demonstration]], where half a million citizens converged on the capital demanding freedom in the biggest protest the GDR ever witnessed.

Unable to stem the ensuing flow of refugees to the West through Czechoslovakia, the East German authorities eventually caved in to public pressure by allowing East German citizens to enter West Berlin and West Germany directly, via existing border points, on 9 November 1989, without having properly briefed the border guards. Triggered by the erratic words of regime spokesman [[Günter Schabowski]] in a TV press conference, stating that the planned changes were in effect "immediately, without delay," hundreds of thousands of people took advantage of the opportunity.

The guards were quickly overwhelmed by the growing crowds of people demanding to be let out into West Berlin. After receiving no feedback from their superiors, the guards, unwilling to use force, relented and [[Fall of the Berlin Wall|opened the gates]] to West Berlin. Soon new crossing points were forced open in the [[Berlin Wall]] by the people, and sections of the wall were literally torn down. The guards were unaware of what was happening and stood by as the East Germans took to the wall with hammers and chisels.

[[File:RIAN archive 428452 Germany becomes one country.jpg|thumb|The Berlin Wall, October 1990, saying ''Thank You, [[Mikhail Gorbachev|Gorbi]]'']]

On 7 November, the entire ''Ministerrat der DDR'' ([[State Council of East Germany]]), including its chairman [[Willi Stoph]], resigned.<ref>[[:de:Ministerrat der DDR (1986–1989)]] contains all the members of the Council.</ref> A new government was formed under a considerably more liberal communist, [[Hans Modrow]].<ref>see also [[:de:Regierung Modrow]]</ref>
On 1 December, the [[Volkskammer]] removed the SED's leading role from the [[Constitution of East Germany#1968 constitution|constitution of the GDR]]. 
On 3 December Krenz resigned as leader of the SED; he resigned as head of state three days later. On 7 December, Round Table talks opened between the SED and other political parties. On 16 December 1989, the SED was dissolved and refounded as the [[Party of Democratic Socialism (Germany)|SED-PDS]], abandoning Marxism–Leninism and becoming a mainstream democratic socialist party.

On 15 January 1990, the Stasi's headquarters was stormed by protesters. Modrow became the de facto leader of [[East Germany]] until [[1990 East German general election|free elections were held on 18 March 1990]]—the first [[November 1932 German federal election|since November 1932]]. The SED, renamed the [[Party of Democratic Socialism (Germany)|Party of Democratic Socialism]], was heavily defeated. [[Lothar de Maizière]] of the [[Christian Democratic Union (East Germany)|East German Christian Democratic Union]] became prime minister on 4 April 1990 on a platform of speedy reunification with the West.

On 15 March 1990, [[Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany|a peace treaty]] was signed between the two countries of Germany and the four Allies, to replace the [[Potsdam Agreement]] of 1 August 1945 after [[World War II]] to return full sovereignty to Germany, which facilitated the reunification. The two German countries [[German reunification|were reunified]] into present-day [[Germany]] on 3 October 1990, solving the German problem of two states status, which had existed since 7 October 1949.

The [[Government of the Soviet Union|Kremlin's]] willingness to abandon such a strategically vital ally marked a dramatic change by the Soviet superpower and a fundamental [[paradigm shift]] in [[international relations]], which until 1989 had been dominated by the East–West divide running through Berlin itself. The last [[Group of Soviet Forces in Germany|Russian troops]] left the territory of the former GDR, now part of a  [[reunited Germany|Federal Republic of Germany]], on 1 September 1994.

==== Czechoslovakia ====
{{main|Velvet Revolution}}
[[File:Prague November89 - Wenceslas Monument.jpg|thumb|Protests beneath the monument in [[Wenceslas Square]], in [[Prague]]]]
[[File:Bratislava Slovakia 213.JPG|thumb|upright|A memorial to the [[Velvet Revolution]] in [[Bratislava]] ([[SNP Square (Bratislava)|Námestie SNP]]), [[Slovakia]]]]

The "Velvet Revolution" was a non-violent transition of power in Czechoslovakia from the communist government to a parliamentary republic. On 17 November 1989, riot police suppressed a peaceful student demonstration in Prague, a day after a similar demonstration passed without incident in Bratislava. Although controversy continues over whether anyone died that night, that event sparked a series of popular demonstrations from 19 November to late December. By 20 November the number of peaceful protesters assembled in Prague had swelled from 200,000 the previous day to an estimated half-million. Five days later, the Letná Square protest held 800,000 people.<ref>{{Cite news |url=http://www.denik.cz/z_domova/demonstrace-na-letne-pred-25-lety-urychlily-kapitulaci-komunistu-20141123.html |title=Demonstrace na letne pred 25 lety urychlily kapitulaci komunistu |language=cs |location=[[Czech Republic]] |newspaper=Deník |date=23 November 2014 }}</ref> On 24 November, the entire Communist Party leadership, including general secretary [[Miloš Jakeš]], resigned. A two-hour general strike, involving all citizens of Czechoslovakia, was successfully held on 27 November.

With the collapse of other communist governments, and increasing street protests, the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia announced on 28 November 1989 that it would relinquish power and dismantle the single-party state. Barbed wire and other obstructions were removed from the border with West Germany and Austria in early December. On 10 December, President [[Gustáv Husák]] appointed the first largely non-communist government in Czechoslovakia since 1948 and resigned. [[Alexander Dubček]] was elected speaker of the federal parliament on 28 December and [[Václav Havel]] the President of Czechoslovakia on 29 December 1989. In June 1990 Czechoslovakia held its first democratic elections since 1946. On 27 June 1991 the last Soviet troops were withdrawn from Czechoslovakia.<ref>{{cite news|title=20 Years After Soviet Soldiers Left the Czech Republic, Russians Move In|url=https://blogs.wsj.com/emergingeurope/2011/06/28/soviet-soldiers-left-czechoslovakia-20-years-ago-ordinary-well-off-russians-to-move-in/ |newspaper=The Wall Street Journal|date=28 June 2011}}</ref>

==== Bulgaria ====

In October and November 1989, demonstrations on ecological issues were staged in Sofia, where demands for political reform were also voiced. The demonstrations were suppressed, but on 10 November 1989, the day after the Berlin Wall was breached, Bulgaria's long-serving leader [[Todor Zhivkov]] was ousted by his Politburo. He was succeeded by a considerably more liberal communist, former foreign minister [[Petar Mladenov]]. Moscow apparently approved the leadership change, as Zhivkov had been opposed to Gorbachev's policies. The new regime immediately repealed restrictions on free speech and assembly, which led to the first mass demonstration on 17 November, as well as the formation of anti-communist movements. Nine of them united as the [[Union of Democratic Forces (Bulgaria)|Union of Democratic Forces]] (UDF) on 7 December.<ref>{{Citation |url=http://www.sds.bg/about/history |title=History of the UDF |language=bg |publisher=SDS |place=[[Bulgaria|BG]]}}</ref> The UDF was not satisfied with Zhivkov's ouster, and demanded additional democratic reforms, most importantly the removal of the constitutionally mandated leading role of the [[Bulgarian Communist Party]].

Mladenov announced on 11 December 1989 that the Communist Party would abandon its monopoly on power, and that multiparty elections would be held the following year. In February 1990, the Bulgarian legislature deleted the portion of the constitution about the "leading role" of the Communist Party. Eventually, it was decided that a round table on the Polish model would be held in 1990 and elections held by June 1990. The round table took place from 3 January to 14 May 1990, at which an agreement was reached on the transition to democracy. The Communist Party abandoned Marxism–Leninism on 3 April 1990 and renamed itself as the [[Bulgarian Socialist Party]]. In June 1990 the first free elections since 1931 were held, won by the Bulgarian Socialist Party.<ref>Ilian Mihov,  "in Bulgaria, 1989–1999." in ''Transition: the first decade'' edited by Mario I. Blejer and Marko kreb (2001): 401+.</ref>

==== Romania ====
{{main|Romanian Revolution}}

[[File:Civilian with PM Md. 1963 during the Romanian Revolution of 1989.jpg|thumb|upright|Armed civilians during the [[Romanian Revolution]]. The revolution was the only violent overthrow of a [[communist state]] in the [[Warsaw Pact]].]]
[[Czechoslovak Socialist Republic|Czechoslovak]] President [[Gustáv Husák]]'s resignation on 10 December 1989 amounted to the fall of the communist regime in Czechoslovakia, leaving Ceaușescu's Romania as the only remaining hard-line communist regime in the Warsaw Pact.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-G3qDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA182|title=Revolution and Change in Central and Eastern Europe: Revised Edition|first1=Roger|last1=East|first2=Jolyon|last2=Pontin|year=2016|publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing|isbn=9781474287487|page=182|via=Google Books}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BZ9sDQAAQBAJ&pg=PA107|title=Romania since the Second World War: A Political, Social and Economic History|first=Florin|last=Abraham|year=2016|publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing|isbn=9781472529923|page=107|via=Google Books}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/12/10/nyregion/upheaval-east-hard-line-czech-president-quit-dissident-seen-successor.html|title=Upheaval In The East; Hard-Line Czech President to Quit And Dissident Is Seen as Successor|first1=John|last1=Tagliabue|date=10 December 1989|newspaper=New York Times}}</ref>

After having suppressed the [[Brașov rebellion]] in 1987, [[Nicolae Ceaușescu]] was re-elected for another five years as leader of the [[Romanian Communist Party]] (PCR) in November 1989, signalling that he intended to ride out the anti-communist uprisings sweeping the rest of Europe. As Ceaușescu prepared to go on a state visit to Iran, his [[Securitate]] ordered the arrest and exile of a local Hungarian [[Calvinism|Calvinist]] minister, [[László Tőkés]], on 16 December, for sermons offending the regime. Tőkés was seized, but only after serious rioting erupted. [[Timișoara]] was the first city to react on 16 December and civil unrest continued for five days.

Returning from Iran, Ceaușescu ordered a mass rally in his support outside Communist Party headquarters in Bucharest on 21 December. To his shock, the crowd booed and jeered him as he spoke. Years of repressed dissatisfaction boiled to the surface throughout the Romanian populace and even among elements in Ceaușescu's own government, and the demonstrations spread throughout the country.

At first, the security forces obeyed Ceaușescu's orders to shoot protesters. On the morning of 22 December, the Romanian military suddenly changed sides. This came after it was announced that defense minister [[Vasile Milea]] had committed suicide after being unmasked as a traitor. It was suggested that he only tried to incapacitate himself in order to be relieved from office, but the bullet hit an artery and he died soon afterwards.<ref>Flavius Cristian Marcau, [http://www.utgjiu.ro/revista/lit/pdf/2013-04/16_Flavius%20Cristian%20Marcau%20-%20Revolution%20of%201989%20-%20Milea%60s%20suicide.pdf "Revolution of 1989: Milea's Suicide"], University of Târgu Jiu, Letter and Social Science Series, Issue 4, 2013, Retrieved February 27, 2016.</ref> Believing Milea had actually been murdered, the rank-and-file soldiers went over virtually ''en masse'' to the revolution.<ref>{{cite book|last=Cornel|first=Ban|title=Sovereign Debt, Austerity, and Regime Change: The Case of Nicolae Ceausescu's Romania|date=13 December 2012|publisher=East European Politics & Societies|page=34|doi=10.1177/0888325412465513|s2cid=144784730}}</ref> Army tanks began moving towards the Central Committee building, with crowds swarming alongside them. The rioters forced open the doors of the Central Committee building in an attempt to capture Ceaușescu and his wife, [[Elena Ceaușescu|Elena]], coming within a few meters of the couple. They managed to escape via a helicopter waiting for them on the roof of the building.

Although elation followed the flight of the Ceaușescus, uncertainty surrounded their fate. On Christmas Day, Romanian television showed the Ceaușescus facing a hasty trial, and then being executed by firing squad. An interim [[National Salvation Front (Romania)|National Salvation Front]] Council led by [[Ion Iliescu]] took over and announced elections for April 1990, the first free elections held in Romania since 1937. These were postponed until 20 May 1990. The Romanian Revolution was the bloodiest of the revolutions of 1989: over 1,000 people died,<ref>{{cite web |title=Thirty years after Romanian revolution, questions remain |date=25 December 2019 |url=https://www.politico.eu/article/thirty-years-after-romanian-revolution-questions-remain-death-of-nicolae-ceausescu/ |publisher=Politico}}</ref> one hundred of which were children, the youngest only one month old.

Unlike its kindred parties in the Warsaw Pact, the PCR simply melted away. No present-day Romanian party claiming to be its successor has ever been elected to the legislature since the change of system. However, former PCR members have played significant roles in post-1989 Romanian politics. Every [[Romanian President]] until the election of [[Klaus Iohannis]] in [[2014 Romanian presidential election|2014]] was a former Communist Party member.

The years following the disposal of Ceaușescu were not free of conflict, and a series of "[[Mineriad]]s" organized by dissatisfied [[Jiu Valley]] miners occurred. The [[June 1990 Mineriad]] turned deadly after university students, the "[[Golaniad]]s", held a months long protest against the participation of ex-PCR and [[Securitate]] members in the [[1990 Romanian general election]].<ref name="Deletant">{{Cite book |last=Carey |first=Henry F. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QjqxzR0xTvoC |title=Romania Since 1989: Politics, Economics, and Society |date=2004 |publisher=Lexington Books |isbn=978-0-7391-0592-4 |pages=507–510 |language=en |chapter=Chapter 25: The Security Services since 1989: Turning over a new leaf}}</ref> President [[Ion Iliescu]] branded the protesters "hooligans" and called the miners to "defend Romanian democracy". Viorel Ene, president of the Association of Victims of the Mineriads, asserted that:<ref>{{cite web |last=Cristea |first=Romulus |date=12 June 2006 |title=Minerii au terorizat Capitala |url=http://www.romanialibera.ro/special/investigatii/minerii-au-terorizat-capitala--30479 |work=România Liberă |language=Romanian}}</ref>

{{Blockquote|text=There are documents, testimonies of doctors, of people from Domnești and Străulești cemeteries. Although we have said all along that the real number of dead is over 100, no one contradicted so far and there was no official position against.}}

Over 10,000 miners were transported to [[Bucharest]] and in the ensuing clashes, seven protesters died and hundreds more were injured, although media estimates on the casualty figures were much higher. The opposition newspaper ''[[România Liberă]]'' alleged that over 128 unidentified bodies were buried in a common grave in Străulești II cemetery, near [[Bucharest]].<ref>{{cite web |date=10 June 2005 |title=128 de morți îngropați în cimitirul Străulești |url=http://www.romanialibera.ro/actualitate/eveniment/128-de-morti-ingropati-in-cimitirul-straulesti--25270 |work=România Liberă |language=Romanian}}</ref> A few weeks after the mineriad, several medical students conducted research in Străulești II cemetery, discovering two trenches with about 78 unmarked graves, which they claimed to contain victims of the events.<ref name="mineriada.net">{{cite web |last=Andronache |first=Elena |title=Morții fără nume din iunie 1990 |url=http://mineriada.net/Articol.asp?ID=360 |work=mineriada.net |language=Romanian}}</ref>

==== Yugoslavia ====
{{main|Breakup of Yugoslavia|Yugoslav Wars}}

[[File:Yugoslavia ethnic map.jpg|thumb|300px|[[Ethnic groups in Yugoslavia]] in 1991]]
The [[Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia]] was not a part of the Warsaw Pact but pursued [[Titoism|its own version]] of communism under [[Josip Broz Tito]]. It was a multi-ethnic state which Tito was able to maintain through a [[Yugoslavism|Yugoslav patriotic doctrine]] of "[[Brotherhood and unity]]". Tensions between ethnicities began to escalate with the [[Croatian Spring]] of 1970–71, a movement for greater [[Socialist Republic of Croatia|Croatia]]n autonomy, which was suppressed. Constitutional changes were instituted in 1974, and the [[1974 Yugoslav Constitution]] devolved some federal powers to the constituent republics and provinces. After Tito's death in 1980 ethnic tensions grew, first in Albanian-majority [[Socialist Autonomous Province of Kosovo|SAP Kosovo]] with the [[1981 protests in Kosovo]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Caesar |first=Faisal |date=23 June 2020 |title=The forgotten Yugoslavian side of Italia 90 |url=https://www.cricketsoccer.com/2020/06/23/the-forgotten-yugoslavian-side-of-italia-90/#:~:text=The%20Yugoslav%20model%20of%20state%20organization%2C%20as%20well,under%20the%20rule%20of%20president-for-life%20Josip%20Broz%20Tito. |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200902021857/https://www.cricketsoccer.com/2020/06/23/the-forgotten-yugoslavian-side-of-italia-90/#%3A%7E%3Atext%3DThe%20Yugoslav%20model%20of%20state%20organization%2C%20as%20well%2Cunder%20the%20rule%20of%20president%2Dfor%2Dlife%20Josip%20Broz%20Tito. |url-status=usurped |archive-date=2 September 2020 |website=CricketSoccer.com }}</ref>

Parallel to the same process, [[Socialist Republic of Slovenia|Slovenia]] initiated a policy of gradual liberalization in 1984, somewhat similar to the Soviet Perestroika. This provoked tensions between the [[League of Communists of Slovenia]] and the [[League of Communists of Yugoslavia|central Yugoslav Party]] and [[Yugoslav People's Army|federal army]]. In 1984, the decade long ban to build the [[Church of Saint Sava|Saint Sava Cathedral]] in [[Belgrade]] was lifted. The backdown of the communist elite and a popular gathering of 100,000 believers on 12 May 1985 to celebrate liturgy inside the walls of the ruins marked the return of religion in postwar Yugoslavia.<ref>Dunja Predić 2012: How big is all that, really? In: Cultures of Assembly – Architecture + Critical Architectural Practice. Ständelschule Architecture Class, Frankfurt am Main. [http://criticalspatialpractice.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/CSP_Cultures_Of_Assembly_Newspaper_2012.pdf(PDF)]{{Dead link|date=July 2023|bot=InternetArchiveBot|fix-attempted=yes}}</ref> By the late 1980s, many civil society groups were pushing towards [[democratization]], while widening the space for cultural plurality.<ref name="bibic 1993">{{Cite journal |last=Bibič |first=Adolf |date=1993 |title=The Emergence of Pluralism in Slovenia |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/45301873 |journal=Communist and Post-Communist Studies |volume=26 |issue=4 |pages=367–386 |doi=10.1016/0967-067X(93)90028-P |issn=0967-067X |jstor=45301873|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

In 1987 and 1988, a series of clashes between the emerging civil society and the communist regime culminated with the so-called [[Slovene Spring]], a mass movement for democratic reforms. The [[Committee for the Defence of Human Rights]] was established as the platform of all major non-Communist political movements. By early 1989, several anti-communist political parties were already openly functioning, challenging the hegemony of the Slovenian Communists. Soon, the Slovenian Communists, pressured by their own civil society, came into conflict with the [[League of Communists of Serbia|Serbian Communist]] leadership.<ref name="bibic 1993" />

In January 1990, an extraordinary Congress of the [[League of Communists of Yugoslavia]] was called in order to settle the disputes among its constituent parties. Faced with being completely outnumbered, the Slovenian and [[League of Communists of Croatia|Croatian]] communists walked out of the Congress on 23 January 1990, effectively bringing to an end to Yugoslavia's communist party. Both parties of the two western republics negotiated free multi-party elections with their own opposition movements.

On 8 April 1990, the democratic and anti-Yugoslav [[DEMOS coalition]] won the [[1990 Slovenian parliamentary election|elections in Slovenia]], while on 22 April 1990 the [[1990 Croatian parliamentary election|Croatian elections]] resulted in a landslide victory for the nationalist [[Croatian Democratic Union]] (HDZ) led by [[Franjo Tuđman]]. The results were much more balanced in [[Bosnia and Herzegovina]] and [[1990 Macedonian parliamentary election|in Macedonia]] in November 1990, while the [[parliamentary]] and [[President (government title)|presidential]] elections of December 1990 in Serbia and [[Montenegro]] consolidated the power of Milošević and his supporters. Free elections on the level of the federation were never carried out.

The Slovenian and Croatian leaderships started preparing plans for secession from the federation, while a part of the [[Serbs of Croatia]] started the so-called [[Log Revolution]], an insurrection organized by [[Socialist Republic of Serbia|Serbia]] that would lead to the creation of the breakaway region of [[SAO Krajina]]. In the [[1990 Slovenian independence referendum|Slovenian independence referendum]] on 23 December 1990, 88.5% of residents voted for independence.<ref>{{Citation|url=http://www.sussex.ac.uk/sei/documents/slovenian3.pdf |publisher=Sussex |place=UK |title=Slovenian Referendum Briefing No. 3 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101218000730/http://www.sussex.ac.uk/sei/documents/slovenian3.pdf |archive-date=18 December 2010 }}</ref> In the [[1991 Croatian independence referendum|Croatian independence referendum]] on 19 May 1991, 93.24% voted for independence.

The escalating ethnic and national tensions were exacerbated by the drive for independence and led to the following [[Yugoslav wars]]:
* [[Ten-Day War|War in Slovenia]] (1991)
* [[Croatian War of Independence]] (1991–1995)
* [[Bosnian War]] (1992–1995)
* [[Kosovo War]] (1998–1999), including the [[NATO bombing of Yugoslavia]].

The [[insurgency in the Preševo Valley]] (1999–2001) and the [[insurgency in the Republic of Macedonia]] (2001) are often discussed in the same context.<ref>{{cite news|date=17 February 2011|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwone/yugoslavia_01.shtml|author=Judah, Tim|title=Yugoslavia: 1918–2003|publisher=[[BBC]]|access-date=1 April 2012|author-link=Tim Judah}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Naimark|first1=Norman M.|last2=Case|first2=Holly|title=Yugoslavia and Its Historians: Understanding the Balkan Wars of the 1990s|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=u5tUbUyXtToC&pg=PA38|year=2003|publisher=Stanford University Press|isbn=978-0-8047-4594-9 |page=xvii}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Rogel|first=Carole|title=The Breakup of Yugoslavia and Its Aftermath|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|year=2004|url=https://archive.org/details/breakupofyugosla00roge_0|url-access=registration|isbn=0-313323-57-7 |pages=91–92}}</ref>

==== Albania ====
{{main|Fall of communism in Albania}} 
In the [[People's Socialist Republic of Albania]], [[Enver Hoxha]], who led Albania for four decades, died on 11 April 1985.<ref>There is uncertainty over Hoxha's true date of birth. [[Enver Hoxha#CITEREFFevziu2016|Fevziu (2016)]], p.&nbsp;10) notes: "No fewer than five different dates are to be found in the Central State Archives [of Albania] alone."</ref> His successor, [[Ramiz Alia]], began to gradually open up the regime from above. In 1989, the first revolts started in [[Shkodra]] and spread in other cities.<ref>[http://www.tvklan.al/emisioni.php?id=2512# Mysteries of December 1990 (Misteret e Dhjetoret)] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110211110848/http://tvklan.al/emisioni.php?id=2512|date=2011-02-11}}, [[TV Klan]].</ref> Eventually, the existing regime introduced some liberalization, including measures in 1990 providing for freedom to travel abroad. Efforts were begun to improve ties with the outside world. March 1991 elections—the first free elections in Albania since 1923, and only the third free elections in the country's history—left the former communists in power, but a general strike and urban opposition led to the formation of a coalition cabinet including non-communists. Parliamentary elections were held in [[Albania]] on 22 March 1992, with a second round of voting for eleven seats on 29 March,<ref>[[Dieter Nohlen]] & Philip Stöver (2010) ''Elections in Europe: A data handbook'', p133 {{ISBN|978-3-8329-5609-7}}</ref><ref>[http://www.ipu.org/parline-e/reports/arc/2001_92.htm Albania: Elections held in 1992] Inter-Parliamentary Union</ref> amid [[1997 Albanian civil unrest|economic collapse and social unrest]].

==== Mongolia ====
{{main|Mongolian Revolution of 1990}}
Mongolia ([[Outer Mongolia]]) declared independence from China in 1911 during the [[Xinhai Revolution|fall]] of the [[Qing dynasty]]. The [[Mongolian People's Party]] [[Outer Mongolian Revolution of 1921|took power]] in 1921, and the party renamed itself the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Constitutions of the Communist World|editor-first=William B.|editor-last=Simons|publisher=BRILL|year=1980|isbn=9028600701|pages=256}}</ref> During these years, Mongolia was closely aligned with the Soviet Union. After [[Yumjaagiin Tsedenbal]] left in 1984, the new leadership under [[Jambyn Batmönkh]] implemented economic reforms, but failed to appeal to those who, in late 1989, wanted broader changes.<ref name="Kaplonski" />

The "[[Mongolian Revolution of 1990|Mongolian Revolution]]" was a democratic, [[Nonviolent revolution|peaceful]] revolution that started with demonstrations and [[hunger strike]]s and ended 70-years of [[Marxism-Leninism]] and eventually moved towards democracy.<ref>{{Cite web |last1=350.org |last2=Hunter |first2=Daniel |date=2024-04-17 |title=Authoritarianism to Democracy: The Story of Mongolia |url=https://commonslibrary.org/authoritarianism-to-democracy-the-story-of-mongolia/ |access-date=2025-02-05 |website=The Commons Social Change Library |language=en-AU}}</ref> It was spearheaded by mostly younger people demonstrating on [[Sükhbaatar Square]] in the capital [[Ulaanbaatar]]. It ended with the [[authoritarian]] government resigning without bloodshed. Some of the main organizers were [[Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj]], [[Sanjaasürengiin Zorig]], [[Erdeniin Bat-Üül]], and [[Bat-Erdeniin Batbayar]].

During the morning of 10 December 1989, the first public demonstration occurred in front of the Youth Cultural Center in the capital of Ulaanbaatar.<ref>{{cite news|last=G.|first=Dari|title=Democracy Days to be inaugurated|publisher=news.mn (in Mongolian)|url=http://politics.news.mn/content/89237.shtml|access-date=8 July 2013|date=5 December 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120110172038/http://politics.news.mn/content/89237.shtml|archive-date=10 January 2012|url-status=dead}}</ref> There, Elbegdorj announced the creation of the [[Mongolian Democratic Union]],<ref name="CDMongolia">{{cite web|title=Tsakhia Elbegdorj|publisher=Community of Democracies Mongolia|url=http://cdmongolia.mn/tsakhia-elbegdorj/#.UdovIfmmiAg|access-date=8 July 2013|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130610155307/http://cdmongolia.mn/tsakhia-elbegdorj/#.UdovIfmmiAg|archive-date=10 June 2013}}</ref> and the first pro-democracy movement in Mongolia began. The protesters called for Mongolia to adopt [[perestroika]] and [[glasnost]]. Dissident leaders demanded free elections and economic reform, but within the context of a "human democratic socialism".<ref name="Kaplonski"/> The protesters injected a [[Pan-Mongolism|nationalist element]] into the protests by using traditional [[Mongolian script]]—which most Mongolians could not read—as a symbolic repudiation of the political system which had imposed the [[Mongolian Cyrillic alphabet]].<ref name="Kaplonski"/>

In late December 1989, demonstrations increased when news came of [[Garry Kasparov]]'s interview in ''[[Playboy]]'', suggesting that the Soviet Union could improve its economic health by selling Mongolia to China.<ref name="Kaplonski">{{cite book|title=Truth, History, and Politics in Mongolia: The Memory of Heroes|first=Christopher|last=Kaplonski|year=2004|publisher=Psychology Press|pages=51, 56, 60, 64–65, 67, 80–82|isbn=1134396732}}</ref> On 14 January 1990, the protesters, having grown from three hundred to some 1,000, met in a square in front of Lenin Museum in Ulaanbaatar, which has been named Freedom Square since then. A demonstration in [[Sükhbaatar Square]] on 21 January followed, in weather of −30&nbsp;C. Protesters carried banners alluding to Chinggis Khaan, also referred to [[Genghis Khan]], rehabilitating a figure whom Soviet schooling neglected to praise.<ref name="Fineman">{{cite news|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-01-24-mn-609-story.html|title=Mongolia Reform Group Marches to Rock Anthem|first=Mark|last=Fineman|date=24 January 1990|access-date=26 December 2012|work=[[Los Angeles Times]]|quote=Mongolia-watchers in Beijing said that... the democracy movement is rooted more in nationalism than in dissent.... 'Watching it unfold, you get the feeling this is more a pro-nationalist and pro-Mongolian movement than it is anti-party or anti-government,' said a diplomat who left Ulan Bator on Monday.}}</ref>

In subsequent months of 1990, activists continued to organize demonstrations, rallies, protests and hunger strikes, as well as teachers' and workers' strikes.<ref name="Politburo">{{cite book|title=Parliaments in Asia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=slpaAe40kn0C&pg=PA143 |last1=Ahmed |last2=Norton |first1=Nizam U. |first2=Philip|page=143|publisher=Frank Cass & Co.Ltd|place=London|isbn=0-7146-4951-1|access-date=8 July 2013|year=1999}}</ref> Activists had growing support from Mongolians, both in the capital and the countryside and the union's activities led to other calls for democracy all over the country.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://baabar.niitlelch.mn/content/112.shtml|title=Democratic Revolution and Its Terrible Explanations|author=Baabar|publisher=baabar.mn (in Mongolian)|date=16 November 2009|access-date=25 June 2013|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121227133854/http://baabar.niitlelch.mn/content/112.shtml|archive-date=27 December 2012|author-link=Baabar}}</ref> After numerous demonstrations of many thousands of people in the capital city as well as provincial centers, on 4 March 1990, the MDU and three other reform organizations held a joint outdoor mass meeting, inviting the government to attend. The government sent no representative to what became a demonstration of over 100,000 people demanding democratic change.<ref name="Amarsanaa">{{cite book|last1=S. |last2=S.|first1=Amarsanaa |first2=Mainbayar|title=Concise historical album of the Mongolian Democratic Union|year=2009|pages=3–5, 10, 33–35, 44, 47, 51–56, 58, 66}}</ref> This culminated with [[Jambyn Batmönkh]], chairman of Politburo of MPRP's Central Committee decided to dissolve the Politburo and to resign on 9 March 1990.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2199&dat=19900312&id=QkUyAAAAIBAJ&pg=4637,3539885|title=Entire Mongolian Politburo resigns|newspaper=Lawrence Journal-World|pages=8A|place=Lawrence, KS|date=12 March 1990|access-date=8 July 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Ch.|first=Munkhbayar|url=http://news.dorgio.mn/politics/other/772|title=What was the Mongolian democratic revolution?|publisher=dorgio.mn (in Mongolian)|date=13 March 2013|access-date=8 July 2013|archive-date=17 October 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141017055707/http://news.dorgio.mn/politics/other/772|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Mongolia's first free, multi-party elections for a bicameral parliament took place on 29 July 1990.<ref name="Amarsanaa" /><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-07-24-wr-748-story.html|title=Briefing Paper : For the First Time, Mongolians Have Political Choices|last=Holley|first=David|date=24 July 1990|newspaper=Los Angeles Times|place=Los Angeles, CA|access-date=8 August 2013}}</ref> Parties ran for 430 seats in the Great Hural. Opposition parties were not able to nominate enough candidates. The opposition nominated 346 candidates for the 430 seats in the Great Hural (upper house). The [[Mongolian People's Party|Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party]] (MPRP) won 357 seats in the Great Hural and 31 out of 53 seats in the Small Hural.<ref>Peter Staisch, Werner M. Prohl, ''Dschingis Khan lächelt'', Bonn 1998, p.38ff</ref> The MPRP enjoyed a strong position in the countryside. The [[State Great Khural]] first met on 3 September 1990 and elected a president (MPRP), vice president ([[Mongolian Social Democratic Party|Social Democrat]]) who was also a chairman of the Baga Hural, prime minister (MPRP), and 50 members to the Baga Hural (lower house).

In November 1991, the People's Great Hural began a discussion on a [[Constitution of Mongolia|new constitution]], which entered into force on 12 February 1992. The new constitution restructured the legislative branch of government, creating a unicameral legislature, the State Great Hural (SGH). The MPRP retained its majority but lost the 1996 elections. The final Russian troops, which had been stationed in Mongolia since 1966, fully withdrew in December 1992.

==== China ====
{{main|1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre}}

While China did not undergo a revolution resulting in a new form of government in 1989, a popular national movement led to large demonstrations in favor of democratic reforms. [[Paramount leader|Chinese leader]] [[Deng Xiaoping]] had developed the concept of [[socialism with Chinese characteristics]] and enacted local [[Socialist market economy|market economy]] reforms around 1984, but the policy had stalled.<ref>{{Citation |date=3 February 2012 |url=http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90780/7719657.html |title='Market fundamentalism' is unpractical |newspaper=People's Daily |publisher=Central Committee of the Communist Party |place=[[China|CN]] |access-date=13 January 2013}}</ref>

The first Chinese student demonstrations, which eventually led to the Beijing protests of 1989, took place in December 1986 in [[Hefei]]. The students called for campus elections, the chance to study abroad, and greater availability of Western pop culture. Their protests took advantage of the loosening political atmosphere and included rallies against the slow pace of reform. [[Hu Yaobang]], a protégé of Deng Xiaoping and a leading advocate of reform, was blamed for the protests and forced to resign as the [[General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party|CCP general secretary]] in January 1987. In the "Anti Bourgeois Liberalization Campaign", Hu would be further denounced.

The Tiananmen Square protests were sparked by the death of Hu Yaobang on 15 April 1989. By the eve of Hu's state funeral, some 100,000 students had gathered at [[Tiananmen Square]] to observe it; however, no leaders emerged from the [[Great Hall of the People|Great Hall]]. The movement lasted for seven weeks.<ref name= "Zhao153">{{Citation |first=Dingxin |last=Zhao |title=The Power of Tiananmen: State-Society Relations and the 1989 Beijing Student Movement |place=Chicago |publisher=University of Chicago Press |year=2001 |isbn=0-226-98260-2 |page=153}}.</ref>

Mikhail Gorbachev visited China on 15 May during the protests, bringing many foreign news agencies to Beijing, and their sympathetic portrayals of the protesters helped galvanize a spirit of liberation among the Central, South-East and Eastern Europeans who were watching. The Chinese leadership, particularly Communist Party general secretary [[Zhao Ziyang]], who had begun to radically reform the economy earlier than the Soviets, was open to political reform, but not at the cost of a potential return to the disorder of the [[Cultural Revolution]].

The movement lasted from Hu's death on 15 April until tanks and troops rolled into the Tiananmen Square protests of 4 June 1989. In Beijing, the [[People's Liberation Army at the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre|military response]] to the protest by the PRC government left many civilians in charge of clearing the square of the dead and severely injured. The exact number of casualties is not known and many different estimates exist. The event, however, did make some political change. The problem with the mass migration is that it has now started a deepening divide between the rural poor and the rich urban people.<ref>{{Citation|title=The Tank Man {{!}} Season 2006 {{!}} Episode 8|url=https://www.pbs.org/video/frontline-the-tank-man/|language=en|access-date=26 March 2020}}</ref>

=== Malta summit ===
[[File:Bush and Gorbachev at the Malta summit in 1989.gif|thumb|[[Mikhail Gorbachev]] and President [[George H. W. Bush]] on board the Soviet cruise ship ''[[TS Maxim Gorkiy|Maxim Gorky]]'', [[Marsaxlokk Harbour]], December 1989]]

The [[Malta Summit]] took place between U.S. President George H. W. Bush and U.S.S.R. leader Mikhail Gorbachev on 2–3 December 1989, just a few weeks after the fall of the Berlin Wall, a meeting which contributed to the end of the [[Cold War]]<ref>{{Cite web |title=Bush and Gorbachev suggest Cold War is coming to an end |url=https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/bush-and-gorbachev-suggest-cold-war-is-coming-to-an-end |access-date=2022-12-07 |website=History |date=13 November 2009 |language=en}}</ref> partially as a result of the broader pro-democracy movement. It was their second meeting following a meeting that included then President Ronald Reagan, in New York in December 1988. News reports of the time<ref>{{cite news|title=1989: Malta Summit Ends Cold War|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/december/3/newsid_4119000/4119950.stm|access-date=23 February 2015 |publisher=BBC News|date=3 December 1989}}</ref> referred to the Malta Summit as the most important since 1945, when British prime minister Winston Churchill, Soviet premier Joseph Stalin and U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt agreed on a post-war plan for Europe at the [[Yalta Conference]].

=== Election chronology in Central and Eastern Europe, and Central Asia ===
Between June 1989 and April 1991, every communist or former communist country in Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia—and in the case of the USSR and Yugoslavia, every constituent republic—held competitive parliamentary elections for the first time in many decades. Some elections were only partly free, while others were fully democratic. The chronology below gives the details of these historic elections, and the dates are the first day of voting as several elections were split over several days for run-off contests:
{{Div col|colwidth=20em}}
* {{flagcountry|Polish People's Republic|name=Poland}} – [[1989 Polish legislative election|4 June 1989]]
* {{flagcountry|Turkmen SSR|name=Turkmenistan}} – [[1990 Turkmen Supreme Soviet election|7 January 1990]]
* {{flagcountry|Uzbek SSR|name=Uzbekistan}} – [[1990 Uzbek Supreme Soviet election|18 February 1990]]
* {{flagcountry|Lithuanian SSR|1988|name=Lithuania}} – [[1990 Lithuanian Supreme Soviet election|24 February 1990]]
* {{flagcountry|Moldavian SSR|name=Moldavia}} – [[1990 Moldavian Supreme Soviet election|25 February 1990]]
* {{flagcountry|Kirghiz SSR|name=Kirghizia}} – [[1990 Kirghiz Supreme Soviet election|25 February 1990]]
* {{flagcountry|Tajik SSR|name=Tajikistan}} – [[1990 Tajik Supreme Soviet election|25 February 1990]]
* {{flagcountry|Byelorussian SSR|name=Byelorussia}} – [[1990 Belarusian Supreme Soviet election|4 March 1990]]
* {{flagcountry|Russian SFSR|name=Russia}} – [[1990 Russian Supreme Soviet election|4 March 1990]]
* {{flagcountry|Ukrainian SSR|name=Ukraine}} – [[1990 Ukrainian Supreme Soviet election|4 March 1990]]
* {{flagcountry|East Germany}} – [[1990 East German general election|18 March 1990]]
* {{flagcountry|Estonian SSR|name=Estonia}} – [[1990 Estonian Supreme Soviet election|18 March 1990]]
* {{flagcountry|Latvian SSR|1990|name=Latvia}} – [[1990 Latvian Supreme Soviet election|18 March 1990]]
* {{flagcountry|Hungary}} – [[1990 Hungarian parliamentary election|25 March 1990]]
* {{flagcountry|Kazakh SSR|name=Kazakhstan}} – [[1990 Kazakh Supreme Soviet election|25 March 1990]]
* {{flagcountry|SR Slovenia|name=Slovenia}} – [[1990 Slovenian parliamentary election|8 April 1990]]
* {{flagcountry|SR Croatia|name=Croatia}} – [[1990 Croatian parliamentary election|22 April 1990]]
* {{flagcountry|Romania}} – [[1990 Romanian general election|20 May 1990]]
* {{flagcountry|Armenian SSR|name=Armenia}} – [[1990 Armenian Supreme Soviet election|20 May 1990]]
* {{flagdeco|Czechoslovakia}} [[Czech and Slovak Federative Republic|Czechoslovakia]] – [[1990 Czechoslovak parliamentary election|8 June 1990]]
* {{flagcountry|People's Republic of Bulgaria|name=Bulgaria}} – [[1990 Bulgarian Constitutional Assembly election|10 June 1990]]
* {{flagcountry|Mongolian People's Republic|name=Mongolia}} – [[1990 Mongolian legislative election|22 June 1990]]
* {{flagcountry|Azerbaijan SSR|name=Azerbaijan}} – [[1990 Azerbaijani Supreme Soviet election|30 September 1990]]
* {{flagcountry|Georgian SSR|name=Georgia}} – [[1990 Georgian Supreme Soviet election|28 October 1990]]
* {{flagcountry|SR Macedonia|name=Macedonia}} – [[1990 Macedonian parliamentary election|11 November 1990]]
* {{flagcountry|SR Bosnia and Herzegovina|name=Bosnia and Herzegovina}} – [[1990 Bosnian general election|18 November 1990]]
* {{flagcountry|SR Serbia|name=Serbia}} – [[1990 Serbian general election|9 December 1990]]
* {{flagcountry|SR Montenegro|name=Montenegro}} – [[1990 Montenegrin general election|9 December 1990]]
* {{flagcountry|People's Socialist Republic of Albania|name=Albania}} – [[1991 Albanian Constitutional Assembly election|31 March 1991]]
{{Div col end}}

=== Dissolution of the Soviet Union ===
{{main|Dissolution of the Soviet Union}}
{{Eastern Bloc sidebar}}

On 1 July 1991, the Warsaw Pact was officially dissolved at a meeting in Prague. At a summit later that same month, Gorbachev and Bush declared a US–Soviet strategic partnership, decisively marking the end of the Cold War. President Bush declared that US–Soviet cooperation during the 1990–1991 [[Gulf War]] had laid the groundwork for a partnership in resolving bilateral and world problems.

As the Soviet Union rapidly withdrew its forces from Central and Southeast Europe, the spillover from the 1989 upheavals began reverberating throughout the Soviet Union itself. Agitation for self-determination led to first Lithuania, and then Estonia, Latvia, and Armenia declaring independence. However, the Soviet central government demanded the revocation of the declarations and threatened military action and economic sanctions. The government even went as far as controversially sending [[Soviet Army]] troops to the streets of the Lithuanian capital, [[Vilnius]], to [[January Events (Lithuania)|suppress the separatist movements]] in January 1991, causing the deaths of 14 persons.

[[File:Image0 ST.jpg|thumb|Tanks in Moscow's [[Red Square]] during the [[1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt|1991 coup attempt]]]]
Disaffection in other Soviet republics, such as Georgia and Azerbaijan, was countered by promises of greater decentralization. More open elections led to the election of candidates opposed to Communist Party rule.

''Glasnost'' had inadvertently released the long-suppressed national sentiments of all peoples within the borders of the multinational Soviet state. These nationalist movements were further strengthened by the rapid deterioration of the Soviet economy, whose foundations were exposed with the removal of communist discipline. Gorbachev's reforms had failed to improve the economy, with the old Soviet [[planned economy|command structure]] completely breaking down. One by one, the constituent republics created their own economic systems and voted to subordinate Soviet laws to local laws.

In 1990, the Communist Party was forced to surrender its seven-decade monopoly of political power when the Supreme Soviet rescinded the clause in the Soviet Constitution that guaranteed its sole authority to rule. Gorbachev's policies caused the Communist Party to lose its control over the media. Details of the Soviet Union's past were quickly being declassified. This caused many to distrust the 'old system' and push for greater autonomy and independence.

After the [[1991 Soviet Union referendum|March 1991 referendum]] confirmed the preservation of the Soviet Union but in a looser form, a group of Soviet hard-liners represented by Vice-{{not a typo|President}} [[Gennadi Yanayev]] launched [[1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt|a coup attempting to overthrow Gorbachev]] in August 1991. [[Boris Yeltsin]], then president of the [[Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic|Russian SFSR]], rallied the people and much of the army against the coup and the effort collapsed. Although restored to power, Gorbachev's authority had been irreparably undermined. Gorbachev resigned as General Secretary of the Communist Party following the coup, and the Supreme Soviet dissolved the Party and banned all communist activity on Soviet soil. Just a few weeks later, the government granted the Baltic states their independence on 6 September.

Over the next three months, one republic after another declared independence, mostly out of fear of another coup. Also during this time, the Soviet government was rendered useless as the new Russian government began taking over what remained of it, including the Kremlin. The penultimate step came on 1 December, when voters in the second most powerful republic, Ukraine, overwhelmingly voted to secede from the Soviet Union in a referendum. This ended any realistic chance of keeping the Soviet Union together. On 8 December, Yeltsin met with his counterparts from Ukraine and Belarus and signed the [[Belavezha Accords]], declaring that the Soviet Union had ceased to exist. Gorbachev denounced this as illegal, but he had long since lost any ability to influence events outside of Moscow.

[[File:Cold War border changes.png|thumb|Changes in national boundaries after the end of the [[Cold War]]]]

Two weeks later, 11 of the remaining 12 republics—all except Georgia—signed the [[Alma-Ata Protocol]], which confirmed the Soviet Union had been effectively dissolved and replaced by a new voluntary association, the [[Commonwealth of Independent States]]. Bowing to the inevitable, Gorbachev resigned as Soviet president on 25 December, and the Supreme Soviet ratified the Belavezha Accords the next day, legally dissolving itself and the Soviet Union as a political entity. By the end of 1991, the few Soviet institutions that hadn't been taken over by Russia had dissolved. The Soviet Union was officially disbanded, breaking up into fifteen constituent parts, thereby ending the world's largest and most influential Socialist state, and leaving to China that position. In 1993, a [[1993 Russian constitutional crisis|constitutional crisis]] dissolved into violence in Moscow as the [[Russian Armed Forces]] were called in to reestablish order.

==== Baltic states ====
{{main|Singing Revolution}}
[[File:1989 08 23 Baltijoskelias14.jpg|thumb|The [[Baltic Way]] was a [[Human chain (politics)|human chain]] of approximately two million people demanding independence of the [[Baltic states]] from the [[Soviet Union]].]]

Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania implemented democratic reforms and achieved independence from the Soviet Union. The [[Singing Revolution]] is a commonly used name for events between 1987 and 1991 that led to the restoration of the independence of [[Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic|Estonia]], [[Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic|Latvia]] and [[Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic|Lithuania]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Thomson |first=Clare |title=The Singing Revolution: A Political Journey through the Baltic States |location= London  |publisher= Joseph |year= 1992 |isbn= 0-7181-3459-1}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Ginkel |first=John |date=September 2002 |title=Identity Construction in Latvia's 'Singing Revolution': Why inter-ethnic conflict failed to occur |journal=Nationalities Papers |volume=30|issue=3|pages=403–33 |doi=10.1080/0090599022000011697|s2cid=154588618}}</ref> The term was coined by an Estonian activist and artist, [[Heinz Valk]], in an article published a week after 10–11 June 1988 spontaneous mass night-singing demonstrations at the [[Tallinn Song Festival Grounds]].<ref>{{Citation |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nI73PdnqQlcC |title=Between Utopia and Disillusionment |first=Henri |last=Vogt |page=26 |isbn=1-57181-895-2|year=2005|publisher=Berghahn Books }}.</ref> Estonia [[Estonian Sovereignty Declaration|declared its sovereignty]] from the Soviet Union on 16 November 1988. Lithuania followed on 18 May 1989 and Latvia on 28 July 1989.

[[Act of the Re-Establishment of the State of Lithuania|Lithuania declared full independence]] on 11 March 1990 and on 30 March, Estonia announced the start of a transitional period to independence, [[On the Restoration of Independence of the Republic of Latvia|followed by Latvia]] on 4 May. These declarations were met with force from the Soviet Union in early 1991, in confrontations known as the [[January Events (Lithuania)|"January Events" in Lithuania]] and "[[The Barricades]]" in Latvia. The Baltic states contended that their incorporation into the Soviet Union had been illegal under both international law and their own law, and they were reasserting an independence that still legally existed.

Soon after the launching of the August coup, Estonia and Latvia declared full independence. By the time the coup failed, the USSR was no longer unified enough to mount a forceful resistance, and it recognized the independence of the Baltic states on 6 September 1991.

==== Belarus, Ukraine and Moldova ====
* {{flag|Belarus|1991}} declared full independence from the USSR on 25 August 1991. The main political changes of the early 1990s were driven by the [[Belarusian Popular Front]] and its fraction in the [[Supreme Soviet of Belarus]]. A few years later, a new post-communist leader, [[Alexander Lukashenko]], obtained power. After a short period, he increased his power as a result of two controversial referendums (1995–96) and has been criticized for [[Human rights in Belarus|repressing political opposition]] ever since.
* {{flag|Moldova}} participated in the [[War of Transnistria]] between Moldova and Russian-connected forces in the separatist region of [[Transnistria]]. Communists came back to power in a 2001 election under [[Vladimir Voronin]], but faced [[2009 Moldova civil unrest|civil unrest]] in 2009 over accusations of rigged elections.<ref>{{in lang|ro}} [http://www.cotidianul.ro/cum_voteaza_mortii_in_republica_moldova-79772.html "Cum votează morţii în Republica Moldova"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090410144603/http://cotidianul.ro/cum_voteaza_mortii_in_republica_moldova-79772.html|date=2009-04-10}}, ''cotidianul.ro'', 8 April 2009.</ref><ref>{{in lang|ro}} [http://garda.com.md/stiri/fraude-non-stop-semnaturi-false-in-liste "Fraude Non-stop: semnături false în liste"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090410211853/http://garda.com.md/stiri/fraude-non-stop-semnaturi-false-in-liste|date=2009-04-10}}, ''Ziarul de Gardă'', 8 April 2009.</ref><ref>{{in lang|ro}} [http://www.hotnews.ro/stiri-opinii-5560303-revolta-anticomunista-republica-moldova.htm "Revolta anticomunista in Republica Moldova"], ''HotNews.ro'', 8 April 2009.</ref>
* {{flag|Ukraine|1992}} had [[Declaration of Independence of Ukraine|restored its independence]] in August 1991, after it lost its independence, as the short-lived [[Ukrainian People's Republic]], in 1919. Presidencies of former communists [[Leonid Kravchuk]] and [[Leonid Kuchma]] were followed by the [[Orange Revolution]] in 2004, in which Ukrainians elected [[Viktor Yushchenko]] (also a former member of [[CPSU]]). Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, was the focal point of the movement's campaign of [[civil resistance]], with thousands of protesters demonstrating daily.<ref>Andrew Wilson, "Ukraine's 'Orange Revolution' of 2004: The Paradoxes of Negotiation", in [[Adam Roberts (scholar)|Adam Roberts]] and [[Timothy Garton Ash]] (eds.), ''Civil Resistance and Power Politics: The Experience of Non-violent Action from Gandhi to the Present'', Oxford University Press, 2009, pp.  295–316.[https://books.google.com/books?id=BxOQKrCe7UUC&q=Civil+resistance+and+power+politics] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170320185749/https://books.google.com/books?id=BxOQKrCe7UUC&dq=Civil+resistance+and+power+politics&source=gbs_navlinks_s|date=20 March 2017}}</ref>

==== Transcaucasia ====
[[File:April9victims.jpg|thumb|Photos of 9 April 1989 victims of the [[Tbilisi massacre]] on a billboard in [[Tbilisi]]]]
[[File:Georgia, Ossetia, Russia and Abkhazia (en).svg|thumb|Following Georgia's declaration of independence in 1991, [[South Ossetia]] and [[Abkhazia]] declared their desire to leave Georgia and remain part of the Soviet Union/Russia.<ref name="princeton">{{cite web |title=Georgia: Abkhazia and South Ossetia |url=https://pesd.princeton.edu/?q=node/274 |website=www.pesd.princeton.edu |publisher=Encyclopedia Princetoniensis}}</ref>]]
All countries in the region regained their independence in 1991 following the takeover by the [[Red Army]] in 1920–21.

* {{flag|Georgia|1990}} and the [[North Caucasus]] have been marred by [[Wars in the Caucasus|ethnic and sectarian violence]] since the collapse of the USSR. In April 1989 the [[Soviet Army]] [[April 9 tragedy|massacred demonstrators in Tbilisi]]. In November 1989, the [[Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic|Georgian SSR]] officially condemned the [[Red Army invasion of Georgia]]. Democracy activist [[Zviad Gamsakhurdia]] served as president from 1991 to 1992.<ref name="princeton" /> Russia aided break-away republics in wars in [[1991−1992 South Ossetia War|South Ossetia]] and [[War in Abkhazia (1992−1993)|Abkhazia]] during the early 1990s, conflicts that have periodically reemerged, and Russia has accused Georgia of supporting Chechen rebels during the [[First Chechen War|Chechen wars]]. A coup d'état installed former communist leader [[Eduard Shevardnadze]] as President of Georgia until the [[Rose Revolution]] in 2003.
* {{flag|Armenia}}'s independence struggle included violence as the [[First Nagorno-Karabakh War]] was fought between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Armenia became increasingly militarized, with the ascendancy of Kocharian, a former president of [[Nagorno-Karabakh]], often viewed as a milestone. Elections have since been increasingly controversial, and government corruption became rifer. After Kocharyan, notably, [[Serzh Sargsyan]] ascended to power. Sargsyan is often noted as the "founder of the Armenian and Karabakh militaries" and was, in the past, defense minister and national security minister.
* {{flag|Azerbaijan}}'s [[Azerbaijani Popular Front Party|Popular Front Party]] won the first elections with the self-described pro-Western, populist nationalist Elchibey. However, Elchibey planned to end Moscow's advantage in the harvesting of Azeri oil and build much stronger links with Turkey and Europe, and as a result was overthrown by former communists in a coup backed by Russia and Iran, which viewed the new country as a compelling threat, with territorial ambitions within Iranian borders and also being a strong economic rival.<ref>{{cite book |last=Curtis |first=Glenn E. |title=Azerbaijan: A Country Study |year=1995 }}</ref> Mutallibov rose to power, but he was soon destabilized and eventually ousted due to popular frustration with his perceived incompetence, corruption and improper handling of the war with Armenia. Azerbaijani KGB and Azerbaijani SSR leader [[Heydar Aliyev]] captured power and remained president until he transferred the presidency to his son in 2003. The [[First Nagorno-Karabakh War]] was fought between Armenia and Azerbaijan, and has largely defined the fates of both countries. Unlike Armenia, which remains a strong Russian ally, Azerbaijan has begun, since Russia's 2008 war with Georgia, to foster better relations with Turkey and other Western nations, while lessening ties with Russia.<ref>{{cite news|title=Nagorno-Karabakh profile|date=30 May 2012 |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-18270325|publisher=BBC News|access-date=18 February 2015}}</ref>

===== Chechnya =====
[[File:Evstafiev-chechnya-women-pray.jpg|thumb|[[Chechnya|Chechen]] women praying for Russian troops not to advance towards [[Grozny]] during the [[First Chechen War]], December 1994]]

In [[Chechnya]], an [[Autonomous republics of the Soviet Union|autonomous republic]] within [[Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic|Russian SFSR]] that had a strong desire for independence, using tactics partly copied from the Baltics, anti-communist coalition forces led by former Soviet general [[Dzhokhar Dudayev]] staged a largely bloodless revolution, and ended up forcing the resignation of the communist republican president. Dudayev was elected in a landslide in the following election. In November 1991, he proclaimed [[Checheno-Ingushetia]]'s independence as the Republic of Ichkeria. Ingushetia voted to leave the union with Chechnya, and was allowed to do so, becoming the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria.<ref name="rbc 2017">{{Cite web |date=12 May 2017 |title=ИГ взяла на себя ответственность за нападение на полицейских в Ингушетии |url=http://www.rbc.ru/politics/12/05/2017/5915d8799a794757ef77f42e}}</ref>

Due to Dudayev's desire to exclude Moscow from all oil deals, Yeltsin backed a failed coup against him in 1993. In 1994, Chechnya was invaded by Russia, spurring the [[First Chechen War]]. Chechnya had only marginal international recognition, from one country: Georgia, which was revoked soon after the coup landing Shevardnadze in power. The Chechens, with considerable assistance from the populations of both former-Soviet countries and from Sunni Muslim countries repelled the invasion, and a peace treaty was signed in 1997. However, Chechnya became increasingly anarchic, largely due to both the political and physical destruction of the state during the invasion, and general Shamil Basaev, having evaded all control by the central government, conducted raids into neighboring Dagestan, which Russia used as a pretext for reinvading Ichkeria. Ichkeria was then reincorporated into Russia as Chechnya again.<ref name="rbc 2017" />

==== Central Asia ====
* {{flag|Kazakhstan|1991}}'s independence struggle began with the [[Jeltoqsan]] uprising in 1986. Former communist leader [[Nursultan Nazarbayev]] has been in power from 1990<ref>{{cite web |title=Background on Nursultan Nazarbayev |url=https://carnegieendowment.org/2012/03/26/background-on-nursultan-nazarbayev-pub-47648 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190327163840/https://carnegieendowment.org/2012/03/26/background-on-nursultan-nazarbayev-pub-47648 |archive-date=27 March 2019 |access-date=27 March 2019 |publisher=[[Carnegie Endowment for International Peace]] |quote=The republic's Supreme Soviet elected Nazarbayev president of the Kazakh SSR on April 24, 1990.}}</ref> when he started serving as [[Kazakh SSR|President of Kazakh SSR]] until his retirement from his position in 2019.<ref name="reuters">{{cite news |date=19 March 2019 |title=Veteran Kazakh leader Nazarbayev resigns after three decades in power |work=Reuters |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-kazakhstan-president/president-of-kazakhstan-nursultan-nazarbayev-resigns-idUSKCN1R01N1 |url-status=live |access-date=19 March 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190320043009/https://www.reuters.com/article/us-kazakhstan-president/president-of-kazakhstan-nursultan-nazarbayev-resigns-idUSKCN1R01N1 |archive-date=20 March 2019}}</ref>
* {{flag|Kyrgyzstan|1991}}'s [[Askar Akayev]] retained power until the [[Tulip Revolution]] in 2005.
* {{flag|Tajikistan|1991}}'s [[Rahmon Nabiyev]] retained power, which led to the [[civil war in Tajikistan]]. [[Emomali Rahmon]] has succeeded Nabiyev and has retained power since 1992.
* {{flag|Turkmenistan|1991}}'s [[Saparmurat Niyazov]] retained power until his death in 2006 and was criticized as one of the world's most totalitarian and repressive leaders, maintaining his own [[cult of personality]]. Niyazov's successor [[Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow|Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov]] initially eased changes made by Niyazov before starting his very own cult of personality.
* {{flag|Uzbekistan}}'s [[Islam Karimov]] retained power until his death in 2016<ref name=":0">{{cite web |date=2 September 2016 |title=Islam Karimov: Uzbekistan president's death confirmed |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-37260375 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160903231914/http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-37260375 |archive-date=3 September 2016 |access-date=2 September 2016 |website=BBC}}</ref> and was widely criticized for repressing the political opposition throughout his tenure.

==== Post-Soviet conflicts ====
[[File:1993 Georgia war1.svg|thumb|[[Georgian Civil War]] and the [[War in Abkhazia (1992–1993)|War in Abkhazia]] in August–October 1993]]
[[File:Nagorno-Karabakh Map2.png|thumb|Former (2020-2023) military situation in separatist [[Nagorno-Karabakh]]]]
{{See also|Post-Soviet conflicts}}
Some of the more notable post-Soviet conflicts include the [[Tajikistani Civil War]], the [[First Nagorno-Karabakh War]], the [[War of Transnistria]], the [[1991–1992 South Ossetia War]], the [[First Chechen War]], the [[War in Abkhazia (1992–1993)|War in Abkhazia]], the [[Ossetian–Ingush conflict]], the [[Second Chechen War]], the [[Russo-Georgian War]], the [[2014 Crimean Crisis|Crimea]] and [[War in Donbas (2014–2022)|Donbas]] conflicts, and the [[2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine]]. Ethnic conflicts in the former Soviet Union, and their potential for triggering serious interstate conflicts, posed a major threat to regional and international security for years ahead.<ref>{{Cite web |title=FSI {{!}} CISAC – Ethnic Conflict in the Former Soviet Union |url=https://cisac.fsi.stanford.edu/research/ethnic_conflict_in_the_former_soviet_union |access-date=2022-12-08 |website=cisac.fsi.stanford.edu}}</ref>

=== Other events ===
<!--1984–1996-->

==== Communist and socialist countries ====
{{see also|List of Socialist states (disambiguation)}}
Reforms in the Soviet Union and its allied countries also led to dramatic changes to communist and socialist states outside of Europe.

Countries that retained socialist-styled economies and government structures beyond 1991:
* {{flag|China}} – China remained under the leadership of the [[Chinese Communist Party]], whilst continuing far-reaching economic reforms.
* {{flag|Cuba}} – Cuba remained under the leadership of the [[Communist Party of Cuba]] and retained a socialist planned economy.
* {{flag|India}} – [[Economic liberalisation in India|Indian economic reforms]] were launched in 1991. Poverty reduced from 36 percent in 1993–94 to 24.1 percent in 1999–2000.<ref name=":15">{{Cite web |date=2016-01-18 |title=Impact of reforms |url=http://indiabefore91.in/impact-reforms |access-date=2022-06-15 |website=India Before 1991 |language=en}}</ref>
* {{flag|Laos}} – Laos remained under the leadership of the [[Lao People's Revolutionary Party]] and retained many socialist economic policies.
* {{flagicon image|Flag_of_Libya_(1977–2011).svg}} [[History of Libya under Muammar Gaddafi#Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya (1977–2011)|Libya]] – Libya remained governed according to [[Muammar Gaddafi]]'s socialist [[Third International Theory]], and retained a socialist planned economy until [[First Libyan Civil War|2011]]. It had started with the Libyan Revolution<ref>{{cite web |date=20 October 2009 |title=A Visual Look Back at the Libyan Revolution |url=https://www.pbs.org/newshour/ |access-date=28 October 2009 |work=PBS}}</ref> and ended with [[Killing of Muammar Gaddafi|Gaddafi's assassination]].
* {{flag|Syria|1980}} – Syria remained under the leadership of the [[Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party – Syria Region|Syrian Ba'ath Party]] and retained a socialist ([[Ba'athism|Ba'athist]]) planned economy.
* {{flag|Vietnam}} – Vietnam remained under the leadership of the [[Communist Party of Vietnam]] and pursued economic reforms that were much less far-reaching than China's and many socialist economic policies were retained.

===== Africa =====
* {{flag|Algeria}} – [[1988 October Riots]], democratization through the [[1989 Algerian constitutional referendum|1989 constitutional referendum]], victory of, an Islamist party, the FIS in the [[1990 Algerian local elections|1990 local elections]] and in the [[1991 Algerian legislative election|1991 legislative elections]], leading to a military coup in January 1992, sparking the [[Algerian Civil War]], until 2002.
* {{flagicon|Angola}} [[People's Republic of Angola|Angola]] – The ruling [[MPLA]] government abandoned Marxism–Leninism in 1991 and agreed to the [[Bicesse Accords]] in the same year, however the [[Angolan Civil War]] between the MPLA and the conservative [[UNITA]] continued for another decade until 2002.
* {{flagicon|Benin|1975}} [[People's Republic of Benin|Benin]] – [[Mathieu Kérékou]]'s regime was pressured to abandon Marxism–Leninism in 1989.
* {{flag|Burkina Faso}} – [[Thomas Sankara]] was overthrown and assassinated in the [[1987 Burkinabé coup d'état]], during which power was taken by [[Blaise Compaoré]], who reversed many of Sankara's social policies. Military rule was ended in 1989, with the establishment of the [[Organization for Popular Democracy – Labour Movement|ODP-MT]] and the [[Popular Front (Burkina Faso)|Popular Front]] coalition, beginning a process of democratization that started in [[1991 Burkinabé presidential election|1991]] and finished when Compaoré was finally forced to resign by the [[2014 Burkinabé uprising]].
* {{flag|Burundi}} – [[1996 Burundian coup d'état]]
* {{flag|Cape Verde|1975}} – The ruling [[African Party for the Independence of Cape Verde]] party cut down its socialist ideology and foreign donors pressured the government to allow multiparty elections in 1991.
* {{flag|Central African Republic}} – democratization in 1992.
* {{flagicon|Congo|1970}} [[People's Republic of the Congo|Congo-Brazzaville]] – [[Denis Sassou Nguesso]]'s regime was pressured to abandon Marxism–Leninism in 1991. The nation had elections in 1992 and [[First Republic of the Congo Civil War]] in 1993.
* {{flag|Djibouti}} – [[Djiboutian Civil War]] in 1991 and democratization in 1992.
[[File:Eritrean Independence War Map.png|thumb|The [[Eritrean War of Independence]] against Ethiopia ended in 1991.]]
* {{flagicon|Ethiopia|1987}} [[People's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia|Ethiopia]] – A [[1987 Constitution of Ethiopia|new constitution]] was implemented in 1987 and, following the withdrawal of Soviet and Cuban assistance, the communist military junta [[Derg]] led by [[Mengistu Haile Mariam]] was defeated by the rebel [[Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front|EPRDF]] in the [[Ethiopian Civil War]] and fled in 1991.
* {{flag|Ghana}} – The [[Third Republic of Ghana]] and the [[Provisional National Defence Council|military government]] of [[Jerry Rawlings]] are dissolved following [[1992 Ghanaian presidential election|democratization]] in 1992, leading to the establishment a democratically elected [[Rawlings government|government]] under the [[National Democratic Congress (Ghana)|National Democratic Congress]].
* {{flag|Guinea-Bissau}} – A process of democratization begins with the introduction of multi-party politics in May 1991 and the [[1994 Guinea-Bissau general election|first democratic elections]] being held in 1994.<ref name="Busky">{{cite book|first=Donald F.|last=Busky|year=2002|title=Communism in History and Theory|volume=1. Asia, Africa, and the Americas|location=[[Portsmouth]]|publisher=[[Greenwood Publishing Group]]|pages=106–107|isbn=9780275977337|oclc=847114487}}</ref>
* {{flag|Guinea}} – [[1984 Guinean coup d'état]]
* {{flagicon|Madagascar}} [[Democratic Republic of Madagascar|Madagascar]] – Socialist President [[Didier Ratsiraka]] was ousted in 1991.
* {{flag|Mali}} – [[Moussa Traoré]] was ousted, Mali adopted a new constitution; held multi-party elections. [[Tuareg rebellion (1990–95)|Rebellion]] in 1990 and [[1991 Malian coup d'état|coup d'état]] in 1991.
* {{flagicon|Mozambique}} [[People's Republic of Mozambique|Mozambique]] – The [[Mozambican Civil War]] between the socialist [[FRELIMO]] and the [[RENAMO]] conservatives was [[Rome General Peace Accords|ended via treaty in 1992]]. FRELIMO subsequently abandoned Marxism–Leninism in favor of democratic socialism with the support of the [[United Nations Operation in Mozambique|UN]], held multiparty elections.
* {{flag|São Tomé and Príncipe}} – The ruling [[Movement for the Liberation of São Tomé and Príncipe/Social Democratic Party]] cut down its Socialist ideology and foreign donors pressured the government to allow multiparty elections in 1991.
* {{flag|Senegal}} – [[Socialist Party of Senegal]] formed a national unity government with the [[Senegalese Democratic Party]] in 1991.
* {{flag|Seychelles|1977}} – democratization in 1991.
* {{flag|Sierra Leone}} – The start of the [[Sierra Leone Civil War]] in March 1991, followed by a [[1991 Sierra Leonean constitutional referendum|constitutional referendum]] restoring [[multi-party system|multi-party politics]] in August 1991 and a [[1992 Sierra Leonean coup d'état|coup d'état]] finally overthrowing the [[First Republic of Sierra Leone]] in April 1992.
* {{flagicon|Somalia}} [[Somali Democratic Republic|Somalia]] – [[1988 Hargeisa-Burao offensive|1988 offensive]] by [[Somali National Movement|SNM]] rebels during the [[Somaliland War of Independence]] leads to the acceleration of the [[Isaaq genocide]].<ref name="Interpeace6132">Interpeace, '[http://www.interpeace.org/publications/somali-region/60-a-history-of-mediation-in-somalia-since-1988-english/file The search for peace: A history of mediation in Somalia since 1988],' Interpeace, May 2009, 2. {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140222044942/http://www.interpeace.org/publications/somali-region/60-a-history-of-mediation-in-somalia-since-1988-english/file|date=22 February 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Waldron, Hasci |first1=Sidney R, Naima Ali |title=Somali Refugees in the Horn of Africa: State of the Art Literature Review |date=1994 |publisher=University of Oxford |isbn=978-91-7106-363-2 |pages=62–63}}</ref> Rebelling Somalis overthrew [[Siad Barre]]'s communist military junta during the [[Somali Revolution]] in January 1991,<ref name="2009factbook">{{cite web |author=Central Intelligence Agency |year=2011 |title=Somalia |url=https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/somalia/ |access-date=5 October 2011 |work=The World Factbook |publisher=Central Intelligence Agency |location=Langley, Virginia }}</ref> with [[Somaliland]] later unilaterally [[Somaliland Declaration of Independence|declaring independence]] in May 1991.<ref name="Interpeace613">Interpeace, '[http://www.interpeace.org/publications/somali-region/60-a-history-of-mediation-in-somalia-since-1988-english/file The search for peace: A history of mediation in Somalia since 1988],' Interpeace, May 2009, 13–14. {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140222044942/http://www.interpeace.org/publications/somali-region/60-a-history-of-mediation-in-somalia-since-1988-english/file|date=22 February 2014}}</ref> Somalia has been in a constant [[Somali Civil War|state of civil war]] ever since.
* {{flagicon|Sudan}} [[History of Sudan (1986–2011)|Sudan]] – The [[1985 Sudanese coup d'état]] overthrows the [[Democratic Republic of the Sudan]]. After a brief period of [[parliamentary democracy]] during the late 1980s, the [[1989 Sudanese coup d'état]] establishes a [[right-wing dictatorship]] under [[Omar al-Bashir]].
* {{flag|Tanzania}} – The ruling [[Chama Cha Mapinduzi]] party cut down its Socialist ideology and foreign donors pressured the government to allow multiparty elections in 1995.
* {{flag|Tunisia|1831}} – [[Habib Bourguiba]] removed from power by [[Zine El Abidine Ben Ali]] in the [[1987 Tunisian coup d'état]], reforming the [[Socialist Destourian Party]] into the [[Democratic Constitutional Rally]] in 1988 and holding the [[1989 Tunisian general election|first multi-party election in 1989]]. The [[Tunisian Communist Party]] abandoned communism and reformed itself as the [[Ettajdid Movement]] in 1993. 
* {{flag|Uganda}} – The government of [[Milton Obote]] is overthrown by a coup in 1985, followed by the end of the [[Ugandan Bush War]] in 1986. With the rise of [[Yoweri Museveni]] to power, the [[National Resistance Movement]] cut down its Socialist ideology.
* {{flagicon|Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic}} [[Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic|Western Sahara]] – cut down its Socialist ideology and the End of the [[Western Sahara War]] in 1991.
* {{flag|Zambia|1964}} – The ruling [[United National Independence Party]] cut down its Socialist ideology and foreign donors pressured the government to allow [[1991 Zambian general election|multiparty elections]] in 1991.

===== Middle East =====
* {{flagicon|Iraq|1963}} [[Ba'athist Iraq|Iraq]] – [[1991 uprisings in Iraq|Uprisings]] in 1991, leading to Kurdistan becoming an autonomous region.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Cline |first1=Lawrence E. |date=August 8, 2000 |title=View of The Prospects of the Shia Insurgency Movement in Iraq {{!}} Journal of Conflict Studies |url=https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/jcs/article/view/4311/4924 |journal=Journal of Conflict Studies |access-date=2021-08-31}}</ref> The rest of Iraq remained under [[Saddam Hussein]]'s Ba'athist regime until 2003 with [[2003 invasion of Iraq|American invasion]] overthrowing his regime in 1 month.<ref>{{cite web |title=U.S. Periods of War and Dates of Recent Conflicts |url=https://fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/RS21405.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150328222039/http://fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/RS21405.pdf |archive-date=28 March 2015 |access-date=4 April 2015}}</ref>
* {{flagicon|Kuwait}} [[Republic of Kuwait|Kuwait]] – Annexed by Iraq in 1990. Then liberated in 1991 during the [[Gulf War]].
* {{flagicon|Palestine}} Palestinian Territories – The [[Palestine Liberation Organization]] lost one of its most important diplomatic patrons, due to the deterioration of the Soviet Union, Arafat's failing relationship with Moscow and loss of a one-party government, and Suspension PFLP-GC of the PLO in 1984. [[First Intifada]] occurred from 1987<ref name="EdSaid">{{cite book |author=Edward Said |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KYPVNdzXUJkC&pg=PA5 |title=Intifada: The Palestinian Uprising Against Israeli Occupation |publisher=South End Press |year=1989 |isbn=978-0-89608-363-9 |pages=5–22}}</ref> to 1991,<ref name="Nasrallah56">Nami Nasrallah, 'The First and Second Palestinian ''intifadas'',' in David Newman, Joel Peters (eds.) [https://books.google.com/books?id=kftqQdNNDWAC&pg=PA61 ''Routledge Handbook on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict''], Routledge, 2013, pp. 56–68, p. 56.</ref> leading to the PLO recognition of Israel.<ref>Kim Murphy. "[https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-09-10-mn-33546-story.html Israel and PLO, in Historic Bid for Peace, Agree to Mutual Recognition]", ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'', 10 September 1993.</ref>
* {{flag|South Yemen}} – The [[South Yemen Civil War]] began in 1986. The government abandoned Marxism–Leninism in 1990. In 1990, [[Yemenite reunification|Yemen reunified]] with the more capitalist [[Yemen Arab Republic|North Yemen]]. In 1994, this led to [[1994 civil war in Yemen|a civil war]].
* {{flag|Syria}} – The [[Syrian Communist Party]] was divided to two parties in 1986. Syria participated in the [[Madrid Conference of 1991]] and met its Cold War enemy Israel in peace negotiations. The [[Syrian Democratic People's Party]] changed from Left-wing to center-left.

===== Asia =====
* {{flagicon|Afghanistan|1987}} [[Democratic Republic of Afghanistan|Afghanistan]] – The [[People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan|People's Democratic Party]] underwent [[National Reconciliation (Afghanistan)|National Reconciliation]] reforms from 1987, renaming the country to Republic of Afghanistan (from "Democratic Republic") and removing the red star of communism from the coat of arms. The [[Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan|Soviet occupation ended]] in 1989, and in 1990 the ruling party renamed itself, removing all references to Marxism–Leninism in the process. The Soviet-backed government [[Afghan Civil War (1989–1992)|fell]] in 1992 and the party was dissolved; a new [[Afghan Civil War (1992–1996)|Civil War]] followed.
* {{flag|Bangladesh}} – In 1990, a [[1990 Mass Uprising in Bangladesh|mass uprising]] leads to the end of the country's military dictatorship and a restoration of democracy.<ref>{{cite web |date=24 January 2014 |title=Bangladeshis bring down Ershad regime, 1987–1990 |url=https://nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu/content/bangladeshis-bring-down-ershad-regime-1987-1990 |publisher=Non-violent Data Archive}}</ref> The [[Communist Party of Bangladesh]] experiences a split between an orthodox Marxist–Leninist faction and a more democratic and libertarian faction. The country experiences an [[Internal conflict in Bangladesh|internal conflict]], driven by the rise of [[Islamism]] since 1989.
* {{flagicon|Myanmar|1974}} [[Burmese Way to Socialism|Burma]] – The [[8888 Uprising]] in 1988 saw the demise of the [[Burma Socialist Programme Party]], but failed to bring democracy, although Marxism was abandoned. The country was led by a military government under the [[State Peace and Development Council]] until 2011, following [[2010 Burmese general election|2010 elections]] viewed by many Western countries as fraudulent.<ref name="MacFarquhar">{{cite news |last=MacFarquhar |first=Neil |date=22 October 2010 |title=U.N. Doubts Fairness of Election in Myanmar |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/22/world/asia/22nations.html}}</ref><ref name="Bbc.co.uk">{{cite news |date=8 November 2010 |title=Western states dismiss Burma's election |publisher=BBC |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-11707294 |access-date=11 November 2010}}</ref> End of the [[Communist insurgency in Myanmar|communist insurgency]] in 1989.
* {{flagicon|Cambodia|1989}} [[People's Republic of Kampuchea|Cambodia]] – The Vietnam-supported government, which had been in power since the [[Cambodian–Vietnamese War|fall of the Khmer Rouge]], lost power following UN-sponsored [[United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia|elections in 1993]], the [[Coalition Government of Democratic Kampuchea|CGDK]] and the [[Party of Democratic Kampuchea]] were dissolved in 1993.
* {{flag|China}} – The [[Chinese Communist Party]] began implementing [[Chinese economic reform|liberalizing economic reform]]s during the late 1970s under [[Deng Xiaoping]]. However, the [[Tiananmen Square protests of 1989|pro-democracy protests of 1989]] were crushed by the [[People's Liberation Army|military]]. Western countries imposed arms embargoes on China.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Dube |first1=Clayton |title=Talking Points, June 3–18 |year=2014 |url=http://china.usc.edu/talking-points-june-3-18-2014 |publisher=China.usc.edu |access-date=22 October 2018 |archive-date=27 October 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151027140054/http://china.usc.edu/talking-points-june-3-18-2014 |url-status=live }}</ref> [[1987–1989 Tibetan unrest|Unrest in Tibet]] in 1987. The [[United Revolutionary Front of East Turkestan|URFET]] and the [[East Turkestan People's Revolutionary Party|ETPRP]] was dissolved.
* {{flag|India}} – Defeat of the [[Indian National Congress]] in the [[1989 Indian general election]]. The [[Rashtriya Samajwadi Congress]] was dissolved in 1989, [[Tripura National Volunteers]] was dissolved in 1988 and [[Hmar People's Convention]] was dissolved in 1986. Beginning of the [[Insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir]] in 1989.<ref>{{cite web |title=Chronicle of Important events/date in J&K's political history |url=http://www.jammu-kashmir.com/basicfacts/politics/political_history.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171012061358/http://www.jammu-kashmir.com/basicfacts/politics/political_history.html |archive-date=12 October 2017 |access-date=29 April 2018 |website=www.jammu-kashmir.com}}</ref> The [[Naxalite–Maoist insurgency]] continued into the 21st century, while the [[Communist Party of India (Marxist)]] remains a major political force in the states of [[West Bengal]], [[Kerala]] and [[Tripura]].
* {{flag|Laos}} – Remained communist under the [[Lao People's Revolutionary Party]]. Laos was forced to ask France and Japan for emergency assistance, and also to ask the [[World Bank]] and the [[Asian Development Bank]] for aid. Finally, in 1989, Kaisôn visited Beijing to confirm the restoration of friendly relations, and to secure Chinese aid. The red star and the hammer and sickle was taken out from the crest in 1991.
* {{flag|North Korea}} – [[Kim Il-sung]] died in 1994, passing power to his son [[Kim Jong-il]]. Unprecedented floods and the dissolution of the Soviet Union led to the [[North Korean famine]], which resulted in the deaths of an estimated 2.5&nbsp;million to 3&nbsp;million North Koreans. All references to Marxism–Leninism were absolutely replaced by [[Juche]] in 2009, thus signifying an apparent downplaying of the role of communism in North Korea. North Korea is still a single-party totalitarian state.
* {{flag|Sri Lanka}} – End of the second [[1987–89 JVP insurrection|communist insurgrency]] by the communist [[Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna]] and the death of its leaders, but the [[Sri Lankan civil war|Civil War]] continues until 2009.
* {{flag|Vietnam}} – The [[Communist Party of Vietnam]] has undertaken [[Doi Moi]] reforms since 1986, liberalizing certain sectors of the economy in a manner similar to China. Vietnam is still a single-party communist state.

===== Latin America =====
* {{flag|Cuba}} – The end of Soviet subsidies led to the [[Special Period]]. An [[August 1994 protest in Cuba|unsuccessful protest was held in 1994]], in which thousands of Cubans took to the streets around the [[Malecón, Havana|Malecón]] in Havana to demand freedom and express frustration with the government.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Cueto |first=Jose Carlos |date=12 July 2021 |title=Protests in Cuba: what was the historic "Maleconazo" of 1994 and how it compares with the massive mobilizations this Sunday |url=https://www.bbc.com/mundo/noticias-america-latina-57805495 |access-date=23 October 2021 |website=BBC}}</ref> Cuba is still a single-party communist state.
* {{flag|Guyana}} – After the death of [[Forbes Burnham]] in 1985, his successor [[Desmond Hoyte]] oversaw a period of democratization and the first free elections were [[1992 Guyanese general election|held in October 1992]],<ref name="N1">[[Dieter Nohlen]] (2005) ''Elections in the Americas: A data handbook, Volume I'', p363 {{ISBN|978-0-19-928357-6}}</ref> during which the [[People's Progressive Party (Guyana)|People's Progressive Party]] of [[Cheddi Jagan]] was elected.
* {{flag|Nicaragua}} – End of the [[Contra War]], [[Daniel Ortega]]'s [[Sandinista National Liberation Front|Sandinista]] lost the multi-party [[1990 Nicaraguan general election|elections in 1990]], and the [[National Opposition Union (Nicaragua, 1990)|National Opposition Union]] won.<ref name=":02">{{cite news |last=Uhlig |first=Mark A. |date=27 February 1990 |title=Turnover in Nicaragua – Nicaraguan Opposition Routs Sandinistas; U.S. Pledges Aid, Tied to Orderly Turnover |work=The New York Times |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0CEFDF173DF934A15751C0A966958260 |accessdate=30 April 2010}}</ref>
* {{flag|Suriname}} – democratization in 1987 and [[Suriname Guerrilla War]] 1986–1992.

===== Oceania =====
* {{flag|Vanuatu}} – [[Vanua'aku Pati]] lost the multi-party elections in 1991,<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Steeves |first=Jeffrey S. |date=1992 |title=Vanuatu: The 1991 National Elections and Their Aftermath |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/25169129 |journal=The Journal of Pacific History |volume=27 |issue=2 |pages=217–228 |doi=10.1080/00223349208572708 |jstor=25169129 |issn=0022-3344|url-access=subscription }}</ref> and the [[Union of Moderate Parties]] won. Voter turnout was 71%.<ref name="N">[[Dieter Nohlen]], Florian Grotz & Christof Hartmann (2001) ''Elections in Asia: A data handbook, Volume II'', p842 {{ISBN|0-19-924959-8}}</ref>

==== Other countries ====

Many Soviet-supported political parties and militant groups around the world suffered from demoralization and loss of financing.<ref>Freedom House, ''Freedom in the World 1999–2000'' (New York, 2000).</ref>
* {{flag|Australia}} – The [[Communist Party of Australia]] was dissolved in 1991.
* {{flag|Austria}} – The [[Communist Party of Austria]] lost its East German financing and 250&nbsp;million euros in assets.
* {{flag|Belgium}} – The [[Communist Party of Belgium]] was divided to two parties in 1989.
* {{flag|West Berlin}} – The [[Socialist Unity Party of West Berlin]] was dissolved in 1991.
* {{flag|Canada}} – In 1990 the [[Communist Party of Canada]] was de-registered and had its assets seized, forcing it to begin an ultimately successful thirteen-year political and legal battle to maintain registration of small political parties in Canada known as ''[[Figueroa v. Canada]]'', thus changing the legal definition of a political party in Canada in 2003 and now operates without any elected political representation.
* {{flag|Equatorial Guinea}} – [[1993 Equatorial Guinean legislative election|first multi-party elections in 1993]].
* {{flag|Finland}} – The [[Finnish People's Democratic League]] was dissolved in 1990 and the bankrupt [[Communist Party of Finland]] collapsed in 1992, and absorbed to the [[Left Alliance (Finland)|Left Alliance]].
* {{flag|France|1974}} – The collapse of the Eastern Bloc came as a shock to the [[French Communist Party]]. The crisis is called ''la mutation''. Fusion of the [[Unified Socialist Party (France)|Unified Socialist Party]] with the New Left for Socialism, Ecology and Self-management for Red and Green Alternatives in 1989.
* {{flag|Gambia}} – [[1994 Gambian coup d'état]]
* {{flag|West Germany}} – The [[German Communist Party]] lost its East German financing and declined significantly and the [[Communist League (West Germany)|Communist League]] was dissolved. The [[Red Army Faction]] lost its long-term supporter, the [[Stasi]], after the [[fall of the Berlin Wall]].<ref>Schmeidel, John. "My Enemy's Enemy: Twenty Years of Co-operation between West Deutschland's Red Army Faction and the GDR Ministry for State Security." ''Intelligence and National Security'' 8, no. 4 (October 1993): 59–72.</ref>
* {{flag|Greece}} – The [[Organisation of Marxist–Leninist Communists of Greece]] was dissolved in 1993 and merged into the [[Movement for a United Communist Party of Greece]]. [[Greek Left]] was dissolved in 1992.
* {{flag|Guinea}} – democratization in 1990.
* {{flag|Ireland}} – The [[Communist Party of Ireland]] declined significantly. [[Democratic Socialist Party (Ireland)|Democratic Socialist Party]] was dissolved.
* {{flag|Italy}} – The collapse caused the [[Italian Communist Party]] to reform itself, creating two new groups, the larger [[Democratic Party of the Left]] and the smaller [[Communist Refoundation Party]]. The disappearance of the Communist party in part led to profound changes within the Italian political party system in 1992–1994 and collapse of the [[Radical Party (Italy)|Radical Party]] in 1989 and the [[Italian Socialist Party]] in 1994. Disintegration of the [[Red Brigades]] in 1988.
* {{flag|Japan|1947}} – The [[Japanese Communist Party]] became gradually influenced by [[Eurocommunism]] and issued a statement titled "We welcome the end of a great historical evil of imperialism and hegemonism". As a result, the JCP survived the post-Cold War decline of communist parties in the Western Bloc, and remains one of the largest non-governing communist parties in the world.
* {{flag|Lebanon}} – End of the [[Lebanese Civil War|Civil War]]
* {{flag|Liberia}} – [[First Liberian Civil War]]
* {{flag|Luxembourg}} – The [[Communist Party of Luxembourg]] declined significantly.
* {{flag|Malaysia}} – The [[Malayan Communist Party]] laid down its arms in 1989, ending an [[Communist insurgency in Malaysia (1968–89)|insurgency]] that had lasted decades.
* {{flag|Maldives}} – the failed [[1988 Maldives coup d'état]]
* {{flag|Mexico}} – the [[Mexican Socialist Party]], the last effort to unify the different Mexican left-wing parties, and the last political party in Mexico to officially use the word "socialist" in its name, dissolved in 1989.
* {{flagicon|Nepal}} [[Kingdom of Nepal|Nepal]] – The [[Communist Party of Nepal (Janamukhi)]] and the [[Communist Party of Nepal (Fourth Convention)]] was dissolved in 1990.
* {{flag|Netherlands}} – The [[Communist Party of the Netherlands]] was dissolved in 1991 and absorbed to the [[GreenLeft]]. [[League of Communists in the Netherlands]] was dissolved in 1992.
* {{flag|Niger}} – democratization in 1991, but [[1996 Nigerien coup d'état|Coup d'état]] in 1996.
* {{flag|Nigeria}} – [[1985 Nigerian coup d'état|Coup d'état]] in 1985.
* {{flag|Norway}} – The [[Communist Party of Norway]] changed their pro-Soviet line.
* {{flag|Oman|1985}} – The [[Popular Front for the Liberation of Oman]] was dissolved in 1992.
* {{flag|Philippines|1986}} – The [[Communist Party of the Philippines]] experienced criticism and the debates that ensued between the leading party cadres resulted to the expulsion of advocates of "left and right opportunism" notably forming the so-called "rejectionists" and "reaffirmist" factions. Those who affirmed the Maoist orthodoxy were called the "Reaffirmists", or RA, while those who rejected the document were called "Rejectionists" or RJ. In July 1993, the Komiteng Rehiyon ng Manila-Rizal (KRMR), one of the Rejectionists, declared its autonomy from the central leadership. Within a few months, several of the Party's regional formations and bureaus followed suit, permanently formalizing and deepening the schism.<ref>[http://pcij.org/imag/SpecialReport/left.html "PCIJ findings: What's flawed, fuzzy with drug war numbers?"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160527195503/http://pcij.org/imag/SpecialReport/left.html |date=27 May 2016 }}.</ref>
* {{flag|San Marino}} – The [[Sammarinese Communist Party]] was dissolved in 1990.
* {{flag|Singapore}} – The [[Barisan Sosialis]] was dissolved in 1988.
* {{flag|Spain}} – The [[Workers' Party of Spain–Communist Unity]] was dissolved in 1991. [[Alternative Left (Spain)|Alternative Left]] was dissolved in 1993. [[Communist Party of Spain (Marxist–Leninist) (historical)]] was dissolved in 1992. The [[Communist Party of Galicia (Revolutionary Marxist)]] was dissolved in 1989.
* {{flag|Sweden}} – The [[Communist Association of Norrköping]] was dissolved in 1990 and [[Kommunistiska Förbundet Marxist-Leninisterna]] ceased to function as nationwide party. The pro-Albanian [[Kommunistiska Partiet i Sverige]] and the Maoist [[Communist Workers' Party of Sweden]] were dissolved in 1993. The main leftist party, [[Vänsterpartiet kommunisterna]], VPK (Left Party – Communists), abandoned the communist part of its name, and became simply [[Vänsterpartiet]] (Left Party).
* {{flag|Turkey}} – The [[Communist Labour Party of Turkey]] was split.
* {{flag|United Kingdom}} – The [[Communist Party of Great Britain]] was dissolved.
* {{flag|Venezuela|1954}} – [[1992 Venezuelan coup d'état attempts]]

Concurrently, many anti-communist authoritarian states, formerly supported by the US, gradually saw a transition to democracy.
* {{flag|Brazil}} – Held the [[1989 Brazilian presidential election|first democratic presidential election since 1960]] due to reforms started a few years earlier.
* {{flag|Cameroon}} – democratization in 1991.
* {{flag|Chad}} – [[1990 Chadian coup d'état|Coup d'état in 1990]].
* {{flag|Chile}} – While communist guerillas were [[Armed resistance in Chile (1973–1990)|unsuccessful in toppling the anti-communist regime]], the [[Military dictatorship of Chile (1973–1990)|military junta]] under [[Augusto Pinochet]] was pressured to implement [[1989 Chilean general election|democratic elections]], which saw [[Chilean transition to democracy|Chile's democratization]] in 1990. The [[Broad Party of Socialist Left]] subsequently merged into the [[Socialist Party of Chile]].
* {{flag|Colombia}} – The [[Colombian Constitution of 1886|conservative constitution of 1886]] was [[Colombian Constitution of 1991|repealed in 1991]]. The [[19th of April Movement]], the [[Movimiento Armado Quintin Lame|Quintin Lame Armed Movement]] and most of the [[Popular Liberation Army]] gave up their weapons and began to participate in politics. The [[Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia|FARC]] continued its role in the [[Colombian conflict]] into the 21st century.
* {{flag|El Salvador}} – The [[Salvadoran Civil War]] ended in 1992 following the [[Chapultepec Peace Accords]]. The rebel [[Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front|FMLN]] movement became a legal political party and participated in subsequent elections.
* {{flag|Gabon}} – democratization in 1991.
* {{flag|Guatemala}} – The [[Guatemalan Civil War]] ended in 1996 and the rebel [[Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity]] became a legal party.
* {{flag|Haiti|1964}} – [[Haitian Revolution of 1986]]
* {{flag|Indonesia}} – The [[Suharto]] regime received great international criticism for its role in the 1991 [[Santa Cruz massacre]] and continued occupation of [[East Timor]], leading to US sanctions. [[Fall of Suharto|Suharto resigned in 1998]] following mass protests, and East Timor gained independence in 2002 following the [[1999 East Timorese independence referendum|1999 referendum]].
* {{flag|Ivory Coast}} – democratization in 1990.
* {{flag|Kenya}} – Restoration of multi-party democracy in 1991<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1991/12/03/world/kenyan-yielding-on-multiparty-politics.html |title=Kenya Yielding on Multiparty Democracy |last=Perlez |first=Jane|date=3 December 1991 |website=The New York Times |access-date=14 June 2019}}</ref>
* {{flag|Malawi}} – democratization in 1993.
* {{flag|Mauritania|1959}} – [[1984 Mauritanian coup d'état]]; democratization in 1992.
* {{flag|Pakistan}} – democratization in 1988.
* {{flag|Panama}} – The [[Manuel Noriega]] regime was overthrown by the [[United States invasion of Panama|US invasion in 1989]] as a result of his suppression of elections, drug-trafficking activities and the killing of a US serviceman.
* {{flag|Paraguay|1990}} – The dictatorship of [[Alfredo Stroessner]] came to an end when he was deposed in a military coup d'état. In 1992, the country's new constitution established a democratic system of government.
* {{flag|Peru}} – The [[internal conflict in Peru]] intensified under [[Alberto Fujimori]], who was criticized for his increased authoritarian rule and human rights abuses until his downfall in 2000. The [[Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement]] ended its role in the [[internal conflict in Peru]] in 1997. The [[Shining Path]], responsible for killing tens of thousands people, shrunk in the 1990s, but continued into the 21st century.
* {{flagicon|Philippines|1985}} [[History of the Philippines (1965–86)|Philippines]] – [[People Power Revolution]] in 1986 led to the downfall of [[Ferdinand Marcos]]. [[Communist rebellion in the Philippines]] continued into the 21st century.
* {{flag|Rwanda|1962}} – [[Rwandan Civil War]] in 1990 and [[Rwandan genocide|Genocide]] in 1994.
* {{flag|Saudi Arabia}} – Following the Soviet-Afghan War, [[Osama bin Laden]], the founder of the Islamist militant group [[al-Qaeda]], proposed to the Saudi monarchy not to rely on the United States after the [[Invasion of Kuwait|fall of Kuwait]]. Bin Laden later denounced the Saudi invitation of the U.S. [[82nd Airborne Division]] and was eventually expelled from the country in 1992 due to the criticism. His citizenship was revoked in 1994.
* {{flag|South Korea|1984}} – The [[June Democracy Movement]]'s [[June Struggle|nationwide protests]] led to the downfall of the [[Chun Doo-hwan]] government in 1987, and the country's [[1987 South Korean presidential election|first democratic elections]]. In 2000, North and South Korea agreed in principle to work towards [[Korean reunification|peaceful reunification]] in the future.
* {{flag|South Africa|1982}} – [[Negotiations to end apartheid in South Africa|Negotiations]] were started in 1990 to end the [[South Africa under apartheid|Apartheid]] system. [[Nelson Mandela]] was [[1994 South African general election|elected as the President of South Africa]] in 1994.
* {{flag|Taiwan|name=Taiwan (Republic of China)}} – In 1987 the ruling [[Kuomintang]] party ended its [[Martial law in Taiwan|strict martial law]] introduced at the end of the [[Chinese Civil War]]. Gradual [[Politics of Taiwan#Transition to democracy|democratic reforms]] led to the [[1996 Taiwanese presidential election|first direct presidential election]] in 1996.
* {{flag|Togo}} – democratization in 1993.
* {{flag|United Kingdom}} – The [[Northern Ireland peace process]] led to an end of [[The Troubles]] in 1998, with the signing of the [[Good Friday Agreement]].
* {{flag|United States}} – Following the end of the [[Cold War]], the United States became the world's sole [[superpower]]. It ceased to support many of the [[military dictatorship]]s it had during the Cold War, pressing more nations to adopt democracy.
* {{flag|Yemen Arab Republic}} – [[Yemeni unification|unified]] with the communist [[South Yemen]] after the [[Yemeni unification|separation period]] (1967–1990) and also [[democratize]]d in 1990, then [[Yemeni Civil War (1994)|suppressed communist secessionist movement]] in the South in 1994.
* {{flag|Zaire}} – [[First Congo War|Civil War]] in 1996.

=====Countries that emerged into socialist-styled governments beyond 1991=====

* {{flag|Bolivia}} – [[Evo Morales]] led the [[Movement for Socialism (Bolivia)|Movement for Socialism]] which led to the establishment of the socialistic Plurinational State in 2009 and ruled the country until [[2019 Bolivian political crisis|his ouster in a coup]].<ref>James Dunkerley, "Evo Morales, the 'Two Bolivias' and the Third Bolivian Revolution". ''Journal of Latin American Studies'' 39: 133–66. doi:10.1017/s0022216x06002069.</ref>
* {{flag|Nepal}} – [[Kingdom of Nepal|Monarchy]] was overthrown in 2008 and the republic has been ruled by [[Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre)|Communist Party]] since then.
* {{flag|Venezuela|1954}} – [[Hugo Chavez]] led the [[Fifth Republic Movement]] which led to the establishment of the Bolivarian Republic in 1999 and ruled the country until his death in 2013.

=====Other impacts=====

[[File:Global effect of 1989-1991 Revolutions.png|thumb|300px|Global effects of the 1988–1992 Revolutions]]
* {{flag|Israel}} – In 1990, the Soviet Union finally permitted free emigration of Soviet Jews to Israel. Prior to this, [[1970s Soviet Union aliyah|Jews trying to leave the USSR faced persecution]]; those who succeeded arrived as refugees. Over the next few years, some one million Soviet citizens migrated to Israel. Although there was a concern that some of the new immigrants had only a very tenuous connection to Judaism, and many were accompanied by non-Jewish relatives, this massive wave of migration brought large numbers of highly educated Soviet Jews and slowly changed the demographic nature of Israel. In addition, thousands of [[Beta Israel|Ethiopian Jews]] were [[Operation Solomon|rescued]] by the [[Israel Defense Forces]] in 1991.<ref>Clive A. Jones, ''Soviet Jewish Aliyah, 1989–92: Impact and Implications for Israel and the Middle East'' (Routledge, 2013).</ref>

== Political reforms ==
{{main|Decommunization}}
Decommunization is a process of overcoming the legacies of the communist state establishments, culture, and psychology in the post-communist states. Decommunization was largely limited or non-existent. Communist parties were not outlawed and their members were not brought to trial. Just a few places even attempted to exclude members of communist secret services from decision-making.<ref name="pejovich">[http://www.icer.it/docs/wp2000/Pejovich162000.pdf After Socialism: where hope for individual liberty lies]. Svetozar Pejovich.</ref>

In a number of countries the communist party simply changed its name and continued to function.<ref name="pejovich" /> In several European countries, however, endorsing or attempting to justify crimes committed by communist regimes became punishable by up to three years of imprisonment.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.annefrank.org/content.asp?PID=888&LID=2 |title=Is Holocaust denial against the law? |via=AnneFrank.org |access-date=28 September 2018 |archive-date=4 October 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091004081457/https://www.annefrank.org/content.asp?PID=888&LID=2 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

== Economic reforms ==
[[File:GDP of Russia since 1989.svg|thumb|300px|Russian GDP since the end of the [[Soviet Union]]. From 2014 are forecasts]]

State run enterprises in socialist countries had little or no interest in producing what customers wanted, which resulted in shortages of goods and services.<ref name="aslund" /> In the early 1990s, the general view was that there was no precedent for moving from socialism to capitalism",<ref name="Havrylyshyn" /> and only some elderly people remembered how a market economy worked. As a result, the view that Central, Southeastern and Eastern Europe would stay poor for decades was common.<ref>{{Cite news |title=The world after 1989: Walls in the mind |newspaper=The Economist |date=5 November 2009 |url=http://www.economist.com/displayStory.cfm?story_id=14793753}}</ref>

The collapse of the Soviet Union, and the breakdown of economic ties which followed led to a severe economic crisis and catastrophic fall in the [[Standard of living|standards of living]] in the 1990s in post-Soviet states and the former Eastern bloc.<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/966616.stm "Child poverty soars in eastern Europe"], BBC News, 11 October 2000.</ref><ref>See "What Can Transition Economies Learn from the First Ten Years? A New World Bank Report," in ''Transition Newsletter'' [http://webarchive.loc.gov/all/20060414053225/http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/NEWSLETTERS/EXTTRANSITION/EXTDECBEYTRANEWLET/0%2C%2CmenuPK%3A1542365%7EpagePK%3A64168427%7EpiPK%3A64168435%7EtheSitePK%3A1542353%2C00.html Worldbank.org], [http://www.k-a.kg/?nid=5&value=6 K-A.kg]</ref> Even before Russia's [[1998 Russian financial crisis|financial crisis]] of 1998, Russia's GDP was half of what it had been in the early 1990s.<ref>[https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B03E4D91E3AF93BA35753C1A9669C8B63 Who Lost Russia?], New York Times, 8 October 2000.</ref>

There was a temporary fall of output in the official economy and an increase in black market economic activity.<ref name="aslund" /> Countries implemented different reform programs. One example, generally regarded as successful was the "shock therapy" [[Balcerowicz Plan]] in Poland. Eventually the official economy began to grow.<ref name="aslund">{{cite web |title=The Myth of Output Collapse after Communism |first=Anders |last=Aslund |date=1 December 2000 |url=https://www.carnegieendowment.org/publications/index.cfm?fa=view&id=611 }}</ref>

In a 2007 paper, Oleh Havrylyshyn categorized the speed of reforms in the former communist countries of Europe:<ref name="Havrylyshyn">{{cite web |title=Fifteen Years of Transformation in the Post-Communist World |first=Oleh |last=Havrylyshyn |date=9 November 2007 |url=http://www.cato.org/pubs/dpa/DPA4.pdf}}</ref>
* ''Sustained Big-Bang'' (fastest): Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia
* ''Advance Start/Steady Progress'': Croatia, Hungary, Slovenia
* ''Aborted Big-Bang'': Albania, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Kyrgyzstan, Russia
* ''Gradual Reforms'': Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Tajikistan, Romania
* ''Limited Reforms'' (slowest): Belarus, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan

[[File:History of NATO enlargement.svg|thumb|NATO has [[Enlargement of NATO|added 13 new members]] since the [[German reunification]] and the end of the [[Cold War]].]]

The [[2004 enlargement of the European Union]] included the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia. The [[2007 enlargement of the European Union]] included Romania and Bulgaria, and Croatia [[2013 enlargement of the European Union|joined the EU in 2013]]. The same countries have also [[Enlargement of NATO|become NATO members]]. In Mongolia, the economy was reformed in a similar fashion to the Eastern European counterparts. Armenia declared its decision to join the Customs Union and the Common Economic Space of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia, and participated in the formation of the Eurasian Economic Union.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Mitra |first1=Saumya |last2=Andrew |first2=Douglas |last3=Gyulumyan |first3=Gohar |last4=Holden |first4=Paul |last5=Kaminski |first5=Bart |last6=Kuznetsov |first6=Yevgeny |last7=Vashakmadze |first7=Ekaterine|title=The Caucasian Tiger : Sustaining Economic Growth in Armenia|publisher=World Bank|year=2007|location=Washington, DC}}</ref> Effective from 2015, Armenia joined the treaty on the Eurasian Economic Union.<ref>{{Cite web|title=International organizations: Eurasian Economic Union|url=https://www.mfa.am/en/international-organisations/6|publisher=Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia}}</ref>

[[Chinese economic reform|Chinese economic liberalization]] began in 1978 and has helped lift millions of people out of poverty, bringing the poverty rate down from 53% of the population in the Mao era, to 12% in 1981. Deng's economic reforms are still being followed by the [[Chinese Communist Party|CCP]] today, and by 2001 the poverty rate was only 6% of the population.<ref>[http://econ.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/EXTDEC/EXTRESEARCH/0,,contentMDK:20634060~pagePK:64165401~piPK:64165026~theSitePK:469382,00.html Fighting Poverty: Findings and Lessons from China's Success] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130922130002/http://econ.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/EXTDEC/EXTRESEARCH/0,,contentMDK:20634060~pagePK:64165401~piPK:64165026~theSitePK:469382,00.html |date=22 September 2013}} (World Bank). Retrieved 10 August 2006.</ref>

[[Doi Moi|Economic liberalization in Vietnam]] was initiated in 1986, following the Chinese example.

[[Economic liberalisation in India|Economic liberalization in India]] was initiated in 1991.

Harvard University Professor [[Richard B. Freeman]] has called the effect of reforms "The Great Doubling". He calculated that the size of the global workforce doubled from 1.46&nbsp;billion workers to 2.93&nbsp;billion workers.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://emlab.berkeley.edu/users/webfac/eichengreen/e183_sp07/great_doub.pdf |title=The Great Doubling: The Challenge of the New Global Labor Market |access-date=16 November 2013}}</ref><ref name="Freeman">{{cite web |url=http://www.irp.wisc.edu/publications/focus/pdfs/foc261a.pdf |title=The new global labor market |first=Richard |last=Freeman |publisher=University of Wisconsin–Madison Institute for Research on Poverty |year=2008}}</ref> An immediate effect was a reduced ratio of capital to labor. In the long-term, China, India, and the former Soviet bloc will save and invest and contribute to the expansion of the world capital stock.<ref name="Freeman"/>

== Ideological continuation of communism ==
{{further|Decommunization in Russia|Neo-Stalinism}}
[[File:Grand Kremlin Palace façade, 1982-2008.jpg|thumb|The facade of the [[Grand Kremlin Palace]] was restored to its original form after the dissolution of the USSR in 1991. The [[State Emblem of the Soviet Union|State Emblem of the USSR]] and the embedded letters forming the [[CCCP (disambiguation)|abbreviation of the USSR]] (CCCP) were removed and replaced by five Russian [[Coat of arms of Russia|double-headed eagles]]. In a restoration of the coat of arms, the territories of the Russian Empire were placed above the eagles.]]

As of 2008, nearly half of Russians viewed Stalin positively, and many supported restoration of his previously dismantled monuments.<ref>{{Citation |url=http://www.newizv.ru/news/2008-03-05/85812/ |title=The Glamorous Tyrant: The Cult of Stalin Experiences a Rebirth |first=Mikhail |last=Pozdnyaev |newspaper=Novye Izvestia |place=[[Russia|RU]] |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080511145805/http://www.newizv.ru/news/2008-03-05/85812/ |archive-date=11 May 2008 }}.</ref><ref>{{Citation |url=http://www.kavkaz-uzel.ru/newstext/news/id/1208902.html |newspaper=Кавказский Узел [Kavkaz Uzel] |language=ru |title=Сегодня исполняется 55 лет со дня смерти Сталина |place=RU |date=14 October 2012 |access-date=12 August 2013}}.</ref>

In 1992, President Yeltsin's government invited [[Vladimir Bukovsky]] to serve as an expert to testify at the [[CPSU]] trial by the [[Constitutional Court]] of Russia, where the communists were suing Yeltsin for banning their party. The respondent's case was that the [[CPSU]] itself had been an unconstitutional organization. To prepare for his testimony, Bukovsky requested and was granted access to a large number of documents from Soviet archives, then reorganized into the [[TsKhSD]]. Using a small handheld scanner and a laptop computer, he managed to secretly scan many documents, some with high [[security clearance]], including [[KGB]] reports to the [[Central Committee]], and smuggle the files to the West.<ref>{{Citation |publisher=JHU |contribution-url=http://psi.ece.jhu.edu/~kaplan/IRUSS/BUK/GBARC/buk.html |contribution=Soviet Archives |title=Info-Russ |access-date=28 December 2009 |archive-date=25 April 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110425065643/http://psi.ece.jhu.edu/~kaplan/IRUSS/BUK/GBARC/buk.html |url-status=dead}}.</ref>

== Interpretations ==
The events caught many people by surprise. Before 1991, many thought that the collapse of the Soviet Union was [[Predictions of Soviet collapse|impossible]].<ref name="melt">{{cite news|first=Ian|last=Cummins|title=The Great MeltDown|work=The Australian|date=23 December 1995}}</ref>

Bartlomiej Kaminski's book ''The Collapse of State Socialism'' argued that the state Socialist system has a lethal paradox, saying that "policy actions designed to improve performance only accelerate its decay".<ref>{{Cite magazine |url=http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/47325/robert-legvold/the-collapse-of-state-socialism |title=The Collapse of State Socialism |magazine=[[Foreign Affairs]] |access-date=28 January 2009 |last=Legvold|first=Robert|volume=70 |date=Winter 1991–92 }}</ref>{{Explain|date=April 2024}}

By the end of 1989, revolts had spread from one capital to another, ousting the regimes imposed on Central, South-East and Eastern Europe after World War II. Even the isolationist Stalinist regime in Albania was unable to stem the tide. Gorbachev's abrogation of the [[Brezhnev Doctrine]] was perhaps the key factor that enabled the popular uprisings to succeed. Once it became evident that the feared Soviet Army would not intervene to crush dissent, the Central, South-East and Eastern European regimes were exposed as vulnerable in the face of popular uprisings against the one-party system and power of [[secret police]].

In 1990, [[Coit D. Blacker]] wrote that the Soviet leadership "appeared to have believed that whatever loss of authority the Soviet Union might suffer in Central and South-East Europe would be more than offset by a net increase in its influence in western Europe."<ref name="fa90">{{Cite magazine |first=Coit D. |last=Blacker |title=The Collapse of Soviet Power in Europe |magazine=[[Foreign Affairs]] |volume=70 |pages=88–102 |year=1990|issue=1 |doi=10.2307/20044696 |jstor=20044696 }}</ref> Nevertheless, it is unlikely that Gorbachev ever intended for the complete dismantling of communism and the Warsaw Pact. Rather, Gorbachev assumed that the communist parties of Central and South-East Europe could be reformed in a similar way to the reforms he hoped to achieve in the CPSU.<ref name="steele 1994">{{Cite book |last=Jonathan |first=Steele |title=Eternal Russia: Yeltsin, Gorbachev and the Mirage of Democracy |publisher=Faber |year=1994 |location=Boston}}</ref>

Just as ''perestroika'' was aimed at making the Soviet Union more efficient economically and politically, Gorbachev believed that the [[Comecon]] and Warsaw Pact could be reformed into more effective entities. However, [[Alexander Nikolaevich Yakovlev|Alexander Yakovlev]], a close advisor to Gorbachev, later stated that it would have been "absurd to keep the system" in Central and South-East Europe. Yakovlev came to the conclusion that the Soviet-dominated Comecon could not work on non-market principles, and that the Warsaw Pact had "no relevance to real life".<ref name="steele 1994" />

In retrospect, authoritarian regimes such as the Soviet Union are more likely to be subject to economic sanctions by democratic nations, creating a riskier vulnerability to collapse.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Frantz |first=Erica |date=2018-11-15 |title=Authoritarianism: What Everyone Needs to Know |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/wentk/9780190880194.001.0001 |doi=10.1093/wentk/9780190880194.001.0001|isbn=978-0-19-088019-4 }}</ref> In 1991, [[Timur Kuran]] wrote that generally leaders were despised and failed to meet expectations of freedoms and economic prosperity that they had promised, leading to citizen motivation to upheave the government.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Kuran |first=Timur |date=October 1991 |title=Now out of Never: The Element of Surprise in the East European Revolution of 1989 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0043887100015860/type/journal_article |journal=World Politics |language=en |volume=44 |issue=1 |pages=7–48 |doi=10.2307/2010422 |jstor=2010422 |s2cid=154090678 |issn=0043-8871|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Economic distress mirrored across most regimes had declined growth rates to near zero leading up to their respective uprisings.<ref name=":1" /> While socialist economics may have played a role, [[Stathis Kalyvas|Stathis N. Kalyvas]] argues that international sanctions as well as the government makeup of authoritarian regimes were equally as impactful in reducing their economy's prosperity.<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal |last=Kalyvas |first=Stathis N. |date=June 1999 |title=The Decay and Breakdown of COmmunist One-Party Systems |journal=Annual Review of Political Science |language=en |volume=2 |issue=1 |pages=323–343 |doi=10.1146/annurev.polisci.2.1.323 |issn=1094-2939|doi-access=free }}</ref>

Scholars such as Gale Stokes argue that the moral repression under the guise of security by communist regimes had brought citizens to the streets.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Stokes |first=Gale |url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/776507131 |title=Lessons of the East European revolutions of 1989 |date=1991 |publisher=Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars |oclc=776507131}}</ref> Others argue that the repression of revolutionary dissidents and human rights justified revolutionary privilege throughout Europe.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Horvath |first=Robert |date=2007 |title="The Solzhenitsyn Effect": East European Dissidents and the Demise of the Revolutionary Privilege |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/hrq.2007.0041 |journal=Human Rights Quarterly |volume=29 |issue=4 |pages=879–907 |doi=10.1353/hrq.2007.0041 |s2cid=144778599 |issn=1085-794X|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

==Remembrance==
===Organizations===
*[[Memorial (society)|Memorial]], an international historical and [[civil rights]] society that operates in a number of [[post-Soviet states]] which focuses on recording and publicising the [[Soviet Union]]'s [[totalitarian]] aspect of the past, but also monitors human rights in post-Soviet states at the present time, for example in [[Chechnya]]<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.memo.ru/en-us/|title=Memorial website|publisher=Memo.ru|access-date=15 June 2019}}</ref>

===Events===
*[[German Unity Day]] in Germany, a national holiday commemorating the anniversary of [[German reunification]] in 1990
*[[Statehood Day (Slovenia)|Statehood Day]] in Slovenia commemorates the country's declaration of independence from Yugoslavia in 1991
*[[Independence and Unity Day]] in Slovenia commemorates the country's independence referendum
*[[Public holidays in Georgia|Day of National Unity]] in Georgia is a public holiday commemorating victims of the [[9 April tragedy]]
*[[National Day]] in Hungary
*[[Constitution of Mongolia|Constitution Day]] in Mongolia commemorates the country's transition to democracy in 1992
*[[Constitution Day]] in Romania commemorates the 1991 [[Romanian Constitution]] that enshrined the return to democracy after the fall of the communist regime
*[[Public holidays in Slovakia|Struggle for Freedom and Democracy Day]] in Slovakia
*[[Public holidays in the Czech Republic|Struggle for Freedom and Democracy Day]] in the Czech Republic
*Restoration of Independence Day in Latvia commemorates the [[On the Restoration of Independence of the Republic of Latvia|1990 declaration]] restoring the country's independence
[[File:Picnic Melocco.JPG|alt=The text translates to "breaking through"|thumb|328x328px|The [[Pan-European Picnic]] (Hungarian: Páneurópai piknik) memorial near [[Sopron]], by Hungarian artist Miklós Melocco.]]

===Places===
{{incomplete list|date=December 2009}}
{{columns-list|colwidth=30em|
*[[Checkpoint Charlie Museum]] in Berlin, Germany
*[[Jeltoqsan|Dawn of Liberty]] in Kazakhstan, a monument dedicated to Jeltoqsan
*[[DDR Museum]] in Berlin, Germany
*[[European Solidarity Centre]] in Poland
*[[Gdańsk Shipyard]] in Poland
*[[Global Museum on Communism]] in Washington DC, US
*[[Grūtas Park]] in Lithuania
*[[House of Terror]] in Hungary
*[[Lennon Wall]] in the Czech Republic
*[[Memento Park]] in Hungary
*[[Memorial of Rebirth]] in Romania
*[[Memorial to the Victims of Communism]] in the Czech Republic
*[[Museum of Occupations and Freedom Fights|Museum of Genocide Victims]] in Vilnius, Lithuania
*[[Museum of Communism, Czech Republic]]
*[[Museum of Communism, Poland]]
*[[Museum of Occupations (Estonia)]]
*[[Museum of Occupation (Lithuania)]]
*[[Museum of the Occupation of Latvia]]
*[[Museum of Socialist Art]] in Bulgaria
*[[Museum of Soviet Occupation, Kyiv|Museum of Soviet Occupation]] in Kyiv, Ukraine
*[[Museum of Soviet Occupation (Tbilisi)|Museum of Soviet Occupation]] in Tbilisi, Georgia
*[[Muzeul Memoriei Neamului]] in Moldova
*[[w:uk:Тюрма на Лонцького|Museum of Victims of Occupational Regimes "Prison on Lontskoho"]] in Lviv, Ukraine
*[[Sighet prison|Sighet Memorial Museum]] in the old prison in Sighetu Marmației, Romania
*[[Stasi Museum]] in the former Stasi headquarters, Berlin, Germany 
*[[Transalpina Square]] divided between the towns of Gorizia, Italy, and Nova Gorica, Slovenia
*Victims of Political Persecution Memorial Museum in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
}}

===Other===
{{incomplete list|date=December 2009}}
*''[[The Soviet Story]]'', an award-winning documentary film about the Soviet Union
*''[[The Singing Revolution]]'', a documentary film about the Singing Revolution
*''[[Heaven on Earth: The Rise and Fall of Socialism]]'', a book and a documentary film based on the book
*''[[Lenin's Tomb: The Last Days of the Soviet Empire]]'', a Pulitzer Prize-awarded book
*''A Political Tragedy in Six Acts'', biography of dissident [[Václav Havel]]
*''[[Right Here, Right Now (Jesus Jones song)|Right Here, Right Now]]'', an international hit written by Mike Edwards and performed by his rock band [[Jesus Jones]] and released in September 1990
*"[[Wind of Change (Scorpions song)|Wind of Change]]", a hit song by the German heavy-metal band [[Scorpions (band)|Scorpions]] that celebrates [[Perestroika]] and the fall of communism in Central and Eastern Europe.

==See also==
*[[Breakup of Yugoslavia]]
*[[Chinese democracy movement]]
*[[Colour revolution]]s
*[[History of Solidarity]]
*[[January Events]], Lithuania, 1991
*[[JBTZ trial]], former Yugoslavia, 1988
*[[People Power Revolution]], Philippines, 1986
*[[Polish Round Table Agreement]], 1989
*[[Reagan Doctrine]]

'''Aftermath:'''
*[[Arab Spring]]
*[[Baltic Tiger]], Baltic economies
*[[Carpat Tiger]], Romanian economy
*[[Commonwealth of Independent States]]
*[[Communist nostalgia]]
*[[Enlargement of NATO]]
*[[Enlargement of the European Union]]
*[[Euromaidan]], Ukraine, 2013
*[[International relations since 1989]]
*[[Jeans Revolution]], Belarus, 2006
*[[Orange Revolution]], Ukraine, 2004
*[[Overthrow of Slobodan Milošević]], Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, 2000
*[[Pink tide]], Latin America, 21st century
*[[Rose Revolution]], Georgia, 2003
*[[Russo-Ukrainian War]]
*[[Dissolution of Czechoslovakia|Velvet Divorce]] in Czechoslovakia
*[[2018 Armenian Revolution|Velvet Revolution]], Armenia, 2018

'''General:'''
*[[Civil resistance]]
*[[Democracy in Europe]]
*[[Preference falsification]]

'''Earlier revolutionary eras:'''
*[[Atlantic Revolutions]], late 18th and early 19th century
*[[Revolutions of 1917–1923]]

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
* {{Cite book |last=Garton Ash |first=Timothy |author-link=Timothy Garton Ash |title=The magic lantern: the revolution of '89 witnessed in Warsaw, Budapest, Berlin, and Prague |date=1990 |publisher=[[Random House]] |isbn=978-0-394-58884-1 |edition=1st U.S. |location=New York}}
** {{Cite magazine |last=Garton Ash |first=Timothy |author-link=Timothy Garton Ash |date=5 November 2009 |title=1989! |url=http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2009/nov/05/1989/ |url-access=subscription |magazine=[[The New York Review of Books]] |volume=56 |issue=17 |issn=0028-7504}}
* {{Cite book |title=Transition: the first decade |date=2001 |publisher=[[MIT Press]] |isbn=978-0-262-02505-8 |editor-last=Bléjer |editor-first=Mario I. |location=Cambridge, Mass. |editor-last2=Škreb |editor-first2=Marko}}
* {{Cite book |last=De Nevers |first=Renée |title=Comrades no more: the seeds of political change in Eastern Europe |publisher=[[MIT Press]] |year=2003 |isbn=978-0-262-04193-5 |series=BCSIA studies in international security |location=Cambridge, MA}}
* {{Cite book |last1=Elster |first1=Jon |author-link=Jon Elster |url=https://archive.org/details/institutionaldes0000elst |title=Institutional design in post-communist societies: rebuilding the ship at sea |last2=Offe |first2=Claus |last3=Preuß |first3=Ulrich K. |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1998 |isbn=978-0-521-47931-8 |edition=Repr |series=Theories of institutional design |location=Cambridge |url-access=registration}}
* {{Cite book |last=Falk |first=Barbara J. |title=The dilemmas of dissidence in East-Central Europe: citizen intellectuals and philosopher kings |date=2003 |publisher=[[Central European University Press]] |isbn=978-963-9241-39-8 |location=Budapest; New York}}
* {{Cite book |last1=Ghodsee |first1=Kristen Rogheh |author-link=Kristen Ghodsee |title=Taking stock of shock: social consequences of the 1989 revolutions |last2=Orenstein |first2=Mitchell A. |date=2021 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=978-0-19-754927-8 |location=New York, NY |doi=10.1093/oso/9780197549230.001.0001}}
* {{Cite book |last1=Heenan |first1=Patrick |title=The Central and Eastern Europe handbook |last2=Lamontagne |first2=Monique |publisher=[[Fitzroy Dearborn]] |year=1999 |isbn=978-1-57958-089-6 |series=Regional handbooks of economic development |location=London; Chicago (Ill.)}}
* {{Cite news |last=Judah |first=Tim |author-link=Tim Judah |date=17 February 2011 |title=Yugoslavia: 1918–2003 |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwone/yugoslavia_01.shtml |access-date=1 April 2012 |publisher=[[BBC]]}}
* {{Cite book |last=Kenney |first=Padraic |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KPFJEAAAQBAJ |title=The Burdens of Freedom: Eastern Europe since 1989 |date=2008 |publisher=[[Bloomsbury Publishing]] |isbn=978-1-84813-121-7 |language=en}}
* {{Cite book |last1=Leffler |first1=Melvyn P. |author-link=Melvyn P. Leffler |title=The Cambridge history of the Cold War |last2=Westad |first2=Odd Arne |author-link2=Odd Arne Westad |date=2010 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |isbn=978-0-521-83719-4 |volume=III. Endings |location=Cambridge}}
* {{Cite book |last=Lévesque |first=Jacques |title=The enigma of 1989: the USSR and the liberation of Eastern Europe |publisher=[[University of California Press]] |year=1997 |isbn=978-0-520-20631-1 |location=Berkeley |page=275}}
* {{Cite book |last1=Naimark |first1=Norman M. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=u5tUbUyXtToC&pg=PR17 |title=Yugoslavia and its historians: understanding the Balkan wars of the 1990s |last2=Case |first2=Holly |publisher=[[Stanford University Press]] |year=2003 |isbn=978-0-8047-4594-9 |location=Stanford (Calif.)}}
* {{Cite book |last=Ostrovsky |first=Alexander |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kn_lPgAACAAJ |title=Глупость или измена?: расследование гибели СССР |date=2011 |publisher=Крымский Мост-9Д |isbn=978-5-89747-068-6 |language=ru |trans-title=Stupidity or treason? Investigation of the death of the USSR}}
* {{Cite book |last=Roberts |first=Adam |url=https://static1.squarespace.com/static/62b0eb7da51f3717911bb4e1/t/64358aad6b0fcb70422592f3/1681230512200/CivilResistanceintheEastEuropeanandSovietRevolutions.pdf |title=Civil Resistance in the East European and Soviet Revolutions |publisher=[[Albert Einstein Institution]] |year=1991 |isbn=978-1-880813-04-1 |location=Cambridge, MA |language=en}}
* {{Cite book |last1=Roberts |first1=Sir Adam |url=https://www.worldcat.org/title/294885650 |title=Civil resistance and power politics: the experience of non-violent action from Gandhi to the present |last2=Ash |first2=Timothy Garton |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2009 |isbn=978-0-19-955201-6 |editor-last=Garton Ash |editor-first=Timothy |editor-link=Timothy Garton Ash |location=Oxford [England]; New York |language=en |oclc=294885650}} Contains chapters on the Soviet Union (Mark Kramer), Czechoslovakia (Kieran Williams), Poland (Alexander Smolar), Baltic States (Mark R. Beissinger), China (Merle Goldman), and East Germany (Charles Maier).
* {{Cite book |last=Rogel |first=Carole |url=https://archive.org/details/breakupofyugosla00roge_0 |title=The breakup of Yugoslavia and its aftermath |publisher=[[Greenwood Press]] |year=2004 |isbn=978-0-313-32357-7 |edition=Rev. |location=Westport, Conn. |page=[https://archive.org/details/breakupofyugosla00roge_0/page/91 91] |url-access=registration}}
* {{Cite book |last=Sarotte |first=Mary Elise |author-link=M. E. Sarotte |title=The collapse: the accidental opening of the Berlin Wall |publisher=[[Basic Books]] |year=2014 |isbn=978-0-465-06494-6 |location=New York, NY}}
* {{Cite book |last=Sebestyen |first=Victor |author-link=Victor Sebestyen |title=Revolution 1989: the fall of the Soviet empire |publisher=[[Phoenix Books]] |year=2009 |isbn=978-0-7538-2709-3 |series=A Phoenix paperback |location=London}}
* {{Cite book |last=Wilson |first=James Graham |url=http://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/?GCOI=80140100037580 |title=The triumph of improvisation: Gorbachev's adaptability, Reagan's engagement, and the end of the Cold War |publisher=[[Cornell University Press]] |year=2014 |isbn=978-0-8014-5229-1 |location=Ithaca, N.Y.}}

==External links==
*{{Commons category inline|Fall of Communism}}
*{{cite web|url=http://chnm.gmu.edu/1989|title=The History of 1989: The Fall of Communism in Eastern Europe|publisher=GMU}}
*{{cite web|url=http://simon31.narod.ru/syndromeofsocialism.htm|title=Syndrome of Socialism|publisher=Narod|place=[[Russia|RU]]}}. Some of aspects of state national economy evolution in the system of the international economic order.
*{{cite magazine|url=https://www.dissentmagazine.org/online_articles/two-decades-after-the-fall-a-symposium-on-1989|title=A look at the collapse of Eastern European Communism two decades later|magazine=Dissent Magazine}}
*{{cite web|url=http://publicsphere.ssrc.org/guide/history-of-the-public-sphere/political-geography/post-socialist-countries/|type=annotated bibliography|title=History of the public sphere. Post-socialist countries|publisher=SSRC|access-date=12 October 2009|archive-date=18 November 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111118221408/http://publicsphere.ssrc.org/guide/history-of-the-public-sphere/political-geography/post-socialist-countries/|url-status=dead}}
*{{citation|contribution-url=https://archive.org/details/RevolutioExNihiloKritikAnOppUndPollack.Revolution1989|author=Kloss, Oliver|contribution=Revolutio ex nihilo? Zur methodologischen Kritik des soziologischen Modells 'spontaner Kooperation' und zur Erklärung der Revolution von 1989 in der DDR|editor=Timmermann, Heiner|title=Agenda DDR-Forschung. Ergebnisse, Probleme, Kontroversen|series= Dokumente und Schriften der Europäischen Akademie Otzenhausen|volume=112|place=Muenster|publisher=LIT|year=2005|isbn= 3-8258-6909-1|pages=363–79}} + Ergänzender Anhang A – F.

'''Video of the revolutions in 1989'''
*{{YouTube|F1jrs0BTglA|Revolutions footage}}

{{Revwave}}
{{Fall of Communism}}
{{Cold War}}
{{Eastern Bloc}}
{{Soviet Union topics}}
{{Portal bar|Society|1980s|1990s|Communism}}
{{Authority control}}
[[Category:Revolutions of 1989| ]]
[[Category:1989 in Europe]]
[[Category:1990 in Europe]]
[[Category:1991 in Europe]]
[[Category:Capitalism]]
[[Category:Cold War rebellions]]
[[Category:Conflicts in 1989]]
[[Category:Decommunization]]
[[Category:Eastern Bloc]]
[[Category:Foreign relations of the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:Global politics]]
[[Category:Nationalism in the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:Revolutionary waves|1989]]
[[Category:Turn of the third millennium]]