Communism and it's fall
The shocking fall of communism in Eastern and central Europe in the late eighties was remarkable for both it's rapidity and its scope. In each of the nations, the communist regimes in power were forces to transfer that power to radically different institutions than they were accustomed to. Democracy had been spreading throughout the world for the preceding two decades, but with a very important difference. In Europe, the shift from communism was taking place in a different context then that of the Soviet Union. The peoples involved were not looking to affect a narrow set of policy reforms, rather what was at stake what the shift from communist ideology to a more western plan for governmental and economic policy development. It seemed that the sole reason that the downfall of communism took so long was the veto power of the Soviet Union. Due to Eastern Europe's longtime adherence to communist policies, these nations faced great difficulty i
The policy of Glasnost made it possible for people to more freely criticize the government's policies. Mikhail Gorbachev was a different kind of Soviet leader. Change was too slow to keep pace with the events and he was continually hampered by his need to retain power. n making the transition to a market economy without being forced to unite with another economic system. Central planning in a modern economy brought many inefficiencies. The key pieces to his plan was a series of reforms that included Glasnost - an openness and greater form of expression for the people, Perestroika - a restructuring as to decentralize the soviet economy with market reforms all of which were designed to reform, not abolish socialism, and the renunciation of the Brezhnev Doctrine. Gorbachev's attempts to reform the communist party were a failure. The socialist system didn't work in political terms as the state was repressive and did not respect basic rights that the people thought they deserve. Gorbachev believed that his reforms were necessary and used his leadership and power to attempt to implement them. In addition, the soviet state could not longer afford the high defense spending that went with The cold War nor could they afford to keep up with the west economically. The renunciation of the Brezchnev Doctrine released Eastern European States from Soviet domination. The socialist system was ineffective in that communism promised a classless society with collective ownership but instead it produced a new class of communist party functionaries. Communism as a whole forever could not survive without the support of the Soviet Union however, and the Berlin Wall came down in 1989 and communism collapsed in Eastern Europe. The now weak soviet state was unable to prevent the separation of the republics, and even the republic of Russia turned away, choosing Boris Yeltsin as it's leader.
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