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Poland
The Polish government had failed to solve economic difficulties which led to great support for the banned independent workers organisation Solidarity. This support also included the endorsement of the Catholic Church. In response to Gorcachev’s policies, the Polish government introduced reforms, including legalising Solidarity and allowing opposing parties to stand against them in elections. As a result the Solidarity part won the 1989 elections by a landslide. -
Hungary
By 1985 political and economic instability forced Hungary's regime to recognize the impending collapse of communism in Hungary. In 1988, Communist Hungary made it easier for citizens to travel to the west, which led to May 1989’s removal of Hungary’s barbed wire fence with Austria. In October 1989, the Communist Party re-established itself as the Hungarian Socialist Party. Multi parliamentary and presidential elections were then established. There was no violent revolution, only reforms, -
Berlin Wall Falls
Protests in East German start in 1989. By 16 October, 120,000 people were demonstrating. The soldiers had been ordered to fire on earlier demonstrations, but refused. Honecker was deposed in the face of this. Mass demonstrations continued, resulting in the East German authorities allowing some citizents to travel to West Germnay through the wall. However, this resulted in East Germans storming the wall and rushing through it, tearing down pieces of the wal. The guards just stood by and watched. -
Czechoslovakia
In Czechoslovakia, the government was forced to reform in response to public demonstrations. An organisation called Civic Forum emerged to coordinate the campaign to get rid of the communist government. Vaclav Havel, a leading playwright and opponent of communism was elected president. There was little violence. -
Romania
On 16 December 1989 a protest broke out against the eviction of a hungarian pastor in Timisoara. Protests start to spread.
21 December, Nicolas Ceausescu gives his final speech, to 10,000 people. He starts to condemn the uprising in Timisoara but is met with jeers and catcalls, This was unprecendented over his reign, A widespread revolution then broke out. Ceausescu tried to flee with his wife but is caught. He and his wife are execued on Christmas day 1989 -
Bulgaria
On 7 December, the scattered opposition groups came together in the Union of Democratic Forces against the communist party. Talks between the communist party and the opposition then occured. On 15 January, the section of the constitution which guaranteed the “leading role” of the Communist Party was abolished. Two weeks later, The Bulgarian dictator, Todor Zhivkov, who held the post of the Secretary General of the Central Committee of the Bulgarian Communist Party from 1954 was arrested