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Glasnost or openness was a policy that brought remarkable changes. For example, the government allowed churches to open, released dissidents from prison, and allowed the publication of books by previously banned authors.
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Perestroika or economic restructuring was the idea to change and revive the Soviet economy. This idea let local managers gain greater authority over their factories and farms, and people were allowed to open small private businesses.
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The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty banned nuclear missiles with the ranges of 300 to 3,400 miles. Both Gorbachev and President Reagan signed this treaty.
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Huge protests broke out across cities in East Germany because the people wanted the right to travel freely. Egon Krenz was able to restore order by opening the Berlin Wall and allowing people to leave East Germany.
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Jozsef Antall was able to get his country through the post-Communist upheaval in order to create the most stable democracy in Eastern Europe. He was also the longest ruler of the post-Communist of Eastern Europe.
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Vaclav Havel was a Czech playwright and a popular critic of the government. He was the first non communist leader since 1948.
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When Lech Walesa was elected president it was the first time the people of a nation had turned a Communist regime out of an office peacefully. He was also known as a national hero for what he did as an union leader.
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The reunification of Germany is the merging of the two Germany's. Germany was officially reunited after forty-five years since their crushing defeat in World War II.
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When Romania held the first general elections the government also made economic reforms to introduce elements of capitalism. Also, the slow pace of Gorbachev's economic reforms started to cause unrest in the Soviet Union.
