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Gorbachev introduces Glasnost
Glasnost was created to practice more open consultative government and wider dissemination of information. Glasnost was created by Mikhail Gorbachev. -
Gorbachev introduces Perestroika
Perestroika was created to change the political , social, and economic systems in the Soviet Union. Perestroika failed because it wasn't tried and it was not implemented. -
Period: to
Soviet Union and Eastern Europe
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Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty signed
Required the United States and the Soviet Union to eliminate and permanently forswear all of their nuclear and conventional ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles. -
Jozsef Antall elected prime minister of Hungary
Antall led the MDF delegation at the talks preparing the country for the transition to democracy, and on October 21, 1989, he was voted president of the MDF. His goal was to create a democratic state that acknowledged and incorporated Hungary’s distinctive characteristics. -
Berlin Wall Falls
East German Communist Party announced that citizens of the GDR could cross the border whenever they pleased. Some crossed freely into West Berlin, while others brought hammers and picks and began to chip away at the wall itself. -
Vaclav Havel elected president of Czechoslovakia
Havel was very outspoken about the Communist government in Czechoslovakia which made it very difficult for his plays and poems to become published. Havel was the leader of the Czech democratic government. -
1st general elections in Romania
This was the first election held after the overthrow of the Communist regime and as well as the first free elections held in the country since 1937. This was the first ever public presidential election held in Romania. -
Germany reunification takes place
It took a year later after the fall of the Berlin Wall for Germany to be re-unified. The two German states and the four Allies, France, Great Britain, the United States and the Soviet Union, pave the way for political reunification. -
Lech Walesa elected president of Poland
He led Poland's first independent trade union. He received the Noble Prize for Peace in 1983.
