The Collapse of Communism and the End of the Cold War

The collapse of communism in Eastern Europe and the end of the Cold War. Gorbachev's reforms — glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring) — and the decisive abandonment of the Brezhnev Doctrine; the revolutions of 1989 in Poland (Solidarity's electoral victory) and Hungary; the fall of the Berlin Wall on 9 November 1989; and an evaluation of the relative significance of internal pressures and external forces in bringing about the collapse.