The Warsaw Pact

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The Fall of Communism in Eastern Europe During the Cold War, tensions between NATO forces and members of the Warsaw Pact are still at a standstill. A similar characteristic between all of these revolutions is a repeating cycle or a domino effect within the region. Each country’s revolution had its citizen’s protest against the government. The government would respond in many ways. Some would go through non-violent transitions the control of power or through a violent revolution leading to the death of the people in control. What all of these revolutions did achieve is the downfall of their Communist governments and reformations of their laws. This essay explains the fall of multiple Communist governments in Eastern Europe and what those countries …show more content…

The removal of Janos Kadar as Secretary General of the Communist Party causes the beginning of major reforms within the country. Hungary was suffering from an economic crisis, and need to find a way to save itself from collapsing. Parliament removed its Stalinist principles with Western influenced laws. A large group of reforms called “democracy package” included freedom of the press, a new constitution, and allowed multiple parties, which allowed for more choice for the people. Hungary also opened up the 150 mile border along Austria. This however caused an immigration of thousands of East Germans going to West …show more content…

This prompted Gorbachev to go to East Berlin. He was going to do a speech on the 40th anniversary of the country. East Germany’s planned economy was not catching up to the economies of West Germany and Western nations. Along with a rising national debt, accusations of electoral fraud by the government made people more frustrated at the government. State secret police known as the Stasi is regarded as one of the most notorious intelligent agencies to have ever existed. Millions of Germans were spied on and collected their personal information. The first wave of peaceful protests in East Germany known as the Monday demonstrations was held at St. Nicolas Church in Leipzig. Over 10,000 people were at these protests. The SED responded by sending armed security along with spies to blend in with the protesters. A second wave of demonstrations called The Alexanderplatz demonstration demanded for government reform. Nearly half a million people marched to East

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