collapse of communism

Cultural  

1. A stunning series of events between 1989 and 1991 that led to the fall of communist regimes in eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. Faced with massive popular opposition and the unwillingness of President Mikhail Gorbachev to send Soviet troops to their rescue, communist governments lost power, first in Poland, where the communists agreed to free elections that swept into power candidates endorsed by Solidarity in June 1989. Demands for reform spread across East Germany in the fall of 1989 and led to the end of the Berlin Wall (see also Berlin Wall) and the unification of East and West Germany. In November 1989 the communist government of Czechoslovakia resigned, and in December a violent revolution led to the overthrow and execution of Romania's communist boss, Nicolae Ceausescu. The Bulgarian parliament revoked the Communist party's monopoly on power in 1990, and in 1991 popular opposition forced the resignation of the communist cabinet in Albania. The failure of a communist-led coup d'état against Mikhail Gorbachev in the Soviet Union in August 1991 ended the party's control of the military and government.

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Example Sentences

He recounts marveling at the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of communism, which released Eastern Europe from bondage and allowed his own country to emerge from the shadow of the Soviet Union.

From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 9, 2026

In addition to the descendants of the surviving German Jews, many Jews who now live in Berlin emigrated from the former Soviet Union after the collapse of communism in the early 1990s.

From Seattle Times • Jun. 22, 2023

He added however that Hungary, dominated by Moscow for decades before the collapse of communism, had a "moral obligation" to support the bid of the Nordic countries.

From Reuters • Feb. 24, 2023

He made a fortune after the collapse of communism through his Moscow-based hedge fund Hermitage Capital Management, investing in undervalued companies, driving up the share price and selling.

From New York Times • Dec. 29, 2022

In retrospect, as far as money laundering goes, September 11 may be perceived as a watershed as important as the precipitous collapse of communism in 1989.

From Crime and Corruption by Vaknin, Samuel