The collapse of the Soviet system, 1989-1991

History · A Level: The end of the Cold War, 1975-1991 (exams to Nov 2026). The idea in plain words, the rules to remember, the mistake to avoid and a worked example, written and checked by Mega Lecture.

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The idea

In 1989 communist governments across Eastern Europe fell within months. Gorbachev had made it clear that Soviet troops would not save them, so popular protest and negotiation succeeded where they had been crushed in 1956 and 1968.

The opening of the Berlin Wall on 9 November 1989 became the symbol of the change. Germany was reunified in October 1990 and stayed in NATO.

Inside the USSR, glasnost released nationalism in the republics while the economy grew worse. Hardliners tried to stop reform in the August coup of 1991. Its failure destroyed the authority of the Communist Party and of Gorbachev, and the USSR was dissolved in December 1991.

Rules to remember

June 1989: Solidarity won almost every seat it could contest in Poland's partly free elections.
May 1989: Hungary began to remove its border fence with Austria. On 11 September 1989 it let East Germans cross to the West.
November 1989: 'Velvet Revolution' in Czechoslovakia. December 1989: violent revolution in Romania; Ceaușescu was executed.
December 1989: at the Malta summit Bush and Gorbachev signalled that the Cold War was ending.
3 October 1990: German reunification, after the Two Plus Four Treaty.
1991: the Warsaw Pact was dissolved. August 1991: the coup failed after resistance led by Boris Yeltsin.
December 1991: Russia, Ukraine and Belarus formed the CIS; Gorbachev resigned on 25 December.

Common mistake

Do not confuse the fall of the Berlin Wall (November 1989) with German reunification (October 1990) or with the end of the USSR (December 1991). They are three separate events.

Worked example

The plotters of August 1991 wanted to save the USSR. Why did their coup speed up its collapse instead?

The coup failed within days, which showed that the hardliners had lost control of the army and the people.
Yeltsin, who led the resistance in Moscow, gained authority, while Gorbachev looked weak.
The Communist Party was suspended, and republics declared independence one after another.

Answer: The failed coup discredited the Communist Party and the central government, so power passed to Yeltsin and the republics and the union broke apart.

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