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Fall Of Communism Essay

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v The fall of communism in Poland also inspired the fall of communism throughout Eastern Europe in 1989, in a period sometimes referred to as the “Autumn of Nations” (a play on the Springtime of Nations used to describe the 1848 revolutions). Lech Walesa stated in an interview that he and the Poles "lost many battles along the way, but [they] peacefully won the war" (qtd. in Morris). A similar, drawn-out process to defeat communism occurred in other Eastern Bloc countries around this time. Pope John Paul II once said the following: "Freedom is not just something to have and to use, it is something to be fought for. One must use freedom to build with it personal life as well as the life of the nation" (qtd. in Walesa). Other nations in Eastern Europe followed this path, similar to Poland's, of fighting for freedom (Walesa). …show more content…

In Bulgaria and Romania, center-right parties became active on the political scene while reformed communists came into power ("Fall of Communism"). Remarkably, only the events in Romania turned violent ("Fall of Communism"). Ten months after reforms began in Hungary, Hungary adopted a new constitution which allowed a multi-party system as well as competition free elections ("Fall of Communism"). Additionally, the Berlin Wall came down in 1989 ("Fall of Communism"). Furthermore, the once-untouchable Soviet Union fell largely as a result of the collapse of its supporting communist nations. When Gorbachev decided to allow multi-party elections and create a Soviet presidency in 1990, the Soviet Union was slowly democratized until the Communist control destabilized and led to the collapse of the Soviet Union ("The Collapse of the Soviet

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