After their 1968 military intervention in Czechoslovakia, Soviet leaders worked to restore order and stability. Free expression and open protest disappeared throughout their satellite nations. Dissidents were blacklisted or imprisoned in jails or mental institutions. A rising standard of living helped ensure stability as well. The privileges enjoyed by the Communist Party elite also served as incentives for such elites to do as the state wished. Beneath this appearance of stability, however, the Soviet Union underwent a social revolution. The urban population expanded rapidly, as did the number of highly trained scientists, managers, and specialists. These educated people read, discussed, and formed definite ideas about social questions ranging from pollution to urban transportation, fostering the growth of Soviet public opinion.

When Mikhail Gorbachev (b. 1931) became premier in 1985, he set out to reform the Soviet system with policies he called democratic socialism. The first set of reforms was intended to transform and restructure the economy. This limited economic restructuring, perestroika, permitted freer prices, more autonomy for state enterprises, and the establishment of some profit-seeking private cooperatives. Gorbachev also launched a campaign of openness, or glasnost, introduced in 1985. Where censorship and uniformity had long characterized public discourse, the new frankness approached free speech and marked a significant shift.

Democratization under Gorbachev led to the first free elections in the Soviet Union since 1917. Gorbachev and the party remained in control, but an independent minority was elected in 1989 to a revitalized Congress of People’s Deputies. Democratization encouraged demands for greater autonomy from non-Russian minorities, especially in the Baltic region and in the Caucasus.

Finally, Gorbachev brought “new political thinking” to foreign affairs. He withdrew Soviet troops from Afghanistan in 1989 and sought to reduce Cold War tensions. Gorbachev pledged to respect the political choices of eastern Europe’s peoples. Soon after, a wave of peaceful revolutions swept across eastern Europe, overturning Communist regimes.

Poland led the way. In August 1980 strikes grew into a working-class revolt. Led by Lech Wałęsa (lehk vah-LEHN-suh) (b. 1943), workers organized the independent trade union Solidarity. Communist leaders responded by imposing martial law in December 1981 and arresting Solidarity’s leaders. Though outlawed, Solidarity maintained its organization and strong popular support. By 1988 labor unrest and inflation had brought Poland to the brink of economic collapse. Solidarity pressured Poland’s Communist Party leaders into legalizing Solidarity and allowing free elections in 1989 for some seats in the Polish parliament. Solidarity won every contested seat. A month later Solidarity member Tadeusz Mazowiecki (1927–2013) was sworn in as prime minister.

Czechoslovakia’s Velvet Revolution followed the dramatic changes in Poland and led to the peaceful ouster of Communist leaders. The Czech movement for democracy grew out of massive street protests led by students and intellectuals and resulted in the election of Václav Havel (VAH-slahf HAH-vuhl) as president in 1989. (See “Individuals in Society: Václav Havel.”)

Only in Romania was revolution violent. Communist dictator Nicolae Ceauşescu (chow-SHEHS-koo) (1918–1989) unleashed his security forces on protesters, sparking an armed uprising. After Ceaus¸escu’s forces were defeated, he and his wife were captured and executed.

Amid growing resistance, the Hungarian Communist Party scheduled free elections for early 1990. Hungarians tore down the barbed wire that separated Hungary and Austria (see Map 31.1) and opened their border to refugees from East Germany. As thousands of East Germans passed through Czechoslovakia and Hungary on their way to West Germany, a protest movement arose in East Germany. East Germany’s leaders relented and opened the Berlin Wall in November 1989, before being swept aside. An “Alliance for Germany” won general elections and negotiated an economic union with West Germany.

Two factors contributed to the rapid reunification of East and West Germany. First, in the first week after the Berlin Wall opened, almost 9 million East Germans poured across the border into West Germany. Almost all returned home, but their experiences in the West aroused long-dormant hopes of unity and change. Second, West German chancellor Helmut Kohl was successful in convincing American, Soviet, and European leaders that they need not fear a reunified Germany. In 1991 East and West Germany merged into a single nation under West Germany’s constitution and laws.

The great postcommunist tragedy was Yugoslavia, whose federation of republics and regions had been held together under Josip Tito’s Communist rule. After Tito’s death in 1980, power passed increasingly to the republics. Rising territorial and ethnic tensions were intensified by economic decline and charges of ethnically inspired massacres during World War II. The revolutions of 1989 accelerated the breakup of Yugoslavia. Serbian president Slobodan Milošević (SLOH-buh-dayn muh-LOH-suh-vihch) (1941–2006) attempted to grab land from other republics and unite all Serbs in a “greater Serbia.” His ambitions led to civil wars that between 1991 and 2001 engulfed Kosovo, Slovenia, Croatia, and Bosnia-Herzegovina (Map 32.2). In 1999 Serbian aggression prompted NATO air strikes, led by the United States, against the Serbian capital of Belgrade as well as against Serbian military forces until Miloševic´ relented. Miloševic´ was voted out of office in 2000. The new Serbian government extradited him to a United Nations war crimes tribunal in the Netherlands to stand trial for crimes against humanity.