Επαναστάσεις του 1989

Revolutions of 1989
the Cold War
Ημερομηνία	4 June 1989 – 26 December 1991 (2 έτη, 6 μήνες, 3 εβδομάδες και 1 ημέρα)
Τόπος	Central and Eastern Europe
Αίτια	Political repression Authoritarianism Religious persecution Severe economic crisis Consumerist pressure
Στόχοι	Economic reforms including privatisation of state-owned industry Democracy Civil liberty National self-determination Free and fair elections Right to recall of elected officials Political freedoms Labour rights Human rights Open borders Free markets
Μέθοδοι	Mass protests Civil unrest Riots
Αποτέλεσμα	End of the Soviet Union as a superpower and its dissolution, bringing the Cold War to an end Dissolution of Warsaw Pact and the Eastern Bloc New world order as the United States became the world's sole superpower Formation of the Russian Federation and 14 other states from the former Soviet Union Dismantling of the command economies and privatization of state-owned industry Transfer of power to pro-capitalist governments in Poland, Hungary, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, Mongolia and Albania Communists recast themselves into adherents of social democracy and democratic socialism Reunification of Germany Unification of Yemen Breakup of Czechoslovakia Breakup of Yugoslavia and the beginning of the Yugoslav Wars Scepticism about Communism all over the world associated with decreasing support for various Communist and left-wing parties, especially in Europe and Asia: collapse of Communism in Afghanistan, Angola, Benin, Congo-Brazzaville, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Somalia and Yemen The spread of Western culture and capitalism to previously sealed-off Communist countries, including Russia and Eastern Europe Expansion of the Internet in former Communist countries End of the Soviet–Afghan War Suppression of the Chinese democracy movement Beginning of the Special Period in Cuba
Εμπλεκόμενες πλευρές
Citizens of Eastern Bloc nations
Σχετικά πολυμέσα
δεδομένα ()

An animated series of maps showing the fall of the Communist regimes in Eastern Europe and the disintegration of the Soviet Union which later leads to some conflicts in the post-Soviet space

Οι επαναστάσεις του 1989 αποτέλεσαν μέρος ενός επαναστατικού κύματος στα τέλη της δεκαετίας του 1980 και στις αρχές της δεκαετίας του 1990 που οδήγησε στο τέλος της κομμουνιστικής κυριαρχίας στην Κεντρική και Ανατολική Ευρώπη και πέραν αυτής. Η περίοδος αποκαλείται μερικές φορές Φθινόπωρο των Εθνών, ένα παιχνίδι με τον όρο Άνοιξη των Εθνών που μερικές φορές χρησιμοποιείται για να περιγράψει τις επαναστάσεις του 1848.

The events of the full-blown revolution first began in Poland in 1989 and continued in Hungary, East Germany, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia and Romania. One feature common to most of these developments was the extensive use of campaigns of civil resistance, demonstrating popular opposition to the continuation of one-party rule and contributing to the pressure for change. Romania was the only Eastern Bloc country whose citizens overthrew its Communist regime violently. Protests in Tiananmen Square (April–June 1989) failed to stimulate major political changes in China, but influential images of courageous defiance during that protest helped to precipitate events in other parts of the globe. On 4 June 1989, the trade union Solidarity won an overwhelming victory in a partially free election in Poland, leading to the peaceful fall of Communism in that country in the summer of 1989. Also in June 1989, Hungary began dismantling its section of the physical Iron Curtain, leading to an exodus of East Germans through Hungary, which destabilised East Germany. This led to mass demonstrations in cities such as Leipzig and subsequently to the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989, which served as the symbolic gateway to German reunification in 1990.

The Soviet Union dissolved in December 1991, resulting in eleven new countries (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan) which had declared their independence from the Soviet Union in the course of the year while the Baltic states (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania) regained their independence in September 1991. The rest of the Soviet Union, which constituted the bulk of the area, became the Russian Federation in December 1991. Albania and Yugoslavia abandoned Communism between 1990 and 1992. By 1992, Yugoslavia had split into five successor states, namely Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Slovenia and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, which was later renamed Serbia and Montenegro in 2003 and eventually split in 2006 into two states, namely Serbia and Montenegro. Serbia was then further split with the breakaway of the partially recognised state of Kosovo in 2008. Czechoslovakia dissolved three years after the end of Communist rule, splitting peacefully into the Czech Republic and Slovakia in 1992. The impact of these events made itself felt in several Socialist countries. Communism was abandoned in countries such as Cambodia (1991), Ethiopia (1990), Mongolia (which in 1990 democratically re-elected a Communist government that ran the country until 1996) and South Yemen (1990).

During the adoption of varying forms of market economy, there was a general decline in living standards for many former Communist countries. Political reforms were varied, but in only four countries were Communist parties able to retain a monopoly on power, namely China, Cuba, Laos and Vietnam (North Korea went through a constitutional change in 2009 that made it nominally no longer Communist, but still de facto organised on Stalinist lines). Many communist and socialist organisations in the West turned their guiding principles over to social democracy and democratic socialism. Communist parties in Italy and San Marino suffered and the reformation of the Italian political class took place in the early 1990s. In South America, the Pink tide had instead begun, starting with Venezuela in 1999 and sweeping through the early 2000s. The European political landscape changed drastically, with several former Eastern Bloc countries joining NATO and the European Union, resulting in stronger economic and social integration with Western Europe and the United States.