Revolutions of 1989
Autumn of Nations is the term used for the events that took place in Central and Eastern Europe in the autumn of 1989, where various communism satellite states of the Soviet Union have been overthrown in the space of few months[1]. The name of this event comes from similar 19th century series of events known as the Spring of Nations[2]. The Autumn of Nations begun in Poland[3]. and sparked similar, mostly peaceful revolutions in East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria, while Romania was the only Eastern Bloc country to violently overthrow its Communist regime and execute its leaders. [4] This event has drastically altered the world's balance of power, marking (together with the Collapse of the Soviet Union) the end of the Cold War and the begining of the Post-Cold War era.
History
Polish Solidarity Citizens' Committee election poster for elections of 1989.
The Autumn of Nations can be traced to the election of Polish bishop, Karol Wojtyła, for Pope John Paul II, and to 1980s, when the Gdańsk Agreement led to the creation of Polish trade union Solidarity[5]. This set in motion the chain of events that would culminate in 1989. Before that, in 1985, it was given further momentum when Mikhail Gorbachev, the First Secretary of the Soviet Union, introduced a set of reforms (perestroika and glasnost). This signaled that Soviet Union was less likely to 'come to the rescue' of its falling satellite states, and in 1988 the weakened government of Poland engaged in negoatiations with the anti-communist opposition during the famous Polish Round Table Agreement. This agreement paved the way for the Solidarity victory in the Polish elections of 1989, marking the end of the People's Republic of Poland when Tadeusz Mazowiecki became the first non-communist premier of Poland since 1945, and Lech Wałęsa became the president of Poland.
The Polish events were mirrored in Hungary, where negotiations between government and the opposition led to the change in that country's constitution in October 1989. At the same time, the increasing migration from East Germany to Federal Republic of Germany resulted in the fall of the infamous Berlin Wall and German reunification by 1990. In November 1989, the Czechoslovakian Velvet Revolution led the overthrow of the communist government; on 7th December the government of Bulgaria started talks with the opposition and in the Romanian Revolution the communist dictator Nicolae Ceauşescu was deposed and executed.
Withing a year, the Autumn of Nations reached the people of the Soviet Union itself (in the March 11 of 1990, Lithuania declared independence). The collapse of the Soviet Union would take place 2 years later, in 1991, with many former Soviet republics (like the Baltic States, the Ukraine and Belarus), breaking away and becoming independent countries.
Consequences
The Autumn of Nations have drastially altered the balance of power, marking the end of the Cold War. Many former Soviet Union satellites have formed alliances with the 'West', abandoning communism and structures like the Warsaw Pact and COMECON, and becoming members (or aspiring to the membership) of NATO and European Union. Soviet Union has also renounced communism and transformed into modern Russia, and as its influence waned it's troops (and nuclear weapons) have been pulled back from into its own borders.