ThE CoLlApSe oF CoMmUniSm

the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe were that it had no popular support, political downfall, and economic problems. The fact that the USSR had gained all of its money from the Eastern European states (after world war 2), Stalin's paranoia of the West forced him to put all that money into defensive arms and therefore none of that money was being channeled into the country. Many historians would argue that it was at this point that the USSR began its downward spiral and this is were the country began its snowball effect.
the Soviets ran their sector as a communist one. The wall was built in 1961 to prevent the Soveits' people in the east from escaping into the West which was better. People still tried to get over. They dug tunnels and jumperd out of windows. People died trying to cross-a total of 239 deaths from the wall. There were about 5000 escapes. Ronald Reagan (US President from 1981-1989) had came over to the Brandenburg gate to give a speech to the Soveit Leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, and the West Berliners. East Berliners heard the speech through their radioes. He wanted the wall down since their was tension between the US and USSR with the Space Race and Nuclear Weapons that had happened in the past. He wanted to be on better terms with the Soveits and realized the struggle of the people