Fall of communist regimes In East-Central Europe

The dramatic crisis of the economic system of the USSR and its satellites meant that the Soviets had to be less ambitious in the global confrontation, particularly as the US-governing Republicans left the Kremlin hardly any breathing space. As the Perestroika policy failed, Gorbachev had to agree in 1989 to the dismantling of the external part of the Soviet empire, so liberating East-Central Europe and marking the start of its systemic transformation and a road towards united Europe.