The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 marked the beginning of the end of the Soviet empire. A series of largely peaceful revolutions overthrew Soviet-backed communist regimes across Eastern Europe, beginning in Poland and spreading within months to Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, East Germany and Romania.

The Kremlin’s crucial decision not to intervene to save its Eastern European Communist allies effectively ended the East-West divide that had dominated international relations for much of the twentieth century – a divide symbolised by the Berlin Wall itself.   Continue reading →