Influences on the Fall of the Soviet Bloc

The collapse of the Soviet Bloc, and subsequently the Soviet Union between 1989 and 1991 was dramatically played out on our TV screens. For 40 years the Soviet Union had been the evil 'other' of Western liberal democracies, and Cold War politics affected not only politicians but also all members of society who lived constantly under the threat of nuclear annihilation, to the effect that it became 'part of the furniture' of the structure of the world order.…