During 1989 the world looked on with amusement as communist governments in Eastern Europe collapsed and were replaced with governments committed to democracy and the free market. The Soviet Union and its republics started to break apart and eventually got their independence. Political, Social and Economical factors all contributed to the fall of communism is Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union in the 1980"s and 1990"s.

             A major political factor was the ruling of Mikhail Gorbachev. He set up a reform known as Democratization. This allowed citizens to vote on people from one political party. He believed that if people had say in government it would fix some of the problems. Democratization led the Soviet Union into the transformation of a communist country to a democratic one. This did not happen over night but over a period of time. The people were angry at the fact that the Communist Party had not lived up to what it had promised which was in return for their obedience they would receive employment, free health care and a level of comfort. Once the Soviet Communist system began to fall, it would not stop until it was completely wiped out, just like the domino theory (Doc 2). Many people no longer liked the controlling ways of communism. Soviets wanted their freedom and right to make the track in which their life would follow instead of being told what job they had and what they would do. In document 3 the Rock Lyrics form the song "Get out of Control" portrayed the ideas of many people. This showed how communism controlled too much of people"s lives and it needed to end. These lyrics say that people should have the right to control their own lives. The Soviet Union was also losing a lot of power due to the Communist system. The countries that were being controlled wanted to rule themselves and set up their own governments. Most of the countries wanted to set up democratic governments.