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Which term describes the Soviet policy that expanded freedom of the press and allowed criticism of the Communist Party during the Cold War?
glasnot
What events signaled the end of the Cold War?
The end of the cold war between the United States and the Soviet Union was not based on just two events. The cold war began to lose steam with Mikhail Gorbachev's policies of perestroika (reform and/or restructuring of the Soviet Union) and glasnot (openness). It was not Gorbachev's intention to bring communism to an end but that was the result. It was the collapse of the Soviet Union (and the incredible and rapid events of 1989 in Eastern Europe) which brought the end to the Soviet Union and the cold war. Once the Soviet Union no longer could afford to finance their satellite states or provide military assistance, the Eastern Bloc of countries were in no position to fight off the brave citizens who protested, demonstrated, and demanded reform. They lost their power and one by one, communist countries faded from the globe to be replaced with a new Socialism and their own form of democracy (think Poland and Solidarity, the overthrow of Ceausescu's Romanian Dictatorship, Hungary removing the barbed wire from its border with Germany, the Velvet Revolution and Velvet Divorce of Checkoslovakia) The changes came with a flurry in 1989 and concluded with the demise of the Soviet Union in 1991.
