End of the Cold War the latter half of the 1980s slowly brought an end to the Cold War. In the soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachov took power. He wanted to open up the economy of the largest country on earth. His policy of glasnost and perestroika aimed at giving the Soviet population more freedom and right.
In 1989 Communism started to collapse in many parts of Eastern.
In November 1989 the Berlin Wall was torn down and East Germans were allowed to travel freely to the West. In 1991 the Soviet Union ceased to exist and broke up in 15 independent countries. Communism survived in only a few countries, including Cuba.