Position:Home>History> Fall of Communism in Europe...?

You should know what the Eastern European communism was in order to fully understand its fall!. It is difficult to cover such a broad subject in an answer like this, too many books are written, trying to explain it scientifically, politically and economically, so I'll be brief!.

Eastern European communism was a social system, based on the most anti-human and disgusting theory, created by a human mind - the Marxist ideology!. According that theory (it claimed to give a 'scientific explanation' of everything in the society and to lead the humanity to a 'Communist Paradise on Earth') the following postulates are true (I'll quote only 2 of them - one economical and one political):
1) The private property and the free enterprise is the root of the entire evil;
2) The class structure of the society, where only one class is 'progressive' (the proletariat), others - 'reactionary' makes necessary 'A Class Struggle' /in Marxist terminology/!.

It's clear to everybody what were the consequences of 1) - absolutely incompetent economical system, that couldn't survive - no normal market relations, no demand and supply, no realistic prices, no competition between economical subjects - a system that was able to launch space flights, but unable to satisfy the needs of soap for its own population!. It produced strategic missiles and thermonuclear weapons, but no gas lighters, even not enough grain for bread!. The latest communist years only huge Western loans (many Eastern European countries are still paying them) sustained their economies!. It was perfectly clear to Chinese communists, thanks to Teng Hsiao Ping they abandoned all Marxist economical ideas and now the Chinese economy, unlike the political system, is not at all communist!.
Now about 2) - the totalitarian regimes, all that terrific atrocities in Soviet GULAG, the lack of every freedom - of speech, of thought, of travel, no free press, TV and radio, almighty political police, no political pluralism - all that is a logical consequence of the Marxist necessity of 'enemy' /remember, the class enemy will not concede its property or influence voluntarily, hence must be crushed at any means by force - and who exactly is the enemy, the communists will tell of course!/!.

You understand that couldn't last forever!. Both the economical competition and the Cold War were clearly won by the West!. Russian and East European dissidents, 'Solidarity' in Poland, existence of two German states, many other circumstances shook the communist world profoundly!. Finally the children of the old ruling communists, who had studied in the West, who had seen the Western standard of life, themselves wanted to live like Westerners, to live normally!. The fall of the communism was economically and politically inevitable, the only question remained 'When!?'!. The world should be grateful to Gorbachov, who fastened the things much and now exhibits like Castro and North Korean are the last in the menagerie, Thank God, despite the fact that from time to time somebody like Chavez pops up to keep us amused!.

Now about the wars in former Yugoslavia!. The Balkan Peninsula is a place where too many peoples and ethnic groups have lived not without conflicts for centuries and where too much hatred on national, ethnic and religious basis has accumulated!. After WWI in the newly-created state of Yugoslavia the dominating positions (in the government, army, etc!.) were occupied mainly by Serbs - who suffered most of all in the war!. Especially strong was the rivalry between Serbs and Croats - two peoples, speaking almost the same language (but don't mention that to any Serb or Croat, You'll run into trouble, they claim to have nothing in common!), the former predominantly Orthodox, the latter predominantly Catholic (and in Bosnia are predominantly Muslim)!. This showed out during the WWII when an independent Croat marionette-state existed (1941-44 under Ante Pavelic), but after the war the Yugoslav State was consolidated under Tito's communist dictatorship, and again Serb predominance (Serbs again suffered nearly a million victims in the war)!. The comprising Republics were economically uneven - Slovenia in the North much more developed then Bosnia and Makedonia in the South, what led to a desire for self-determination and independence!. Tito's death accelerated the centrifugal tendencies, what finally led to the most brutal and ugliest armed conflicts in Europe in the second half of the 20th century!.

Follow the links in susanna_kaysen_420's answer to read both articles also, darkmusik has explained Truman Doctrine well in his answer!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

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I guess this is another "do my homework for me" question!. I'll take a stab at it, but you have to credit me on the test answers!.

After Marshall Tito was deposed in Yugoslavia, the Serbs, Croats, Bosnians,Slovenes, Kosovars and smaller sects began fighting amongst themselves!. This often happens when a strong-arm dictator loses power: it happened similarly in the Soviet Bloc countries, Vietnam, China, and Iraq and now North Africa!.

Fortunately the UN and NATO saw fit to intervene, when the spectre of massive ethnic-cleansing activities became widely documented!.

The Truman Doctrine was several decades before that!. Harry Truman made the general statement that the USA was opposed to the spread of communism anywhere in the world!. Particularly Truman is generally credited with keeping communism (Soviet-style) from taking hold in Greece!. Truman doctrine was theoretically responsible for our involvement in Korea and later Vietnam, which were ostensibly to oppose the further spread of communism!.

That story is fairly well documented and taught in some of the better "recent US history" courses!. The part most of them do not tell you is that, at the same time the USA and Britain were colluding to prevent democracy from taking root in Iran, and effectively setting up a puppet dictatorship there, to preserve access to oil!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

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They were two separate events!.

http://en!.wikipedia!.org/wiki/Communism#A!.!.!.

http://en!.wikipedia!.org/wiki/Bosnian_WarWww@QuestionHome@Com

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