During the 1980s, Europe was divided by the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the West which had followed World War I. In 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev became leader of the Soviet Union. He knew that the huge burden of military spending was crippling the Soviet economy and made the first move towards resolving the Cold War. In 1987 he proposed a unilateral 50% cut in nuclear weapons at a meeting with the President of the United States, Ronald Reagan. By 1989, Gorbachev and the new President, George Bush, agreed that the Cold War was over.

Gorbachev was not so successful with his policies at home. Two words were associated with his ideas for internal reform: perestroika (restructuring) was applied to the economy, which was to operate on market principles and not by the dictates of the Communist Part. Glasnost (openness or publicity) was supposed to encourage debate in the Party. Censorship was relaxed and soon ordinary people began to criticise Communism itself. Gorbachev himself remained a Communist, unable to move to a full democratic political system.

The fever of reform spread to the countries under Soviet control. Poland, Hungary, East Germany and Czechoslovakia declared their independence. By 1991, the Soviet Union had ceased to exist and Gorbachev was forced to resign.