3. What events marked the end of the Soviet Union?

A number of events and uprisings in the 1980 are led to the collapse of the Soviet Union. USSR's leader, Gorbachev, had a policy of openness a called Glasnost. He wanted people to talk openly about strengths and weaknesses of USSR. Then, in 1988, in Poland, a union leader, Lech Walesa, demonstrated in support of unions and their workers. The Polish government later gave into the Union demands for Solidarity. Next, in Czechoslovakia in 1988-1989, there were mass demonstrations against communism to be soon let free from it. Havel was the leader and became first president of the new Czechoslovakia. Next in 1989, the Berlin Wall was opened and people could travel back and forth, and later Germany was reunited into one democratic not communist country. Last, in the Soviet Union, the failed August Coup in 1991 led to the end of the Communist party in USSR. All of these events led to the end of communism and the making of a democratic Russia.