6.5 End of the Cold War

Learning Target 27: Explain how the collapse of communist governments in Eastern Europe and the USSR brought an end to the Cold War era.

The collapse of communist governments in Eastern Europe and the USSR brought an end to the Cold War. There were multiple causes for the collapse of communist governments in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union.

The result was a lessening of the tensions between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. that characterized the Cold War period. Several communist governments in Eastern Europe gave up power following mass demonstrations for democracy.

The collapse of the Soviet Union resulted in independent republics that moved to create democratic reforms and introduce free market economies. This brought an end to the Cold War era. The political and economic turmoil occurring in some of the new governments posed new challenges for the United States. The U.S. supported economic and education reforms by providing assistance to some of the former communist countries.