Jacques Lévesque

The Emancipation of Eastern Europe

The end of the Cold War was the result of a complex and murky process of change in Soviet domestic and foreign policy. Up to 1989, many Soviet experts and Western leaders were still skeptical of the importance of the changes that were taking place in both realms of Soviet policy. Even those who were convinced that they were genuine and significant could not accurately measure their depth. In this respect, Soviet tolerance and even acceptance of the loss of power by the ruling Communist Parties of Eastern Europe in 1989 was a crucial turning point. It was the single most decisive indicator of the magnitude of the changes under way in the USSR.