People's Century: 1900-1999

1989: People Power (1x25)

Fecha de emisión: Feb 16, 1997

By the 1970s the people in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe were becoming aware of the economic failures of central planning. Propaganda and an intrusive security apparatus were now needed to maintain control, particularly after the appearance of Western consumer goods and culture in the Eastern Block, and Pope John Paul II's visit to Poland, raised public discontent with their entrenched governments. From 1985 new Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev introduces reforms to encourage openness and initiatives to stop stagnation. Gorbachev also allows Eastern Europe to set their own destinies. In 1989 Hungary begins dismantling the Iron Curtain and Poland holds free elections; the absence of a Soviet response encourages people in the more hard-line states of East Germany, Czechoslovakia and Romania to eventually overthrow their leaders. Gorbachev's reforms triggers an unsuccessful coup in 1991, eventually leading to the end of the Communist Party and the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The introductory scene shows the fall of the Berlin Wall.