The Autumn of Nations: 1989, the Fall of Communism Quiz

Answer: Brezhnev Doctrine

The Brezhnev Doctrine held that an attack on one communist country by capitalism was an attack on all. Essentially this meant that the Soviet Union considered itself at liberty to intervene in the internal affairs of other Eastern Bloc countries.

The communist governments of Eastern Europe were not keen on the policies of glasnost and perestroika which Gorbachev had initiated in the Soviet Union. However, Gorbachev's revocation of the Brezhnev Doctrine signaled to opposition groups within these countries that the Soviet Union would not intervene in their internal affairs and encouraged them to push for reform.

More commonly referred to as the Fall of Communism, the Autumn of Nations not only refers to the fact that these revolutions occurred in the latter part of 1989 but harks back to the revolutions of 1848 which swept across Europe and were known as the 'Spring of Nations'.

Answer: Poland

The opposition group, Solidarity, was legalised early in 1989. In June of that year it won 99 of the 100 parliamentary seats it was allowed to contest, and in September Tadeusz Mazowiecki became Poland's first non-communist prime minister since the Second World War.

Answer: Solidarity

Solidarity was founded in 1980 in the shipyards of Gdansk. Led by Lech Walesa, it was soon banned by the communist government. However, it emerged from this banishment to topple the communist regime, with Walesa becoming Poland's first non-communist president since the Second World War, serving from 1990 to 1995.

Answer: Czechoslovakia

In November of 1989 a peaceful demonstration was brutally broken up by the Czechoslovakian riot police, prompting a wave of further demonstrations and a general strike. Realising it could no longer maintain its grip on power, the Communist Party renounced its monopoly and a largely non-communist government was ushered in at the end of November with former dissident, Vaclav Havel, being elected president in December.

The Velvet Revoultion referred to the smooth and bloodless nature of the transition.

In 1993 the country went through the 'Velvet Divorce' when Slovakia broke away as an independent republic.

Answer: Hungary

The Hungarian Communist Party renamed itself the Hungarian Socialist Party. On 23rd October 1989 the People's Republic of Hungary became the Republic of Hungary in another bloodless transition.

Answer: East Germany

When Hungary began to liberalise and opened its borders with Austria in September of 1989, thousands of East German holidaymakers then in Hungary took the opportunity to flee through Austria to West Germany. Eventually the East German government was forced to open its previously firmly-guarded border with West Germany. Most East Germans were delirious with joy and it wasn't long before the hated Berlin Wall, which had divided Berlin for more than twenty years, was torn down.

The German Democratic Republic ceased to exist when East and West Germany were finally reunited in October, 1990.

Answer: Romania

The Communist government of Romania tried to violently suppress the liberal demonstrations. It was a policy that spectacularly backfired. The Romanian president, Nicolae Ceausescu called a rally in the capital Bucharest but was astounded when the crowd massed below started to boo him. Soon bloody fighting broke out on the streets of the Bucharest and other major cities.

The army sided with the revolutionaries, toppling Ceausescu's government and his hated security police - Securitate.

Answer: Erich Honecker

Honecker had been the East German leader since 1971 but proved unable to deal with growing demands for greater freedoms and unification with West Germany and was replaced by Egon Krenz. Krenz was unpopular and ruled for only a few months before being replaced by Modrow.

In 1990, de Maiziere became the first and only democratically elected leader of the GDR and also the first and last non-communist leader before East Germany was reunited with West Germany in October 1990.

Answer: Nicolae Ceausescu

Ceausescu completely misunderstood the public mood, he and his family were hated by the Romanian people for their repression and extravagant lifestyles. Following their capture, Ceausescu and his wife Elena, the deputy prime minister, were tried by a drum-head court martial, convicted of treason after two hours and executed by firing squad forthwith. The only leaders to lose their lives in the revolutions, their corpses were shown on Romanian television.

Husak was the leader of Czechoslovakia, Jaruzelski of Poland and Zhivkov of Bulgaria. Zhivkov was forced to resign by the Bulgarian Communist Party in November, 1989 but was this was not enough to keep them in power and they were forced to renounce their monopoly the following February.

Answer: Ukrainian SSR

The chain stretched over 600km from Lithuania in the south, through Latvia to Estonia and comprised approximately two million people. It was formed on 23rd August 1989, the fiftieth anniversary of the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact which had effectively consigned Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia to Soviet rule.

Although not strictly part of the Autumn of Nations it was part of the same wave of popular feeling that would lead to the Fall of Communism in Eastern Europe and ultimately to the independence of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania and the collapse of the Communist regime in Moscow.