Anthony Weaver 
The Collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe in 1989-90 [PDF ebook] 

Research Paper (undergraduate) from the year 1997 in the subject Politics — History of Political Systems, grade: MSc, Birkbeck, University of London (University of London), course: MSc, language: English, abstract: This paper outlines the historical collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe, and gives the main factors behind the rapid collapse of the communist regimes in the years 1989 and 1990.
1989 saw the Communist Satellite States of Eastern Europe swept away by a dramatic, rapid series of popular revolutions, in what was dubbed an annus mirabilis, or year of miracles. The Revolutions of 1989-90 took the whole world by surprise, as the Soviet-style systems which had seemed so deeply entrenched were suddenly swept away; even if signs of systemic decay had been apparent for many years. The revolutions took place first in Hungary and Poland and then rapidly in East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria and Romania (Schopflin: 1993: P224).