WORLD REFLECTS ON THE END OF COLD WAR, COMMUNISM IN EASTERN EUROPE

By autumn of 1989, the end of the Cold War and Communist rule in eastern Europe was a foregone conclusion.

The Soviet Union had abandoned its nine-year war with Afghanistan and had pulled out of most of its satellite countries. Premier Mikhail Gorbachev’s glasnost policy created openness and transparency in the USSR. And the millions of people who had lived for decades under Communist dictatorships began a peaceful revolution.

But it was one very symbolic night, 20 years ago today, broadcast live around the world, that would forever signify the end of the “Iron Curtain.”

On Nov. 9, 1989, thousands of Germans poured into the streets of Berlin to, as President Ronald Reagan had so famously asked, “tear down that wall.”

For nearly three decades, the Berlin Wall had been a symbol of fear, death and division. It was constructed by the Soviet army to keep communist East Germany separate from the west.

But on that historic day 20 years ago, that all ended. And we are all better off for it.

Readers on the BBC website offered their memories of the wall’s fall.

“The Wall went down as I was phoning my parents who were still living in East Germany,” wrote Stefan Gross of Berlin. “That night I immediately went to the Brandenburg Gate and stood on top of the Wall. I later jumped down onto the Communist side and provoked the border guards. Fortunately they didn’t shoot me and even helped me up the Wall again. Over the next few days I went to the Wall and helped to bring down this disgrace.”

It is estimated that over 130 people were killed trying to cross at the wall during its 29 year existence. Many were simply defectors looking for a better, freer life for their family.

Today, their children and grandchildren can finally have that life they so desperately wanted.

Photo: Getty Images