1. THE MODERN WORLD The Fall of Communism

3. WORKERS IN POLAND  In 1980, Polish workers went on strike because of food prices gone high.  They had a non-Communist union called Solidarity.  Fearing a national revolt, the communist authorities yielded to the workers’ principal demands.  Poland’s first deputy premier, signed an agreement conceding to the workers the right to organize freely and independently.

5. CHANGES IN THE SOVIET UNION  In 1985 Gorbachev introduced a major campaign against corruption and alcoholism.  He also spoke about the need for Perestroika (Restructuring) and this heralded a series of liberalizing economic, political and cultural reforms which had the aim of making the Soviet economy more efficient.Perestroika  In 1987 he met with Ronald Reagan and signed the Immediate Nuclear Forces (INF) abolition treaty.Ronald Reagan

7. FALL OF THE IRON CURTAIN  In this June 27, 1989 file picture, then Hungarian Foreign Minister Gyula Horn, right, and his Austrian counterpart Alois Mock cut through the barbed wire of the former Iron Curtain marking the border between East and West in Sopron, Hungary.

9. END OF THE SOVIET UNION  Some Soviet Communists tried to overthrow Gorbachev in August 1991.  The Soviet people responded by tearing down symbols of communism.  The Communists lost power the Soviet Union came to an end.  Gorbachev resigned as Soviet president, and Boris Yeltsin became leader of the Soviet Union.