ABSTRACT
The world knows that in Eastern Europe communism collapsed in 1989, and that the USSR set out ori a path that not only promises the end of socialism but threatens its very territorial integrity. Aside from being immediately and keenly interested in the events that have taken place in Eastern Europe in 1989 because these are reshaping the international political order, there is a fascinating, unexpected, revealing glimpse into how seemingly stable, enduring social systems fail and collapse. Although economic problems certainly contributed to the downfall of communism, the changing moral and political climate of Eastern Europe was the primary catalyst of the destruction. Revolutions only occur when elites and some significant portion of the general population—particularly intellectuals, but also ordinary people—have lost confidence in the moral validity of their social and political system. Most widely accepted sociological models of revolution provide limited help in explaining what happened in Eastern Europe in 1989.
