ABSTRACT
As the Soviet Union began to turn its back on Communist rule, and went from an indissoluble Union to separate and independent Republics within a Commonwealth of Independent States (establish 21 December 1991) the countries of Eastern Europe, each of which had come under the military, economic and ideological control of Moscow in 1945, took their final steps towards democracy and independence, including the dissolving, in July 1991, of the Warsaw Pact military alliance, which had been a central feature of the Cold War and of the East-West divide since 1955
