History UsefulNotes / HoleInFlag

Armenia and Azerbaijan immediately started fighting each other over the ethnic Armenian region in Azerbaijan known as Nagorno Karabakh. The conflict ended with Armenian control of the region with a Russian backed cease fire. Border clashes still continue to this day, with a renewed Azerbaijani offensive decades later taking a large amount of land before finally staging a full invasion of Nagorno Karabakh in 2023 and quickly overrunning the Armenian forces. Most of the ethnic Armenian population has since fled back to Armenia proper. Both countries are currently doing just okay domestically, but both have sharp corruption and economic issues. Armenia is mostly relying on its Iranian neighbor for a clear border with trade as it can't get exports from its Russian allies directly, while Azerbaijan relies on its cultural "big brother" Turkey, with Azerbaijan being a mostly non religious state and an Israeli ally pissing off Iran to no end. Iran itself has no interest in seeing Azeri nationalism spread, given that Iran has a large number of Azeris within it.

->''"Dear comrades and friends, citizens of the capital of Socialist Romania! First, I wish to extend to you, participants of this great popular meeting, and all residents of the Bucharest municipality, warm revolutionary greetings, and wish you success in all your endeavors. I wish also to thank the initiators and organizers of this great popular demonstration in Bucharest, and I consider it an... what? Wait, no! What? Comrades! Comrades, stay quiet! Comrades...?"''

Armenia and Azerbaijan immediately started fighting each other over the ethnic Armenian region in Azerbaijan known as Nagorno Karabakh. The conflict ended with Armenian control of the region with a Russian backed cease fire. Border clashes still continue to this day, with a renewed Azerbaijani offensive decades later taking a large amount of land. Both countries are currently doing just okay domestically, but both have sharp corruption and economic issues. Armenia is mostly relying on its Iranian neighbor for a clear border with trade as it can't get exports from its Russian allies directly, while Azerbaijan relies on its cultural "big brother" Turkey, with Azerbaijan being a mostly non religious state and an Israeli ally pissing off Iran to no end. Iran itself has no interest in seeing Azeri nationalism spread, given that Iran has a large number of Azeris within it.

Armenia, Russia, Kazkahstan and Belarus (which ironically have high concentrations of Neo Soviets, displeased with the results of post communist life) are currently within the Eurasian Economic Union, the closest thing to a neo USSR at the moment, but it's a very loose binding. Azerbaijan is definitely "Turkey aligned" and the other Central Asian nations are doing their own thing, so that leads us to...

Ukraine and Moldova both have breakaway Russian territories in their east. Moldova has Ukraine between it and Russia, so it's unlikely to face any land wars soon; but Putin annexed the Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 (it had been transferred from the Russian SSR to the Ukrainian one in 1954), and shortly afterwards Donbas -- the easternmost part of Ukraine bordering on Russia, just west of the Don -- rose up against the Ukrainian government, in a spontaneous insurgency that ''just happened'' to have access to cutting-edge Russian tanks, artillery, and anti-aircraft systems, led by a Russian general, and manned in part by vacationing Russian soldiers. Neither side has managed to decisively defeat the other, and in February 2022, the situation escalated further with Russia launching a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Armenia and Azerbaijan immediately started fighting each other over the ethnic Armenian region in Azerbaijan known as Nagorno Karabakh. The conflict ended with Armenian control of the region with a Russian backed cease fire. Border clashes still continue to this day, with a renewed Azerbaijani offensive decades later taking a large number of land. Both countries are currently doing just okay domestically, but there is sharp corruption and economic issues in each nation. Armenia is mostly relying on its Iranian neighbor for a clear border with trade as it can't get exports from its Russian allies directly while Azerbaijan relies on its cultural "big brother" Turkey, with Azerbaijan being a mostly non religious state and an Israeli ally pissing off Iran to no end. Iran itself has no interest in seeing Azeri nationalism spread, given that Iran has a large number of Azeris within it.

Ukraine and Moldova both have breakaway Russian territories in their east. Moldava has Ukraine between it and Russia, so it's unlikely to face any land wars soon; but Putin annexed the Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 (it had been transferred from the Russian SSR to the Ukrainian one in 1954), and shortly afterwards Donbas -- the easternmost part of Ukraine bordering on Russia, just west of the Don -- rose up against the Ukrainian government, in a spontaneous insurgency that ''just happened'' to have access to cutting-edge Russian tanks, artillery, and anti-aircraft systems, led by a Russian general and manned in part by vacationing Russian soldiers. Neither side has managed to decisively defeat the other, and in February 2022, the situation escalated further with Russia launching a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The Georgian, Ukrainian, and Moldovan economies are not very good. Georgia and Ukraine were initially ruled by cronyist dictators, then had those governments replaced by overly raw free-market economies (protectionism is historically necessary to let local industries develop); both are also primarily agricultural. Soviet policy was to build factories in the outlying, under-developed parts of the country - which is how Georgia's main exports are red wine, cheese, and SU-27s.

Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine have also seen "Color Revolutions" -- Westernizing democratic revolutions, improving human rights but not necessarily the economy. The Russian wars against them after these revolutions were probably to keep them out of NATO: Russia's main asset in a conventional land war is strategic depth[[note]]Read: vast tracts of expendable territory between places where people outnumber bears.[[/note]], and if Ukraine was in NATO, then the alliance would have territory just sixty miles from Volgograd; if Georgia was in NATO, air forces would be less than an hour from the Baku oil fields.

East Germany, although a pretty good place to live in many regions, [[AlwaysSomeoneBetter is still the least developed part of Germany]] and suffers from very strange politics. The Communist government's official policy was that all East Germans had been patriotic resisters during the Second World War ''and no one was to say anything more than that''. This put the problems of the 1930s and 1940s on ice with Nazis being punished and nothing more, rather than systematically getting rid of them and rejecting their views to ensure a cultural shift like in the west, and today East Germany has a disconcertingly large number of both neo-Communists and neo-Nazis. Many of these Neo Nazis are from the younger generation born after Communism whose community couldn't deal with liberalization and blamed the far left regime before for their problems, while Neo Communists see the DDR as a preferable alternative to the EU. Thus, both the GDR's successor socialist party and more far right parties do a bit more well in East Germany, much to the distress of western Germans who don't want to deal with another authoritarian Germany.

Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine have also seen "Color Revolutions" -- Westernizing democratic revolutions, improving human rights but not necessarily the economy. The Russian wars against them after these revolutions were probably to keep them out of NATO: Russia's main asset in a conventional land war is strategic depth, and if Ukraine was in NATO, then the alliance would have territory just sixty miles from Volgograd; if Georgia was in NATO, air forces would be less than an hour from the Baku oil fields.

Ukraine and Moldova both have breakaway Russian territories in their east. Moldava has Ukraine between it and Russia, so it's unlikely to face any land wars soon; but Putin annexed the Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 (it had been transferred from the Russian SSR to the Ukrainian one in 1954), and shortly afterwards Donbas -- the easternmost part of Ukraine bordering on Russia, just west of the Don -- rose up against the Ukrainian government, in a spontaneous insurgency that ''just happened'' to have access to cutting-edge Russian tanks, artillery, and anti-aircraft systems, led by a Russian general and manned in part by vacationing Russian soldiers. Neither side has managed to decisively defeat the other.

*
** Although not written specifically about the falling Eastern Bloc regimes of the time, Music/{{Scorpions|Band}}' "Wind of Change" and Music/{{U2}}'s "One" heavily featured imagery of it in the music videos.
** "Right Here, Right Now" by Music/JesusJones actually was written specifically about 1989 and the fall of Communism.
-->"I saw the decade end/I saw the world change in the blink of an eye"

** Although not written specifically about the falling Eastern Bloc regimes of the time, Music/{{Scorpions}}' "Wind of Change" and Music/{{U2}}'s "One" heavily featured imagery of it in the music videos.

->''"Dear comrades and friends, citizens of the capital of Socialist Romania! First, I wish to extend to you, participants of this great popular meeting, and all residents of the Bucharest municipality, warm revolutionary greetings, and wish you success in all your endeavors. I wish also to thank the initiators and organizers of this great popular demonstration in Bucharest, and I consider it an... what? Wait, no! What? Comrades! Comrades, stay quiet! Comrades... ?"''

->''"Dear comrades and friends, citizens of the capital of Socialist Romania! First, I wish to extend to you, participants of this great popular meeting, and all residents of the Bucharest municipality, warm revolutionary greetings, and wish you success in all your endeavors. I wish also to thank the initiators and organizers of this great popular demonstration in Bucharest, and I consider it an... what? Wait, no! What? Comrades! Comrades, stay quiet! Comrades... ? "''

->''"Dear comrades and friends, citizens of the capital of Socialist Romania! First, I wish to extend to you, participants of this great popular meeting, and all residents of the Bucharest municipality, warm revolutionary greetings, and wish you success in all your endeavors. I wish also to thank the instigators and organizers of this great popular demonstration in Bucharest, and I consider it an... what? Wait, no! What? Comrades! Comrades, stay quiet! Comrades?..."''

->''"Dear comrades and friends, citizens of the capital of Socialist Romania! First, I wish to extend to you, participants of this great popular meeting, and all residents of the Bucharest municipality, warm revolutionary greetings, and wish you success in all your endeavors. I wish also to thank the instigators and organizers of this great popular demonstration in Bucharest, and I consider it an... what? [[OhCrap Wait, no! What? Comrades! Comrades, stay quiet! Comrades?]]..."''

Poland, Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic and Slovakia, the two having parted ways), Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, and Albania have benefited enormously from the collapse of Communism, now enjoying securer economies and (more often than not) social liberalization despite the occasional WhyWeAreBummedCommunismFell moment. Right now, the question for these countries is whether or not to continue being in the EU, which Eurosceptics find too liberal and infringing for their tastes. Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Hungary are now in a formal alliance known as the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visegrád_Group Visegrád Group]]. Hungary, under Viktor Orban administration, has also been accused of entering democratic backsliding with Orban's long serving administration priding itself on illiberalism. Poland faces similar accusations, though not to the same extent.

For a fuller discussion of what led to the sudden and [[TheGreatPoliticsMessUp completely unexpected]] fall of Soviet Communism, you are directed to the page on the UsefulNotes/HistoryOfTheColdWar.

->''"Dear comrades and friends, citizens of the capital of Socialist Romania! First, I wish to extend to you, participants of this great popular meeting, and all residents of the Bucharest municipality, warm revolutionary greetings, and wish you success in all your endeavors. I wish also to thank the instigators and organizers of this great popular demonstration in Bucharest, and I consider it an... what? Wait, no! What? Comrades! Comrades, stay quiet! Comrades?..."''

* Although not written specifically about the falling Eastern Bloc regimes of the time, Music/{{Scorpions}}' "Wind of Change" and Music/{{U2}}'s "One" heavily featured imagery of it in the music videos.

* ''Deutschland 89, the 3rd season of Series/Deutschland83, is set amidst the fall of the Berlin Wall.

* ''Deutschland 89, the 3rd season of ''Series/Deutschland83'', is set amidst the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Suffice to say, President UsefulNotes/MikhailGorbachev attempted to reform the USSR, promising ''Glasnost'' (openness) and ''Perestroika'' (reconstruction), but was unprepared for the tide of emotion he unleashed in the Soviets' satellite states and the USSR itself. Poles, Czechoslovakians, Hungarians and many more all thought that Gorbachev would tell their own repressive leaders to extend the same policies. "Gorby save us" was the common cry.

Russia has languished from 1991 to the present -- or perhaps it would be truer to say 1987 to the present. Between fifty years of Communism and ten years of war in Afghanistan, the country had fallen into the doldrums in the late 1980s, and has yet to find its way out. The end of Communist rule meant the return of religious worship, free speech, and free assembly, but it also brought corruption, organized crime, anarchy, and a series of wars with Chechnya, which first secured its freedom from Russia and then started trying to see how many Russians it could kidnap, kill, or rob. Putin gained his reputation by defeating the Chechens, and fear of a new round of Chechen-style chaos is one of the things that helps him stay in power.

* Creator/KenFollett's Literature/TheCenturyTrilogy, a novel series dramatizing the 20th century, ends with the fall of the Berlin Wall and the reunion of Carla's family, formerly separated by Communism.

Poland, Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic and Slovakia, the two having parted ways), Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, and Albania have benefited enormously from the collapse of Communism, now enjoying securer economies and (more often than not) social liberalization despite the occasional WhyWeAreBummedCommunismFell moment. Right now, the question for these countries is whether or not to continue being in the EU, which Eurosceptics find too liberal and infringing for their tastes. Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Hungary are now in a formal alliance known as the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visegrád_Group Visegrád Group]].

East Germany, although a pretty good place to live in many regions, [[AlwaysSomeoneBetter is still the least developed part of Germany]] and suffers from very strange politics. The Communist government's official policy was that all East Germans had been patriotic resisters during the Second World War ''and no one was to say anything more than that''. This put the problems of the 1930s and 1940s on ice with Nazis being punished and nothing more, rather than systematically getting rid of them and rejecting their views to ensure a cultural shift like in the west, and today East Germany has a disconcertingly large number of both neo-Communists and neo-Nazis. Many of these Neo Nazis are from the younger generation born after Communism whose community couldn't deal with liberalization and blamed the far left regime before for their problems, while Neo Communists see the DDR as a preferable alternative to the EU.

Yugoslavia, as mentioned above, disintegrated into civil war; Communist dictatorship had been the only thing that kept the various peoples of the region from killing each other. Oddly enough, the Serbs -- who were more or less the rulers of peaceful, ethnic-cleansing-free Communist Yugoslavia -- were the most eager ethnic cleansers in the post-Yugoslav situation. Slovenia, however, largely avoided this chaos; its war of independence lasted less than two weeks with fewer than 100 deaths, and it's generally viewed in the same category as Bulgaria, Romania, Albania, and the Visegrád Group.

Armenia and Azerbaijan immediately started fighting each other over the ethnic Armenian region in Azerbaijan known as Nagorno Karabakh. The conflict ended with Armenian control of the region with a Russian backed cease fire. Border clashes still continue to this day. Both countries are currently doing okay domestically, but there is sharp corruption and economic issues in each nation. Armenia is mostly relying on its Iranian neighbor for a clear border with trade as it can't get exports from its Russian allies directly while Azerbaijan relies on its cultural "big brother" Turkey.