The end of bipolarity

The term 'Iron Curtain' was popularized by Winston Churchill to describe the division of Europe by the Soviet Union, which established satellite states and restricted movement between the East and West.

The independence movement in Lithuania gained significant momentum in 1988 with the formation of the Sajudis movement, which eventually led to the country's independence from the Soviet Union.

Boris Yeltsin was elected the first President of the Russian Federation in 1991, following the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

The Soviet Union was composed of 15 republics, all of which became independent nations upon the formal dissolution of the USSR in December 1991.

Mikhail Gorbachev introduced the policies of Glasnost (openness) and Perestroika (restructuring) in the 1980s, which were intended to reform the Soviet political and economic system.

The Soviet Union officially ceased to exist on December 26, 1991, following the resignation of Mikhail Gorbachev and the Belovezha Accords. This marked the end of the Cold War era.

Mikhail Gorbachev was elected General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in March 1985. He is known for his reform policies of Glasnost and Perestroika.

The Warsaw Pact was the military alliance formed by the Soviet Union in 1955 in response to NATO. It included the Soviet Union and Eastern European satellite states. NATO is Western, SEATO was in Southeast Asia, and CENTO was in the Middle East.

The Soviet Union was the primary leader and ideological center of the socialist bloc during the Cold War. America led the capitalist/Western bloc.