Question

Match the events that contributed to the fall of the Soviet Union with the years in which they took place.

Answer 1

Here are your matches for the events shown, listed by year:

1948

• Yugoslavia parted ways with the Soviet Union because of political differences.

1956

• Workers in Poland won higher wages after an uprising.

1961

• Military forces began construction of the Berlin Wall.

1968

• The Soviet Union invaded Czechoslovakia and reversed its economic reforms.

I'll provide a few more details on that last item, regarding Czechoslovakia.  In January, 1968, the new leader in Czechoslovakia, Alexander Dubcek, launched the "Prague Spring" (as it became known).  He sought to give communism "a human face," as he termed it, introducing many political and economic reforms.  By August, the USSR responded by sending in 600,000 troops, and again those Soviet tanks.  The revolution was put down.

But the Soviet Union's grip in Eastern Europe weakened over the next two decades.  By 1989, a number of Eastern European nations began to upend the communist governments that had held control in their countries.  The Berlin Wall was torn down during that time also.