Changes

Perhaps the largest change in Soviet foreign policy was that of weakening total control over Eastern Europe. The Soviet bloc faced a series of crushing interventions against any semblance of independence, including in Hungary in 1956 and Czechoslovakia in 1968. Gorbachev announced in 1988 that he would cease this policy, which further increased calls for self-determination. Many in the Eastern European states soured on the slow economic growth and poor conditions under Soviet domination. As Gorbachev opened up the Soviet bloc's press and economy Eastern Europe would begin fading farther out of his grasp.

==Glasnost, Perestroika, and the Wider World==