In the 1980s, countries that were unified with the USSR and the communist regime began to protest and ask for better living conditions, the end of control by the USSR and the expansion of freedoms policies.
The first country that entered this “wave” was Poland. In 1980, workers organized a large-scale movement against the government's economic policy, thus founding Solidarity, an independent union. The communist government repressed democratic movements, but had no other option.
Pressured by the Catholic Church and Perestroika, the government began to soften the regime, freeing political prisoners. In 1990, general elections took place and Leck Walesa was elected president, thus effecting the democratization of the country. Simultaneously with what was happening in Poland, other Eastern European countries such as Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, were also democratizing. Communists were driven out and general elections were called.
In 1993, a series of dismemberments and territorial unions took place in Eastern Europe. Czechoslovakia was divided into the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Yugoslavia split into Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro.