The Caucasus is a region that, though it is not of Russia, is deeply central to the Russian identity. This beautiful and diverse part of the world has also played a central role in the political and military history of the Russian Empire, the USSR, and modern Russia.

Boris Yeltsin and Mikhail Gorbachev were both men of remarkable talent and drive. Yet, their inability to work together toward a common goal led to an intense rivalry that weakened, rather than strengthened the efficacy of Perestroika, and helped to hasten the final demise of the USSR.

Boris Yeltsin, though he was once overwhelmingly popular, is today remembered by most Russians as the corrupt leader responsible for Russia's degradation in the 1990's. His real legacy is actually significantly more complicated. Without Yeltsin, the Soviet Union would not have collapsed the way it did, and modern Russia would look very different.

Throughout the late 1980's and early 1990's, Glasnost awakened an irrepressible movement for independence in the Baltic States. In March 1990, Lithuania became the first Soviet Republic to formally declare independence from the USSR, precipitating a crisis.

The Baltic States of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania were the smallest republics of the USSR, yet the international politics concerning them are among the most far-reaching consequences of the USSR's disintegration. An understanding of their history is therefore crucial understanding the decline and fall of the Soviet Union.

The Romanian Revolution of 1989 capped of a year of tumultuous change across Eastern Europe. Its brutal conclusion marked the end of the Communist Era in Eastern Europe.

Czechoslovakia's Velvet Revolution is often overshadowed by the dramatic fall of the Berlin Wall, which took place only a few days earlier. However, it was a deeply fascinating chapter, and an important domino in the fall of Eastern Bloc Communism.

On November 9, 1989, a series of blunders by the East German Communist regime set in motion a chain reaction of events that led to the fall of the most infamous symbol of the Cold War, the Berlin Wall.