1. Also known as… A couple of years before you were born.1
Initially intended as tools to bolster the Soviet economy, the policies of perestroika and glasnost soon led to unintended consequences.
The End of the Cold War
Also known as…
A couple of years before you were born.

2. What led to the fall? US Policies: Detente Containment Brinkmanship2
US Policies:
Detente
Containment
Domino Theory
Brinkmanship

3. Gorbachev (also called Gorbi)3
Gorbachev (also called Gorbi)
Greater political and social freedoms, instituted by the last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, created an atmosphere of open criticism of the Moscow regime.
Gorbachev once fought a koala to the death to prove he was as tough as earlier Soviet leaders.

4. 4
Economic Woes
Several Soviet Socialist Republics began resisting central control.
Increasing democratization led to a weakening of the central government.
The USSR's trade gap became worse and worse, leading to eventual bankruptcy.
Made worse by the ongoing war in Afghanistan. And the attempts to keep up with brinksmanship…
Side note: SDI (Strategic Defense Initiative) or “Star Wars” was started during this time by Pres. Reagan.

5. Lech Walesa: respected for his leadership, faith, and mustache.5
Give’em an inch and they take a Kilometer (I’m fairly certain that the metric system doesn’t work)
Fraying amongst the members of the Warsaw Pact nations and instability of its western allies, first indicated by Lech Wałęsa's 1980 rise to leadership of the trade union Solidarity, accelerated, leaving
The Soviet Union, unable to depend upon its Eastern European satellite states for protection as a buffer zone.
By 1989, Moscow had repudiated the Brezhnev Doctrine in favor of non−intervention in the internal affairs of its Warsaw Pact allies.
Lech Walesa: respected for his leadership, faith, and mustache.
Helpful Hint: Don’t write this down word for word, listen to Greil for the jist of it.

6. Fall of the Berlin Wall Part of the Iron Curtain.6
Fall of the Berlin Wall
Part of the Iron Curtain.
The wall separated East Berlin and West Berlin, a prominent victims' group claims that more than 200 people had been killed trying to flee from East to West Berlin.
When the East German government announced on November 9, 1989, after several weeks of civil unrest, that visits in West Germany and West Berlin would be permitted, crowds of East Germans climbed onto and crossed the wall, joined by West Germans on the other side in a celebratory atmosphere.
Over the next few weeks, parts of the wall were chipped away by a euphoric public and by souvenir hunters; industrial equipment was later used to remove almost all of the rest of it.
The fall of the Berlin Wall paved the way for German reunification, which was formally concluded on October 3, 1990.
                                        
View in 1986 from the west side of graffiti art on the wall's infamous "death strip"

7. Wall to Fall… and what the US Presidents said about it.7
Wall to Fall… and what the US Presidents said about it.
Literal translation: “I am a pastry.”
Reagan had dementia in his later years.

8. And the hits keep coming!8
And the hits keep coming!
Gradually, each of the Warsaw Pact nations saw their communist governments fall to popular elections and, in the case of Romania, a violent uprising.
By 1991 the communist governments of Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland and Romania, all of which had been imposed after World War II, were brought down as revolution swept Eastern Europe.

9. 9
1991 Coup
Hardliners in the Soviet leadership, calling themselves the 'State Emergency Committee', launched the August Coup in 1991 in an attempt to remove Gorbachev from power.
During this time, Gorbachev spent three days under house arrest at a dacha in the Crimea before being freed and restored to power by Yeltsin and the Army/People.

10. Soviet Union Completely Eats It!10
Soviet Union Completely Eats It!
However, upon his return, Gorbachev found that neither the union nor Russian power structures heeded his commands as support had swung over to Yeltsin, whose defiance had led to the coup's collapse.
Yeltsin will become the first Russian President as the Soviet Union Collapses, leaving the US to look for a new enemy… maybe Canada?

11. Yeltsin (Yelti?) 11 Making people wish Stalin was still around…
Dance, Dance, Re-Election!
Making people wish Stalin was still around…

12. 12
1991
Yeltsin came to power with a wave of high expectations. He was elected president of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic with 57% of the vote, becoming the first popularly elected president.
The Yeltsin era was marked by widespread corruption, economic collapse, and enormous political and social problems. By the time he left office, Yeltsin had an approval rating of 2% by some estimates*.
*The Black Plague, which had killed 1/3 of Europe, had an approval rating of 23% by contrast.

13. 13
Dissolution of the Soviet Union in December 1991, Yeltsin, vowing to transform Russia's socialist command economy into a free market economy, endorsed a program of price liberalization and privatization. This policy recipe came to be known as "shock therapy," a combination of measures intended to liberalize prices and stabilize the state's budget. Such measures had been attempted in Poland, and advocates of "shock therapy" felt the same could be done in Russia.
Prices/Inflation skyrocketed. Living standards and employment plummeted.
This woman became the wealthiest person in Russia when, in 1993, she did not have to share her soup with the rest of Moscow.

14. 14
Yeltsin cast himself as a democrat and defying the August coup attempt of 1991 by the members of Soviet government opposed to perestroika.
He left office widely unpopular with the Russian population as an ineffectual and ailing autocrat.
His confrontations with parliament climaxed in the October 1993 Russian constitutional crisis, when Yeltsin called up tanks to shell the Russian White House, blasting out his opponents in parliament. Later in 1993, Yeltsin imposed a new constitution with strong presidential powers, which was approved by referendum in December.
The question was asked by Yeltsin, “Why is Bill Clinton, the President of the United States, playing the Sax in my hotel room?” When no answer came Mr. Clinton was escorted from the premises.

15. Sorry about the decade of crippling economic/governmental problems.
Yeltsin out, Putin in 15
Just hours before the first day of 2000, Yeltsin made a surprise announcement of his resignation, leaving the presidency in the hands of Vladimir Putin.
Sorry about the decade of crippling economic/governmental problems.
Not even kidding…

16. Chechnya, promoting tourism?16
Rich in oil, its economy and infrastructure were reduced to ruins by years of war between local separatists (terrorists) and Russian forces, combined with armed banditry and organized crime.
The Chechens have tried to break away numerous times, and have been brutally repressed by Russian leaders from Stalin to Putin.
Western criticism of Russian tactics and human rights violations in Chechnya was all but silenced following the 11 September attacks on the US. Russia has since portrayed Chechen rebel forces as part of the global terror network and uses this to vindicate its methods.
Compound this with the conflict in Georgia… and Russia has a few issues.

17. Chant “USA, USA, USA!” right now.17
We Win!
Chant “USA, USA, USA!”
right now.

18. 18
Greil’s Theory
Many say that Gorbachev’s lessening of control led to the fall of the B.W.
I say it was David Hasselhoff.
And the soap opera Dallas.