Question

How did changes in the Soviet Union affect people in other communist countries?

Eastern Europeans began to rebel against their governments.
China was inspired to liberalize its economy.
Cubans rioted to obtain the same reforms as the Soviets.
North Korea started negotiations to unify with South Korea.

Answer 1

Correct choice: Eastern Europeans began to rebel against their governments.

Why: Mikhail Gorbachev’s glasnost/perestroika and the Soviet decision to stop using military force to prop up satellite regimes (ending the Brezhnev Doctrine, sometimes called the “Sinatra Doctrine”) encouraged reform movements across the Eastern Bloc. In 1989–1991 this led to mass protests and the collapse or replacement of communist governments in Poland, Hungary, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Romania and Bulgaria (e.g., the fall of the Berlin Wall, Velvet Revolution).

Why the other options are incorrect:
- China was not inspired to liberalize politically; it actually responded to Soviet changes with student-led protests (1989 Tiananmen) that were violently suppressed and the Communist Party kept tight control. China’s economic liberalization had begun earlier under Deng Xiaoping, not as a direct result of Gorbachev.
- Cuba did not experience widespread riots to obtain Soviet-style reforms; Castro’s regime stayed in control and remained largely loyal to its model.
- North Korea did not begin negotiations to unify with South Korea as a result of Soviet changes; the North stayed closed and authoritarian.