Mikhail Gorbachev and the collaspe communism

When Mikhail sergeyevich Gorbachev came to power as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union CPSU on 11 March 1985 drastic reforms were demanded if the faltering USSR was to remain a superpower still able to compete with its arch-rival, the United States. Enmeshed in Afghanistan, threatened by the New Cold War, with Ronald Regan in the White House, the economy was in free fall and living standards were plummeting.

The Collapse of Communism

Communism didn't end. The Soviet system collapsed in the late 1980s, and many people hailed that as an end to communism. However, the Soviet system was a form of state socialism not communism, countries like China and Cuba which are expressly communist still exist, and many modern democratic nations have strong communist parties participating in their governments.