eastern europe in the 1980s

• 1987 - it was clear that gorbachev's policies would have major effects : because the problems within communism were so great , his policies were no longer about reform but rather about wholesale change
• Gorbachev made a significant speech to the council of europe in july 1989 in which he announced that the brezhnev doctrine was dead - communist countries could no longer rely on the USSR for life support 
• He had in 1988 informed the warsaw pact defence ministers that there was no possibility of USSR military intervention in the manner of the invasion of czechoslovakia