Question

To those who lived through it, the night of November 9, 1989, seemed to mark a new epoch in human history. The Berlin Wall was suddenly undefended, in a single moment that promised to end the Cold War division of Europe. Two years later, the Soviet Union would be dissolved. Elected leaders would govern Russia for the first time since the country’s brief democratic experiment of 1917. “Europe whole and free” seemed more than a far-off aspiration: it seemed a work in the making.

A quarter century later, Russia under Vladimir Putin is more repressive and more aggressive than the Soviet Union under Mikhail Gorbachev was. It has invaded Ukraine and menaces the Baltic republics. In 2013, Russia spent a higher portion of GDP on defense than the United States for the first time in a decade. As Europe contends with economic depression and internal terrorist violence, Russian money flows to extremist parties in the hope of breaking apart the European Union. One former Warsaw Pact member, Hungary, is backsliding toward authoritarianism. “Europe whole and free” sounds like haunting mockery.

As the relationship between Russia and the West has deteriorated, some have hastened to blame the United States and NATO for starting a new cold war, while others entirely blame Putin himself. There is, however, another way to think, both more plausible and more troubling: the question is not “Has a new cold war started?” but rather “Did the old Cold War ever end?”

Post-World War II Germany faced its past, discarded its Nazi institutions, and committed itself to reconciliation with its neighbors. Justice was not always done. Some ex-Nazis continued to hold high judicial and bureaucratic offices in Germany into the early 1970s. But the truth was told—and on the basis of truth, society could be renewed and peace secured.

Post-Soviet elites in Russia never acknowledged the truth of what their predecessors had done to their own society—and to the subject peoples they ruled. It Was a Long Time Ago, and It Never Happened Anyway is the expressive title of the best book on the subject. Russian rulers’ refusal to face the past allowed and invited the past to return.

Berlin Wall’s Fall Marked the End of the Cold War for the American Public
News of the fall of the Berlin Wall had a dramatic impact on American public opinion. Although it was clear that major changes were going on in the Soviet Union even before then, the wall coming down between East and West Berlin drove home in a very dramatic and convincing way to Americans that the communist world was coming undone.

No less than 82% of the public paid close attention to news about the opening of the Berlin Wall between East and West Germany. And as many as 50% paid very close attention to this story, according to an early November 1989 nationwide survey conducted by Gallup/ Times Mirror. This is one of the highest levels of closely following a foreign story not directly involving the U.S. in all of the news interest measures taken by **Center for the People and the Press** before or since.

The impact of the “Fall of the Wall” on American opinions about the Cold War were as profound as the event was dramatic. At the time, then Gallup vice president Larry Hugick, analyzing a national survey he had conducted, wrote:

“The political and social changes that have taken place so swiftly in Eastern Europe are being embraced by Americans with few reservations. Most see the democracy movement in Poland, Czech, and East Germany continuing for the foreseeable future … and … Americans predict a better life for the people of Eastern Europe and a more peaceful world.”

This was indeed a game changing moment for the public, and they have not forgotten it. Pew Research Center surveys over the years have found as many as six-in-ten Americans, who were ages 8 and older at the time, say they remember where they were or what they were doing when they heard the news about the end of the physical divide between East and West Berlin.

The event was accompanied by a surge of optimism in the U.S. about the future course of events in Eastern Europe – 88% saw increasing political freedom in the Soviet satellite states. About seven-in-ten (71%) Americans thought the economic well-being of Eastern Europeans would increase, and 74% thought religion would play an increasing role in people’s lives, according to a 1989 Gallup poll.

Americans, Fall of Berlin Wall

The public’s optimism was predicated on a changing view of the Soviet Union itself. A Gallup/Times Mirror survey a year earlier had found 76% thinking that the USSR was increasingly likely to live in peace with its neighbors, and almost as many (65%) believed, that under Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, the communist superpower was undergoing major changes from what it had been under earlier leadership.

The fall of the Wall only improved the American view of Gorbachev. His favorable rating in the U.S. jumped from 40% in 1987 to 77% in the days following the end of divided Berlin, based on surveys by Gallup/Times Mirror and Gallup, respectively. In many ways, this was the moment when there were clear signs to Americans that Cold War animosities were beginning to fall away. A Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll conducted in December 1989 found that 52% of the public believed that this was the beginning of a long-term positive relationship between the U.S. and the USSR, and no fewer than 65% in a Gallup poll thought the two former antagonists would be allies by the year 2000.

U.S. Views of Russia

In that vein less than a year later, most Americans (58%) were saying they had a favorable view of the communist superpower, who had been their Cold War nemesis for four decades. And that positive view of Russia mostly carried until very recently, only to sour again when Vladimir Putin returned to power in 2012, according to Gallup surveys. summarize

Answer 1

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The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 marked a significant moment in history, symbolizing the end of the Cold War division of Europe. However, a quarter century later, Russia under Vladimir Putin is more repressive and aggressive than the Soviet Union was under Gorbachev. Russia's actions in invading Ukraine, menacing the Baltic republics, and supporting extremist parties in Europe have raised concerns and tensions with the West. Some blame the United States and NATO, while others blame Putin himself for the deteriorating relationship between Russia and the West.

Post-Soviet Russia has never properly acknowledged the truth of its past actions, which has allowed history to repeat itself. In contrast, post-World War II Germany faced its past, acknowledged its wrongs, and committed to reconciliation with its neighbors.

The fall of the Berlin Wall had a profound impact on American public opinion, leading to an increase in optimism about the future of Eastern Europe and a more peaceful world. Public opinion of the Soviet Union, particularly under Gorbachev, became more favorable in the U.S. Some believed that the fall of the Wall signaled the beginning of a positive long-term relationship between the U.S. and USSR.

However, the optimism faded with Putin's return to power in Russia, leading to a more negative view of the country in recent years. The question remains whether the old Cold War ever truly ended, as tensions and conflicts between Russia and the West continue to persist.