1989 Revolution: Fall of the Soviet Union

The fall of the Soviet Union resulted in a major collapse of many countries. Bulgaria and Romania were two countries that had ties and many distinctions. They both consisted of a strong, violent communist leader that resulted the demolishment of communism at the end. Each of these leaders was cruel and harsh on the people of their country. Injustice played a big role between the two countries that led to war and inhumane actions. Ethnical and race feuds became an eye opening event for the citizens of these countries. Though, the difference was that Romania enforced laws but Bulgaria and the other five countries didn’t. Romania didn’t have foundations that supported their communist system, which was the cause of major collapse.
During the revolution, Bulgaria was viewed as the satellite state in the Soviet Union; they were highly involved with communism until 1989. However, before the fall of communism in Bulgaria, the Turk Muslims, a minority at the time, were forbidden to speak their language and were forced to change their names from Islamic names to Bulgarian names. The leader, Todor Zhivkov, enforced all of this sanctions. Zhivkov had held power in Bulgaria since 1954 and was known to have murdered hundreds of opponents, mostly ethnic Turks. The Turks were being treated unfairly and couldn’t practice their religion or express their real identity because of insecurity. No one could tell the difference between the Turks unless they expressed their real name. Ionni Pojarleff, a physicist who lived in Sofia at the time said, “We were all oppressed together. But then from the mid-1980s the regime went for the Turks – and that changed everything.” (Sebestyen 184) Zhivkov forced assimilation upon the Turks and felt the need to ban education for the Turkish by closing their Islamic cultural centers. However, he claims that he was encouraging them to change with name and most all of them did by 1987. Three decades later, Zhivkov was still in power and the relationship