Brintannica Book of he Year

Winston Churchill， Franklin Roosevelt， and Joseph Stalin<br >met in Yalta in February 1945 to draw up a blueprint<br >for postwar Europe. That plan effectively sealed the fate<br >of Eastern Europe for more than 40 years. Three months<br >later Berlin fell to Soviet troops， but jubilation soon gave<br >*way to new dangers. SOviet tanks would roll into battle<br >to suppress rebellions in Eastern Europe. The Berlin Wall<br >would come to signify the cold war fiercely waged by the<br >U.S. and the U.S.S.R. for some four decades. Then， almost<br >overnight， winds of change turned into a tornado. In a year<br >of drama unmatched in modern history， government after<br >government collapsed in Eastern Europe. No longer able<br >to stifle cries for freedom， East Germany allowed hundreds<br >of thousands of its citizens to swarm through openings in<br >the Berlin Wall to see for themselves how life was lived<br >in the West. But the shape of things to come was not yet<br >clear. The Soviet Union was in turmoil and the fate of<br >Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in doubt. One thing only<br >was sure: 1989 was but the first chapter.in a story still un-<br >folding. The pictures on the following pages capture brief<br >moments of history that reshaped the world in 1989.<br >