Mikhail Gorbachev's attempts to change the Soviet Union resulted in the fall of communism and the decreased power of the Soviet Union.
Implementing the policies of glasnost and perestroika spelled the end of the communist system in the Soviet Union. Thanks to the new political and economic freedoms of these policies, the Soviet citizens started to demand a change. Along with this, the satellite nations of the Soviet Union demanded independence, as the Soviet economy before these policies were starting to struggle.