What problems did Eastern Europe face after the fall of the Berlin Wall?
pohnpei397 Teacher Community / Jr. College eNotes Editor There were a few problems faced by these countries after 1989. • Most of them outside of Russia had economies that depended on the Soviet Union at least to some extent. With the fall of the wall (and more importantly the later collapse of the USSR) they didn’t have that anymore. • Some leaders, like the Romanian Ceaucescu, had also relied on the USSR and the strength of the communist parties for their safety. • Perhaps the biggest problem they faced and still face was the need to be able to make the transition to a more open society (capitalism and democracy to some extent). They had had decades of a command economy and totalitarian government and had to figure out what was next. Many of them still struggle with this — Russia is a very good example of this.
