Nelson Mandella

When Nelson Mandela walked out of prison on Feb. 11, 1990, South Africa's future walked with him. If Mandela had raised a clenched fist and said, "We must purge this land with blood," an uprising would have surely ensued, and South Africa would have disappeared into the sea of anarchy that has engulfed so many other African nations. A lesser man would have felt justified in calling for a violent upheaval to bring down the white supremacist government. Anger is a powerful emotion and Mandela had reason to call for revenge. He had spent 27 years in prison, 18 of them on Robben Island, an inhospitable chunk of rock sitting in the cold Atlantic, off the coast of Cape Town. In his autobiography, "Long Walk to Freedom," Mandela reflected on his years in prison: "It was during those long and lonely years that my hunger for the freedom of my own people became a freedom of all people, white and black. I knew as well as I knew anything that the oppressor must be liberated just as surely as the oppressed. A man who takes away another man's freedom is a prisoner of hatred, he is locked behind the bars of prejudice and narrow-mindedness. I am not truly free if I am taking away someone else's freedom, just as surely as I am not free when my freedom is taken from me. The oppressed and the oppressor alike are robbed of their own humanity.

The Collapse of Communism

A stunning series of events between 1989 and 1991 that led to the fall of communist regimes in eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. Faced with massive popular opposition and the unwillingness of President Mikhail Gorbachev to send Soviet troops to their rescue, communist governments lost power, first in Poland, where the communists agreed to free elections that swept into power candidates endorsed by Solidarity in June 1989. Demands for reform spread across East Germany in the fall of 1989 and led to the end of the Berlin Wall and the unification of East and West Germany. In November 1989 the communist government of Czechoslovakia  resigned, and in December a violent revolution led to the overthrow and execution of Romania's communist boss, Nicolae Ceausescu.

Mikhail Gorbahebv

 Mikhail Gorbahebv is the president of russia. He was the youngest president to be in office at the age of 54. When Gorbahebv came in office he wanted a complete stop to communism. He had great political skills and was soon elected Leader. When stalin was in office Mikhail was nothing more then a child.