External Factors That Facilitated The Revolution
There were two significant external factors that caused a stir in the East German people, and gave them hope that change was possible, along with increasingly widespread disapproval of the East German regime. In 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev rose to power in Moscow and introduced a new foreign policy, which led to the termination of the Brezhnev doctrine. Firstly, it meant that Moscow’s allies, including East Germany, could no longer count on Soviet foreign military aid. Secondly, it also meant that the East German government was left alone in trying to control the growing internal threat presented by its own citizens.
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