THE COLLAPSE OF COMMUNISM IN EASTERN EUROPE AND THE SOVIET UNION By Sesan Michael JOHNSON Abstract: From the end of the Second World War up till the collapse of the Cold War it is evident that the international system was characterized by bipolarity of the two super powers (The United States of America and the Soviet Union) contestation. Lenin and the zealots who founded the Soviet system saw it as a political and economic prototype other countries would soon copy. Consequently, Leninist-Marxist communism spread to Eastern Europe, China, Cuba, and other countries. With the different revolutions that characterized Latin America, Africa, and Asia, Soviet leaders were of the opinion that Marx postulation about the end of capitalism is coming into fulfilment. However, Milkah Gorbachev’s Glasnost and Perestroika combined with other remote causes brought an end came to the Soviet Union. The fundamental question is how can we account for the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union? This paper traces the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. This paper argues that the process that led to the collapse had started long before the era of Gorbachev. Hence attempt is made to trace it to factors such as the unrealistic or utopia nature and the ambivalence inherent in the practice of communism, reversal of autarky in the communist leadership style, collaboration and integration during the detente period which included the signing of the Helsinki agreement, European integration and Glasnost & Perestroika policies that characterized Gorbachev’s Russia.