Indian Summer of Nations



Welcome to the Portal for the Indian Summer of Nations.

This timeline explores world history since November, 1989. A devastating crackdown by the East German military and Stasi stem the tide of the "Autumn of Nations," that swept most of the world's communist countries aside between 1989 and 1992. This ATL covers the more than two decades of time since the failed East German revolution and the present worldwide with some of the original East Bloc countries still propped through propaganda and repression.

Introduction
The point of divergence for the ATL is October 9,1989. Following protests involving up to 10,000 people outside the Socialist Unity Party (SED) offices in Leipzig, president Erich Honecker orders the Stasi and National People's Army troops to shoot and kill protestors. The following day, in spite of a sizeable crowd of 70,000, East German forces opened fire to disperse the demonstrators. Within less than 20 minutes of heavy fire, armored vehicles and troops cleared the public square leaving several thousand protestors and rounding up many others.

Seeing a threat to their way of life, the East German leadership tightens border controls, competely isolating the country from the outside world. Fearing the instability caused by the loss of socialist control in neighboring countries, the East German state begins shipping weapons and advisors to their threatened allies around the globe.

The actions of the Socialist Unity Party and the hasty intervention of the Stasi in helping allies comes too late. By the end of 1990, the Warsaw Pact has dissolved, with most of the East Bloc becoming democratic. Only four communist countries are left standing in Eastern Europe--East Germany, the USSR, Yugoslavia and Albania.

As crack downs continue in East Germany, throughout 1990 and 1991 the Soviet Union inches toward democracy and begins to withdraw their forces from Eastern Europe. In August, 1991, a coup overthrows Mikhail Gorbachev who is replaced by Gennady Yanayev as General Secretary of the Soviet Union. The reinvigorated Soviet Union deploys fresh troops to the Caucasus and Baltic states, but is forced to withdraw by international agreement in 1993.

Meanwhile, two of the other three remaining European communist countries have toppled--Yugoslavia and Albania--leaving only East Germany and the Soviet Union to carry on the mantle of socialism.

Principal Content

 * Timeline
 * World Country Profiles