Twenty years ago communist governments in central and Eastern Europe began to fall following an upsurge in popular support for democracy.
But 1989 extended far beyond that year and continent.
BBC World Service hears from people who lived through those events - and from a generation born in 1989 whose lives have been shaped by that extraordinary year.
Hear stories and memories from the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Russia, Poland, Romania, Tajikistan, and Cuba.
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1989 - Europe's revolution
“We were totally isolated from the rest of the world so I started to organise secret, illegal theatre performances in Prague."
"Heroes' Square is a nice place for me because it has a link with the ending of communism because of the burial of Imre Nagy."
"While other children learned nursery rhymes you were taught to chant ‘Lech Walesa, Lech Walesa."
"Our capital city Dushanbe was called Stalinobod, after Stalin who was brutal dictator. People were powerless to resist."
"For probably about ten years I had dreams during the night that I had to return to East Germany and live there."
“I wasn’t afraid then that I would live in poverty once I became a pensioner. Now that’s a very real fear."
"Before 1989, communism was like a giant umbrella covering all citizens."
"There used to be a book of supplies but the butcher had meat and the shop had beer."
