A fundamental shift in Soviet policy toward the Eastern Bloc nations under Mikhail Gorbachev in the late 1980s was the prelude to widespread demonstrations against the Socialist Unity Party, which had ruled East Germany since the country was founded on 7 October 1949.[1] Previous uprisings - East Germany (1953), Czechoslovakia (1953), Poland (1956), Hungary (1956) and the Prague Spring (1968) - were harshly put down by Soviet troops.[10] The Soviet reaction to the Polish crisis of 1980–1981 was already one of non-intervention.[11]