Abstract
The article tackles 1989 as a "Year of Trials" for the so-called Second World with an example from Eastern Europe. In the first part, it argues that the loss of support and rule coming from Moscow essentially lowered the threshold for the escalation of a systemic crisis.
Drawing on the work of Peter Turchin and Jack Goldstone it explains the following system-changes by such lower threshold for a crisis with the same economic and social (in)stability. The second part tackles the global aspect of 1989 by exploring the shift of the global political and economic spectrum to the right and the juxtaposition of the contemporary retreat of the liberal narrative and the resurface of different alternatives.