This three-page undergraduate essay examines the meaning of the phrase, "the collapse of communism." The author discusses the disintegration of communism in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union between 1989 and 1991, and explains why it happened so quickly and so dramatically. Events in the People's Republic of China at this time are also examined, and the author explains why the communist government in Beijing was able to destroy the student democracy movement in Tienanmen Square, and preserve communist rule in China.