One of the paradoxes of 1989 was that communism was destroyed by its own system. Though it would have been a slow death, many countries of the soviet bloc could have limped along without having much of blood shed. Except for what really happened. And, that was Mikhail Gorbachev which happened which precipitated the entire issue. By 1989 Mikhail Gorbachev had consolidated his power base and was able to drive through his own policies regardless of the opposition among his colleagues. He went by a basic principle that politics should not be based on coercion. Mr Gorbachev had been steadily setting out his philosophy. He told a Communist Party conference in 1988 “the imposition of a social system, a way of life, or policies from outside by any means, let alone military force, are dangerous trappings of the past”.