When the Berlin Wall came down in?November 1989, a hurrah went up across the continent as it marked the end of Communism in East Germany and central Europe. This was followed in 1991 by the break-up of the former Soviet Union, with central Asian republics becoming sovereign states. The collapse of the Soviet Union, once the embodiment of Communist power, was celebrated across the world as the final victory of capitalism. The great debate between the two rival ideologies that occupied some of the best minds of the 19th and 20th century appeared to be well and truly settled. Capitalism won hands down as the process of German unification began and the Soviet Union, once a superpower, was brought to its knees.