Since the end of World War 2, war with the Soviet Union had always seemed likely. This is why this time was known as the Cold War (there were no actual battles). But in the 1980s the Soviet Union ran out of money and started to fall apart. This brought the Cold War to an end. A new leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, came to power and speeded the break up of the Soviet Union into many separate states. They finally broke up in 1991 and many prepared to join the European Union.
