Words like Perestroika, Glasnost and solidarity were common to listen in the news, or names of people like Gorvachov, Vaclc Havel, Lech Walesa, Erick Honecker, Zhirkov or Jesuselski.

The reforms in favour of democracy were started in today’s extinct Soviet Union, reappearances of ethnic struggles in Armenia and Georgia, separatism in the Baltic republics of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, reappearances of nationalisms in Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia in Yugoslavia. Hungary and Poland held free and multiparty elections.

In China thousands of workers and students defied the government in favor of democratic reforms in Tiananmen famous square that finished with the slaughter of thousands of people.
The fall of the communist government and the climax of these events ended with the fall of the Berlin wall, precedent for the German unification.

Picture; Poland's Joanna Gapinska, 3rd runner-up in Miss Universe 1989.

These changing events propitiated to realize the first beauty contest named Miss Moscow ( won by Maria Kalinina) and months after, the first Miss Soviet Union being the winner Yulia Sujanova, who could not travel to Miss Universe in 1989 since the final was done a few days before the Miss Universe final. That year some countries returned to the beauty contests, like Miss Poland, Joana Gapinska who was 4th. Place in the contest. That year queens from several countries were going to be received such as, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia (that was returning to the contest after 18 years), and Bulgaria that finally they did not participate in the contest.
From left to right; Jana Kronkova, Miss Czechoslovakia and semifinalist in Miss Universe 1990 and Maria Kalinina, Miss Moscow.1988.

Maria Kalinina was invited, Miss Moscow who could not participating because she was representing a city, not a country.

In November, after all the political changes in East Europe, was reflected in Miss World 1989, where you could see the delegates participation of Yugoslavia, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Soviet Union and Latvia, being the winner Miss Poland, Aneta Kreglicka, the first crown of an international contest to this part of the world.