Which Soviet leader was in power when the Berlin Wall opened in November 1989?

Mikhail Gorbachev was the Soviet leader in power when the Berlin Wall opened in November 1989.

Gorbachev served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 until 1991. His policies of glasnost, or openness, and perestroika, or restructuring, helped create a less repressive political climate in the Soviet bloc.

Unlike earlier Soviet interventions in Eastern Europe, Gorbachev’s government did not send troops to force East Germany’s leaders to suppress the growing demonstrations of 1989. That restraint was an important background condition as Hungary opened its border and East German protests expanded.

Gorbachev did not personally announce the Wall’s opening. The immediate announcement came from East German official Günter Schabowski on 9 November 1989 after a confusing press conference. The Soviet Union’s changed policy nevertheless shaped the environment in which the announcement became reality.