In 1989, people throughout East Central Europe just said "no" to Commu-nist Parties and governments trying to navigate their own ship of state in the wake of the Soviet power struggle set off by Mikhail Gorbachev in the name of perestroika and glasnost". In February, the Hungarian Central Committee caved in to popular pressure for a multi-party system. Polish voters sent the same message in the June election. Throughout the summer, East Germans voted with their feet across the border from Hungary into Austria and into West German embassies in Prague and Warsaw.