Mikhail Gorbachev has died

it ended for 150 or so million people in Eastern Europe, that were freed from Russia.

Eastern _and_ Western Europe.

Ended or postponed?

Aren't their countries still filled with Soviet era (or even more recent?) environmental hazards, like ubiquitous asbestos and who knows what else?

When i took Russian, we watched a Soviet propaganda film : it bragged about asbestos exports as a sign of Soviet strength, and i think the teachers (one native Russian speaker) perhaps showed it to emphasize what a disaster had already been created (this was shortly pre 2000).

The Cold War has definitely ended for Eastern Europe.

He ended, Trump sorta suspended?

Quebec was also bragging about their asbestos export not too long ago either. This isn’t really something unique to Soviet Union.

In 1955, eastern europeans were so thankful to be free from Germany.

In 1995, eastern europeans were so thankful to be free from Russia.

In 2035, you can expect eastern europeans to be thankful again. Not sure who'd it be this time.

Many countries are still stranded with "cold war" environmental problems.

The US has many "superfunds" dedicated to cleaning up "cold war radioactivity" issues.

A bit more info on the Quebec asbestos issues. Canada didnt stop exporting it until 2012.

" Canada led world production of asbestos before the country’s two largest mines (both in Quebec) halted operations in 2012. The closure marked the suspension of the country’s asbestos production for the first time in 130 years. "

Exporting this wasn't unique to the Soviets.

I dont think it really ended. Shifted. But there is a reason the US is funding fission and new Moon rockets, there is a reason the US is concerned about Taiwan. I think we're still deep in it.

> In 1955, eastern europeans were so thankful to be free from Germany.

Not sure which Eastern Europeans you mean, but I can assure you most of those 150 mil people were not happy they got conquered by nazis or commies, it was the same amount of genocide and societal damage from both sides.

I'm not trying to be contrarian here but I'd say their cold war just began when the soviet union disintegrated. Because now their new cold war was Russia exerting influence over them and manipulating their governance.

Which is what Ukraine has suffered these last 30+ years.

what do you mean by "their" ? Because Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Hungary and Bulgaria managed to properly free themselves from Russia and are now solidly in the EU and NATO

The problem is that these eastern europeans are shaped by Germany and Russia.

Half of them are former german fiefdoms and other half are territories reclaimed by Russia from ottoman muslim rule.

"Properly" glosses over a lot of the intricacies of their politics. Like I said, Russia was disorganized at the time but you should not make the mistake of thinking they gladly released all of their buffers without a fight.

We have glaring evidence of their struggle to maintain power over their old buffer countries like Chechnya and Ukraine, so one can only imagine what they must have done to the others.

Edit: Just one example of how the transition wasn't without opposition is the January 1991 events in Lithuania when Gorbachev tried to re-establish soviet rule and this ended in 14 Lithuanian citizens dead.