Cold War Files: All Units: Events: USSR will not block East European reform

Gorbachev told the Strasbourg based Council of Europe that USSR will not block East European reform. Gorbachev told the Council that it is "the sovereign right of each people to choose their own social system."

July 7, 1989

Gorbachev told Warsaw Pact leaders they can choose own road to socialism. Gorbachev's statements over the past two days amount to an unoffical repudiation of the Brezhnev Doctrine.