[ninjagoo]

Soviet Union - was that really opposition to oppression that succeeded or the state collapsed internally - disintegrated?

British India could be good example - but there's a case to be made that it was overthrow of an external colonial rule that never integrated with the local population, so not sure there is a good parallel with the Iran situation.

Indonesia - this appears to be a really good example, along with Phillipines (1986). So what's different about Iran - why the repeated failures there?

[ViktorRay]

The Revolutions of 1989 that led to the fall of the iron curtain were bottom up in a region with a large population.

In August of 1989, 2 million people held hands to create a chain. This was one of the large protests in human history. It led to the death of communism in Europe. More information in “The Baltic Way” article below.

Revolutions of 1989:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revolutions_of_1989

The Baltic Way:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baltic_Way

The Solidarity movement in Poland:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solidarity_(Polish_trade_union...