London, Nov 4 (PTI) Erstwhile Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev claims to have prevented Third World War in 1989 by not ordering troops to crush the demonstrations that preceded the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Gorbachev is hailed in the West for ignoring hardliners who advised him to guarantee the Soviet Union's future by crushing a growing wave of dissent in Eastern Bloc countries which led to the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.

Now, 20 years on, the 78-year-old has said that had the Kremlin used troops to crush the demonstrations, it would have sparked a catastrophic set of events and even the Third World War.

"If the Soviet Union had wished, there would have been nothing of the sort (the fall of the Wall) and no German unification. But what would have happened? A catastrophe or World War Three," 'The Scotsman' quoted Gorbachev as saying.