Communist leader embodying end of old East Germany survived (4,2)
I believe the answer is:
made do
'survived' is the definition.
I don't know anything about this answer so I cannot judge whether this works.
'communist leader embodying end of old east germany' is the wordplay.
'communist leader' becomes 'mao' (Mao is an example. I am not sure about the 'communist' bit.).
'embodying' means one lot of letters goes inside another (to embody can mean to contain or include).
'end of' suggests the final letters.
'east' becomes 'e' (abbreviation).
'germany' becomes 'd' (vehicle registration code for Deutschland).
The last letter of 'old' is 'd'.
'd'+'e'+'d'='ded'
'mao' enclosing 'ded' is 'MADE DO'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Another definition for made do that I've seen is " Coped".)