REVOLUTION 1989

For more than 40 years after the Second World War the Iron Curtain dividedEurope physically, with 300 km of walls and barbed wire fences;ideologically, between communism and capitalism; psychologically, betweenpeople imprisoned under totalitarian dictatorships and their neighboursenjoying democratic freedoms; and militarily, by two mighty, distrustfulpower blocs, still fighting the cold war. East-West rivalry and a cruellydivided continent seemed to be unalterable facts of life. Few statesmen,diplomats, soldiers or thinkers imagined these certainties would change intheir lifetimes. At the start of 1989, ten European nations were stillSoviet vassal states. By the end of the year, one after another, they hadthrown off communism, declared national independence, and embarked on theroad to democracy. One of history's most brutal empires was on its knees.Poets who had been languishing in jails became vice presidents. When theBerlin Wall fell on a chilly November night it seemed as though the openwounds of the cruel twentieth century would at last begin to heal. TheYear of Revolutions appeared as a beacon of hope for oppressed peopleelsewhere who dared to dream that they too could free themselves. In adizzying few months of almost entirely peaceful revolutions the people'swill triumphed over tyranny. An entire way of life was swept away alongwith a half dozen incompetent, corrupt and at times vicious dictatorships.It happened with little violence, apart from a few days in Romania. Now,twenty years on, Victor Sebestyen reassesses this decisive moment inmodern history.