Scholar Interviews
Questions
- What were your experiences of 1989 in Romania?
- How have your ideas changed?
- Were there challenges to researching 1989?
- Is there one moment that stands out in your experience?
- What are the crucial moments of 1989?
- Is there a particular source that is important to study?
- How do students study 1989 in your classroom?
- What is difficult to understand about the "Common European Home" speech?
- What is important about Ceausescu's last speech?
- How do you help students understand Ceausescu's last speech?
- What is unique about viewing Ceausescu's last speech?
- How did Romanians respond in the days that followed?
Is there one moment that stands out in your experience?
Transcription
I have a hard time with saying one moment sticks in my mind more than another because I always think that it’s a combination, especially in the case of the revolutions of ’89, there’s a combination of factors that brings about this explosion, But I have to say, ultimately if I have to pick one, it’s the opening of the Hungarian border with Austria. That I think that is to me the turning point where basically you have an opening of an opportunity for people to vote with their feet and to just get out. They don’t have to express themselves inside of Eastern Europe in opposition. They just leave and so, of course, when you have, you know, hundreds of thousands of people doing that, it becomes a very important moment and movement and there’s a real effect to it. It’s not just, you know, a speech or a symbolic act. It has real effect.
How to Cite
Maria Bucur, interview, "Is there one moment that stands out in your experience?" Making the History of 1989, Item #601, https://chnm.gmu.edu/1989/items/show/601 (accessed May 28 2021, 3:25 pm).