Scholar Interviews
Questions
- Vladimir Tismaneanu: Is there a moment that stands out most about 1989?
- Vladimir Tismaneanu: What forces led to change in Eastern Europe?
- Padraic Kenney: Is there one moment that stands out for you personally?
- Padraic Kenney: One crucial moment of 1989?
- Maria Bucur: Is there one moment that stands out in your experience?
- Maria Bucur: What are the crucial moments of 1989?
- Maria Bucur: How did Romanians respond in the days that followed?
- Padraic Kenney: What led to the Round Table Talks?
- Gale Stokes: What do you think led to the unrest in East Germany?
- Gale Stokes: What moment stands out for you in the events of 1989?
- Gale Stokes: Why didn’t authoritarian states succeed?
- Gale Stokes: How did East Europeans react to the arrival of pluralism?
- Gale Stokes: What images of 1989 stick in your mind?
- Gale Stokes: Why did things go so badly in Yugoslavia?
Gale Stokes: What moment stands out for you in the events of 1989?
Transcription
There are several moments that stand out for me in 1989. I was not in Eastern Europe at the time, so I didn’t personally experience any of the great events. But I think the great moment for me was the opening of the borders of Hungary, looking back on it at least, because you might say also the election in Poland on June 4. Something that I would be interested in seeing would be how, for example, the election in Poland was played off in the American newspapers in comparison to Tiananmen Square, which happened at the same time. How much space was given to Tiananmen Square, how much space was given to the Polish election.
But for me it’s a Hungarian evolution that led to the opening of their borders, is a very significant aspect of the revolutions of 1989, because one of my basic points about 1989 in Eastern Europe, is the fact that the Eastern Europeans actually are the ones who made a good deal of the revolution. There are a lot of explanations given why 1989 occurred. Gorbachev facilitated it, Ronald Reagan facilitated it, economic change or, I mean, economic—insufficiency of the East European economies. But, my view is that one of the most important elements, which is not emphasized very much, is the actual operation of East European events, especially in Poland, with Solidarity. Solidarity started before Reagan and Gorbachev, or what have you, and there had been similar events in Poland before that, but Solidarity was not part of the larger international arena, when it started in 1980.
And in Hungary, the communist government had been making reform, starting early in ‘80s, joining the IMF, the World Bank, changing their banking system, a lot of technical reforms. Then reformers in the party came to power by the end of the ‘80s, and it’s they who opened—made the first big crack in the Iron Curtain by permitting people to cross over into Austria, Germans, East Germans then, whereupon they went to West Germany.
So, I think that’s a pretty big moment, the opening of the borders there. It’s the real—we talk about the fall of the Berlin Wall, of course, naturally, a very important event, as if it were the walls come tumbling down, the collapse of communism as symbolized by that wall, but it’s actually the Hungarians who really were the first ones to open it up. And that supports, in my mind, my argument that, whereas other issues are important, it’s the East Europeans who made these changes in this revolution.