The Fall Of Communism In Eastern Europe

This was a leading climatic event in towards the end of the 1980’s marking the end of communist regimes around the world, making it evident to even average citizens that change was coming. The Berlin Wall stood as a symbol for the two opposing sides of the Soviet Union and the United States. In 1949, Germany split into two different nations. Germany was a central hub for Cold War politics, with the West side allying with democratic states and the East side allying with the Soviet Union. The end of the Berlin Wall marked the end of the Soviet Union’s status as a reigning power in Eastern Europe, with the Soviet Union falling not long

A lot of negative has been coming to light lately about the Brown family from Alaskan Bush People. Radar Online shared the news that Matt Brown was arrested for DUI back in 2013 and the details of his big arrest are now coming out. This family claims to live far away from civilization out in the middle of Alaska, but somehow Matt Brown is ending up at a bar and having a good old time, that turned into trouble in the end.

Heda Margolis Kovaly’s memoir, Under a Cruel Star, briefly touches on her experience at Auschwitz during the Holocaust and then focuses more extensively on her life after her escape when living in Czechoslovakia. Heda’s story covers how life under two different totalitarian regimes was. One of these regimes was the reign of the communist Czechoslovakia during the Cold War. The government’s primary method used to regulate, maintain and control society was making people’s involvement in politics imperative to not only thrive but survive under the Soviet Union.

As a teenager in the 1980’s, I was able to witness many historical events unfold. One of the most memorable was in 1987, President Ronald Regan called upon the leader of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev to “Tear down this wall!” In 1989, the world watched as the physical pieces of a wall that symbolized terror, hatred and fear for 28 years, came tumbling down.

The Berlin Wall had been in place for 26 years. Increasing unrest was occurring in Berlin, and at this crucial time Ronald Reagan, as several presidents had done before him, traveled to the Brandenburg Gate, seen by most as the symbolical center of the wall. On June 12, 1987, he then spoke of peace between the USSR and the Western world, while motivating Berliners to help take down the wall and come together as a nation once more. Throughout the speech “Remarks at the Brandenburg Gate”, by Ronald Reagan, he makes use of imagery as well as appeals to ethos and pathos to incite the German people to rise up and destroy the Berlin Wall, reunifying Germany.

Soon after World War II the Soviet Union had created a red iron curtain around Eastern Europe, communist regimes could be seen throughout with countries like Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria and Romania. These regimes where severely oppressive and violated basic human rights, hence a growing opposition was beginning to form. From the mid-1970’s Vaclav Havel, a former playwright would become the most prominent Czechoslovakian “dissident” and campaigner against the abuses of the Communist Regime by actively defending the rock group Plastic People of the Universe, being one of the three public spokespeople for Charter 77 and by writing various essays critiquing the communist regime. No essay has had more influence and been instrumental in

The Greek polis cultivates the virtue of its citizens by ordering the soul through the search for knowledge in philosophy. Solon, the lawgiver of Athens, recognized the value of philosophy in the polis and “in Philosophy…chiefly esteemed the political part of morals (Solon, Plutarch’s Lives, page 108)”. He recognized that the ordered soul of the individual citizen contributes to the soul of the polis. The disintegration of the soul of the polis contributes largely to the fall of the empire. Eric Voegelin, in his book The World of The Polis states that:

Legacy: The immediate legacy of the Prague Spring was the “dissident movement”, lead by groups of mostly writers and intellectuals, which focused on overthrowing the government entirely. On January 16th, 1969, a student named Jan Palach set himself on fire in Prague to protest the censorship of free speech (Stoneman). In the weeks following his death, about half a million people lost their jobs and the Communist party purged half a million members while others resigned (BBC). Dissidents blamed the Soviets for his death and they became more motivated to create political change, so they published the “Charter 77 Declaration”, a charter for human rights made in 1977 (Stoneman, BBC). This document called on the government to recognize that there were violations of treaties that had guaranteed certain freedoms, such as religious confession and public expression.

One fear that has plagued our world since 1848 is the political ideology of communism. Ever since the publication of the Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx, communism has been the fear of many world leaders as they have watched great countries fall into the hands of revolutionist. Yet, some fail to realize is how easily some revolutions compare to others and how some do not. Although the revolutions discussed in the lecture did not seem to relate to each other, the similarities and differences are striking.

In literature there is often a good and a bad guy. The separation is obvious and the two do not mix, but in some literature a character that has evil qualities and behaves like the villain, yet is still considered good and readers still sympathize with the character. This occurs in Wuthering Heights; Heathcliff acts as a villain in many ways but still maintains readers sympathy. If only looking at Heathcliff’s actions, he would be considered evil, but because of his past and love for Catherine people sympathize with him.

August 13, 1961 Berlin, a thirteen foot concrete wall was being built to split Berlin into two, The East and The West. Some chose to stay, others left in fear of what was to come. A fifth of East Germany’s population had fled to the west, escaping the communist of the east. The wall left a tragic scar on all of Germany. Yet the wall could have been prevented, so why was the wall built? I will explain to you how the wall was built, through the discussion of East and West Germans’ relations and power struggles, what happened right before the wall was built, and the Berlin Wall being built.

The writing in this article presents the idea that as the world changed, so did the public’s connection to the Berlin Wall. The culture during the beginning years of the Wall was characterized by the end of the Red Scare, yet tensions towards communism were still prevalent (Bruner, 1988, p. 323). President Kennedy was able to use his accompanied party to prove the diminishing threat of communism. Among Kennedy’s party was Berlin’s current Mayor, Willy Brandt- connected to the future successes of Berlin- and General Clay of the Berlin Airlift, representing a sentimental part of Berlin’s past (Bruner, 1988, p. 323). As the reservations of the Red Scare diminished and pressure from the Cold War escalated (Bruner, 1988, p. 326), President Reagan

In an article titled “Peaceful Revolution in Czechoslovakia” from Economic and Political Weekly, a social science journal created in India in 1949 that covers international topics, the beginnings of the Prague Spring were told as of April 27th, 1968. The tone of the article is optimistic about the new liberalization seen in Czechoslovakia to this point, but there is also a tone of uncertainty about what exactly will happen. The author of the article knows that major changes are being made, so quickly that “it has become difficult to keep track of the developments that are unfolding practically every day,” but there is little sense of what they will lead to in the future for Czechoslovakia. The article mentions the election of Alexander Dubcek into the government, and how these revolutionary ideas had already been churning in prior years leading up to this time. They are also already reporting on concern coming from communist leaders that these sort of ideas will spread to other countries, as a meeting with several communist leaders and Dubcek had taken place in March in which they “strongly advised Dubcek to slow down the pace of change in view of the serious consequences that might ensue in Czechoslovakia and in the other socialist countries.” The situation in Czechoslovakia is revolutionary and looks promising, but there are still so many uncertainties and questions for the country’s future at this point. The author questions whether the new policies will actually last or

The Cold War was a state of political hostility characterized by threats, propaganda and other measures short of open warfare, as defined by Google Dictionary. These 1989 Cold War Revolutions largely impacted the world and for many regions, opened up an opportunity to express a new perspective towards the challenges that were taking place throughout these countries. Poland, the Philippines, Chile, South Africa, Ukraine and China were all apart of these non-violent overthrows of various dictatorships. Each region endured various types of discrimination and exploitation throughout the Cold Wars end. Whether it was economic exploitation, political discrimination, or the violation of human and civil rights, non-violent revolutions rose throughout Eastern Europe. The book, 1989 Democratic Revolutions at the Cold War’s End, written by Padriac Kenney, analyzes these overthrows and discusses the outcomes for each region. For Poland, more specifically, these non-violent strikes began when they first came under the control of the Soviet Union in 1948. However, their resistance began in 1944, when the Soviet Union had just began liberating Polish territory. Starting off with an armed resistance from 1944 to 1947 and ending with the Solidarity movement in 1989, Poland finally had control of the government from the Communists. With a brutal start, Polish oppositionists realized there was a better, non-violent way to go. The rise of the Solidarity

“Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” These exceptional words were made a historical reality in 1989 when the Berlin Wall was demolished. Reagan had many times raised the issue of the division of East and West Berlin.