On October 4th, 1989 a tumultuous uprising agitated the East
German city of Dresden. After 44 years of Communist rule they had enough. Thanks to humane-minded Soviet leader Mikhail
Gorbachev, Hungary had eased its border control to the West, but East Germany’s
Honecker wanted no part of it—the iron curtain was to stay closed.
During that summer some 200,000 East Germans tried to make their
way to Hungary and escape across that border to the West. Honecker panicked. He
forbade all travel to Hungary and reinforced border control. Agitated would-be
refugees flooded the embassies, they were determined to leave.
The situation became desperate and Honecker agreed to allow 5,000 refugees
to leave, but not for Hungary. He “expelled” them to West Germany in “sealed”
trains.
Thousand of refugees started protesting, cowing the state’s
police. So a second set of trains—tightly sealed—was allowed. It became known
as “the last train to freedom.” Yet thousands of restless and desperate
refugees were left behind and refused to go home.
Secret Police and Stasi troops decided to fight these people and
clear the station. Terrible scenes of violence and brutality unfolded. Extraordinary
efforts of opposition leaders were able to bring about peaceful demonstrations,
and they succeeded.
The movement could not be halted. It spread throughout East
Germany, culminating in the peaceful fall of the Berlin Wall. Putin was a KGB
officer then and most likely saw it first hand, though all records of his
where-abouts in 1989 have been carefully destroyed. He refers to the collapse
of the authority of the Soviet Union in Eastern Europe as the greatest tragedy
of the 20th century.
Yet it brought peace and freedom to many.
Until next time,
Rosi
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