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Twenty years have passed since the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989 - once proclaimed as "the end of history." What was it like to be a student in 1989? How do today's young people feel about the Velvet Revolution, Solidarność and the fall of the Berlin Wall? And did the changes which took place mean more than the end of all those hours spent queuing for food?
1989 was a fateful year for Europe. In that year, the first free elections were held in the Soviet Union, the independent trade union Solidarność held its own at ground-breaking round table talks in Poland, and border guards stood by in astonishment as East Germans crowded forward into West Berlin with their famous slogan, Wir sind das Volk! ("We are the people!"). The year ended in bloodshed, when the Romanian dictator-duo Nicolae and Elena Ceauşescu were executed after violent riots and street-fighting - and the tensions which were resurfacing in Yugoslavia eventually led to the Yugoslav wars.
Twenty years on, the anniversary of the fall of communism is due to be celebrated in many Western and Eastern European countries. But does 1989 mean the same to everybody? The E&M team set out to find out how young people feel about 1989 and what it was like for our parents and grandparents, who lived through the changes.
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Memories of a fateful year - and what does it mean to those who are too young to remember it? more...
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"In 1989 we had a sense of what we were doing. That never came back again." Lisa Švejdová was a student during the Velvet Revolution. Here she talks about the strange ways in which dreams come true. more...
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Christian Diemer talks to former Russian dissident Yelena Koshkar about the shock of perestroika and the happiest time of her life. Was Dostoevsky right about the Russian mentality? more...
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Aleksandar Savić on televised revolution, suppressed nationalism and bad history lessons: 1989 in Yugoslavia more...
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Contributors to our 1989 special: Christian Diemer, Lucy Duggan, Liva Dzene, Ziemowit Jozwik, Brinduşa Lungu, Aleksandar Savić. Thanks also to the Eustory Network!
