Ninteen-Eighty-Nine

Ninteen-Eighty-Nine

Though the flame of liberty may sometimes cease to shine, the coal can never expire. –Thomas Paine

We live in a time in which essential principles of democracy and liberty are under attack. Nationalist movements have gained popularity almost everywhere, as has support for authoritarian strongmen. Frightening this may be, but there is cause for hope, for we live in a world that for the past 30 years has been dramatically more free than at any point in human history. 

When the average Westerner is asked to name the most revolutionary year since the end of World War II, they likely name 1968, a year racked with political assassinations, massive anti-war protests in America and Europe, the invasion of Czechoslovakia. It remains a focal point for the American baby-boomer generation, and since they’ve dominated media attention their entire lives, it’s not surprising that we who came after them still key on that year. However, 1968 is a footnote in the annals of freedom and revolution in comparison to 1989.

Just look at this list of countries under despotic rule in January 1989 that were free by January 1990: Brazil, Chile, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Mongolia, Paraguay, Poland, Romania, and South Africa, which finally put an end to Aparthied. In January of 1989, 60% of the world’s population lived under dictatorial rule, with only 40% living in democracies. By the end of 1990, the proportion switched, with 60% living in democracies.

The first nation to free itself was Paraguay, which had been dominated by General Alfredo Strossner since his 1954 coup. Another general, Andres Rodriguez, arrested Strossner at the home of his mistress on February 2^nd, resulting in a night battle between Strossner’s loyalists and Rodriguez’s forces in which between 31 and 200 soldiers and civilians were killed. Rodriguez ousted the remaining loyalists from the military, the entire legislature, all of whom were loyalist figureheads, and held new elections in May. Rodriguez was elected and passed numerous reforms paving the way for a new democratic constitution ratified in 1992.

In nearby Chile, a June 30^th referendum authorized multiple political parties for the first time since its dictator Augusto Pinochet took power in 1973.  The first free election was held in December, and while the resulting government was not remarkably fair, Chile was now an imperfect democracy rather than a cruel dictatorship.  Also in December, Brazil held its first democratic election in 30 years, following the passage of a new democratic constitution at the end of 1988.

Things did not look good for those living under authoritarian communism in the first half of 1989. When thousands of Chinese protestors gathered for what they called, “The Great Revolution for Democracy,” Communist China responded with tanks and bullets, killing as many as 5,000. Yet, rather than suppressing the will of freedom-loving people, it spurred them onward.

On June 4^th 1989, one day after China’s bloody crackdown in Tiennamin Square, Poland held its first democratic election since 1945. Utterly unintimidated by China’s example of communist oppression, an overwhelming number of Poles cast their votes for Solidarity, an independent, anti-communist Polish political party which had been an underground, illegal organization through most of the 1980’s. In September, a new, non-communist government was sworn into office.

One month later on October 16^th, the Hungarian Communist Party renamed itself the Hungarian Socialist Party and introduced a series of sweeping political reforms allowing non-communist political parties to participate in elections, separated political power between government branches similar to the American system, and made a simple, friendly request to the USSR that the Soviet troops stationed in Hungry return home. To the world’s amazement, they did.

This left Hungary’s militarized northern border with East Germany unguarded, and in a matter of days, 30,000 East Germans fled into Hungary before the DDR was able to close its border as it had done with the Polish border following Solidarity’s victory. When thousands of East Germans fled to Czechoslovakia, the only remaining nation to which East Germans were allowed to travel, Erich Hoenecker, East Germany’s executive with near-dictatorial powers, closed access there as well, effectively isolating the DDR from the rest of the world. He even banned Soviet publications as “seditious” when Soviet Premier Mikail Gorbachev told Hoenecker and the East German Politburo it would have to accept reform. Meanwhile, escaped East Germans camped at West German embassies in Prague and Paris  Hundreds of thousands protested inside East Germany itself.

Secretary Hoenecker had led the committee which ordered the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961, initiated the long-standing order to shoot-on-sight anyone attempting to cross the wall, and in early 1989, predicted that the wall would stand for another century. But on October 18^th, the Politburo deposed Hoenecker, replacing him with Egon Krenz who immediately re-opened the Czech border. Initially, this was all the reform Krenz was willing to enact.

However, the flood of East Germans into Czechoslovakia was so great that on November 3^rd, less than three weeks after Hungary had opened its borders, Czechoslovakia opened its border with West Germany, allowing East German citizens free access. Tens of thousands of East Germans now fled to the West each day. Meanwhile, even more East Germans, tasting the chance for their homeland’s freedom, changed their protest chant from “Wir wollen raus!" ("We want out!") to "Wir bleiben hier" (“We’re staying here!”). By November 4, over a million protesters were camped in Alexanderplatz square in East Berlin.

On November 9, Krenz and the Politburo accepted the inevitable and decided to allow East German citizens to enter West Berlin via existing checkpoints. The change was to take place on November 17^th, and only for special circumstances, but when the DDR’s propaganda minister reported this on a live teleconference, he had not been briefed about any of it. Asked on camera when this change would take effect, he replied, “as far as I know, effective immediately, without delay.” Tens of thousands of East Berliners immediately flocked to the wall’s gates, demanding entry to West Berlin. The border guards, who also received no briefing, made panicked telephone calls their superior officers, who in turn called the party leadership, asking for instructions. No one was willing to order the use of deadly force, and the guards, overwhelmed, opened the gates and let the thousands-strong crowd through. They were greeted by jubilant West Berliners from the other side. The celebration grew as East and West Berliners alike arrived with sledges, picks, axes, even small carpentry hammers, and attacked the twelve-foot tall, three-foot thick concrete wall, ripping down entire sections over the next few days. The following weekend, the East German regime opened ten new border crossings. On December 23, it allowed visa-free travel between East and West Germany, which was already happening anyway.

Meanwhile in Bulgaria, one day after the Berlin Wall fell, Bulgaria’s politburo responded to pressure for reform by ousting its leader, but unsatisfied students began staging peaceful protests which culminated in the Bulgarian Communist Party’s abdication in Feburary of 1990.

A week after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the “Velvet Revolution” in Czechoslovakia took place. Though it had allowed free access for East Germans to West Germany, Czechs were forbidden to leave. Mass protests were held, including an estimated half-million-strong crowd in Prague beginning in November 17^th and continuing for ten days, culminating in a nationwide general strike on November 27^th. On November 28^th, the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia announced it would abdicate and two weeks later, a non-communist government was appointed, with the first democratic elections since 1945 to take place in June of 1990.

In Romania, a popular Calvinist minister named Laszlo Tokes delivered a sermon criticizing the Romanian Communist government and was arrested, sparking riots. On December 22^nd, the Romanian military which had been ordered to subdue protestors instead joined them, and as tanks and rioters approached the Central Committee building, Communist party chairman Nikolai Ceausescu, oppressive even by Eastern Block standards, escaped via helicopter. He was caught, however, and following a drumhead trial, was executed by firing squad on live Romanian television.

Further east, the nation of Mongolia which had been under communist rule since 1924 had been changing as well.  On November 28, a young journalist named Tsakhiagiin Elbegdor spoke at a gathering of other student groups called the Young Artist’s Congress, praising the recent reforms of the USSR and declaring that Mongolia needed democracy. He was cut off by the chairman and a recess was declared, during which Elbegdor met with two students who agreed to create a secret pro-democracy movement. By the end of the conference they were thirteen. By December 10^th, they were 300, and staged their first protest in Ulaanbaatar.  They got a significant, unintentional boost when Russian chess grand master Gary Kasparov mused in a Playboy interview that the USSR could sell Mongolia to China.  The protests led to hunger strikes, and Mongolia held its first free elections in 65 years.

On December 25^th 1989, conductor Leonard Bernstein gave a performance of Bethoven’s 9^th symphony in newly free East Berlin, changing the word “Joy” in its climactic chorus to “Freedom.” The cheering and applause did not stop for nine minutes, and there was much to cheer for. Earlier that month, American president George Bush Sr. met with Soviet Premir Mikail Gorbachev met in Malta, formally declaring an end to the “Cold War.” Over the next few months, the wave of democratic revolution would continue to spread throughout Eastern Europe, culminating in the abdication of Gorbachev himself in 1991. Never in the history of the world have so many people, in so many different nations freed themselves of oppressors in so short a time, or with such little violence.