Thirty years ago this week, on November 9, the world was stunned to see ordinary Germans tear down the Berlin Wall, the dreaded symbol of totalitarianism. Seemingly overnight, Communist regimes across Eastern Europe dissolved; two years later, the Soviet Union itself ceased to exist.
Today, those images of men and women chiseling away the Wall seem bittersweet, given the rapid erosion of freedom across the region. In 1989, many assumed that with Communism out of the way Western democracy could be seamlessly grafted onto Eastern Europe. Now, with millions enthusiastically electing autocrats from Russia to Hungary, the tacit conclusion is that the graft didn’t take. They had freedom and now they write pop songs to Putin—clearly, Eastern Europe and democracy don’t mix.
Article submitted by, Great Gazoo.
