The Light

---

When the Soviet Empire in Eastern Europe collapsed in The Final months of the year in 1989, I was sent to report on each of the revolutions that have taken place in the space of Only Six Weeks : The Fall of the Berlin Wall , the peaceful revolution in Czechoslovakia and the violent one in Romania.

1. October 1989, dreamed of no one that before Christmas, the Berlin Wall , Czechoslovakia would be free, and the Romanian despot Nicolae Ceausescu was overthrown, fell.

Most People assume that the Soviet Union would take forever. But actually, it was A House of cards - Only The Fear of Russian intervention.

In 1953, the unrest in The East of Germany , were brutally crushed. To solve, in 1956, when the Hungarians tried Soviet tanks destroyed in The Revolution . In 1968, the Czechoslovak leader Alexander Dubcek introduced the "socialism with a human face", and Moscow sent in the tanks again.

But had to October 1989, The Threat of violence is gone. If protesters came to The Streets of East Germany , the USSR, the reformist leader, Mikhail Gorbachev reformist, The Regime warned in East Berlin, to Open Fire .

But that was collapse of the Eastern bloc, which, due to an accident.

downfall of the Soviet Empire

On the evening of 9. In November 1989, The East German spokesman, Günther Schabowski his usual press conference gave.

The decision of the Politburo was, in the hope of defusing the tensions by enabling people to visas for visits to West Germany - But Only by a deliberately slow and bureaucratic procedures. No one explains Schabowski, though. To move, worse still, he rushed to The Press conference, he creates the document on The Plan .

Someone asked whether the new system would start. Schabowski, confused, replied, "Immediately. "

West German television, which is observed at all in The East , interpreted, means, that the Berlin Wall would be opened That Night . Huge crowds in The East , and The Border guards let you through you. The Wall , The Key symbol of the Soviet-bloc displacement, had ceased to divide Germany .

West Germans celebrating the collapse of communism, the Berlin Wall , 12. November 1989

The next night I found myself dancing to in the beginning: something I never thought in my Wildest Dreams would happen.

light back to Magic Lantern

In neighboring Czechoslovakia, the opposition, led by the intellectuals of Charter 77 . They were brutally suppressed, But their leader, the playwright Vaclav Havel , who insisted that she behave like a government in waiting, with detailed proposals for the Reform of the economy and The Law .

Just Eight Days after The Fall of the Berlin Wall , on 17. In November, a series of protest actions in Prague, the Wenceslas Square is started.

The moment I landed, on the 19th of November, I went directly for the place. I could see that most of the older people had suffered, the grief, the 1968 invasion, were trudging home, while Young People who do not remember, excited, 1968, pushed and pressed to The Demonstration .

it came Slowly, over the course of The Following days, the older; and 24. November, the place was full.

Vaclav Havel waves to the large crowd on Prague's Wenceslas Square , 10. December 1989

That Night , Alexander Dubcek , the leader in 1968, is already under House Arrest , since the Melantrich building, came up with the look of the place.

I was standing next to Vaclav Havel , as he greeted him and led him to The Balcony with views of the large amount of people, as tenderly as A Son , with an older father.

The Crowd shouted in joy. Dubcek's voice was shaking initially, But rose more strongly: "The Light was here first. We need to act now on, as if The Light came back on. "

Below us, people were crying openly.

Later That Night , in the case of the Charter 77 ancestral seat of The Magic Lantern Theatre , I saw Dubcek and Havel and The Others sat on the stage. Their spokesman, Jan Urban , came in a hurry, with a bottle of champagne and announced that The Communist regime was the fact, resigned. The Revolution was over and it was peaceful.

Romania's dictator of the fuel

you crack to crack The toughest nut was always Romania, But it Only lasted a month longer.

Nicolae Ceausescu , The Communist leader, had totalitarian, more and more, over The Years , and his secret police, the Securitate, were cruel.

until the middle of December, the people in Romania, said the Hungarian-speaking minority, protested in The Streets of Timisoara.

no one dared to say, Ceausescu, the severity of Timisoara to the riots was, so he had to think about calling a counter-demonstration in Bucharest on 21 December.

The Securitate buses in the factory, the workers, the turnout bigger, and in the anonymity of The Crowd , some people began to Boo, and more. Ceausescu, froze in the middle of the speech, to open his mouth: he had never fallen before in the word. to watch

the people saw the live broadcast on television, such as his sudden vulnerability.

in the night The Revolution broke out, seriously. The next morning, December 22, he and his wife, Elena climbed into a helicopter just as The Crowd broke into his headquarters, and drove in the direction of the North.

But claimed The Pilot landed soon, he had no fuel. The Ceausescus' bodyguards melted away. Elena, harder than your husband, pulled out a gun and hijacks a passing car. In the end, though, they were taken prisoner.

On Christmas Day , my crew and I filmed in the Ceausescu's " abandoned apartment, and the housekeeper to me, The Dictator , the the pen as a souvenir. has

That Night I was just go to on air of the TV channel, if someone is running that the couple were executed by a firing squad.

I wrote my script with High Speed , and sat back in relief. It was then that I realized that I had. Ceausescu wrote in an obituary that with his own pen.

soviet union, romania, germany, slovakia, berlin wall, czech republic, communism

Source of news: bbc.com