In short, the march towards the collapse of Communism throughout Europe was spawned to a large extant in the hearts and practices of Goulash Communism throughout the 1980s.
In summary, the openness, friendliness and tolerance of Hungary, situated as it was in Central Europe, was bound to lead to changes in the openness and tolerance of all bordering states.
MOSCOW, JANUARY 1989; BEFORE THE REVOLUTIONS?
In the year after I visited Hungary, another region of Europe with language-isolates, i.e. the Baltic states, began to throw off the Soviet yoke.
Therefore, I had determined to fly to Soviet Union in January 1989 to find out what kind of attitudes people and Russia had towards these changes going on around them in both Eastern Europe and China—as well as learning about their thoughts on changes going on within their own Soviet federation.
Meanwhile, over the previous two years, Latvia had quietly moved into revolutionary footing through a hidden position under the banner of ecology and environmentalism. This movement to ostensibly to support the Latvian environmental demands eventually became a full-fledged independence movement.
NOTE: In the 1980s, similar peace, reform, and independence movements in East Germany and Eastern Europe were able to function either under the umbrella of the church or under the umbrella of environmentalism—or both. Click here.
The terrible Chernobyl disaster in April 1986 had made a huge dent in the psyche of even strict Soviet leadership. So, in February 1987, an environmental protection club was formed in Latvia to stop the Soviet Union from building a huge hydroelectric dam. The Soviet leadership allowed this movement in opposition to the dam project to meet freely and openly. Click here.
Soon, that and other environmental clubs were able to join with other movements in Latvia, including the commemoration of the great deportations of 1941, i.e. after the Baltic states had been given to the Soviet Union through the 1939 occupation agreement with Nazi Germany.
This protest memorializing the takeover of Latvia was an unprecedented event in the Balkan states. Click here.
By August 1989, all three Baltic Republics were leading simultaneous demonstrations—i.e. with Gorbachev unwilling to send in more troops of occupation.
Meanwhile, the Soviet Union began to lose control of its own demagogues.
That had already been exemplified when in mid-February 1988, Boris Yeltsin was dismissed from his communist leadership by Gorbachev. Click here.
In an unheard of come-back, this populist, Boris Yeltsin, would soon be elected in early 1989 again to the Soviet government after capturing nearly 90 percent of the popular vote Moscow.
In the meantime, a very vocal Boris Yeltsin had spoken up many times publicly on the need for greater speed in the reform efforts of the Soviet system.
MY VISIT TO THE “EVIL EMPIRE’S” CAPITAL CITY
