La caida del muro: hechos y consecuencias

Noviembre 2009 - N° 7

Editorial

La caída del Muro de Berlín fue transformada en espectáculo, y como tal nos parece ya cosa del pasado, en una civilización mediática en la que cada nueva imagen hace desaparecer rápidamente la del día anterior. Para aquellos que buscan profundizar un poco más o ampliar su perspectiva, hemos preparado este número de nuestro informe de prensa, con la intención de concentrarnos tanto en los acontecimientos que rodearon tan importante momento, como en el mundo resultante.

Antes de la caída, la visión de dos mundos opuestos nos ayudaba a valorar los fundamentos de la vida del mundo occidental. La caída del muro nos hizo perder la referencia, y nos mostró rápidamente que lo que considerábamos un mundo “espiritualista” frente a otro “materialista” era más bien un “materialismo consumista” frente a un “materialismo comunista”. Desintegrado el Pacto de Varsovia, el materialismo a secas mostró ser la característica común a ambos mundos, quedando plenamente vigente el marxismo cultural tan caro a Gramsci en todo nuestro occidente. Y en eso estamos.

Nuestra dirección de correo electrónico es prudentiapolitica@gmail.com , adonde se pueden solicitar tanto altas como bajas del servicio.

Comité editorial

Roberto Bosca, Carlos Piedra Buena, Cristian Lavarello, Pablo López Herrera (editor)

América Latina: añoranzas del muro y proyectos

A 20 años de la caída del Muro de Berlín: La nostalgia totalitaria en América Latina por Pablo Díaz de Brito

Los 20 años de la caída del Muro encontraron a la Argentina y la región padeciendo un auge de regímenes populistas autoritarios, antiliberales y retrógrados, hasta con Hugo Chávez arengando a sus milicias para ir a la guerra contra el imperio. Por esto la conmemoración tuvo aquí una carga ambigua.

http://www.cadal.org/articulos/nota.asp?id_nota=3107


"Compromiso de Caracas" La extrema izquierda de 45 países apoya a Chávez en su iniciativa de convocar una Vª Internacional

El presidente venezolano convocó en Caracas a 150 delegados de grupos y partidosde izquierda radical de 45 países para "reimpulsar" el socialismo en el siglo XXI. Los asistentes al Encuentro Mundial de Partidos y Movimientos de Izquierda suscribieron un documento conocido como Compromiso de Caracas que recoge los planteamientos, estrategias y posiciones de la izquierda del mundo para reimpulsar el socialismo en el nuevo siglo, entre ellas la necesidad de convocar la V Internacional Socialista, según recoge la Agencia Bolivariana de Noticias.

http://www.eldiarioexterior.com/articulo.asp?idarticulo=36054


A continent where Communism lingers on by Pedro José Izquierdo

The fall of the Berlin Wall restored common sense to Europe, but what about Latin America? This month was marked by grandiose celebration of the fall of Soviet-designed Communism. It was a happy and inspiring sight. The fall of a tyrannical superpower, coupled with a reminder of the inhuman sufferings and brutalities that its totalitarian philosophy allowed and encouraged, has helped the world to be wiser, and call its political leaders’ bluff when they intend to reinstate a similar chimera. Not so.

http://www.mercatornet.com/articles/view/a_continent_where_communism_lingers_on/


Resurrecting Liberation Theology by Mark D. Tooley

The 20th anniversary of the Berlin Wall’s collapse ought to prompt leftist churchmen to apologize for Liberation Theology, which tried to merge Marxism with Christianity, and aligned church groups with the Soviet Bloc. Latin America in the 1970’s and 1980’s was especially active soil for Liberationists, where leftist Catholics and Protestants claimed that Castrosim and Sandinistaism were harbingers of God’s Kingdom. Thankfully, most of organized Liberation Theology has collapsed, with the notable exception of the Middle East, where Western and Palestinian prelates still try to portray Israel as the colonial oppressor and the Palestinians as the victim of imperialism. But the chief of Brazil’s Lutherans, who also is an officer in the Swiss-based World Council of Churches (WCC), is now claiming that Liberation Theology’s “death certificate” is premature.

http://frontpagemag.com/2009/11/17/resurrecting-liberation-theology-by-mark-d-tooley/

En 1989, el socialismo perdió una gran batalla, pero no la guerra

"Cayó el Muro, pero ¿y los que lo construyeron? por Bob Moosecon

No hay duda de que el aniversario de la caída del Muro de Berlín es todo un acontecimiento histórico ante el cual no podemos menos que alegrarnos. Sin embargo, no por ello debemos perder de vista el hecho de que el muro en sí no era lo más terrible sino la existencia del régimen político que lo construyó y lo mantuvo en pie durante tantos años. Y en relación con ello, ésta es mi pregunta: ¿estamos seguros de que la ideología, la siniestra ideología, que dio origen a ese muro, ha sido definitivamente derrotada?

http://www.semanarioatlantico.com/2009/11/10/bob-moosecon/bob-moosecon-cayo-el-muro-pero-%c2%bfy-los-que-lo-construyeron.html


Declaracion de Praga

Intelectuales y políticos que sufrieron en carne propia el sistema marxista reclaman una justicia que nunca llegó.

Realizaron esta célèbre declaración que firman, entre otras personalidades : Václav Havel, former dissident and President of Czechoslovakia / the Czech Republic, Czech Republic Joachim Gauck, former Federal Commissioner for the Stasi archives, Germany Göran Lindblad, Vice-president of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, Member of Parliament, Sweden Vytautas Landsbergis, Member of the European Parliament, former dissident and President of Lithuania, Lithuania Jana Hybášková, etc.

VER EL TEXTO DE LA DECLARACION EN:

http://liberpress.blogspot.com/2009/10/20-anos-de-la-caida-del-muro.html

El comunismo cayó, el socialismo queda

After the Berlin Wall, the Enduring Power of Socialism by Michael Miller


The Economist marked the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall by observing that there was “so much gained, so much to lose.” As the world celebrates the collapse of communism, who would have imagined that in less than one generation we would witness a resurgence of socialism throughout Latin America and even hear the word socialist being used to describe policies of the United States?

We relegated socialism to the “dustbin of history,” but socialism never actually died and in many ways it has actually gained influence. This may sound reactionary, even McCarthyist—but only until we understand socialism the way socialists understand it.

Yes, socialist economic ideas went out of fashion, but socialism has always been more than just economics. We tend to equate socialism with communism, Marxist revolutionaries, and state ownership of industry. But socialism is a much broader vision of the person, society, equality, and what it means to be free.

http://www.acton.org/commentary/555_after_berlin_wall.php

El factor espiritual en la caída del muro

Lech Walesa: Juan Pablo II tuvo gran parte en la caída del Muro

BERLÍN, 10 de Noviembre 2009 ( ZENIT.org ).- "Europa necesita desesperadamente los valores que empujaron aquella revolución". La apertura del Este y la caída del Muro se deben principalmente a la intervención de Juan Pablo II y a la fuerza motriz de la Divina Providencia, dijo el cofundador del sindicato polaco Solidaridad y más tarde Presidente de Polonia, Lech Walesa, ayer por la noche durante las celebraciones de la caída del Muro de Berlín.

“Se debería construir el futuro de la Europa unida sobre el fundamento de la verdad de la historia, no sobre la mentira – insistía Walesa –. No fueron sólo los políticos quienes en ese momento llevaban las riendas del golpe de libertad”. "La verdad es muy importante cuando hablamos del curso de la historia", dijo Walesa durante la Fest der Freiheit (Celebración de la libertad). Para Walesa, Juan Pablo II y el movimiento obrero Solidarnosc (Solidaridad) tienen la mayor parte en la nueva apertura de Europa.

http://www.zenit.org/article-33224?l=spanish



Gorbachov: El Partido comunista Soviético complotó contra el Papa

ROMA, 23 enero 2001 (ZENIT.org).- El Partido Comunista de la Unión Soviética (PCUS) organizó un complot contra Juan Pablo II en los primeros años de su pontificado. Lo ha confirmado por primera vez de manera inequívoca Mijail Gorbachov, el último líder de la Unión Soviética. En una entrevista concedida al diario italiano «Il Tempo» el pasado día 20 de enero, Gorbachov ha afrontado algunos de los aspectos más interesantes de la relación entre el impero soviético y el Papa polaco. De la larga entrevista, seleccionamos algunas preguntas y respuestas que pueden interesar especialmente a nuestros lectores.

En un documento reservado, con fecha 13 de noviembre de 1979, el Comité Central del PCUS pedía al Ministerio de Exteriores de la URSS y al KGB que recogieran y publicaran material encaminado a desacreditar la política y el activismo del Vaticano, que ponía en peligro la solidez del régimen soviético. Entre otras cosas, el Comité Central pedía al KGB estudiar «ulteriores acciones» (así estaba escrito) contra Juan Pablo II. Los diez signatarios del documento eran: Suslov, Kirilenko, Chernienko, Ponomariov, Kapitonov, Dolgikh, Zimjanin, Rusakov y Gorbachov.
http://www.zenit.org/article-1646?l=spanish


Obispos constatan las heridas abiertas del comunismo en Europa del Este

ZAGREB, miércoles 11 de febrero de 2009 (ZENIT.org).- Concluye el tercer encuentro de obispos de países ex-comunistas. Las heridas causadas por el comunismo siguen presentes y envenenan la vida y la sociedad de los países que anteriormente sufrían tras el Telón de Acero. Así lo reconocen en un mensaje lanzado los obispos de los países de Europa del Este, reunidos hasta este miércoles en Zagreb (Croacia). Se trata de la tercera reunión de este tipo desde la caída del Muro en 1989. Las anteriores se celebraron en Budapest (2004) y Praga (2007).

Una de las cuestiones que más preocupa a los prelados es que a pesar de la caída del comunismo, "su estructura ha permanecido en la legislación y en el poder judicial, en la economía, en la educación y en la cultura", y especialmente, "en el velo de silencio que se ha impuesto sobre los acontecimientos del pasado reciente". "¿Cómo explicar que, a veinte años de su caída, la verdad no consigue echar raíces?", se pregunta el purpurado, afirmando que en Croacia, por ejemplo, se evita hablar sobre Stepinac. "Los 'hijos de la mentira' han recogido los trozos del Telón y con ellos esconden y nublan la verdad sobre los hechos, tanto sobre los individuos como sobre determinadas instituciones. Algunos, con los restos del telón, siembran la semilla de la división y de la confusión".

http://www.zenit.org/article-30147?l=spanish



¿Hubo un complot del KGB contra Pío XII?

ROMA, domingo, 24 febrero 2007 (ZENIT.org).- Aclaraciones de Peter Gumpel, relator de la causa di beatificación. Han tenido gran repercusión las revelaciones del ex general de los servicios secretos rumanos, Ion Mihai Pacepa, según las cuales la obra teatral «El Vicario» di Rolf Hochhuth, habría sido confeccionada y utilizada por el servicio de inteligencia soviético, KGB, para desacreditar al Papa Pío XII.

Las revelaciones del general de Estado Mayor Pacepa, ex consejero del presidente Nicolae Ceausescu, luego huido y refugiado en los Estados Unidos, han sido publicadas por la «National Review Online», una revista telemática estadounidense que se ocupa de historia (cfr. «Moscow’s Assault on the Vatican»). En estas memorias, el ex responsable de los servicios secretos rumanos narra también los intentos de infiltrarse en el Vaticano.

http://www.zenit.org/article-22825?l=spanish



La lección de la caída del muro de Berlín: No encerrar la fe

CIUDAD DEL VATICANO, domingo, 8 de noviembre de 2009 (ZENIT.org).- El portavoz vaticano analiza el papel de Juan Pablo II veinte años después. Veinte años después de la caída del muro de Berlín, el portavoz de la Santa Sede constata que muchos no han entendido todavía la lección de aquel acontecimiento histórico: la fe no puede ser encerrada en la esfera privada.

"Durante casi treinta años quien intentaba superarlo huyendo hacia la libertad arriesgaba la vida, decenas y decenas de personas habían muerto ante los ojos horrorizados de los testigos que pasaban. Habían creído que la gran prisión protegida por el muro -y con mayor amplitud por el ‘telón de acero'- iba a resistir todavía por muchos años. Sin embargo, las aspiraciones de libertad y las debilidades intrínsecas en los regímenes fundamentados sobre una ideología enemiga de Dios y de la persona humana habían trabajado en profundidad en los pueblos del Este, preparando un derrumbamiento histórico, sin estar acompañado - acontecimiento afortunado y raro - por grandes derramamientos de sangre".

http://www.zenit.org/article-33182?l=spanish


Clinton, Walesa y Juan Pablo II y el Muro de Berlín por Eduardo de Prado Álvarez.
Viendo los actos en Berlín, me iba sulfurando por momentos ante el televisor. Que ni Gordon Browun, primer ministro de la Gran Bretaña, ni Angela Merkel, de Alemania, hicieran referencia alguna en sus discursos a Juan Pablo II, me exasperó.

No pude escuchar la intervención de Sarkozy, de Francia, pero tampoco Obama de los EE UU en su discurso grabado se refirió al Santo Padre. Solo Hillary Clinton, en mi criterio la mejor, con gran decisión y firmeza hizo justicia a Polonia, al pueblo polaco y al Papa Juan Pablo II, también polaco. Sin él, tal vez aún habría Muro en Berlín.

El Papa no fue "una pieza más " del dominó de piezas que derribaron el muro. Para nada. Fue decisivo. Y con la ayuda de Dios, claro.

http://www.diarioya.es/content/clinton-walesa-y-juan-pablo-ii-y-el-muro-de-berl%C3%ADn


Bosnia y Herzegovina se convierte en modelo de diálogo interreligioso

ROMA, viernes 29 de mayo de 2009 (ZENIT.org).- Congreso sobre las relaciones de la Santa Sede con la Europa postcomunista. Bosnia y Herzegovina constituye hoy un modelo interesante, no sólo en lo que se refiere a las relaciones entre la Iglesia y el Estado, sino también por el tema del diálogo interreligioso. Lo afirmó monseñor Pietro Parolin, de la Secretaría de Estado del Vaticano, durante el Congreso "La Santa Sede y los Estados de la Europa postcomunista.

Aspectos claves de sus relaciones veinte años después de la caída del muro de Berlín", celebrado este miércoles en la Pontificia Universidad "Angelicum" de Roma. "Los croatas son en su mayoría católicos, los serbios, ortodoxos y los bosnios, musulmanes", recordó monseñor Parolin", según un comunicado de la universidad enviado a ZENIT.

http://www.zenit.org/article-31365?l=spanish


Entrevista a Lech Walesa: "Estuvo bien que Gorbachov fuera un político débil" por Charles Hawley

P. Hubo otros intentos de rebelión contra la Unión Soviética en la Europa oriental: los húngaros en 1956, los checos en 1968. ¿Por qué Solidaridad triunfó donde otros habían fracasado?

R. En 1980, en los astilleros intentamos usar la estrategia de los comunistas contra los comunistas. Organizamos a la gente -incluidos trabajadores de otros sectores- y recibimos apoyo de otros países. El Papa [Juan Pablo II], que desempeñó el papel más importante, impulsó una oración colectiva no sólo en Polonia, sino también fuera. Descubrimos que éramos millones, y por primera vez los comunistas fueron incapaces de orquestar una manifestación mayor que las nuestras. Como resultado, se sintieron débiles, y ése fue un factor importante en su derrota.

http://pdc-cuba.org/otros-temas/especiales/la-caida-del-muro-de-berlin/867-entrevista-a-lech-walesa-estuvo-bien-que-gorbachov-fuera-un-politico-debil.html


The Victory of the Cross by Newt Gringrich, Callista Gingrich, Vince Haley

Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, Callista Gingrich and Vince Haley argue that spiritual factors were decisive in the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe twenty years ago. He recounts the importance of individual figures--most notably, Ronald Reagan and Pope John Paul II--in rallying both the East and West to a defense of freedom and human dignity. Gingrich points to the deep Catholic faith of the Polish people as a particular instance where spirituality sustained a people under the grip of communism.

http://www.aei.org/article/101286


Revisionism from the Religious Left by Mark D. Tooley

Leftist church elites are fondly remembering the Fall of the Berlin Wall as though they could claim some credit for its fall. Conveniently, they forget their own complicity with the former tyrants of East Europe and the Soviet Union. “Christian hope and perseverance contributed significantly to the fall of the Berlin Wall”, World Council of Churches (WCC) chief Samuel Kobia recently declared. True enough. Millions of Christians and other people of faith, despite persecution and martyrdom, endured for decades under communist rule.

But their perseverance owed little to groups like the WCC and other leftist Western church groups, who cheerfully demanded appeasement of the old Soviet Bloc as the price for peaceful coexistence. These church leftists prioritized world “peace” over solidarity with oppressed fellow religionists behind the Iron Curtain, whose suffering was too inconvenient for ecumenical public attention.

http://frontpagemag.com/2009/11/11/revisionism-from-the-religious-left-by-mark-d-tooley/


Moscow’s Assault on the Vatican By Ion Mihai Pacepa

The KGB made corrupting the Church a priority. The Soviet Union was never comfortable living in the same world with the Vatican. The most recent disclosures document that the Kremlin was prepared to go to any lengths to counter the Catholic Church’s strong anti-Communism.

In March 2006 an Italian parliamentary commission concluded “beyond any reasonable doubt that the leaders of the Soviet Union took the initiative to eliminate the pope Karol Wojtyla,” in retaliation for his support to the dissident Solidarity movement in Poland. In January 2007, when documents disclosed that the newly appointed archbishop of Warsaw, Stanislaw Wielgus, had collaborated with Poland’s Communist-era political police, he admitted the accusation and resigned. The following day the rector of Krakow’s Wawel Cathedral, the burial site of Polish kings and queens, resigned for the same reason.

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=YTUzYmJhMGQ5Y2UxOWUzNDUyNWUwODJiOTEzYjY4NzI=

Sobre la historia de la caída

Joaquín Navarro-Valls y el papel de Gorbachov en la caída del Muro de Berlín

Joaquín Navarro-Valls ha publicado un artículo en el diario italiano Repubblica("Wojtyla, Gorbaciov e la caduta del muro" ( http://scriptor.typepad.com/files/caduta-del-muro.pdf ), en el que destaca el papel de Gorbachov en la caída del muro de Berlín, el 9 de noviembre de 1989. Dentro de unos días, por tanto, habrán pasado 20 años desde entonces.

http://arvo.net/nuestros-temas-de-hoy/joaquin-navarro-valls-y-el-papel-de-gorbachov-en-la-caida-del-muro-de-berlin/gmx-niv902-con17606.htm


1989, l'année des révolutions par Juliette Cua

Il y a 20 ans, en quelques mois, le système soviétique en Europe de l'Est s'effondrait. Dès l'automne 1988, les premiers signes du changement apparaissent. En Hongrie, les réformateurs entrés au gouvernement publient une loi qui prévoit la possibilité de créer des partis politiques. Le 70ème anniversaire de la création de la République tchécoslovaque est marqué par des manifestations contre le régime. La Bulgarie, la Pologne et l'Allemagne entrent rapidement dans le mouvement. 1989, année des révolutions, luttes acharnées ou transition douce, révolution de velours ou de palais. Rappel chronologique.

http://www.lexpress.fr/actualite/monde/europe/1989-l-annee-des-revolutions_752962.html


Je fus agent du KGB par Frédéric Pons

Novembre-décembre 1989 : alors jeune envoyé spécial de Valeurs actuelles sur les décombres du Mur, j’ai la joie de vivre des moments historiques ; je suis surpris aussi devant ceux qui doutent.Certains ne veulent pas croire à ce qui se passe – la disparition du “rideau de fer”et de la RDA, que je rapporte –,“parce que cela ne devrait pas se passer ainsi”. Des années de certitudes justes se figèrent soudain en habitudes aveuglantes. On me traita même d’« agent du KGB » !

http://www.blog-va.com/notre-opinion/notre-opinion/je-fus-agent-kgb.html


Eyewitness To History: The Fall Of The Berlin Wall

Twenty years ago today — on Nov. 9, 1989 — crowds swelled at the barrier that divided East and West Berlin as the wall that stood as a symbol of the Cold War came down. Just before midnight, border guards began to allow people to pour from one side of the wall to the other, and East and West Berliners joyously reunited with their friends and relatives. Where were you when the wall fell? Tell us about how you experienced that moment in history.

On today's Talk of the Nation, Neal Conan will talk with men and women who experienced the fall of the Berlin Wall first-hand:

Carol Guzy is a Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer for The Washington Post. J.D. Bindenagel is the Vice President for Community, Government and International Affairs at DePaul University. As a former U.S. ambassador, he was deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Berlin, East Germany in 1989. Peter Schneider is a German writer and former leader of the Berlin German student movement. He is now a George M. Roth Distinguished Writer in Residence at Georgetown University. John H. Sununu is the Chairman of the New Hampshire Republican Party and former White House Chief of Staff under President George H. W. Bush. Josef Joffe is publisher-editor of the weekly German newspaper Die Zeit and a Senior Fellow at Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University. Author of Life in Walltown Germany, which appeared Sunday in The Washington Post.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=120243522


Velvet Revolution: The Prospects by Timothy Garton Ash

In the autumn of 1989, the term "velvet revolution" was coined to describe a peaceful, theatrical, negotiated regime change in a small Central European state that no longer exists. So far as I have been able to establish, the phrase was first used by Western journalists and subsequently taken up by Václav Havel and other Czech and Slovak opposition leaders.[1] This seductive label was then applied retrospectively, by writers including myself, to the cumulatively epochal events that had unfolded in Poland, Hungary, and East Germany, as in "the velvet revolutions of 1989."

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/23437


Without visionary politicians, the Berlin Wall would still stand

Twenty years on, Charles Powell remembers the delicate process that defeated communism. The 20th anniversaries of the greatest events in Europe since the end of World War Two in 1945, include the fall of the Berlin Wall, the overthrow of Communism in Eastern Europe, the reunification of Germany and the end of the Cold War.

The collapse of the Soviet Union was to follow not long afterwards. Taken together, they were a political earthquake whose tremors are still being felt. They were heady days, as nation after nation in Eastern Europe threw out their Communist rulers and rejoined the mainstream of European democracy. The barbed wire which ran through the centre of Europe was rolled up, and Hungarians, Czechs and Poles emerged almost dazed into the daylight of a new world.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/personal-view/6068435/Without-visionary-politicians-the-Berlin-Wall-would-still-stand.html


On 20th anniversary of fall of Berlin Wall, remembering Reagan's influence by Annelise Anderson

The fall of the Berlin Wall symbolizes the end of the Cold War, just as the Wall itself for so long symbolized the division and competition between the communist East and the democratic West, between capitalism and socialism. This week we celebrate the 20th anniversary of that event and commemorate it with a conference at the Reagan Presidential Library.

The Wall fell 10 months after Ronald Reagan completed his presidency, yet it was a long time before his own concepts and strategy were seen as crucial to the end of the Cold War. Reagan was personally affable and slow to anger. It was easy to accept the idea that he was reading someone else's lines, communicating the views of shadowy advisers or gifted speech writers. His presidency was dramatically successful, but to some it was luck— or Mikhail Gorbachev, or Pope John Paul II. Anybody but Reagan.

http://www.mercurynews.com/opinion/ci_13747584?nclick_check=1


The Wall and the End of History

More than just communism ended in 1989; 2,000 years of bloodshed came to a close. The collapse of the 3.7-meter-tall monster in Berlin on Nov. 9, 1989, did bring about—or, more accurately, complete—a momentous transformation of the Old Continent. For the past 2,000 years, Europe had been the source of the best and the worst in human history. It invented practically everything that matters: from Greek philosophy to Roman law, from the Renaissance to the fax machine, from Brunelleschi to Bauhaus. But this was also where the world's deadliest wars erupted, killing tens of millions. It was in Europe that the most murderous ideologies were invented: communism, fascism, and Nazism, complete with the Gulag, the Gestapo, and Auschwitz.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/221460/page/1


The Nation Magazine Pays Tribute to a Despot by David Horowitz

Yesterday, Nov. 9, marked the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. That event was as important to the 20th Century as was the victory over Germany and Japan — probably more so, since Nazism was not an ideology with hundreds of millions of followers in the West and throughout the Free World that Communism had. Among them these followers were the editors of The Nation who opened their anniversary feature – a fawning interview with the last Soviet dictator, Mikhail Gorbachev, with these fatuous but also sinister remarks:“Historic events quickly generate historical myths. In the United States it is said that the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of a divided Europe was caused by a democratic revolution in Eastern Europe or by American power, or both.”

http://frontpagemag.com/2009/11/10/tribute-to-a-despot-by-david-horowitz/


Berlin Wall: have Margaret Thatcher's fears about Germany been proved right? by Damien McElroy

The fall of the Berlin Wall triggered a series of cataclysmic warnings from Baroness Thatcher that a united Germany would endanger the stability of Europe. The mantras of the Berlin revellers in 1989 were "Freiheit" or freedom, and "We are one people", a demand for reunification. The paradox of the events was that the then Mrs Thatcher, a pre-eminent champion of freedom, was adamantly opposed to a rapid drive to German unification. Lord Waldegrave, who was Europe Minister in 1989 recalled Mrs Thatcher was alarmed Germany would be an "unstoppable force" in an unbalanced Europe.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/germany/6532255/Berlin-Wall-have-Margaret-Thatchers-fears-about-Germany-been-proved-right.html


Was Margaret Thatcher right to fear a united Germany?

Documents published last week highlight the former prime minister's concern that the fall of the Berlin Wall could be a risk to Britain's national security. Was she right to be worried, asks historian Andrew Roberts

Among the 1,000 transcripts of Politburo and other high-level papers smuggled out of Russia by Pavel Stroilov, a researcher in the Gorbachev Foundation, and published for the first time last week – in what The Times described as a "bombshell" – was Thatcher's admission to Gorbachev that although she supported German reunification in public, in private and off-the-record she felt "deep concern" about the "big changes" afoot.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/margaret-thatcher/6179595/Was-Margaret-Thatcher-right-to-fear-a-united-Germany.html


Chute du Mur : entre la Justice et le poncif, il faut choisir la Justice par Bernard-Henri Lévy

Nous sommes en train de construire un nouveau mythe : celui de « la-chute-du-Mur-que-personne-n'avait-prévue ». Car enfin... Que nul n'ait rien su du moment où la chose se produirait, sans doute. Que le scénario même de l'épisode, l'enchaînement de causes et de circonstances qui finirent par le faire advenir, restent, aujourd'hui encore, énigma­tiques, d'accord.

Mais partir de cette évidence pour conclure que nous avons assisté au spectacle dans un état de totale stupeur, inférer du fait vrai que l'événement était incalculable l'idée fausse qu'il fut inimaginable, bref, conclure du caractère extraordinaire de ce basculement que le monde entier aurait gobé la fable d'un soviétisme impérissable, voilà qui n'est conforme ni à la vérité des choses ni à la mémoire de ceux qui eurent la chance de vivre ce moment inouï.

http://www.lepoint.fr/actualites-chroniques/2009-11-13/chute-du-mur-entre-la-justice-et-le-poncif-il-faut-choisir-la/989/0/394880

20 años después

Tras 20 años de la caída del Muro, sigue habiendo “diferencias fundamentales”

ROMA, lunes 9 de noviembre de 2009 (ZENIT.org).- Entrevista al primer obispo de Berlín desde la reunificación de Alemania. Recuerda con emoción el 9 de noviembre de 1989, cuando el Muro de Berlín era derribado tras más de 20 años de oposición. Ese Muro que dividía al Este del Oeste del mundo y que marcaba ese Telón de Acero que oponía a Estados Unidos y la Unión Soviética. No podía creerlo: era un acontecimiento tan esperado, tan augurado por todo el mundo, y sobre todo por la Iglesia.

Quien habla es el cardenal Georg Maximilian Sterzinsky, nacido en 1936, originario de Warlack, en Polonia. “Seguramente muchos han vuelto a poner en la Alemania nuevamente unida expectativas que no se han realizado. Y quien piensa ahora que en la República Democrática Alemana se puede vivir a pesar de todo muy bien, conserva un recuerdo adulterado de las cosas. Si bien el Este y el Oeste mientras tanto se han desarrollado juntos en muchos ámbitos, a mi parecer existen aún diferencias fundamentales.”

http://www.zenit.org/article-33205?l=spanish


The Berlin Wall, 20 Years Later by Steven F. Hayward

The fall of the Berlin Wall on this day 20 years ago was the most spectacular moment of the end of the Cold War, but in fact only represented the midpoint in the “last sad chapter” of this bizarre story, as Ronald Reagan once put it. The occasion of remembering the last day of the Wall is a fitting time to recall the broader sweep of events that surrounded it.

http://www.american.com/archive/2009/november/the-berlin-wall-20-years-later


The other 1989s by Fred Halliday

While the break-up of the Soviet empire brought freedom to Eastern Europe, elsewhere the consequences were often destructive and deadly. Twenty years after the fall of the Berlin wall and the collapse of eastern European communism, international commentary has focussed on what these events meant for the spread of democracy and the disintegration of the authoritarian regimes modelled on the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR).

Such attention is merited: 1989 marked not just the fall of half a dozen or so communist ruling parties, and the onset of the the Soviet Union's own end of two years later, but also a massive ideological shift in the world. The end of European communism marked the end of the cold war, but also of the sustained radical challenge to western liberal capitalism that had been a force in world affairs since the French revolution.

http://www.mercatornet.com/articles/view/the_other_1989s/



Why 1989 Doesn't Matter by John Hudson

As conventional wisdom has it, the fall of the Berlin Wall marked a watershed moment of world-historical importance. Today in Berlin, world leaders are retracing the steps of the first East German crowds who poured into West Germany 20 years ago. Speeches and editorial pages are ringing with inspiring and familiar platitudes about freedom, democracy and human rights. But is the event that brought an end to the Cold War really the crossroads that scholars and politicians make it out to be? A few contrarians think not…

http://www.theatlanticwire.com/opinions/view/opinion/Why-1989-Doesnt-Matter-1538


Praying to Putin by Galina Stolyarova

ST. PETERSBURG - In the absence of meaningful civic action, many Russians continue the czarist tradition of appealing to the country’s rulers. A sociologist here conducted some interesting research a couple of years ago, asking poll respondents – Russian citizens from various parts of the country – what they thought were the key qualities of the Russian people and what brings the nation together.

The majority of the survey’s participants suggested a typical Russian is kind, open, passive, and unhappy. I was reminded of that poll this week while reading yet another petition to the Russian president about the absurdity of the Mikhail Khodorkovsky trial. I agreed with every word in the appeal, yet I could not help thinking that one very common quality of the Russian people had somehow escaped the sociologist’s Russian national character research. Naïve, I was thinking. Just how naïve.

http://www.tol.cz/look/TOL/article.tpl?IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=4&NrIssue=347&NrSection=2&NrArticle=20972


Ripping the Curtain

In special reports and on a new website (http://20years.tol.org/), we look back to the upheavals of 1989 and explore their impact two decades on.

http://www.tol.cz/look/TOL/article.tpl?IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=4&NrIssue=342&NrSection=3&NrArticle=20876


Ce mur murait la liberté par Claude Imbert

Est-ce l’angoisse pour le sort de la planète ? Est-ce l’ignorance d’une époque évaporée ? On dirait que les grands moments de notre destin perdent de leur couleur et défilent comme des gares désaffectées devant le TGV de la mémoire nationale.


Deux exceptions, pourtant : la chute du mur de Berlin et l’attentat islamiste contre les tours de New York. Ici, stop ! Dans la chute, il y a vingt ans, du mur de Berlin, d’aucuns virent même un terminus, une « fin de l’Histoire ». Et, dans l’agonie du communisme, une humanité ralliée à l’économie de marché et, avec elle, au processus démocratique. On a quitté cette espérance.


Si la chute du Mur marque bien, de son fort symbolisme, la fin d’un cycle historique, elle n’annonce nullement l’apaisement de l’humanité.

http://www.lepoint.fr/actualites-chroniques/2009-11-05/l-editorial-de-claude-imbert-ce-mur-murait-la-liberte/989/0/392568


The Legacy of 1989 Is Still Up for Debate

The events of 1989 spurred a striking transformation of Europe, which is now whole and free, and a reunified Germany, milestones that are being observed with celebrations all over the continent, including a French-German extravaganza Monday evening on the Place de la Concorde. But 1989 also created new divisions and fierce nationalisms that hobble the European Union today, between East and West, France and Germany, Europe and Russia.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/09/world/europe/09berlin.html?_r=2&pagewanted=1



The Road From Serfdom by Marian L. Tupy

Twenty years ago, the Berlin Wall came down and with it communist rule in Central Europe. Within little more than two years, the Soviet Union ceased to exist and the transition from communist dictatorship to free market democracy began in much of the former socialist commonwealth. Democracy and capitalism, Francis Fukuyama concluded in The End of History, have won. Communism, to use (with an appropriate sense of irony) Leon Trotsky’s words, ended up in “the dustbin of history.”

In spite of its monumental failure to bring social peace and material abundance, socialism is enjoying something of a renaissance. From Venezuela to Bolivia to South Africa, government ministers espouse the supposed virtues of socialism. Even in the West, some policies are taking government intervention in the economy to levels unseen in decades. Given the renewed interest in alternatives to capitalism, it is perhaps appropriate to recall the last time that socialism was tried with real gusto.

http://www.american.com/archive/2009/november/the-road-from-serfdom


The Flame That Was Snuffed Out by Freedom by Roger Scruton

As a visitor from the world of fun, pop and comic strips I was amazed to discover students for whom words devoted to such things were wasted words and who sat in those little pockets of underground air studying Greek literature, German philosophy, medieval theology and the operas of Verdi and Wagner.

In 1985 the secret police moved against me and I was arrested in Brno; visits to Czechoslovakia came to an end and I was followed in Poland and Hungary. But our team kept going until 1989 when, to our surprise, the catacombs were opened and our friends came pale, staggering and bewildered into the sunlight, to be hailed by the people as the natural trustees of their restituted country. This was a wonderful moment and, for a while, I believed that the public spirit that had reigned in the catacombs would now govern the State. It was not to be.

Having been excluded for decades from the rewards of worldly advancement, our friends had failed to cultivate those arts--hypocrisy, treachery and realpolitik--without which it is impossible to stay in government.

http://www.aei.org/article/101294


Twenty Years Since the Wall’s Fall by Jamie Glazov

Twenty years ago, the Communist regimes in Eastern Europe began to fall one by one — so quickly that the coming months will be very dense with 20th anniversaries of great historic events. That was the final battle of the Cold War, where the Iron Curtain was finally broken, and the monstrous Soviet Empire ruined. Freedom triumphed in Europe at last. Or so it seemed.

For the next twenty years have shown that that victory was not as final as many hoped during that momentous autumn of 1989. Once more, we are threatened by the surviving heirs of the Soviet monster — from the KGB regime in Russia to Middle Eastern terrorists, to the leftist collaborators in the West. Frontpage Interview’s guest today is Pavel Stroilov, a Russian exile in London, who has smuggled thousands of secret documents of that period out of Russia. In a series of anniversary interviews, we are going to re-examine the events of 1989.

http://frontpagemag.com/2009/11/10/twenty-years-since-the-wall%e2%80%99s-fall-by-jamie-glazov/


Prosperity and Capitalism after the Berlin Wall by Roger Bate

The fall of the Berlin Wall twenty years ago this week sparked the beginning of Eastern Europe's move towards myriad different forms of capitalism. Some of the experiments in democratic capitalism, open markets, limited democracy and the rule of law worked very well (Czech Republic, Poland and Estonia) others have done less well (Bulgaria and Romania). Further to the east, Ukraine, Russia and Belarus have improved to be sure but have done even less well than their western neighbors.

It's surprising how quickly the next generation has forgotten the depths of communism, and for many of these countries, it's incredible to see how far they've come in twenty years.

http://www.aei.org/article/101304


Americans Still Fear Russia by Karlyn Bowman

Americans never wavered in their objections to communism, and their steadfast support for their leaders' decades-long struggle against totalitarianism contributed to the fall of the Berlin Wall. Attitudes toward Russia softened after the wall fell, but old suspicions have returned.

There was "nothing inevitable" about the demise of the Soviet Union, President Ronald Reagan said. It was the product of a decades-long struggle against totalitarianism, led by determined U.S. leadership. Steadfast public opinion was also important.

http://www.aei.org/article/101283


Berlin Wall Is Worth Remembering by Newt Gringrich

Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich argues that the fall of the Berlin Wall needs to be remembered, not only for its symbolic role in the defeat of the Soviet Union, but as a reminder of the ongoing challenges faced by free people around the world. It is therefore troubling that President Barack Obama has not seen fit to lead the world in the commemoration of this pivotal occasion. Gingrich points to Pope John Paul II's historic visit to Poland in June of 1979 as a seminal event in the fight against Communism, inspiring thousands of Poles to reject subjugation and lending the spiritual force that would ultimately help topple the Berlin Wall.

Some consider President Obama's refusal to attend the commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall in Germany next week an outrage. I consider it a tragedy. To commemorate, after all, is to remember. And Americans need to remember, not just that the Wall fell, but why it fell. We need to remember that the Berlin Wall was the symbol of more than just the Cold War, more than just the division of Europe.

http://www.aei.org/article/101276


Communism’s Defeat, 20 Years Later by Claire Berlinski, Daniel Flynn, Judith Miller, Roger Scruton and Guy Sorman

Have we learned the right lessons?

http://www.city-journal.org/2009/forum1106.html


Les "murs" en l’an 2009, 20 ans après l’ouverture du mur de Berlin par Stéphane Rosiere


Comme l’a démontré le colloque organisé récemment à Montréal par la Chaire Raoul Dandurand, le vingtième anniversaire de la chute du mur de Berlin ne signifie pas la fin des "murs", bien au contraire. Carte inédite à l’appui, le Professeur Stéphane Rosière le démontre clairement.

LES FRONTIERES fermées sur la carte (http://www.diploweb.com/IMG/pdf/frontieresfermeesrosierepiantoni.pdf) sont constituées de trois catégories distinctes : Les « Marches » (frontières dénuées de points de franchissement en raison d’un obstacle naturel, mais surtout d’une volonté politique de ne pas relier les territoires adjacents) ; Les Clôtures ou murs (métalliques ou en béton, et généralement dotés de check points pour filtrer les entrées) ; Les lignes de front, plus classiques et généralement infranchissables (pour plus de détails sur la typologie, voir Ballif et Rosière, 2009). Au total, et selon nos calculs (Ballif et Rosière, 2009), nous recensons 39 692 km de frontières effectivement « fermées » ou dont la fermeture est prévue (exemple : Inde-Bangladesh ou Etats-Unis-Mexique). Ce chiffre important représente environ 16% du linéaire mondiale de frontières et près du double du chiffre proposé par M. Foucher (2007).

http://www.diploweb.com/Les-murs-en-l-an-2009-20-ans-apres.html


Europe Reborn by Gareth Harding

Contrary to the view of the Continent as sclerotic, no other region has changed more radically in the past 20 years. In September 1989, I threw a book out of a moving train for the first and only time in my life.

This wasn't just any book. I was reading "The Bass Saxophone" by banned Czech author Josef Skvorecky. And it wasn't just any train. This was the service connecting Nuremberg in former West Germany to Prague in the country once called Czechoslovakia. As the train approached the border I remembered that my guide to "Eastern Europe" warned against bringing books by outlawed writers into communist countries. So as we passed through the Bavarian countryside I hurled the book into a field of bemused cows. It is hard to believe that less than 20 years ago, this crossing was a frontier of fear that separated two ideologies bent on destroying each other.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704471504574443400751641862.html?mod=googlenews_wsj


1989 changed the world. But where now for Europe? by Timothy Garton Ash

Year of revolutions: Mired in the narcissism of minor difference, Europe is failing to face up to the world its revolution helped to create. Nineteen eighty-nine was the biggest year in world history since 1945. In international politics, 1989 changed everything. It led to the end of communism in Europe, of the Soviet Union, the cold war and the short 20th century. It opened the door to German unification, a historically unprecedented European Union stretching from Lisbon to Tallinn, the enlargement of Nato, two decades of American supremacy, globalisation, and the rise of Asia. The one thing it did not change was human nature.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/nov/04/1989-changed-the-world-europe


Le rideau de fer : 20 ans après, quelles traces subsistent en Europe ? par Pierre Verluise


Voici le power point de la communication de Pierre Verluise au colloque international organisé à Montréal par la Chaire Raoul Dandurand : Murs et barrières en relations internationales.

http://www.diploweb.com/Le-rideau-de-fer-20-ans-apres.html


Berlin Wall anniversary: former Stasi man 'sickened' by collapse of communism by Allan Hall


Heinz Kessler has no regrets over the deaths to those who tried to cross the Berlin Wall. Former East German Defense Minister Heinz Kessler was convicted of manslaughter for ordering East German border guards to shoot at fleeing refugees.

Almost alone among the ex-Communist titans who ran the east bloc, he remains a stalwart defender of the system he served as minister of defence in the Honecker politburo.Now 89 and living in Lichtenberg, Berlin, he regards the united Germany as a "callous and unjust" government, and wishes that the wall and the wire was still standing.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/germany/6527413/Berlin-Wall-anniversary-former-Stasi-man-sickened-by-collapse-of-communism.html


Vingt ans après, les anciens de la Stasi ne se repentent pas

Pour des milliers d'anciens employés de la Stasi, les célébrations liées au 20e anniversaire de la chute du Mur de Berlin ne sont pas matière à se réjouir et ne seront pas non plus l'occasion d'exprimer leur repentir. Les spécialistes estiment que la police secrète est-allemande employait 91.000 personnes officiellement et pouvait compter sur 170.000 informateurs officieux. Considérée comme "le bouclier et le glaive du parti", la Stasi s'imposa comme l'une des organisations les plus répressives au monde.

http://www.lepoint.fr/actualites-monde/2009-11-03/vingt-ans-apres-les-anciens-de-la-stasi-ne-se-repentent-pas/924/0/392154


Plus de 17.000 ex-agents de la Stasi sont fonctionnaires

Plus de 17.000 fonctionnaires employés dans les administrations régionales de l'ex-Allemagne de l'Est sont d'anciens collaborateurs de la Stasi, la police politique de l'ancien régime communiste, affirme jeudi le Financial Times Deutschland (FTD).

En dépit d'une loi adoptée en 1991, et qui prévoyait que les administrations devaient vérifier le passé de leurs collaborateurs, les Länder (Etats régionaux, ndlr) concernés se sont souvent montrés cléments et ont gardé à leur service un nombre non négligeable d'anciens informateurs de la Stasi, selon une enquête effectuée par le FTD.

http://www.lepoint.fr/actualites-monde/2009-07-09/allemagne-plus-de-17-000-ex-agents-de-la-stasi-sont-fonctionnaires/924/0/359809


Vaclav Havel : ''L'intégration de l'Europe doit continuer'' par Christian Makarian

A l'heure de la politique spectacle, Vaclav Havel nous offre une pause. Attablé au café Slavia, à Prague, haut lieu de l'âme tchèque, il contemple les scènes de rue de cette ville qui a connu tant d'événements dramatiques. Il y a quarante ans, dans la nuit du 20 au 21 août 1968, les chars du pacte de Varsovie écrasaient le Printemps de Prague.

Jusqu'à aujourd'hui, l'itinéraire de Vaclav Havel symbolise à lui seul la résistance à l'oppression communiste. Courageux dissident, il s'est imposé d'évidence comme l'homme clef de la révolution de Velours, en 1989. « Président philosophe » de 1990 à 2003, homme de théâtre, « faiseur » de paix, il incarne l'âme d'un peuple, mais aussi une autre manière de faire de la politique et une haute vision de l'Europe. C'est pourquoi sa parole est d'or.

http://www.lexpress.fr/actualite/monde/vaclav-havel-l-integration-de-l-europe-doit-continuer_549206.html

20 ans après la chute du Mur par Pierre Verluise


Vidéo IRIS.

Chercheur à l’IRIS et au CRATIL, Pierre Verluise éclaire les stratégies soviétiques et américaines en amont de la chute du Mur de Berlin. (6 minutes). Quelle a été la stratégie soviétique dans les années qui ont précédé la chute du Mur? . Dans le même temps, quelle a été la stratégie américaine? Quel impact a eu l’effondrement de l’URSS sur les alliances de la Guerre froide ?

http://www.diploweb.com/20-ans-apres-la-chute-du-Mur.html


20 ans après la chute du Mur, un bilan géopolitique européen par Pierre Verluise


Pierre Verluise est le directeur du site géopolitique www.diploweb.com. Docteur en Géopolitique de l’Université Paris-Sorbonne, chercheur à l’IRIS, il intervient à Sciences Po et au Collège interarmées de défense. Spécialiste de la géopolitique de l'Europe, il revient pour Touteleurope.fr sur les incidences de la chute du Mur de Berlin et sur les mutations géopolitiques de l'UE ces vingt dernières années.

http://www.touteleurope.fr/fr/actions/relations-exterieures/politique-etrangere-et-de-defense/analyses-et-opinions/analyses-vue-detaillee/afficher/fiche/3996/t/44095/from/2381/breve/bilan-geopolitique-europeen-vingt-ans-apres-la-chute-du-mur.html?cHash=792a7d19bf


20 years after the Berlin Wall's fall: An East European looks back by Nicholas Kralev

BURGAS, Bulgaria Momentous change brings new challenges to Bulgaria. The evening news bulletin on Bulgarian National Radio began with a familiar item: Another meeting of the Politburo of the Communist Party's Central Committee. Then the announcer uttered a sentence that left Bulgarians stunned: The country's dictator of more than 35 years, Todor Zhivkov, had just been "relieved of his duties."

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/nov/09/20-years-after-the-berlin-walls-fall/


After the Berlin Wall: German unity proves elusive by Nicholas Kralev


Most Berliners adore their city and are proud that this former symbol of East-West division has become a modern and united capital, as well as one of the world's most visited places. But 20 years after the wall dividing Berlin fell, the country is still not nearly as unified as the capital, many Berliners and other Germans say.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/nov/09/for-germany-unity-proves-elusive/


Ex-Soviet Union struggles with democracy by Nicholas Kralev and Barbara Slavin

When the Cold War ended two decades ago, President George H.W. Bush and his counterparts across the Atlantic set out to build a Europe "whole and free." Today, there is widespread satisfaction among former and current U.S. and European officials, who cite the membership of most Central and Eastern European countries in the European Union and NATO.

"Overall, the story is pretty good," said Madeleine K. Albright, secretary of state in the Clinton administration, who was born in what was then Czechoslovakia. "There has been disappointment with democracy in some countries, but they have to realize that democracy is not an event but a process."

The only countries in the region that are not yet truly democratic were once parts of the Soviet Union, such as Belarus in Europe and the so-called "stans" of Central Asia.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/nov/09/democracy-a-struggle-in-former-communist-bloc/

NATO, EU experience growing pains by Leander Schaerlaeckens

The expansion of NATO and the European Union have brought benefits to former members of the Soviet bloc, but raised new questions about the missions of these institutions and their decision-making abilities. Over the past decade, 12 former Soviet satellites have joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization first and then the European Union.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/nov/09/nato-eu-experience-growing-pains/

GERMANIA: L’ASSE CON LA RUSSIA NON SI TOCCA

La Ostpolitik oggi viene fatta dalle cinquemila imprese tedesche presenti sul territorio russo e per le quali il paese di Medvedev resta un partner irrinunciabile.

http://temi.repubblica.it/limes/germania-lasse-con-la-russia-non-si-tocca/6864

Películas, libros y exposiciones

Diaries of reporter who exposed Stalin's atrocities go on display

The private diaries of a Welsh reporter who sacrificed his reputation and his life to expose one of Stalin's worst atrocities are to go on public display for the first time. Gareth Jones' diaries will be on view at the Wren Library, Trinity College, Cambridge, where Jones studied French, German and Russian from 1926-9. The exhibition will run from November 13th to mid-December. For details, visit http://www.trin.cam.ac.uk/

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/6554442/Diaries-of-reporter-who-exposed-Stalins-atrocities-go-on-display.html


TOL Special Report - 1989: 20 YEARS AFTER

by Transitions Online
publisher: Transitions Onlineprice: $36 / €25.

http://www.tol.cz/look/estore/home.tpl?IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=11&NrIssue=900


1989-2009: pagine di Muro

Il 25 novembre a Roma si terrà presso la libreria LIthos un incontro sull'89 organizzato in collaborazione con l’ambasciata della Repubblica di Polonia a Roma nel quale verrà anche allestita una esposizione di libri e riviste dedicate al tema. Seguirà rinfresco.

http://temi.repubblica.it/limes/1989-2009-pagine-di-muro/8670


"L'Allemagne de l'Est écrasait les individus" par Axel Gyldèn

Best-seller en Allemagne, le livre qui raconte l'itinéraire de la "Femme de Checkpoint Charlie", vient de paraître en France sous le titre "Un mur entre nos vies" (Michel Lafon). Mais que devient Jutta Gallus, 20 ans après la chute du Mur de Berlin? On l'appelait "la femme de Checkpoint Charlie", du nom de l'ancien point de passage entre Berlin-Est et Berlin-Ouest. Et son histoire, désormais traduite en français, est un best-seller en Allemagne. Jutta Gallus, "la femme de Checkpoint Charlie"

http://www.lexpress.fr/actualite/monde/europe/l-allemagne-de-l-est-ecrasait-les-individus_796321.html


"Pologne entre l’Est et l’Ouest" par Pierre Verluise

Géopolitique de la Pologne et de l’Europe. 20 ans après la chute du Mur, il serait souhaitable que cet ouvrage contribue à susciter un vrai débat à propos de l’histoire de la Pologne comme des relations entre Paris, Berlin, Moscou… et Washington.

Présentation du livre d’Alexandra Viatteau, Pologne entre l’Est et l’Ouest, Paris, Hora Decima, 2009, 250 p.

http://www.diploweb.com/Pologne-entre-l-Est-et-l-Ouest-A.html


Revolution 1989 - the Fall of the Soviet Empire by Victor Sebestyen: review

Anthony Howard enjoys a vivid account of the collapse of communism, reviewing Victor Sebestyen's new book. In this pacy and vivid survey of the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe, the author Victor Sebestyen (himself a refugee from the abortive 1956 Hungarian revolution), rightly puts Mikhail Gorbachev at the centre of his story. Not that he is by any means an unqualified admirer of the man. By his own measure, Sebestyen writes, poor Gorbachev got everything wrong. In his effort to save communism within the Soviet Union, he refused to hold its satellite states with tanks. But all he achieved was the destruction of the Soviet Imperium, rapidly followed by the collapse of his own regime.

Revolution 1989: the Fall of the Soviet Empire by Victor Sebestyen 451pp, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, £25

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/bookreviews/5984145/Revolution-1989---the-Fall-of-the-Soviet-Empire-by-Victor-Sebestyen-review.html


The Fall of the Soviet Empire by Francis Phillips

Lenin was an expert in kindling revolutions, but he would have been puzzled by the one which took place in 1989 in Eastern Europe. It is rare to read an historical study that is unalloyed good news. Victor Sebestyen, a journalist specialising in East European affairs, whose own family fled Hungary when he was a boy, has provided the reader with a dramatic account of the death throes of Communism in the six Soviet satellite countries comprising the Warsaw Pact: Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, East Germany, Romania and Bulgaria. (Yugoslavia is not included as the author rightly judges that it requires a book on its own.)

http://www.mercatornet.com/articles/view/the_fall_of_the_soviet_empire/

EL ARTE BOLCHEVIQUE

Un arte surgido al calor de la Revolución Rusa y como herramienta para la construcción del nuevo mundo que preconizaba. El constructivismo de Aleksandr Rodchenko y Liubov Popova se exhibe hasta el 11 de enero en el Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, en Madrid.

http://www.adn.es/impresa/cultura/20091021/NWS-0162-bolchevique-arte.html