Iron Curtain Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ==Fall== {{Further|Dissolution of the Soviet Union|European integration}} [[File:EasternBloc PostDissolution2008.svg|thumb|The dissolution of the Eastern Bloc]] Following a period of [[Brezhnev stagnation|economic and political stagnation]] under Brezhnev and his immediate successors, the Soviet Union decreased its intervention in [[Eastern Bloc politics]]. [[Mikhail Gorbachev]] (General Secretary from 1985) decreased adherence to the [[Brezhnev Doctrine]],<ref name="crampton338">{{Harvnb|Crampton|1997|p=338}}</ref> which held that if socialism were threatened in any state then other socialist governments had an obligation to intervene to preserve it, in favor of the "[[Sinatra Doctrine]]". He also initiated the policies of ''[[glasnost]]'' (openness) and ''[[perestroika]]'' (economic restructuring). A wave of [[Revolutions of 1989|revolutions occurred throughout the Eastern Bloc]] in 1989.<ref name="Szafarz-221">E. Szafarz, "The Legal Framework for Political Cooperation in Europe" in ''The Changing Political Structure of Europe: Aspects of International Law'', Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. {{ISBN|0-7923-1379-8}}. [https://books.google.com/books?id=oGGSGhFbCDEC&dq=%22Autumn+of+Nations%22&pg=PA221 p.221].</ref> Speaking at the Berlin Wall on 12 June 1987, Reagan challenged Gorbachev to go further, saying "General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization, come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" In February 1989, the Hungarian [[politburo]] recommended to the government led by [[Miklós Németh]] to dismantle the iron curtain. Nemeth first informed [[Austria]]n chancellor Franz Vranitzky. He then received an informal clearance from [[Gorbachev]] (who said "there will not be a new [[Hungarian Revolution of 1956#Soviet invasion|1956]]") on 3 March 1989, on 2 May of the same year the Hungarian government announced and started in [[Rajka]] (in the locality known as the "city of three borders", on the border with Austria and Czechoslovakia) the destruction of the Iron Curtain. For public relation Hungary reconstructed 200m of the iron curtain so it could be cut during an official ceremony by Hungarian foreign minister Gyula Horn, and Austrian foreign minister Alois Mock, on 27 June 1989, which had the function of "calling all European peoples still under the yoke of the national-communist regimes to freedom".<ref>[https://orf.at/stories/3127918/ Ungarn als Vorreiter beim Grenzabbau], orf.at, 2019-06-27.</ref> However, the dismantling of the old Hungarian border facilities did not open the borders, nor did the previous strict controls be removed, and the isolation by the Iron Curtain was still intact over its entire length. Despite dismantling the already technically obsolete fence, the Hungarians wanted to prevent the formation of a green border by increasing the security of the border or to technically solve the security of their western border in a different way. After the demolition of the border facilities, the stripes of the heavily armed Hungarian border guards were tightened and there was still a firing order.<ref>Andreas Rödder: ''Deutschland einig Vaterland – Die Geschichte der Wiedervereinigung'' (2009), p 72.</ref><ref>Miklós Németh in Interview with Peter Bognar, ''Grenzöffnung 1989: "Es gab keinen Protest aus Moskau"'' (German - Border opening in 1989: There was no protest from Moscow), in: Die Presse 18 August 2014.</ref> In April 1989, the [[People's Republic of Poland]] legalised the [[Solidarity (Polish trade union)|Solidarity]] organisation, which captured 99% of available parliamentary seats in June.<ref name="crampton392">{{Harvnb|Crampton|1997|p=392}}</ref> These elections, in which anti-communist candidates won a striking victory, inaugurated a series of [[Revolutions of 1989|peaceful anti-communist revolutions]] in [[Central Europe|Central]] and Eastern Europe<ref name="O'K">{{Citation |last=Cavanaugh-O'Keefe |first=John |title=Emmanuel, Solidarity: God's Act, Our Response |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_P9owylILP4C&pg=PA68 |format=ebook |access-date=6 July 2006 |date=January 2001 |publisher=Xlibris Corporation |isbn=0-7388-3864-0 |page=68 }} {{Dead link|date=October 2010|bot=H3llBot}}</ref><ref name="Steger">{{Citation |last=Steger |first=Manfred B. |title=Judging Nonviolence: The Dispute Between Realists and Idealists |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VEcHo6QcIUwC&pg=PA114 |format=ebook |access-date=6 July 2006 |date=January 2004 |publisher=Routledge (UK) |isbn=0-415-93397-8 |page=114 }}</ref><ref name="Kenney-Carnival-15">{{Citation |last=Kenney |first=Padraic |author-link=Padraic Kenney |title=A Carnival of Revolution: Central Europe 1989 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hELsX6c3hcYC&pg=PA15 |access-date=17 January 2007 |year=2002 |publisher=Princeton University Press |page=15 |isbn=978-0-691-11627-3 }}</ref> that eventually culminated in the [[fall of communism]].<ref name="Kenney2">[[Padraic Kenney]], ''Rebuilding Poland: Workers and Communists, 1945 – 1950'', Cornell University Press, 1996, {{ISBN|0-8014-3287-1}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=z_Z_nJnzTp4C&dq=Solidarity+fall+of+communism&pg=PA4 Google Print, p.4]</ref><ref name="Kenney-Carnival-2">{{Citation|author=Padraic Kenney|title=A Carnival of Revolution: Central Europe 1989|publisher=Princeton University Press|year=2002|isbn=0-691-05028-7|pages= [https://books.google.com/books?id=hELsX6c3hcYC&dq=Solidarity+fall+of+communism&pg=PA2 p.2]}}</ref> The opening of a border gate between Austria and Hungary at the [[Pan-European Picnic]] on 19 August 1989 then set in motion a chain reaction, at the end of which there was no longer a GDR and the Eastern Bloc had disintegrated. The idea of opening the border at a ceremony came from [[Otto von Habsburg]] and was brought up by him to [[Miklós Németh]], the then Hungarian Prime Minister, who promoted the idea.<ref>Miklós Németh in Interview, Austrian TV - ORF "Report", 25 June 2019.</ref> The Paneuropa Picnic itself developed from a meeting between Ferenc Mészáros of the Hungarian Democratic Forum (MDF) and the President of the [[Paneuropean Union]] Otto von Habsburg in June 1989. The local organization in Sopron took over the Hungarian Democratic Forum, the other contacts were made via Habsburg and the Hungarian Minister of State [[Imre Pozsgay]]. Extensive advertising for the planned picnic was made by posters and flyers among the GDR holidaymakers in Hungary. The [[Paneuropean Union]] distributed thousands of brochures inviting them to a picnic near the border at Sopron.<ref>Hilde Szabo: ''Die Berliner Mauer begann im Burgenland zu bröckeln'' (The Berlin Wall began to crumble in Burgenland - German), in Wiener Zeitung 16 August 1999; Otmar Lahodynsky: ''Paneuropäisches Picknick: Die Generalprobe für den Mauerfall'' (Pan-European picnic: the dress rehearsal for the fall of the Berlin Wall - German), in: ''Profil'' 9 August 2014.</ref><ref>Ludwig Greven "Und dann ging das Tor auf", in Die Zeit, 19 August 2014.</ref> The local Sopron organizers knew nothing of possible GDR refugees, but thought of a local party with Austrian and Hungarian participation.<ref>Otmar Lahodynsky "Eiserner Vorhang: Picknick an der Grenze" (Iron curtain: picnic at the border - German), in Profil 13 June 2019.</ref> More than 600 East Germans attending the "Pan-European Picnic" on the Hungarian border broke through the Iron Curtain and fled into Austria. The refugees went through the iron curtain in three big waves during the picnic under the direction of Walburga Habsburg. Hungarian border guards had threatened to shoot anyone crossing the border, but when the time came, they did not intervene and allowed the people to cross. It was the largest escape movement from East Germany since the Berlin Wall was built in 1961. The patrons of the picnic, Otto Habsburg and the Hungarian Minister of State [[Imre Pozsgay]], who were not present at the event, saw the planned event as an opportunity to test [[Mikhail Gorbachev]]'s reaction to an opening of the border on the Iron Curtain.<ref>Thomas Roser: ''DDR-Massenflucht: Ein Picknick hebt die Welt aus den Angeln'' (German - Mass exodus of the GDR: A picnic clears the world) in: Die Presse 16 August 2018.</ref> In particular, it was examined whether Moscow would give the Soviet troops stationed in Hungary the command to intervene.<ref>"Der 19. August 1989 war ein Test für Gorbatschows" (German - 19 August 1989 was a test for Gorbachev), in: FAZ 19 August 2009.</ref> After the pan-European picnic, [[Erich Honecker]] dictated the '' Daily Mirror '' of 19 August 1989: "Habsburg distributed leaflets far into Poland, on which the East German holidaymakers were invited to a picnic. When they came to the picnic, they were given gifts, food and Deutsche Mark, and then they were persuaded to come to the West". But with the mass exodus at the Pan-European Picnic, the subsequent hesitant behavior of the Socialist Unity Party of East Germany and the non-intervention of the Soviet Union broke the dams. Thus the bracket of the Eastern Bloc was broken. Now tens of thousands of the media-informed East Germans made their way to Hungary, which was no longer ready to keep its borders completely closed or to oblige its border troops to use force of arms. The leadership of the GDR in East Berlin did not dare to completely lock the borders of their own country.<ref>Michael Frank: Paneuropäisches Picknick – Mit dem Picknickkorb in die Freiheit (German: Pan-European picnic - With the picnic basket to freedom), in: Süddeutsche Zeitung 17 May 2010.</ref><ref>Andreas Rödder, Deutschland einig Vaterland – Die Geschichte der Wiedervereinigung (2009).</ref> In a historic session from 16 to 20 October, the [[Parliament of Hungary|Hungarian parliament]] adopted legislation providing for multi-party parliamentary elections and a direct presidential election.<ref name="crampton394">{{Harvnb|Crampton|1997|pp=394–5}}</ref> The legislation transformed Hungary from a [[Hungarian People's Republic|People's Republic]] into the [[Republic of Hungary|Republic]], guaranteed human and civil rights, and created an institutional structure that ensured separation of powers among the judicial, legislative, and executive branches of government. In November 1989, following mass protests in [[East Germany]] and the relaxing of border restrictions in Czechoslovakia, tens of thousands of [[East Berlin]]ers flooded checkpoints along the [[Berlin Wall]], crossing into [[West Berlin]].<ref name="crampton394"/> In the [[People's Republic of Bulgaria]], the day after the mass crossings across the Berlin Wall, leader [[Todor Zhivkov]] was ousted.<ref name="crampton395">{{Harvnb|Crampton|1997|pp=395–6}}</ref> In the [[Czechoslovak Socialist Republic]], following protests of an estimated half-million Czechoslovaks, the government permitted travel to the west and abolished provisions guaranteeing the ruling Communist party its leading role, preceding the [[Velvet Revolution]].<ref name="crampton398">{{Harvnb|Crampton|1997|p=398}}</ref> In the [[Socialist Republic of Romania]], on 22 December 1989, the Romanian military sided with protesters and turned on Communist ruler [[Nicolae Ceauşescu]], who was executed after a brief trial three days later.<ref name="crampton400">{{Harvnb|Crampton|1997|p=400}}</ref> In the [[People's Socialist Republic of Albania]], a new package of regulations went into effect on 3 July 1990 entitling all Albanians over the age of 16 to own a passport for foreign travel. Meanwhile, hundreds of Albanian citizens gathered around foreign embassies to seek political asylum and flee the country. The Berlin Wall officially remained guarded after 9 November 1989, although the inter-German border had become effectively meaningless. The official dismantling of the Wall by the East German military did not begin until June 1990. On 1 July 1990, the day East Germany adopted the [[Deutsche Mark|West German currency]], all border-controls ceased and West German Chancellor [[Helmut Kohl]] convinced Gorbachev to drop Soviet objections to a reunited Germany within NATO in return for substantial German economic aid to the Soviet Union. <gallery widths="200px" heights="200px"> File:Oliver Mark - Otto Habsburg-Lothringen, Pöcking 2006.jpg|[[Otto von Habsburg]], who played a leading role in opening the Iron Curtain File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-R0518-182, Erich Honecker.jpg|Erich Honecker File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-1990-0419-014, Berlin, Loch in Mauer, Grenzsoldaten, Wachturm.jpg|East German border guards look through a hole in the Berlin Wall in 1990 </gallery> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page