Baroness Thatcher and the Transformation of Hungary
Baroness Thatcher and the Transformation of Hungary

Summary/Abstract: 1989, the annus mirabilis, when the communist dominoes rapidly fell one after the other, may already be a generation away, but we, both witnesses and participants, should not let it be forgotten just what a historical watershed it was. It was the end of the Cold War and the threat of a nuclear holocaust. It was the end of the 20th century, which began amid great optimism with the idea of “progress”, but led instead to world wars, genocides and totalitarian dictatorships. 1989 also brought to an end the term “Eastern Europe” as a synonym for the communist bloc, a term we, the inhabitants, always thoroughly disliked. It seemed to be also the end of the Age of Newspeak, the end of the Age of Lies, when Evil was spectacularly defeated, and mankind was given another chance to make the world better. Nothing that has happened since 1989, or indeed, nothing that may come, could take away from those who participated in it the memory of 1989, that time of great hope, that moment of bliss.

• Details
• Contents