June 3, 2009

How Poland Defeated Communism

Michael Meyer, Globe and Mail

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A quiz for history buffs: Twenty years ago - on June 4, 1989 - three events shaped a fateful year. Which do you remember most vividly, and which most changed the world?

(a) The bloody denouement of the protests on Tiananmen Square.

(b) The death of Iran's revolutionary cleric, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomaini.

(c) The Polish elections.

Few would answer (c). The victory of the famed opposition trade-union movement, Solidarity, in Eastern Europe's first free election since 1946 was eclipsed by the violent crackdown in Beijing...

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TAGGED: Russia, Europe, Poland

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