Volume 35, Number 14 · September 29, 1988
The Empire in Decay
By Timothy Garton Ash
Eight years after the birth of Solidarity, occupation strikes once again spread across Poland. The workers' first demand is: Solidarity. On the twentieth anniversary of the Soviet invasion, ten thousand Czechs march through the streets of Prague, chanting 'Dubcek!' and 'Freedom!' With official permission, some forty thousand people demonstrate in Budapest—against the policies of a neighboring socialist state. Without official permission, half a million Czechs and Slovaks sign a petition for religious freedom. The Protestant churches in East Germany try to praise the recent policies of the Soviet Union, but are censored by the state. The Polish government spokesman invites himself to visit Radio Free Europe. A Hungarian Politburo member says he has 'no arguments in principle for the one-party system.'[1]
Feature, 6956 words
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