One of the most important moments in Slovak (and Czech) history, in my opinion.
Proof that we could stand up to oppression, and an important reminder that democracy should be protected and cherished, especially in these days.
Okay, but how does your lunch look like
That was 1989 btw.
But that just made it official. Freedom really came a few years earlier – as soon as it became apparent that the big opressor, the actual power behind most Eastern European governments, had lost its bite:
>Mikhail Gorbachev pursued policies of glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring) to reform the Eastern Bloc and end the Cold War, which brought forth unrest throughout the bloc.
>
>During the mid-to-late 1980s, the weakened Soviet Union gradually stopped interfering in the internal affairs of Eastern Bloc nations and numerous independence movements took place.
Specifically, I know someone who visited Czechoslovakia in 1986 – as a child of immigrants, they could not have visited before. By then most Eastern European countries were (inofficially) free & open in the sense that its inhabitants knew it was over, and their leaders (even the hardliners) knew better than to try to maintain an authority without Soviet backing.
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One of the most important moments in Slovak (and Czech) history, in my opinion.
Proof that we could stand up to oppression, and an important reminder that democracy should be protected and cherished, especially in these days.
Okay, but how does your lunch look like
That was 1989 btw.
But that just made it official. Freedom really came a few years earlier – as soon as it became apparent that the big opressor, the actual power behind most Eastern European governments, had lost its bite:
>Mikhail Gorbachev pursued policies of glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring) to reform the Eastern Bloc and end the Cold War, which brought forth unrest throughout the bloc.
>
>During the mid-to-late 1980s, the weakened Soviet Union gradually stopped interfering in the internal affairs of Eastern Bloc nations and numerous independence movements took place.
([wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Bloc#Dissolution))
Specifically, I know someone who visited Czechoslovakia in 1986 – as a child of immigrants, they could not have visited before. By then most Eastern European countries were (inofficially) free & open in the sense that its inhabitants knew it was over, and their leaders (even the hardliners) knew better than to try to maintain an authority without Soviet backing.
Havel na hrad!