This volume documents the UK Government's response to the unfolding social and political changes in Eastern Europe during 1989. The year 1989 saw momentous change in Europe. It was the year in which Communist rule in Eastern Europe finally ended: with mass demonstrations, an end to one-Party rule, free elections and the opening of borders. In Poland, the independent trade union Solidarity went from being an illegal organisation to running the country. Vaclav Havel went from being a jailed dissident to President of Czechoslovakia. In October 1989, the German Democratic Republic marked the 40th anniversary of the Socialist state, only to see that state collapse a month later following the opening of the Berlin Wall. In December, the Romanian leader Nicolae Ceauşescu saw his near quarter century rule brought to an end in a matter of days. This volume charts the events of an historic year in Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, the GDR, Hungary, Poland and Romania, and looks at British policy towards the Baltic States. It contains reporting from British embassies on the rapidly changing political scene, and documents attempts by the British Government to develop policy against the backdrop of unfolding revolution. This book will be of interest to students of British politics, Eastern European politics, and International Relations.

This volume documents the UK Government’s response to the unfolding social and political changes in Eastern Europe during 1989. The year 1989 saw momentous change in Europe. It was the year in which Communist rule in Eastern Europe finally ended: with mass demonstrations, an end to one-Party rule, free elections and the opening of borders. In Poland, the independent trade union Solidarity went from being an illegal organisation to running the country. Vaclav Havel went from being a jailed dissident to President of Czechoslovakia. In October 1989, the German Democratic Republic marked the 40th anniversary of the Socialist state, only to see that state collapse a month later following the opening of the Berlin Wall. In December, the Romanian leader Nicolae Ceauşescu saw his near quarter century rule brought to an end in a matter of days. This volume charts the events of an historic year in Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, the GDR, Hungary, Poland and Romania, and looks at British policy towards the Baltic States. It contains reporting from British embassies on the rapidly changing political scene, and documents attempts by the British Government to develop policy against the backdrop of unfolding revolution. This book will be of interest to students of British politics, Eastern European politics, and International Relations.

This important book reassesses a defining historical, political and ideological moment in contemporary history: the 1989 revolutions in central and eastern Europe. Adopting a multi-disciplinary approach, the authors reconsider such crucial themes as the broader historical significance of the 1989 events, the complex interaction between external and internal factors in the origins and outcomes of the revolutions, the impact of the ‘Gorbachev phenomenon’, the West and the end of the Cold War, the political and socio-economic determinants of the revolutionary processes in Poland, Hungary, the German Democratic Republic, Czechoslovakia, Romania and Bulgaria, and the competing academic, cultural and ideological perceptions of the year 1989 as communism gave way to post-communist pluralism in the 1990s and beyond. Concluding that the contentious term ‘revolution’ is indeed apt for the momentous developments in eastern Europe in 1989, this book will be essential reading for undergraduates, postgraduates and specialists alike.

This volume documents the UK Government's response to the unfolding social and political changes in Eastern Europe during 1989. The year 1989 saw momentous change in Europe. It was the year in which Communist rule in Eastern Europe finally ended: with mass demonstrations, an end to one-Party rule, free elections and the opening of borders. In Poland, the independent trade union Solidarity went from being an illegal organisation to running the country. Vaclav Havel went from being a jailed dissident to President of Czechoslovakia. In October 1989, the German Democratic Republic marked the 40th anniversary of the Socialist state, only to see that state collapse a month later following the opening of the Berlin Wall. In December, the Romanian leader Nicolae Ceauşescu saw his near quarter century rule brought to an end in a matter of days. This volume charts the events of an historic year in Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, the GDR, Hungary, Poland and Romania, and looks at British policy towards the Baltic States. It contains reporting from British embassies on the rapidly changing political scene, and documents attempts by the British Government to develop policy against the backdrop of unfolding revolution. This book will be of interest to students of British politics, Eastern European politics, and International Relations.

The Revolutions of 1989 is a collection of both classic and recent articles examining the causes and consequences of the collapse of communism in East and Central Europe, the most important event in recent world history. It includes discussion of: * the economic, political and social nature of revolutions * the role of dissidents and civil society in encouraging the breakdown of eastern * European communist regimes * comparisons with other revolutions * the extent of the collapse of Leninist regimes in East-Central Europe. European historians, scholars and students will wnat to make this an integral part of their studies.

Documents the collapse of the Soviet Union's European empire (East Germany, Poland, Czechoslvakia, Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria) and the transition of each to independent states, drawing on interviews and newly uncovered archival material to offer insight into 1989's rapid changes and the USSR's minimal resistance.

The fall of communism in Europe is now the frame of reference for any mass mobilization, from the Arab Spring to the Occupy movement to Brexit. Even thirty years on, 1989 still figures as a guide and motivation for political change. It is now a platitude to call 1989 a "world event," but the chapters in this volume show how it actually became one. The authors of these nine essays consider how revolutionary events in Europe resonated years later and thousands of miles away: in China and South Africa, Chile and Afghanistan, Turkey and the USA. They trace the circulation of people, practices, and concepts that linked these countries, turning local developments into a global phenomenon. At the same time, they examine the many shifts that revolution underwent in transit. All nine chapters detail the process of mutation, adaptation, and appropriation through which foreign affairs found new meanings on the ground. They interrogate the uses and understandings of 1989 in particular national contexts, often many years after the fact. Taken together, this volume asks how the fall of communism in Europe became the basis for revolutionary action around the world, proposing a paradigm shift in global thinking about revolution and protest.