![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Everyone is remembering people massacred on Tiananmen Square 20 years ago. But the 4th of June 1989 was a day full of important events - Ufa train disaster in Russia killed over half thousand people, Iran got new Ayatollah and Poland had first (semi-)free elections.
I was just a kid then. Didn't care much about politics. I couldn't vote. But I knew it was important. Changed my life completely.
That wasn't a very TV moment. After all people going to vote is a routine event in many countries in the world. Routine enough for people to skip it and don't care. It's no wonder what the world remembers about changes is the Berlin Wall. That was a TV moment. But that was the end. The fall of communism started here. It wasn't the 4th, although it is the convenient date. It started earlier when Solidarity movement was legalized, when the Round Table talks started. Or even earlier with glasnost' in USSR. But once again none of that was a very TV moment. That came later. Slow changes.
Other countries of Eastern-bloc looked at what happened in Poland and waited to see if USSR would intervene. If after we chose the rebels they would send tanks. But they didn't and that ball started rolling. It paved the way to the Autumn of Nations. And communism ended in Europe.
Wars, battles, destruction are much more memorable. Peace happens slowly with talking heads and deals. Peace usually is boring. It in not made of great gestures. But then the Chinese curse says "May you live in interesting times". It's better to take boring. Unfortunately China got the interesting part. That's why everyone remembers their anniversary not ours. That's why 1981 in Poland and tanks on the street is better remembered then 1989.
I'm old enough to remember communism. To remember empty shelves, closed borders and no ads on tv (OK that wasn't that bad but there was only two tv channels then). Now I live in a country that's part of EU. I can travel through most of Europe without passport and buy a can that has inside the thing that is described on the label. This Sunday I will go vote in elections to the European Parliament.
Politicians in Poland has been fighting for a while about who was the most important and "really" won us freedom but the most important part is that they all can speak their mind. At the same time in China noone can speak of Tiananmen Square. I got my freedom but they still cannot search the internet without being censored. Both our countries tried for freedom. That day we made it. Theirs try ended in blood. Drama is good for celebrities not for nations to live with. I hope the Chinese one day will get their boring revolution.
I was just a kid then. Didn't care much about politics. I couldn't vote. But I knew it was important. Changed my life completely.
That wasn't a very TV moment. After all people going to vote is a routine event in many countries in the world. Routine enough for people to skip it and don't care. It's no wonder what the world remembers about changes is the Berlin Wall. That was a TV moment. But that was the end. The fall of communism started here. It wasn't the 4th, although it is the convenient date. It started earlier when Solidarity movement was legalized, when the Round Table talks started. Or even earlier with glasnost' in USSR. But once again none of that was a very TV moment. That came later. Slow changes.
Other countries of Eastern-bloc looked at what happened in Poland and waited to see if USSR would intervene. If after we chose the rebels they would send tanks. But they didn't and that ball started rolling. It paved the way to the Autumn of Nations. And communism ended in Europe.
Wars, battles, destruction are much more memorable. Peace happens slowly with talking heads and deals. Peace usually is boring. It in not made of great gestures. But then the Chinese curse says "May you live in interesting times". It's better to take boring. Unfortunately China got the interesting part. That's why everyone remembers their anniversary not ours. That's why 1981 in Poland and tanks on the street is better remembered then 1989.
I'm old enough to remember communism. To remember empty shelves, closed borders and no ads on tv (OK that wasn't that bad but there was only two tv channels then). Now I live in a country that's part of EU. I can travel through most of Europe without passport and buy a can that has inside the thing that is described on the label. This Sunday I will go vote in elections to the European Parliament.
Politicians in Poland has been fighting for a while about who was the most important and "really" won us freedom but the most important part is that they all can speak their mind. At the same time in China noone can speak of Tiananmen Square. I got my freedom but they still cannot search the internet without being censored. Both our countries tried for freedom. That day we made it. Theirs try ended in blood. Drama is good for celebrities not for nations to live with. I hope the Chinese one day will get their boring revolution.
