December 18, 1999

The Walls Came Tumbling Down!


The Walls Came Tumbling Down!

Over ten years ago (Nov. 9, 1989), the wall came tumbling down. As a baby boomer, I grew up with bomb shelters, weekly bomb attack drills in school and the deeply embedded impression that they could destroy us at any moment. Who was they? They were the Communist nations of the world, especially the Soviet Union and East Germany.

At the end of WWII, the allies divided up their spoils. The U.S., British and French sections of Germany became known as the Federal Republic of Germany or West Germany. The Soviet sector became the Communist Germany Democratic Republic or East Germany. These two sections were separated by a wall, in 1961. The wall had various check points manned by soldiers. Passage from one side of the wall to the other was, generally speaking, prohibited. The Berlin Wall divided families and separated friends; much as the fears and distrust of the Cold War divided the world into them (Communists) and us (the West).

On November 9, 1989, the wall came down. It happened so suddenly that the only American TV news reporter on the scene was NBC's Tom Brokaw (go to report). I remember watching the emotional scene on TV and feeling like I was watching a movie, not live news. The Wall had become a given in our world and the significance of its destruction was almost too much to grasp.

The tangible wall was not the only thing to come down. With it, went the Iron Curtain; a non-tangible wall which kept the Soviet Union closed off and separated from Europe and the rest of the world. This event marked the beginning of Russia's transformation to democracy, movement towards the sovereignty of the former Soviet States and the official end of the Cold War.

It may be no mistake that the fall of the Wall occurred around the same time as the anniversary of the October Revolution in Russia (November 7, 1917). The 1917 event ushered in the Soviet era; the 1989 event ended it. Ironically, both events had to do with the peoples' resistance against oppression.

The leaders and key players, in 1989, were U.S. President George H.W. Bush, German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, who received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990. Ironically, it was Gorbachev's economic and political reforms, known as Perestroika (1986), that set the wheels of international events in motion. While we watched in amazement as the Soviet Union gradually became more open, Perestroika was a very controversial issue inside the Soviet Union. Ultimately, another wall came down. The August 19, 1991 Coup marked the beginning of the end of the Soviet Union and the eventual election of Boris Yeltsin as the first president of the Russian Federation, the establishment of a parliamentary form of government and adoption of a constitution.

Bush, Gorbachev and Kohl are honored on the tenth anniversary of end of the wall, in Berlin; but, note that the goal of a free and unified Europe is yet to be completely realized. Russia's distrust of NATO, the ongoing conflict in Chechyna, the deadlock between the U.S. and Russia regarding the ABM Treaty/START, and Russia's economic problems are of great concern.

There is much to be done, regarding the West's relations with Russia. This each anniversary of the fall of the Wall, Iron Curtain and end of the Cold War reminds us of where we have been and the progress that has been made.

Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of Our Books

The Samovar Murders

The Samovar Murders

The murder of a poet is always more than a murder. When a famous writer is brutally stabbed on the campus of Moscow’s Lumumba University, the son of a recently deposed African president confesses, and the case assumes political implications that no one wants any part of.
White Magic

White Magic

The thirteen tales in this volume – all written by Russian émigrés, writers who fled their native country in the early twentieth century – contain a fair dose of magic and mysticism, of terror and the supernatural. There are Petersburg revenants, grief-stricken avengers, Lithuanian vampires, flying skeletons, murders and duels, and even a ghostly Edgar Allen Poe.
Driving Down Russia's Spine

Driving Down Russia's Spine

The story of the epic Spine of Russia trip, intertwining fascinating subject profiles with digressions into historical and cultural themes relevant to understanding modern Russia. 
Turgenev Bilingual

Turgenev Bilingual

A sampling of Ivan Turgenev's masterful short stories, plays, novellas and novels. Bilingual, with English and accented Russian texts running side by side on adjoining pages.
Tolstoy Bilingual

Tolstoy Bilingual

This compact, yet surprisingly broad look at the life and work of Tolstoy spans from one of his earliest stories to one of his last, looking at works that made him famous and others that made him notorious. 
The Little Golden Calf

The Little Golden Calf

Our edition of The Little Golden Calf, one of the greatest Russian satires ever, is the first new translation of this classic novel in nearly fifty years. It is also the first unabridged, uncensored English translation ever, and is 100% true to the original 1931 serial publication in the Russian journal 30 Dnei. Anne O. Fisher’s translation is copiously annotated, and includes an introduction by Alexandra Ilf, the daughter of one of the book’s two co-authors.
Survival Russian

Survival Russian

Survival Russian is an intensely practical guide to conversational, colloquial and culture-rich Russian. It uses humor, current events and thematically-driven essays to deepen readers’ understanding of Russian language and culture. This enlarged Second Edition of Survival Russian includes over 90 essays and illuminates over 2000 invaluable Russian phrases and words.
Dostoyevsky Bilingual

Dostoyevsky Bilingual

Bilingual series of short, lesser known, but highly significant works that show the traditional view of Dostoyevsky as a dour, intense, philosophical writer to be unnecessarily one-sided. 
Faith & Humor: Notes from Muscovy

Faith & Humor: Notes from Muscovy

A book that dares to explore the humanity of priests and pilgrims, saints and sinners, Faith & Humor has been both a runaway bestseller in Russia and the focus of heated controversy – as often happens when a thoughtful writer takes on sacred cows. The stories, aphorisms, anecdotes, dialogues and adventures in this volume comprise an encyclopedia of modern Russian Orthodoxy, and thereby of Russian life.
Davai! The Russians and Their Vodka

Davai! The Russians and Their Vodka

In this comprehensive, quixotic and addictive book, Edwin Trommelen explores all facets of the Russian obsession with vodka. Peering chiefly through the lenses of history and literature, Trommelen offers up an appropriately complex, rich and bittersweet portrait, based on great respect for Russian culture.
Bears in the Caviar

Bears in the Caviar

Bears in the Caviar is a hilarious and insightful memoir by a diplomat who was “present at the creation” of US-Soviet relations. Charles Thayer headed off to Russia in 1933, calculating that if he could just learn Russian and be on the spot when the US and USSR established relations, he could make himself indispensable and start a career in the foreign service. Remarkably, he pulled it of.

About Us

Russian Life is a publication of a 30-year-young, award-winning publishing house that creates a bimonthly magazine, books, maps, and other products for Russophiles the world over.

Latest Posts

Our Contacts

Russian Life
73 Main Street, Suite 402
Montpelier VT 05602

802-223-4955