1989: The Year of Revolutions
Revolutionary fervour was spreading across Eastern Europe throughout as the Communist hold centred in Moscow continued to weaken.
In April 1989, ´óÏó´«Ã½ News Europe Editor Gavin Hewitt was reporting for Panorama from Prague, capital of the-then Czechoslovakia, and facing the possibility that he might witness a repeat of 1968's .
I spoke to him this week from Berlin and asked him about his experiences making that film.
"During our time filming in the-then Czechoslovakia in 1989, it seemed everyone we spoke to and everywhere we turned showed signs that the ruling Communist Party was on its last legs. It was an exhausted regime, recognising the need for reform but paralysed by the fear of losing control. The old certainties were fading away.
I think the moment we knew the end was near was during filming at a rally held by the old-guard party faithful. We had heard rumour that students and activists, eager for reform and a chance to taste 'civil society' as they called the West, were planning something. Signs of dissent against the system were unheard of - to do so on a large scale at a public rally was nothing short of revolutionary.
Sure enough, as the speakers began from the podium, cries of 'freedom' from the reformers began in the crowd. A sense of excitement and panic grew. The party's military guard moved to quell the dissenters and tear-gas was fired.
The military guards' attention turned to the Panorama film crew, thinking we were agitators, but the activists in the crowd moved to get us into a car and spirit us away. As we drove away I was left stunned by the boldness of the students and their courage in facing down the soldiers in helping us escape.
The demonstrations were to last for several more days before the crackdown came. The authorities made over 800 arrests.
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Even so, the stomach for the fight had gone. The party no longer seemed to have the energy required to hold the regime in place. During our time filming in Prague we were followed by a minder. Usually a large part of their role was simply to spy on our activities and report it to the party. The minder seemed distracted and disinterested. Further evidence that the ties that held the system in place were steadily unravelling.
The cries of reform we heard on that first demonstration night highlighted the generational gap that was driving the move for change. For the first time since the end of the Second World War, the Czech youth had become aware of the freedom offered in the West and through a burgeoning media had become aware of the weakening of the influence of Moscow through Eastern Europe. They saw their chance.
Those driving the change had too much energy for those clinging to the orthodoxies of the past. Revolution was inevitable - not necessarily during those nights - but soon. The events of the of November 1989 were to prove them right."
Comment number 1.
At 8th Nov 2009, dennisjunior1 wrote:Eamonn Walsh:
Thanks for the excellent blog about the 1989 Revolutions across
Europe..
=Dennis Junior=
Complain about this comment (Comment number 1)