Poland celebrates 20 years since end of communist rule - by Matthew Day
Poland celebrated its 20th anniversary of the elections that ended communist rule and precipitated a wave of revolution in Eastern Europe which left the Iron Curtain shattered and Europe reunited after decades of division. Coming after lengthy negotiations between Poland's authoritarian government and Lech Walesa's Solidarity movement, the elections of June 4 delivered a hammer blow to a communist bloc that was still regarded by many as indestructible. In the months that followed June 4, an unprecedented wave of revolution tore through Eastern Europe bringing an end to the Cold War and tearing up the continent's geo-political map.
Perhaps mindful that election's anniversary coincided with that of the Tiananmen Square massacre, Vaclav Havel, the dissident play write who led the Czech revolution, said that events of 1989 should provide an example to those still struggling for freedom. "I think that this anniversary is an opportunity, to send out a sign of solidarity to those nations, who are fighting for liberation," he said in Krakow. "Let this be our input in the testament of the future, in the improvement of our future, of our common world."
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