High noon, June 4, 1989 :-)
Posted on 06/04/2009 1:22:04 PM PDT by lizol
Poland intends to humiliate Russia celebrating fall of communism
04.06.2009 Source: Pravda.Ru
Poland celebrates the 20th anniversary of the fall of communism on June 4. The festivities will take place in the city of Krakow. Foreign guests – including Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and German Chancellor Angela Merkel – are expected to participate in the event.
Poland will mark the date of the first free elections to the Parliament and to the Senate, which took place in the country on June 4, 1989. Opposition won the elections and formed the new government, which triggered the start of economic and political reforms to take the nation from socialism to capitalism, market economy and Western-style democracy.
The date is quite conditional. Poland may mark the fall of communism on February 6 and April 5. A round-table discussion with the participation of communist authorities and anti-communist opposition took place in Poland between those dates in 1989. The discussion ended with a decision to hold the free elections. Poland may also hold the festivities on June 18, when the second round of the elections took place.
One may celebrate ‘the fall of communism’ on September 12, when Poland formed its first non-communist government in many years. There is another date option: the strikes, which put an end to 40 years of communism in the country, began in 1988. Therefore, it is not known why the sitting Polish government chose June 4 as the date when the communist regime collapsed.
Polish President Lech Kaczynski must celebrate the fall of communism at all costs. The date does not matter. The struggle against the communist legacy became the cornerstone of his politics. There is the National Memory Institute in Poland, which investigates the crimes of the communist era. Poland’s last socialist leader Wojciech Jaruzelsky is still on trial in spite of the fact that he handed the power to the opposition peacefully in 1989-1990.
The current state of affairs in Poland can not be referred to as ‘perfect’ against the background of the crisis. The country is doing better than the Baltic States and Hungary, which stand on the brink of bankruptcy, but it has a lot of problems to solve. Hundreds of thousands of Polish guest workers may lose their jobs in Germany and France at any moment. The unemployment in Poland has been growing too. If the situation does not change for the better, Poland may face a social disaster. In the meantime, the government decides to spend money on doubtful festivities.
The anti-Russian constituent in the anniversary of the fall of communism is evident. A part of the Polish administration approaches the victory over communism as the nation’s liberation from Russia’s iron heel. A number of Polish politicians, including the president, say that Poland must claim compensation from Russia for the years of the communist occupation.
Poland preferred to stay away from Russia in its foreign politics during the post-Soviet period. The political ties between the two countries were scrapped three times within 20 years: in 1990-1993, in 1998-2001 and in 2005-2007.
It just so happens that Poland is ready to spend as much as it needs to accuse Russia of all sins.
So is celebrating the fall of communism.
Look forward to the day when we can celebrate that here.
LOL!!!! (I guess I really shouldn’t laugh)
Unfortunately, socialized health care in the U.S. will successfully prevent THAT from actually happening!
Viva Poland.
The Russians should be humiliated that they ever perpetrated the abominations of the USSR and its imperial arm “Warsaw Pact”
At least the Polish people recognize Communism as inherently bad. I wish more people here did...
Sorry I can’t make it . . . where have the FR bolshies gone? They’ve been awfully quiet.
The Poles hated being under the thumb of the Soviets for as long as they were.
It only embarrasses communists, of which there are fewer and fewer in Russia all the time.
Most Russians hated the communists.
We were in Red Square on International Women’s Day, March 8, 2002. Big international Communist holiday. The Soviets used to bus thousands of workers and students to file past Lenin’s body in what the Western press reverently calls “Lenin’s Tomb”.
The Russians call it “The Mummy”.
On March 8, 2002, there were only a handful of tourists at the Mummy’s mausoleum. The Russians were out enjoying their freedom shopping in the malls and taking a day off to be with their families and friends.
We didn’t come to Red Square to see the Mummy, by the way, we were just sightseeing.
A hawker approached us to sell a Matrushka doll, you know, those carved dolls with one inside the other inside the other. I told him I wasn’t interested.
Then he showed me a Matruschka doll of Boris Yeltsin. I asked him why I should be interested in that one. He gave me that Russian half-smile we grew to know and love so well and removed the outermost shell. Inside was Mikhail Gorbachov. Inside of Gorbachov was Brezhnev. Inside Brezhneve was Krushchov. Inside Krushchov was Stalin. Inside Stalin was Lenin. Inside Lenin was Tsar Nikolas.
The doll basically said, “Inside this tyrant is just another tyrant,” or “Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.”
The hawker smiled at me triumphantly. I bought that one. There was no Andropov or Chernenko, but I surmise they didn’t live long enough to be memorialized in a Matrushka doll.
:)
Oh poor humiliated Russia, never mind the fact that Lwów is not a part of Poland any more, never mind the massacre of Polish officers by Stalin’s goons.... No the great offense of the day is that Poland will celebrate the fall of communism!
I spent the whole Summer of 1989 in Poland. Spent Easter there this year. Lots of changes, most for the better, In ‘89 the stores were empty, today new shopping malls full of people shopping.
Golly gosh gee willickers! I wonder why?!!
After he begged and pleaded for the Soviet Union to invade Poland in 1980, and then turned around and told the Polish Armed Forces that he was instituting Martial Law to avoid Soviet invasion, even though he was told by the Soviets that they would not invade Poland even if Solidarity gained power.
Russia ought to celebrate the fall of communism too.
Yeltsin was a hero!
But they loved the power the Soviet Union had on the world stage, and they want that back.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.