Word: communist
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Sunday, in the kind of head-spinning turn of events that is now the norm in the Soviet bloc, East Germany's Egon Krenz resigned as Communist Party leader -- while retaining his post as leader of the state -- and his entire Politburo and Central Committee stepped down as well. Asked about German unification at Sunday's press conference, Gorbachev said some questions must be left for "history" to decide and cautioned against doing "anything to accelerate these changes artificially." That call for prudence seemed ironic coming from the statesman who had done more than any other in this half...
...evidence that Gorbachev's drive for democracy and openness is serious seemed to grow even as the problems of the Communist world worsened. En route to Malta, Gorbachev stopped in Rome to visit John Paul II. His momentous meeting with the Pope marked the beginning of the end of more than 70 years of antagonism between the Kremlin and the Russian Orthodox Church. The first Soviet Communist Party boss to set foot on Vatican soil, Gorbachev conferred with the Pope for an unexpectedly long 75 minutes in the library of the 16th century Apostolic Palace. Addressing John Paul...
...Canossa, Italy. Gorbachev's concordat with the church was no less significant in its way. But there was a crucial difference: as is so often the case with Gorbachev, he achieved his reconciliation without humiliation. As he had done before, the Soviet leader let the ongoing crisis of the Communist system serve as an opportunity to push his nation toward a broader vision of the future. "We need spiritual values," Gorbachev declared the day before the Vatican meeting. "We need a revolution of the mind...
Before departing from Italy on Friday afternoon, Gorbachev also offered a revisionist view of the 1968 Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia that crushed the reforms of the Prague Spring. Earlier that day, the new Politburo of the Czechoslovak Communist Party branded the invasion as wrong. Asked at a Milan press conference what he thought about that, Gorbachev tiptoed toward an apology, though without going all the way. The Prague Spring was "an acceptable movement for democracy, renewal and humanization of society," he said. "It was right then and is right...
...magazine. The discussion deals with the fall of the Wall, German reunification, the future of socialism and Krenz's decision to avoid bloodshed in Leipzig. The other story is an amazing reconstruction of what went on behind the scenes in Prague in the months before the fall of the Communist regime. These are only two examples of the additional dimension we try to bring to the news every week...