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In 2020 a research project dedicated
to understanding the meaning of 1989 conducted a series of talks with
intellectuals and scholars in Germany, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and
Romania. It collected witness testimony of these events as well as interviewing
the post-1989 generation in order to understand their relationship to the history
of the transformation. This essay is based on the outcomes of these
discussions, focusing primarily on the role and meaning of citizen actions.[1]
Go West!
“The was an idealisation of the West, as a land of prosperity and stability, rather than a direct longing for an alternative, democratic regime”