GMAW 89 A WORLD WITHOUT BORDERS ap Np émber 1989, Kristina Matschat A jt the fers of Berlin, She had joined thousands int Chirlievong/of the most famouss crossing points ¢ntous event was soon to occur at the that very night, she also shivered in fear at the proximity of the Volespotiaei-(*p€ople’s police”)—the same officers who since 1961 had gunned down East Germans attempting to scale the Wall and escape to freedom in West Berlin. She had worn running shoes in case she needed to sprint away if shooting broke out or tanks rumbled through East Berlin to prevent the destruction of the Wall. ‘She remembered that “everybody was full of fear—but also full of hope.” Bitter memories flooded her consciousness as she recalled not being allowed to study what she wanted in school, not being able to speak freely of her discontent in case her friends were government spies, and not being able to locate disgruntled colleagues whom the government had condemned as “unwanted clements.” Her hope over- came her fears, though, as she began to chant with her fellow compatriots, “Tear the wall down! Open the gates!” She could sce that on the other side of the Wall that massive crowds of West Berliners had gathered to join their demonstration. Thrilled by this open protest against the most salient symbol of the cold war, she was nonetheless psychologically unprepared for victory when it came. Just before midnight East German soldiers suddenly began not only opening gates in the Wall but also gently helping East Germans crossing to the West, often for the first time in their lives. Her near disbelief at the swift downfall of Berlin’s decades-old barricade registered in the word she heard shouted over and over again by those passing through the Wall: Wabnsinn (“craziness”), Kristina Matschat remained at the Wall until 3:00 or 4:00 a.m., celebrating with the hundreds of thousands of other Berliners who now mingled, drinking cham- pagne and dancing on top of the Wall. While celebrating the fall of the barbed wire and mortar structure, she became aware of the significance of a world without bor- ders: “Suddenly we were seeing the West for the first time, the forbidden Berlin we felt both excitement and tensi of other East Germans at Che Salvador Dali, The Persizence of Memory, (1931). A leading surrealist, Dali declared that his ambition was to *systemize contusion." © The Persistence of Memory, 1931. By Salvador Dail, Oil on canvas, 94" 13°. ‘The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Given anonymously. Photograph © 2000 The Museum of ‘Modern Art, New York. © 1999 Fundacion Gala-Salvador Dali/Amists Rights Society (ARS), New York 10411042 PART VII THE TWENTIETH CENTURY had only seen on TV or heard about from friends. When we came home at dawn, T felt free for the first time in my life. I had never been happier.” The fall of the Berlin Wall brought down one of the world’s most notorious borders and symbolized the breaching of all sorts of boundaries in the contemporary world. The death of com- ‘munist regimes in eastern and central Europe and in the Soviet Union marked the end of the cold war, and the geographic, political, and ideological divisions of the bipolar world evaporated within an amazingly short period. As old political borders shifted and the iron curtain lifted, new if uncertain political opportunities arose. Along with the end of the cold war, many other forces were at work to create a new, more open world. Although certain national and communist borders changed only at the end of the cold war, cultural and technological developments since World War II steadily broke down the distances between countries and peoples. Cultural integration resulted from the never-ending stream of ideas, information, and values spreading from one society to another. Consumer goods, popular cul- ture, television, computers, and the Intemet all spread outward from advanced capi- talist and industrialized nations, particularly Europe and the United States, and other societies had to come to terms with this breakdown of cultural and technolog- ical barriers. Cultural traditions from Europe and the United States were challenged as often as they were accepted, as most the world’s peoples attempted to blend for- eign cultural practices with their own, ‘The world’s peoples themselves underwent changes in a world with fewer barri- cers, Women struggled to close the divide between the sexes, at times fighting for equal economic, social, and political rights and at other times abiding by gender ex- pectations while waiting for new opportunities to improve their condition. As popu- lations grew at often alarming rates, women spent much of their time at the tradi- tional female task of child rearing, but both women and men embarked on migrations when their societies could no longer adequately support their growing, populations. They moved to the cities or to other nations either to escape suffering or to seek new fortunes. ‘The populations moving around the globe revealed the diminishing significance of national boundary lines, but they also posed problems that could not be solved by any one state acting alone. International organizations like the United Nations ac- knowledged that global problems needed global solutions, underscoring anew the tenuousness of borders in the contemporary world. Not everyone experienced the ecstasy Kristina Matschat felt at the Berlin Wall when that most restrictive border disappeared, but global interconnectedness made it more difficult to maintain boundaries among the peoples and countries of the worl. THE END OF THE COLD WAR ‘The destruction of the Berlin Wall signaled the collapse of the Soviet Union-backed regime responsible for its construction, The cold war was coming to its end. Be~ tween 1989 and 1990, through a series of mostly nonviolent revolutions, the peo- ples of eastern and central Europe regained their independence, instituted democra- tic forms of government, and adopted market-based economies. The collapse of communist regimes in Europe was the direct consequence of inter- related economic and political developments. The economic weakness of the commu- nist regimes in eastern and central Europe and the Soviet Union became so apparent as to require reforms. The policies espoused by Soviet leader Mikhail S. GorbachevCHAPTER 39 A WORLD WITHOUT BORDERS (1931-), who came to power in 1985, represented an effort to address this economic deterioration, but they also unleashed a tidal wave of revolution that brought down governments from Czechoslovakia to the Soviet Union itself. As communism unrav- led throughout eastern and central Europe, Gorbachev desperately tried to save the Soviet Union from disintegration by restructuring the economy and liberalizing soci- ety. Caught between the rising tide of radical reforms and the opposition of en- trenched interests, however, there was little he could do but watch as events unfolded beyond his control, By the time the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, the Soviet vision Of socialism had ceased to inspire either fear or emulation. The cold war system of states and alliances had become irrelevant to international relations. Revolutions in Eastern and Central Europe ‘The inability to connect communism with nationalism had left communist regimes vulnerable throughout eastern and central Europe. Those regimes had been born in ‘Moscow, transplanted by the Soviet army, and then shored up by tanks and bayo- nets, To most of eastern and central Europeans, the Sovict-imposed governments lacked legitimacy from the beginning, and despite the efforts of local communist leaders, the regimes never became firmly established. For a while it seemed possible that Stalin’s “friendly governments” might succeed in establishing rapport with indigenous populations. By the end of World War Il, conservative political parties had lost credibility because they had not supported democracy in the interwar period and subsequently aided the Nazis during the war. Conversely, left-wing parties had acquired a solid record of opposition to authoritar- ian regimes in general and Nazi rule in particular. As for the Soviet Union, its pres- tige was high after the war because it had played a major role in defeating fascism and liberating eastern and central Europe from Nazi rule. Emanating from the Soviet Union itself was the hope that reform might push the regimes of eastern and central Europe toward less harsh and more enlightened commu- nist rule. Nikita Khrushchev’s denunciation of the Stalin era and his vision of a more prosperous and humane communism inspired a generation of reformers in both the So- viet Union and Europe. The brutal Soviet interventions in 1956 (Hungary) and 1968 (Czechoslovakia), however, dashed the aspirations and dreams of reformers. By the early 1970s intellectuals and dissidents had abandoned all hope for a humane socialism. The Polish intellectual Leszek Kolakowski echoed the sentiments of many when he bit terly complained in 1971 that “the dead and by now also grotesque creature called ‘Maraist-Leninism still hangs at the necks of the rulers like a hopeless tumor.” Despite economic stagnation and obvious signs of discontent, the rulers of east: ‘em and central Europe were too reluctant to confront the challenge and restructure their ailing systems. It remained for a new Soviet leader, Mikhail S. Gorbachev, to unleash the forces that would result in the disappearance of the Soviet empire in Eu- rope. By the time Gorbachev visited East Berlin in 1989 on the fortieth anniversary of the German Democratic Republic, he had committed himself to a restructuring of the Soviet Union and to unilateral withdrawal from the cold war. In public inter- views he surprised his grim-faced hosts with the announcement that the Brezhnev Doctrine was no longer in force and that from then on cach country would be re- sponsible for its own destiny. As one observer put it, the “Sinatra doctrine” (“I did it my way”) replaced the Brezhnev Doctrine. The new Soviet orientation led in rapid succession to the collapse or overthrow of regimes in Poland, Bulgaria, Hun: gary, Czechoslovakia, Romania, and East Germany. Moscow's Legac Gorbachev's Im