God, Communism, and the 1989 Revolution
by Bill Muehlenberg, CultureWatch:
One of the most incredible years of political upheaval was 1989:
There have been plenty of horrible tyrannies over the centuries, perhaps none more so than that of godless communism that took up most of the twentieth century. From 1917 onwards we witnessed the rise of many monstrous communist dictatorships. But by the 80s and 90s we also saw the rise of brave and sustained resistance to them. This culminated in the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and with it, the collapse of Soviet communism and the Eastern Bloc.
(I should at this point mention that there were of course earlier acts of courageous resistance, including the Hungarian Revolution – or Uprising – of October-November 1956; the 1968 “Prague Spring” in Czechoslovakia, followed by the August 1968 Warsaw Pact invasion; and the brave but short-lived Tiananmen Square resistance of 1989.)
But the revolutions that took place in Eastern Europe were nothing short of miraculous. They helped to bring a final end to Soviet communism. Sure, Marxist ideology is still alive and well, especially in Western universities and the like. But the incredible fall of so many evil and diabolical dictatorships during such a short period of time is something we must never forget. It was not just a massive political achievement, but a massive spiritual achievement as well.
A short article can not do proper justice to all of this, and I will need to pen further pieces in the future to offer more details on these stories. For the time being, however, a simple timeline can be offered to put all this into some historical context. I will then say a few further things about this incredible period in recent political history, including the role of the churches.
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