Tomorrow 9 November marks the 25th anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall. “There is nothing they despise more than weakness. There is nothing they respect more than strength.” The Cold War was won by a combination of Christian courage by the persecuted Christians who endured decades of brutality, steadfast resistance by brave anti-communist soldiers who fought the Soviets to a standstill, persistent prayer and pressure from Christians in the West and the bold strategy of Ronald Reagan, which dismantled the Evil Empire. “While they promise them liberty, they themselves are slaves of corruption…” 2 Peter 2:19 As candlelit prayer vigils and protests spread from Leipzig, through Dresden, to all of East Germany, the East German government was bankrupt and tottering. Gorbachev’s Soviet Union was also bankrupt and could no longer bail them out. Erich Honecker, the dictator of East Germany, turned to the West Germans (who in the past had always been willing to provide enough to keep East Germany going). This time however, the West German Chancellor, Helmut Kohl, was not willing to bail them out. He demanded reforms. While governments negotiated, the people in both East and West Berlin rose up to breach the wall and begin to dismantle it physically. The leaders were overwhelmed by events. Days after the Berlin Wall collapsed, mass demonstrations broke out in Czechoslovakia. Vaclav Havel, long time leader of the Resistance movement and prisoner of the communists, rose to power and dismantled communism in Czechoslovakia. Street fighting erupted in Romania to overthrow the brutal communist dictator Nicolai Ceausescu. Soon resistance spread to Bulgaria where the communists were overthrown in December 1989. In Hungary the communist government was overthrown in October 1990. In Albania the first free elections were held in March 1991. Yugoslavia split into different republics as each broke away from the communist control in Belgrade. Soon the Baltic Republics – Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania were demanding their independence from the Soviet Union. In August 1991 a coup by hardliners in the Soviet Union was frustrated in its attempt to return the country to hard line communism. Boldly waving the white, blue and red Russian flag, Boris Yeltsin abolished the Soviet Union and pulled down the Soviet Flag. The Cold War had formerly ended. British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, had this to say: “The Berlin Wall stands as concrete proof that when people have a choice, they choose to be free … Freedom has its problems – but we’ve never needed to build walls to keep our people in.”
Posted on: Sat, 08 Nov 2014 21:33:33 +0000
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