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The protests in Czechoslovakia came earlier, in 1968! The Soviets rolled in the tanks in response. Poland had a mass solidarity movement rise up in 1980. The U

The protests in Czechoslovakia came earlier, in 1968! The Soviets rolled in the tanks in response. Poland had a mass solidarity movement rise up in 1980. The USSR didn't decide to send in the military then; they were lucky. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_reaction_to_the_Polish_crisis_of_1980%E2%80%931981 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_reaction_to_the_Polish_... There was a lot of unrest in Poland, and general strikes. Martial law was imposed. If you were an immigrant from Czechslovakia in a refugee camp in Austria at around that time, you'd be learning to speak Polish.

cromka 6mo ago
So 1990 Eastern Europe freed itself thanks to... 1968 Czechoslovakia?
- kazinator 6mo ago
  Of course not (but we can't say it didn't matter, either).
keiferski 6mo ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1956_Pozna%C5%84_protests https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1956_Pozna%C5%84_protests
- legulere 6mo ago
  Even earlier in Germany: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_German_uprising_of_1953 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_German_uprising_of_1953 Here in Germany they very often talk about the importance of what happened in Poland for the reunification
  - card_zero 6mo ago
    I'm enjoying the way this dispute reflects on the USSR. We were the first to try to escape! No, we were the first, years before that! No, you're both wrong, it was us!
    - kazinator 6mo ago
      Nope; I longed to escape long before you dreamed of it!