Word: east
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...crackdown to halt the demonstrations that were spreading like a virus from city to city. But after the number of protesters multiplied into the tens of thousands, the Politburo announced a newfound willingness to discuss limited reforms. The sudden shift not only indicated a crack in one of the East bloc's most ossified regimes, but also spurred speculation that the ruling party was in disarray -- and that Honecker's days were numbered...
...East Germany's Communists struggled to dampen the volatile situation, their brethren in Hungary were busy taking steps that, even a few months ago, would have seemed impossible. A majority of the 1,274 delegates at a Communist Party congress voted to rechristen themselves the Hungarian Socialist Party. Hungarian Communism, for all practical purposes, was going out of business. Coming less than two months after the installation of Poland's first non- Communist government since the end of World War II, the Hungarian decision reinforced the historic shift taking place in Europe...
...popular uprising in East Germany's streets last week, the biggest such challenge since 1953, presents Honecker with a far graver crisis than the refugee tide. It threatens both to fracture civil order and to splinter the once monolithic regime. The confused leadership ricocheted between stern warnings and appeasing gestures. As Honecker greeted visiting Chinese Deputy Prime Minister Yao Yilin, the official news agency ADN warned that "there is a fundamental lesson to be learned from the counterrevolutionary unrest in Beijing." But the Politburo's subsequent statement suggests that many within the ruling elite were drawing different conclusions from...
...democratic dialogue." Although New Forum is technically illegal, it has gathered the signatures of more than 20,000 adherents, ranging from teachers and train drivers to electricians and factory foremen. Unlike Poland, where union workers sparked a popular insurrection, no single sector of society fuels the unrest in East Germany. The dissenters lack both a leader with Lech Walesa's charisma and a specific agenda...
...movement's strength is its links to the Protestant Church, which is attended by more than 40% of East Germany's 16 million citizens. Since the 1970s, it has provided a forum for human-rights and peace advocates. Last week churches in East Berlin, Leipzig and Dresden became the gathering points for demonstrators and the refuges for protesters when they met up with truncheon- swinging riot police...