The End of
the Cold War
Twenty five years ago this November, the Berlin Wall
was torn down and with it, the Iron Curtain fell, and the communist Bloc
countries found themselves a bit freer. Many of countries then looked to the
West for their ideas. One of the consequences for education in these countries
was that Russian was dropped at schools and English replaced it as a foreign
language.
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| 1956 Hungarian revolt |
I found a reminder of these historic events the other
day in a central street in Vienna. An artist from Ukraine, Mykola Bilart,
exhibited the following tailor’s dummies to the title ‘Europe Wake Up!’ Many of
the dummies mention previous dates, such as 1956 and 1968 when attempts made by
Hungary and Czechoslovakia to become free of Soviet influence failed.
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| 1989 Czechoslovakia |
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| 1968 Czech revolt |
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| End of Russian Involvement in afghanistan |
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| Poland 1989 |
When Churchill made his famous ‘Iron Curtain’ speech
in 1946 in Fulton, Missouri, USA, he included Austria as behind the curtain
(communist controlled), probably not knowing himself which way Austria would
fall. Vienna was mentioned in the written version, but if you watch a spoken
version he didn’t mention Vienna as being behind the curtain.
As you can see Bilart’s works of art represent the
various Eastern Bloc countries and the dates of counter-revolutions which date
25 years ago this month.
How does Vienna and Austria fit into the story? Well,
the Russians ‘liberated’ Vienna, in 1945 (see the photos below of Denkmal der Roten Armee (Red Army Memorial)
in Schwarzbergenplatz commemorating this.
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| Red Army Soldier |
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| Commermoration of Liberation of Vienna |
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| Schwartzbergenplatz |
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| Schwarzbergenplazt |
It was only in 1955 that they agreed
to leave Vienna, along with the Allied forces (France, the UK and the USA . The
Russians’ (led by foreign minister Molotov of cocktail fame) condition was that
Austria declare themselves a neutral country, similar to its neighbour, Switzerland.
However, yet again the Austria, proved to be the
eastern border of Western Europe. Austria accepted aid from the US backed
Marshall Plan and in 1955, (negotiated on behalf of the Soviet Union, by
Molotov, of the cocktail fame) with allied and Soviet support, Austria declared
itself to be neutral, similar its neighbour, Switzerland.
If you look at a map of Europe, you can see that
Austria, and particularly Vienna, was surrounded on three sides by Communist
countries (Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Yugoslavia). In fact, it was the opening of
the border between Hungary and Austria, that encouraged East Germans to escape
to Western Germany and, pre-empting the fall of the Berlin Wall by 5 months.
One interesting titbit of history, is that four key
players in WW2 and the subsequent Cold War (Adolph Hitler, Tito, Trotsky and
Stalin were all in Vienna in 1913 and very possibly crossed paths in the famous
cafés. (One of these, the Café Central, will be talked about later in this
blog).
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| Ukranian artist Mykola Bilart (wearing beret). |
You can see the artist himself here.
He believes that present
day Ukraine is in a similar battle to the former communist Bloc countries and
hence the title ‘Wake Up Europe!’.
Sources.
Tarr, R. 2011. Churchill’s ‘Iron Curtain speech’.
Last accessed 29/11/2014
History Beta. 2013. Vienna, Austria and the Iron
curtain
Last accessed 29/11/2014
Fordham University. N.D. Modern
History Sourcebook: Winston S. Churchill:
‘Iron Curtain Speech’, March 5, 1946
Last accessed 29/11/2014
