Posted on 03/27/2015 8:01:45 AM PDT by WhiskeyX
Anyone who wants to understand Vladimir Putin today needs to know the story of what happened to him on a dramatic night in East Germany a quarter of a century ago.
[....]
"We cannot do anything without orders from Moscow," the voice at the other end replied. "And Moscow is silent."
That phrase, "Moscow is silent" has haunted this man ever since. Defiant yet helpless as the 1989 revolution swept over him, he has now himself become "Moscow" - the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin.
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...
Interesting article, thanks for posting.
“When it rains in Moscow, East Germans open their umbrellas.”
looks like he'd kill his grandmother
Was he hoping to get the tanks rolling into East Germany, much like Andropov did when he was station chief in Budapest in 1955?
“Was he hoping to get the tanks rolling into East Germany, much like Andropov did when he was station chief in Budapest in 1955?”
His purview would have been a few tanks and associated rifles needed for the defense of the KGB headquarters in Dresden seen in the article’s photograph. He was responsible for the security of the KGB and STASI secret files and papers, which they had to destroy to keep them from falling into the hands of the revolutionaries.
Looks like he already did.
That was funny!
Being stationed in Berlin during that time I would say MOST of us thought the ‘tanks would roll’ back then. Then we were astonished when it didn’t happen.
Bit of trivia: First company from the West to open in East Germany? Burger King. They rolled a mobile restaurant to the Dresden train station if I remember correctly :)
A most interesting element of the Cold War.
When I was stationed in FRG the commies complained that West German TV was sowing discontent & capitalist envy in the Eastern zone.
Nowadays on youtube there are unrepentant Ossis who yearn for the `egalitarian days of communism’ (”No, we didn’t live in little clay huts!!”).
Dresden must be a place where time stood still. First it was destroyed by the RAF (necessity still debated) then it was electronically isolated for decades afterward.
You don’t have to look for Ossis to see fools on youtube.
Here is a professor(!) of Montclair State University claiming Stalin did no crimes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRPTZF5zSLQ
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