Latest Episodes for this Channel
Wed December 31 1969
After seeing the film The Lives of Others, I was reminded about what is history, and what isn't, these days. The German movie, which won the 2007 Acad...
read more
After seeing the film The Lives of Others, I was reminded about what is history, and what isn't, these days. The German movie, which won the 2007 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language film, is a
grim portrayal of life in East Germany before reunification and the twisted relationship between cultural elites and the Stasi secret police. Set in 1984, appropriately, the film depicts the everyday
rea...
read more
After seeing the film The Lives of Others, I was reminded about what is history, and what isn't, these days. The German movie, which won the 2007 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language film, is a
grim portrayal of life in East Germany before reunification and the twisted relationship between cultural elites and the Stasi secret police. Set in 1984, appropriately, the film depicts the everyday
reality of totalitarianism in the GDR through the surveillance, intimidation, blackmail and psychological torture used by "the sword and the shield" of the communist state. It shows how dictatorship
demands conformism, promotes corruption, breeds betrayal, and destroys lives, but it also offers hope that some can rise above the evil system and do the right thing in a triumph of the human spirit.
The movie deftly captures the look and feel of the East Berlin which I remember well from a number of visits in the 1980s, the grayness of life, drab clothes, socialist pop music, antiquated
technology, and decaying buildings. While leaving the cinema, I thought that the film would make a fine addition to the syllabus I use to teach European History to undergraduates. But as I spoke to
my friends in Minsk, read the websites with news from Belarus, and recalled travels to that country, I realized that in some parts of Eastern Europe, the film was more about current events than the
past. I heard and read about a youth group meeting raided by police because of a tapped phone, a demonstration of small entrepreneurs held in the shadow of special forces and their unique buses
(called "avtozak") to take detainees to prison, students expelled from universities for their political activities, and a political prisoner who was punished for reading after lights out in jail.
Like East Berlin of old, Minsk today remains full of uniforms, socialist realist monuments, crumbling apartment blocs, popsa music, and bad consumer goods. The prison featured so prominently in the
movie, Hohenschoenhausen, is now a museum to Stasi ruthlessness, but the KGB prison in Minsk remain open for business. The Marxism-Leninism of East Germany is only a memory, but "Europe's last
dictator" hangs on in Belarus . As the anniversary of the March 2006 events draws closer, I hope that more Belarusians will be able to resist dictatorship and do the right thing. Sooner or later a
day like November 9, 1989, will dawn in Belarus and statues of Lenin will fall like the Wall. I look forward to that triumph of the human spirit and to the day when my friends and I, like characters
in the film, will be able to read our secret police files in Minsk. Someday, Belarusians will echo the words of the movie's leading actor, who declared in an interview that "This is what dictatorship
looked like." Celluloid Hero
read less
Wed December 31 1969
After seeing the film The Lives of Others, I was reminded about what is history, and what isn't, these days. The German movie, which won the 2007 Acad...
read more
After seeing the film The Lives of Others, I was reminded about what is history, and what isn't, these days. The German movie, which won the 2007 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language film, is a
grim portrayal of life in East Germany before reunification and the twisted relationship between cultural elites and the Stasi secret police. Set in 1984, appropriately, the film depicts the everyday
rea...
read more
After seeing the film The Lives of Others, I was reminded about what is history, and what isn't, these days. The German movie, which won the 2007 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language film, is a
grim portrayal of life in East Germany before reunification and the twisted relationship between cultural elites and the Stasi secret police. Set in 1984, appropriately, the film depicts the everyday
reality of totalitarianism in the GDR through the surveillance, intimidation, blackmail and psychological torture used by "the sword and the shield" of the communist state. It shows how dictatorship
demands conformism, promotes corruption, breeds betrayal, and destroys lives, but it also offers hope that some can rise above the evil system and do the right thing in a triumph of the human spirit.
The movie deftly captures the look and feel of the East Berlin which I remember well from a number of visits in the 1980s, the grayness of life, drab clothes, socialist pop music, antiquated
technology, and decaying buildings. While leaving the cinema, I thought that the film would make a fine addition to the syllabus I use to teach European History to undergraduates. But as I spoke to
my friends in Minsk, read the websites with news from Belarus, and recalled travels to that country, I realized that in some parts of Eastern Europe, the film was more about current events than the
past. I heard and read about a youth group meeting raided by police because of a tapped phone, a demonstration of small entrepreneurs held in the shadow of special forces and their unique buses
(called "avtozak") to take detainees to prison, students expelled from universities for their political activities, and a political prisoner who was punished for reading after lights out in jail.
Like East Berlin of old, Minsk today remains full of uniforms, socialist realist monuments, crumbling apartment blocs, popsa music, and bad consumer goods. The prison featured so prominently in the
movie, Hohenschoenhausen, is now a museum to Stasi ruthlessness, but the KGB prison in Minsk remain open for business. The Marxism-Leninism of East Germany is only a memory, but "Europe's last
dictator" hangs on in Belarus . As the anniversary of the March 2006 events draws closer, I hope that more Belarusians will be able to resist dictatorship and do the right thing. Sooner or later a
day like November 9, 1989, will dawn in Belarus and statues of Lenin will fall like the Wall. I look forward to that triumph of the human spirit and to the day when my friends and I, like characters
in the film, will be able to read our secret police files in Minsk. Someday, Belarusians will echo the words of the movie's leading actor, who declared in an interview that "This is what dictatorship
looked like." Celluloid Hero
read less
Wed December 31 1969
After seeing the film The Lives of Others, I was reminded about what is history, and what isn't, these days. The German movie, which won the 2007 Acad...
read more
After seeing the film The Lives of Others, I was reminded about what is history, and what isn't, these days. The German movie, which won the 2007 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language film, is a
grim portrayal of life in East Germany before reunification and the twisted relationship between cultural elites and the Stasi secret police. Set in 1984, appropriately, the film depicts the everyday
rea...
read more
After seeing the film The Lives of Others, I was reminded about what is history, and what isn't, these days. The German movie, which won the 2007 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language film, is a
grim portrayal of life in East Germany before reunification and the twisted relationship between cultural elites and the Stasi secret police. Set in 1984, appropriately, the film depicts the everyday
reality of totalitarianism in the GDR through the surveillance, intimidation, blackmail and psychological torture used by "the sword and the shield" of the communist state. It shows how dictatorship
demands conformism, promotes corruption, breeds betrayal, and destroys lives, but it also offers hope that some can rise above the evil system and do the right thing in a triumph of the human spirit.
The movie deftly captures the look and feel of the East Berlin which I remember well from a number of visits in the 1980s, the grayness of life, drab clothes, socialist pop music, antiquated
technology, and decaying buildings. While leaving the cinema, I thought that the film would make a fine addition to the syllabus I use to teach European History to undergraduates. But as I spoke to
my friends in Minsk, read the websites with news from Belarus, and recalled travels to that country, I realized that in some parts of Eastern Europe, the film was more about current events than the
past. I heard and read about a youth group meeting raided by police because of a tapped phone, a demonstration of small entrepreneurs held in the shadow of special forces and their unique buses
(called "avtozak") to take detainees to prison, students expelled from universities for their political activities, and a political prisoner who was punished for reading after lights out in jail.
Like East Berlin of old, Minsk today remains full of uniforms, socialist realist monuments, crumbling apartment blocs, popsa music, and bad consumer goods. The prison featured so prominently in the
movie, Hohenschoenhausen, is now a museum to Stasi ruthlessness, but the KGB prison in Minsk remain open for business. The Marxism-Leninism of East Germany is only a memory, but "Europe's last
dictator" hangs on in Belarus . As the anniversary of the March 2006 events draws closer, I hope that more Belarusians will be able to resist dictatorship and do the right thing. Sooner or later a
day like November 9, 1989, will dawn in Belarus and statues of Lenin will fall like the Wall. I look forward to that triumph of the human spirit and to the day when my friends and I, like characters
in the film, will be able to read our secret police files in Minsk. Someday, Belarusians will echo the words of the movie's leading actor, who declared in an interview that "This is what dictatorship
looked like." Celluloid Hero
read less
Wed December 31 1969
After seeing the film The Lives of Others, I was reminded about what is history, and what isn't, these days. The German movie, which won the 2007 Acad...
read more
After seeing the film The Lives of Others, I was reminded about what is history, and what isn't, these days. The German movie, which won the 2007 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language film, is a
grim portrayal of life in East Germany before reunification and the twisted relationship between cultural elites and the Stasi secret police. Set in 1984, appropriately, the film depicts the everyday
rea...
read more
After seeing the film The Lives of Others, I was reminded about what is history, and what isn't, these days. The German movie, which won the 2007 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language film, is a
grim portrayal of life in East Germany before reunification and the twisted relationship between cultural elites and the Stasi secret police. Set in 1984, appropriately, the film depicts the everyday
reality of totalitarianism in the GDR through the surveillance, intimidation, blackmail and psychological torture used by "the sword and the shield" of the communist state. It shows how dictatorship
demands conformism, promotes corruption, breeds betrayal, and destroys lives, but it also offers hope that some can rise above the evil system and do the right thing in a triumph of the human spirit.
The movie deftly captures the look and feel of the East Berlin which I remember well from a number of visits in the 1980s, the grayness of life, drab clothes, socialist pop music, antiquated
technology, and decaying buildings. While leaving the cinema, I thought that the film would make a fine addition to the syllabus I use to teach European History to undergraduates. But as I spoke to
my friends in Minsk, read the websites with news from Belarus, and recalled travels to that country, I realized that in some parts of Eastern Europe, the film was more about current events than the
past. I heard and read about a youth group meeting raided by police because of a tapped phone, a demonstration of small entrepreneurs held in the shadow of special forces and their unique buses
(called "avtozak") to take detainees to prison, students expelled from universities for their political activities, and a political prisoner who was punished for reading after lights out in jail.
Like East Berlin of old, Minsk today remains full of uniforms, socialist realist monuments, crumbling apartment blocs, popsa music, and bad consumer goods. The prison featured so prominently in the
movie, Hohenschoenhausen, is now a museum to Stasi ruthlessness, but the KGB prison in Minsk remain open for business. The Marxism-Leninism of East Germany is only a memory, but "Europe's last
dictator" hangs on in Belarus . As the anniversary of the March 2006 events draws closer, I hope that more Belarusians will be able to resist dictatorship and do the right thing. Sooner or later a
day like November 9, 1989, will dawn in Belarus and statues of Lenin will fall like the Wall. I look forward to that triumph of the human spirit and to the day when my friends and I, like characters
in the film, will be able to read our secret police files in Minsk. Someday, Belarusians will echo the words of the movie's leading actor, who declared in an interview that "This is what dictatorship
looked like." Celluloid Hero
read less
Wed December 31 1969
While on the way to the Library of Congress for an event on "Dissidents and the Fight for Freedom," it was impossible to avoid all the advertising for...
read more
While on the way to the Library of Congress for an event on "Dissidents and the Fight for Freedom," it was impossible to avoid all the advertising for the huge Shakespeare festival taking place in
Washington. After all, the Library of Congress is situated next to another great collection, the Folger Shakespeare Library, the world's largest repository of materials by and about the great British
bar...
read more
While on the way to the Library of Congress for an event on "Dissidents and the Fight for Freedom," it was impossible to avoid all the advertising for the huge Shakespeare festival taking place in
Washington. After all, the Library of Congress is situated next to another great collection, the Folger Shakespeare Library, the world's largest repository of materials by and about the great British
bard. Tuesday's forum, which highlighted the struggle for liberty by democratic activists against the overwhelming odds of dictatorship, reminded me of Shakespeare's Henry V, also a tale of the
improbable victory of the greatly outnumbered English over the French. At the event, Vaclav Havel, one of the world's most famous former dissidents, played the role of King Harry, boosting morale,
evoking solidarity, and honoring sacrifice. His brothers were not the Dukes of Gloucester, Westmorland or York, but ordinary male, female, student and minority activists from Belarus, Russia, Burma,
Cuba, China, Iran and North Korea. "There's nothing so becomes a man as modest stillness and humility…" Havel had requested the event as one of a series that will commemorate the 30th
anniversary of Charter 77, the human rights movement that eventually sparked the 1989 Velvet Revolution. Unlike the King Harry in the play, Havel is a man of great modesty and few words. But the
three points made by this modern playwright seemed to match, in their eloquence and meaning, the prose of his Elizabethan predecessor. He recalled that no one in the underground liked the word
"dissident," that this term was a "product of the western press." He defined a "dissident" as one who is struggling for human dignity and freedom and used the term to link these brave individuals
from four continents who are opposing their governments' tryanny. Havel declared that democratic states must support dissident movements. As he explained, while the risks are great and the results
uncertain, supporting the right values is more important than inaction from a fear of failure. Havel has certainly backed up his words in regard to Belarus. He is one the few western statesmen who
has consistantly supported the human rights movement and democratic opposition in our country. "Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more…" The fiery and inspirational words came from
Carl Gershman, president of the National Endowment for Democracy, a co-host of the event. Like King Harry, Gershman rallied the activists by evoking democracy as a universal value and letting them
know that they are not only individuals that can make a difference but participants in a broader movement. Introducing each dissident, Gershman described the heartbreaking hardships faced by the
freedom fighters—including death threats, imprisonment, torture, murder of family members, expulsion from schools, and forced exile. But he also highlighted their common strength of spirit and
courage as they followed in Havel's footsteps. "Men of few words are the best men…" The dissidents themselves were quiet, humble figures. Each spoke for about 3-5 minutes about the situation
in his or her country. Ali Afshari, a student leader who was tortured in an Iranian jail, reminded the audience that freedom is not given to us but must be worked for. Ales Mihalevic, an NGO and
political leader who spent Christmas 2006 in jail, spoke about the falsified elections and crackdowns against youth in Belarus. Rebiya Kadeer, a former laundress who was nominated for the Nobel Peace
Prize last year, called for minority rights for her Uyghur people and democracy for all in China. Kim Seung Min explained that freedom and democracy is as important as food and drink to the
physically and spiritually starved in North Korea. Min Zin from Burma, who spent nine years underground for supporting Aung San Suu Kyi, asked the audience to "please use your liberties to promote
ours." "This story shall the good man teach his son…" Paula Dobriansky, Under Sectretary of State for Global Affairs and Democracy at the US State Department, closed the event by reminding us
that these men and women of courage are an inspiration to all of those around the world who are struggling for freedom. She reinforced the common theme that all men and women have a right to freedom
and liberty. Finally, she spoke of a universal solidarity and let the dissidents know that they are not alone when enduring repression or championing human rights. Shakespeare's Henry V has been
interpreted in many ways. But whether one sees it as patriotic, anti-romantic or against war, most agree that there is no more stirring call to action in all of English literature than Henry's speech
to his troops on St. Crispan's Day, ending with the lyrical "We few, we happy few, we band of brothers." Havel and the others echoed this call by urging us to support those who are risking their
lives to make their societies better. I left the Library feeling like I also was a dissident, one of those fighting the good fight, an "agent of change," one person who can make a difference.
Czechist
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