[kazinator]

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_...

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]

So 1990 Eastern Europe freed itself thanks to... 1968 Czechoslovakia?

[kazinator]

Of course not (but we can't say it didn't matter, either).

[keiferski]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1956_Pozna%C5%84_protests

[legulere]

Even earlier in Germany: 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]

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]

Nope; I longed to escape long before you dreamed of it!