The End and the Beginning: The Revolutions of 1989 and the Resurgence of History

Agnes Heller: Twenty Years After 1989

aGnes Heller Twenty Years After 1989 The Soviet system collapsed twenty years ago. For my generation this happened just yesterday, but for the generation of my grandchildren it is already history. To write about it, I need to combine personal experience with historical analysis. The collapse of the communist regime was the last great turning point in the history of the twentieth century. As so many analysts emphasized throughout the years, the twentieth century began with the original sin of World War I and terminated in 1989. In that annus mirabilis the whole world changed. There were no more totalitarian dictatorships or any kind of dictatorship in Europe. Democracy had won its greatest victory since 1945. The great hopes of 1945 were finally fulfilled. The map of the world was redrawn both literally and symbolically . Some spoke about the end of history in Hegelian terms. The sky was blue during the day, and stars were bright during the night. Or so the story went, for in reality matters were far from the expectations brought forth by the exhilarating events of 1989. This paper will not report of great triumphs; neither will it bemoan betrayed hopes. There is no cause for triumph, since in the place of the old, new totalitarian states emerged, and the world has to face new, unforeseen dangers. There is no reason to speak about betrayed hopes, because all political hopes will be betrayed if they are inflated. I will speak about the years of 1989–91 first by way of mapping out their impact upon various postcommunist states in Central Eastern Europe and second by turning briefly to their impact on the present state of the world. For me and for my friends, 1989 was the year of the greatest blessing. Although we predicted earlier (with my husband Ferenc Fehér) the neces- 56 THE END AND THE BEGINNING sity of the collapse of the Soviet-style regimes, we never hoped that this would happen in our lifetime. And when it finally did, we were busy to disclose the ideas of 1989, the great expectations we entertained about the future of the new, democratic Central European nations. Nevertheless, we never shared the illusion of the end of history or of the so-called third way between capitalism and communism. We did protest against the arguably condescending remark by Timothy Garton Ash, according to whom Central European states were finally joining the band of “normal” countries . We believed that, after these countries’ historical experiences, they would perform above the so-called normal. After twenty years I have to admit that the prediction of Timothy Garton Ash was rather optimistic. And still, for me and for all the people of my generation who treasure freedom, 1989 has lived up to its promise. Central European societies live under democratic constitutions now; their citizens enjoy civil rights and have the possibility to participate in decision-making processes . These states also joined the European Union and state borders slowly vanished. Yet a great part of the generation which had grown up before 1989 lost its enthusiasm. In Hungary, and to a lesser degree in other Central European former communist countries, a great part of the population felt betrayed. They expected from the system a change at the level reminiscent of Austrian standards of living, for they believed that democracy went hand in hand with high living standards. Many people became even poorer than they had been before, while others, in far lesser numbers, became extremely wealthy, at least by Central European standards . The value of freedom could not be turned into cash. The biblical scenario has once again been repeated: after having been liberated from the slavery of Egypt, wandering in the desert, people longed for the fleshpots of Egypt or begun to worship the golden calf. For the East Central European generation who has never known slavery, the kind of freedoms they enjoyed are considered natural, and this is why they do not regard those freedoms as something especially valuable. Euro-skepticism also gained some momentum. True, in this respect, the so-called new democracies became normal, since the European Union is, generally, very bad at integration. Not just bad at integrating immigrants, but also bad at integrating youth in general. The depreciation of democratic institutions and civic freedoms by a great part of the young generation is expressed in two dif- 57 Twenty Years After 1989 ferent...