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The Picnic : An Escape to Freedom and the Collapse of the Iron Curtain

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The Picnic : An Escape to Freedom and the Collapse of the Iron Curtain
The Picnic : An Escape to Freedom and the Collapse of the Iron Curtain

The Picnic : An Escape to Freedom and the Collapse of the Iron Curtain

Regular price $40.00
Unit price
per

Description

An extraordinarily dramatic reconstruction of the greatest border breach in Cold War history

In August 1989, a group of Hungarian activists did the unthinkable -- they entered the forbidden militarised zone of the Iron Curtain -- and held a picnic.

Word had spread of what was going to happen. On wisps of rumour, thousands of East German 'holiday-makers' had made their way to the border between Hungary and Austria and packed the nearby camping sites, awaiting an opportunity, fearing prison, surveilled by lurking Stasi agents. The highest state authorities were choosing to turn a blind eye - but that could change at any moment. The stage was set for the greatest border breach in Cold War history--that day hundreds would cross from the Communist East to the longed-for freedom of the West. The fall of the Berlin Wall, the end of the Soviet Union -- the so-called end of history -- all would flow from those dramatic hours.

Drawing on dozens of original interviews with those involved -- activists and border guards, escapees and secret police, as well as the last Communist prime minister of Hungary -- Matthew Longo reconstructs not only this remarkable event but also its complex and bittersweet aftermath. Freedom had been won but parents had been abandoned and families divided. Love affairs faltered and new lives had to be built from scratch.

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  • An extraordinarily dramatic reconstruction of the greatest border breach in Cold War history

    In August 1989, a group of Hungarian activists did the unthinkable -- they entered the forbidden militarised zone of the Iron Curtain -- and held a picnic.

    Word had spread of what was going to happen. On wisps of rumour, thousands of East German 'holiday-makers' had made their way to the border between Hungary and Austria and packed the nearby camping sites, awaiting an opportunity, fearing prison, surveilled by lurking Stasi agents. The highest state authorities were choosing to turn a blind eye - but that could change at any moment. The stage was set for the greatest border breach in Cold War history--that day hundreds would cross from the Communist East to the longed-for freedom of the West. The fall of the Berlin Wall, the end of the Soviet Union -- the so-called end of history -- all would flow from those dramatic hours.

    Drawing on dozens of original interviews with those involved -- activists and border guards, escapees and secret police, as well as the last Communist prime minister of Hungary -- Matthew Longo reconstructs not only this remarkable event but also its complex and bittersweet aftermath. Freedom had been won but parents had been abandoned and families divided. Love affairs faltered and new lives had to be built from scratch.

An extraordinarily dramatic reconstruction of the greatest border breach in Cold War history

In August 1989, a group of Hungarian activists did the unthinkable -- they entered the forbidden militarised zone of the Iron Curtain -- and held a picnic.

Word had spread of what was going to happen. On wisps of rumour, thousands of East German 'holiday-makers' had made their way to the border between Hungary and Austria and packed the nearby camping sites, awaiting an opportunity, fearing prison, surveilled by lurking Stasi agents. The highest state authorities were choosing to turn a blind eye - but that could change at any moment. The stage was set for the greatest border breach in Cold War history--that day hundreds would cross from the Communist East to the longed-for freedom of the West. The fall of the Berlin Wall, the end of the Soviet Union -- the so-called end of history -- all would flow from those dramatic hours.

Drawing on dozens of original interviews with those involved -- activists and border guards, escapees and secret police, as well as the last Communist prime minister of Hungary -- Matthew Longo reconstructs not only this remarkable event but also its complex and bittersweet aftermath. Freedom had been won but parents had been abandoned and families divided. Love affairs faltered and new lives had to be built from scratch.