20 Years After the Fall of the Iron Curtain

2009 EDITION 3

ISSN 1018 - 144X

20 years after the FALL OF THE IRON CURTAIN

THE COLD WAR and THE IRON CURTAIN Winston Churchill, in a speech East Germans - a quarter of the against the Soviet occupation. at Westminster College, Fulton, population.

Two Soviet armoured divisions Missouri, 5 March 1946, were sent into East Berlin to crush declared that “An Iron the protest in June 1953. Over Curtain has descended 100 were killed and 25,000 across the continent�. From arrested.

Stettin in the North to Trieste in the South barbed Uprising in Hungary wire and barricades, walls In July 1956 a full scale uprising and machine gun towers in Hungary shook the Soviet were going up, sealing off Empire. Mass demonstrations the captive nations demanded the withdrawal of occupied by the Soviet West Berlin children welcome airlift pilots, 1948.

Soviet troops, and in Budapest Union from their a massive statue of Stalin was neighbours in the West. The Berlin Blockade toppled. Soviet troops poured into Iron Curtain divided a continent The Berlin Wall was manned by H u n g a r y a n d o v e r 2 0 , 0 0 0 and trapped hundreds of 15,000 guards - the so called Hungarians were killed in the millions of people under Volkspolizei (VOPOS). When repression. Tens of thousands Joseph Stalin attempted to m o r e w e r e a r r e s t e d a n d communism. s t a r v e W e s t B e r l i n i n t o imprisoned. 250,000 Hungarians The Soviet dictator, Joseph submission by cutting off all fled to the West.

Stalin, declared that the Second electricity and supplies on 23 World War was not a disaster June 1948 the Western powers Cuban Missile Crisis but a great opportunity to extend responded with the Berlin Airlift. The Cold War almost went nuclear communism into the very heart The Berlin blockade was the first during the Cuban missile crisis, serious global crisis of the Cold October 1962. of Europe.

The vicious War. West Berlin was kept alive conflicts in Vietnam, Laos and by an airlift of over 150 aircraft Cambodia (1963 - 1975) were hot Poland Betrayed supplying an average of 5,000 parts of the Cold War. Even Poland, for whose freedom Great Britain had tons per day. By the time the entered the war, was now little Soviets ended the blockade on Invasion of Czechoslovakia more than a satellite of the 12 May 1949 over 2.5 million Anyone who believed that Soviet Empire ruled by men tons had been delivered at the communism could be reformed chosen by Moscow.

Its cost of 60 aircrew who had died population was now imprisoned in aircraft crashes. behind a line of barbed wire, watchtowers and mine fields - a Korean War There were numerous hot physical iron curtain. fronts in the Cold War. The Cold War included a full scale Secret Police To spy on its captive populations military war in Korea where 2 the Soviet empire set up secret million died in the three year police. In the Soviet Union it conflict. Evidence has since was the KGB, in Bulgaria it was surfaced that Stalin was the DS, in Czechoslovakia the planning to follow up the Korean StB, in Hungary the AVB, in attack with a military offensive in Poland the SB, in Romania the Europe. He was deterred by Securitatae, and in East t h e q u i c k i n t e r n a t i o n a l Germany it was the STASI (the response in Korea.

Ministry of State Security). The STASI maintained a huge Protests in Berlin network of 90,000 secret police After the death of Joseph Stalin and 175,000 paid informants. (5/3/53), over 100,000 East East Germans throw rocks at Soviet tanks in They kept files on 4,000,000 Berlin workers protested East Berlin, 1953.

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FRONTLINE FELLOWSHIP NEWS 2009/3

THE BERLIN WALL The Berlin Wall was concrete proof of the failure of “scientific socialism”.

To prevent Germans in the Soviet zone from fleeing to the Western zone in Berlin, a 165 km wall was constructed to seal off West Berlin's island of freedom from communist East Germany.

The Berlin Wall included 289 concrete observation posts/machine gun towers and 123 km of electric fencing.

Czechoslovakians protest Soviet invasion in 1968.

from within was shaken by the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968.

Czech communist party chief, Alexander Dubcek, attempted to create “socialism with a human face.” As a result of economic reforms in Czechoslovakia, the other East European satellite states complained that their positions were being undermined by the reforms in Czechoslovakia.

The response was that Leonid Brezhnev ordered a full scale Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia to restore orthodox communism.

The Prague Spring ended in August 1968 as half-a-million Warsaw Pact troops invaded Czechoslovakia and overwhelmed the courageous resistance of Czech patriots.

Détente Deception The Soviet Empire reached its peak during the period of Détente, as they sponsored, trained and armed revolutionaries to seize power in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam in 1975, Ethiopia in 1974, Guinea Bissau, Angola and Mozambique in 1975, Grenada and Nicaragua in 1979 and Rhodesia/Zimbabwe in 1980.

The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 was a major wake up call to those in the West who still believed in Détente.

Freedom on the Offensive As a result of this unprecedented Soviet advance there was a backlash throughout the West, epitomised by staunch anti-communist US President, Ronald Reagan, B r i t i s h P r i m e M i n i s t e r, Margaret Thatcher and West

A further death strip stretching 1,393 km along the border between communist East Germany and free West Germany was constructed with: 724 observation posts/machine gun towers, 1,161 km of electric fencing, 54, 000 self-firing devices, and 190 km of mine fields.

Just between 13 August 1961 to 30 July 1983, 73 people were killed by the communists while attempting to escape over the Berlin Wall, 182 more people were killed attempting to escape from East Germany across the border into West Germany, 60,000 people were imprisoned for “preparation, assistance or complicity”, in attempting to escape from East to West Germany (with sentences ranging from 16 months to life imprisonment).

Yet 191,559 succeeded in escaping from East to West Berlin. 38,515 escaped by tunnels, by improvised air machines or hot air balloons, hidden inside vehicles travelling from East to West Berlin. 2,768 East German soldiers and officers on duty (including a Colonel) escaped to the West.

Communist Vopos carry body of Peter Fechter shot in the back at the Berlin Wall, 1962.

From the founding of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) in 1949, more than 4,500,000 (over one quarter of the population) voted with their feet by fleeing to the West.

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THE GLASNOST GULAG Even under Gorbachev's much acclaimed Glasnost, the Soviet Gulag imprisoned millions.

When US President, Ronald Reagan, stood at the Berlin Wall and challenged: “Mr Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” the Soviet Union operated 1,976 concentration camps, 273 prisons, 85 p sychiatric prisons and 41 death camps.

In this Soviet Gulag were incarcerated over 5,000,000 political and religious prisoners.

Alexander Solzhenitsyn, author of The Gulag Archipelago, documented that between 1918 and 1953 (under Lenin and Stalin's rule) over 50,000,000 Russians served long sentences in the Soviet concentration camps - with millions perishing.

It was pointed out that while the communists claimed to have liberated Russia from the oppression of the Czars, there were 50 times as many official executions under communist rule in Russia as occurred under Czarist rule in the same time period. By comparison with Russia under Czarist rule where the highest figure of political prisoners was 183,949, the communists imprisoned seventy times as many people at any one time.

Vladimir Lenin famously declared that it did not matter if three quarters of the population of Russia perished, as long as the remaining quarter were communist.

Joseph Stalin observed: “The death of one person is a tragedy; whereas the death of a million is just a statistic!”

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Vehicles burn in the streets of Budapest during the Uprising in Hungary, 1956.

was not nearly so decadent and weak as they had imagined.

Thatcher's success in reviving the British economy also helped demonstrate that capitalism had a future even while communism was bankrupting the Soviet Union in Eastern Europe. The Iron Lady had this to say about the Berlin Wall: “The Berlin Wall stands as concrete proof that when people have a choice, they choose to be free … Freedom has its problems but we've never needed to build walls to keep our Bankrupting the Soviets people in.”

Ronald Reagan's policies forced the Soviets back onto the defensive and strategically Defeating the Communists undermined their economy. Brave anti-communist resistance S p e c t a c u l a r r e - a r m a m e n t fighters in Mozambique, Angola, programmes and the space Nicaragua and Afghanistan b a s e d S t r a t e g i c D e f e n c e severely bled the Soviet forces, Initiative (SDI) quickly left the inflicting serious defeats upon The Rhodesian Soviets far behind in the arms t h e m . race and totally bankrupted the Soviet Union in their futile attempt to keep up with America.

German Chancellor, Helmut Kohl. The West went on the offensive, directly supporting the anti-communist Solidarity trade union movement in Poland, which soon organised nationwide strikes and protests against the Soviet occupation.

The USA began to arm and support anti-communist resistance movements as far afield as in Nicaragua, Afghanistan and Angola.

The Iron Lady British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher's determination to fight to reclaim the Falkland Islands, after the Argentinean invasion, helped convince the Soviets that the West

A massive statue of Stalin toppled and defaced in Budapest, 1956.

FRONTLINE FELLOWSHIP NEWS 2009/3

resistance throughout the 60s and 70s had set back the advance of communism in Southern Africa and the destruction of entire Cuban mechanised divisions in Angola

by South African conventional forces helped convince the Soviet Union that they would not even be able to win a conventional war against the West.

Recognising Reality Russian soldiers began to refer to Afghanistan as their 'Vietnam'.

As Russian casualties exceeded 20,000 in that conflict, the ongoing political crisis in Poland, Ronald Reagan challenged the Soviet leader: “Mr Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” and widespread resistance to communism throughout the prisoner of the communists, rose The War on Terror Soviet empire helped convince to power and dismantled But even as the Cold War with Soviet Union communism ended, the Soviet leaders that their communism in Czechoslovakia. a new war was starting with bankrupt system was doomed.

Street fighting erupted in r a d i c a l I s l a m i c t e r r o r i s t s Romania to overthrow the brutal declaring war on the West.

Prayer and Protests communist dictator Nicolae As candlelit prayer vigils and Ceausescu.

Soon resistance Winston Churchill's observation protests spread from Leipzig, through Dresden, to all of East spread to Bulgaria where the of communists is instructive: Germany, the East German communists were overthrown in “There is nothing they despise government was bankrupt and December 1989. In Hungary the more than weakness. There is tottering. Gorbachev's Soviet communist government was nothing they respect more than Union was also bankrupt and overthrown in October 1990. In strength.” The Cold War was could no longer bail them out. Albania the first free elections won by a combination of So Erich Honecker, the dictator were held in March 1991. Christian courage by persecuted of East Germany, turned to the Yugoslavia split into different Christians who endured decades West Germans (who in the past republics as each broke away of brutality, steadfast resistance had always been willing to from the communist control in by brave anti-communist soldiers Soon the Baltic who fought the Soviets to a provide enough to keep East Belgrade.

Germany going). This time, Republics - Estonia, Latvia and standstill, persistent prayer and however, the West German Lithuania - were demanding their pressure from Christians in the Chancellor, Helmut Kohl, was independence from the Soviet West and the bold strategy of Ronald Reagan, which not willing to bail them out. He Union. dismantled the Evil Empire. demanded reforms.

The End of the Soviet Union In August 1991 a coup in the “While they promise them The Fall of the Wall Soviet Union was frustrated in its liberty, they themselves are While governments negotiated, attempt to return the country to slaves of corruption…” the people in both East and West 2 Peter 2:19 Berlin rose up to breach the wall hard line communism. Boldly waving the white, blue and red and began to dismantle it Dr. Peter Hammond has smuggled Bibles physically. The leaders were Russian flag, Boris Yeltsin behind the Iron Curtain into Marxist states in overwhelmed by events. Days abolished the Soviet Union and Europe and Africa. after the Berlin Wall collapsed, pulled down the Soviet Flag. The www.frontline.org.za mass demonstrations broke out Cold War had formally ended. in Czechoslovakia.

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20 YEARS AFTER THE FALL OF THE BERLIN WALL 1989 was a momentous year. Across the world, from Trafalgar to Tiananmen Square, voices long repressed began to be heard. Unrest became pandemic.

Nation after nation began to shake off the shackles that had bound them and assert their human rights and religious freedom. Those were heady days - 20 years ago.

Bible Smuggling Decades of Bible smuggling and Gospel radio broadcasts, behind the Iron Curtain, had supported the tenacious persecuted Christians who were winning their neighbours, and even some of their persecutors, to Christ.

Deception Campaigns It is important to remember Mao Tse Tung's “Doctrine of Contradictions” which outlines the relationship between pressure and release. Pressure: the hammer swings down for contact with the nail. Release: the hammer is raised again in preparation for another blow. In the geo-strategic world of the Cold War these upward swings had popular names, like détente, perestroika, and glasnost. But they were part of the ongoing process of driving home the nail.

trend in the Cold War as McDonald's opened in Moscow on Gorky Street.

Accordingly he was the new darling in Western diplomatic circles. “He's a man I can do business with,” cooed Margaret Thatcher. Gorby's new word was Glasnost.

By March 1989 even some Russian citizens were beginning to believe the disinformation. Critics emerged from the underground ventilating unorthodox views and even organising unofficial groups that could challenge the power and influence of the Communist Party.

They made headlines in the western press, but at home their names were noted. They were brave souls who knew from experience they would be the first to disappear into a remote gulag when the hammer fell again.

disperse the demonstrators. Tbilisi was then closed to foreign journalists and became a forerunner of Tiananmen Square two months later.

It was a long, hot summer. There were candlelit prayer vigils and mass demonstrations from the Baltic to the Black Sea. Miners went out on strike across six time-zones from Siberia to the Ukraine. Estonians joined hands with Latvians and Lithuanians to protest the Soviet invasion of their countries in 1940.

In East Germany (DDR), two-thirds of the folk watched West German TV every day. In late '88 many voices were echoing what President Reagan had earlier demanded: “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this Wall!”

The Nationalists agitated in the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

An unofficial movement called “Memorial”, designed to document Stalin's atrocities and commemorate his victims, spread right across the

Anti-communist Revolutions

By October '89 we were caught up in the euphoria of crowds demonstrating in Prague's Wenceslas Square.

Workers in Czechoslovakia poured into the streets in support of students protesting communist abuses - not exactly what Marx had in mind when he said, “Workers of the world unite!” It was all very exciting.

Protest There was unrest in nations from the Baltic to the Balkans. Early in the year, Yugoslavia showed signs of coming apart at the seams. Labor unrest and out-of-control inflation coupled with ethnic rivalries created widespread dissatisfaction with government. “The land of the Street fighting in Bucharest, December 1989.

South Slavs” was created after World War I from leftover remnants USSR with chapters in 110 cities and of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It towns. It became a platform for all consisted of six republics, five nations, manner of unrestrained discussions on four languages, three religions, two public affairs. alphabets, but only one political party, the Communist party. Josip Broz Tito A Tsunami of Resistance was the glue that held it all together.

By late spring the rising tide of dissatisfaction became an unstoppable Defeating the Evil Empire tsunami. Some peaceful protests were Ronald Reagan's strategy to dismantle brutally crushed. In the picturesque old the Soviet “Evil Empire” was Georgian capital of Tbilisi, along the succeeding. His space based Strategic gracious tree-lined Rustaveli Prospekt, Defense Initiative (Star Wars), was Spetsnaz troops (select commando making Soviet missiles obsolete. US forces) were sent in the early morning of supported freedom fighters in April 9, 1989, to attack unarmed Afghanistan, Angola and Nicaragua demonstrators. Scores were killed and were routing Soviet soldiers.

The over 7,000 injured. French doctors from Soviet Union was bankrupting itself the respected Medecins sans Frontiers attempting to keep up with the new arms group confirmed, on the basis of 16 race. autopsies, that the Soviet troops had used toxic CS gas (a 'suffocant' Glastnost developed for battlefield use) to Mikhail Gorbachev signaled a warming

By November communist governments were toppling like dominoes. People power seemed to be back on the cobbled streets of East European capitals. By mid-month the Wall had cracked and media anchors were doing stand ups against the background of a human hemorrhage breaching the Berlin Wall.

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FRONTLINE FELLOWSHIP NEWS 2009/3

Romania under Ceausescu We worked behind the Iron Curtain in most of the East European countries during 1989, but Romania was our principal focus. My son-in-law, Dr. Peter Hammond, traveled with me in April and November that year. Together we preached the Gospel and saw firsthand the building of tension and growing expectations of the people.

In many ways Romania's former dictator, Nicolae Ceausescu, was like King Belshazzar. He lived in a palace, like a king, when all around him there was poverty and privation. He knew about God, but did not honor Him. Pride caused him to “set himself against the LORD of Heaven.” He surrounded himself with the Securitate, a highly privileged clique of thugs, sworn to defend him until death.

Together they feasted while the

majority were hungry. They drank wine and praised the gods of materialism.

Baptist Church led the massive crowd in the Lord's Prayer.

U n l i k e B e l s h a z z a r, t h e t y r a n t Ceausescu did not see the handwriting on the wall. If he had, no doubt he would have cancelled his state visit to Iran in December 1989 and stayed home in Bucharest. The rest is history.

The Miracle Revolution As the situation got out of hand, Elena, the tyrant's Jezebel-type wife and First Deputy Prime Minister, ordered the total annihilation of Timisoara, a city of over 300,000 inhabitants. The Army refused to carry out the order. Many soldiers were shot by the Securitate, who then commandeered army tanks to crush the crowd. However, because Ceausescu did not trust the Army, he had kept them low on both ammunition and fuel. As the Securitate drove toward the center of town the tanks ran out of diesel and stopped.

The Christmas Revolution The demonstrations began in Timisoara, the Garden City of western Romania. Ceausescu instructed his troops to maintain order, then he left the country for a 3-day visit to Iran. So conditioned to following explicit orders from the dictator, no one seemed to know quite what to do in his absence during the rapidly deteriorating situation.

Previously the communist government had told the courageous pastor of a very large church that he was fired and must be exiled to a small village several hundred miles away. In response the congregation surrounded the church and refused to let the authorities in to arrest and evict him.

By the third night of this standoff the authorities were so furious that they threatened to open fire on the people protecting the premises.

Just before Christmas 1989, plan “M” was activated. It was a senseless insane idea to punish the entire nation if ever the nepotistic Ceausescu family were about to topple. The total destruction of Timisoara was an example. Another plan was to poison water reservoirs to kill entire

Miracle Revolution took place in midDecember and Nicolae Ceausescu was executed on Christmas Day. You can imagine the peasants' joy in villages earmarked for destruction under the Ceausescu regime. For some the reprieve had come just hours before the bulldozers were to have begun their awful task. For the village of Vladiceasca, and several hundred others, it was already too late. Today there is only a barren snow-covered field where for generations a thriving little community had lived and loved and worked together.

We had not scheduled our trip to Romania in January, one week after the Christmas Revolution. God had.

We did not have the means to go. God did. Absolutely everything fell into place. When the Lord gave us the green light, we hit the throttle. There was still sporadic gunfire in Arad, two streets over from where we were staying, but it soon finished.

We had a harvest of souls everywhere we preached. There was a sense of urgency to the hour. Many Romanians said, “It's now or never!”

We met with officials in the “new” government, some of whom had heard me preach in local churches over the years. One governor said, “You have been our friend in the dark days, we will not forget you now.”

One man lit a candle and passed the light to the next person. Slowly the crowd of around 3,000 began to disperse and march down the street toward the main public square in the Before the dust settled when the center of town. People, carrying Berlin Wall came down in 1989, I lighted candles, poured out of their Romanians celebrate the overthrow of Communism. wrote these words: “Islam will apartments in the side streets along become increasingly militant. It will the way and joined the march. Soon populations. A group of communists eventually replace communism as the there were over 10,000 candle-bearing were killed near Cluj-Napoca as they great threat to freedom.” This is not the citizens converging on this central attempted to blow up a dam that would time to disarm; if we prematurely beat public target. have virtually destroyed that beautiful our swords into plowshares we may Transylvanian university city. wind up plowing for those who kept Reaching the main town square their swords. someone smashed the windows of a Thousands were killed by the government bookstore. The crowd communists before the Romanian army In Luke 18, our Lord taught us to rushed in and pulled out all the books by switched their allegiance to the people always pray and not give up. Even an Marx, Lenin and Ceausescu and set in an attempt to overthrow the unjust judge will give way to persistent them on fire. One prominent pastor communist dictatorship. prayer and pressure.

Publicity commented, “Now for the first time, the provides protection to the persecuted. writings of Marx provide light!”

It was important that justice be swift in The Iron Curtain was torn down the military trial and execution of the because of the tenacious faith, resilient By now there were 100,000 people in Ceausescus. Every moment's delay courage, faithful Gospel preaching and the Town Square shouting, “Down with increased the risk of rescue by the persistent prayers of God's people.

Ceausescu!” and demanding, “What's Securitate, who were homing in on a Truth conquers. in the dollar shops, now in our shops!” a radio signal emanating from his reference to the select stores for wristwatch. As long as he was alive the Rev. Bill Bathman is the Chairman of foreigners and Party leaders where awful slaughter continued. As soon as Frontline Fellowship. He has served as a goods could only be purchased with the word went out, along with pictures, pioneer missionary for over 58 years, foreign currency. of his death by firing squad the killing evangelising throughout Eastern Europe.

He is the author of Going Through - Even virtually stopped. if the Door is Closed.

The beautiful old Opera House www.frontline.org.za dominated the top of the Town Square. Romania was the last country in From its balcony the Pastor of Bethel Eastern Europe to change. Their FRONTLINE FELLOWSHIP, PO BOX 74, NEWLANDS, CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA. FAX: (021) 685-5884. Web: www.frontline.org.za

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