25 Years After the Fall of the Wall: Is Europe's Past its Future?
1989 was an annus mirabilis. Within the span of less than a year, all the Communist regimes in Europe fell. Only the Soviet Union survived, to collapse two years later. The European continent had changed beyond recognition.
About the lecturer
Prof. A. Gerrits is Professor of Russian History and Politics at Leiden University
25 years later, little is left of our initial euphoria. Has Europe really changed? And if so, is it for the better? More than ever before, the European Union is struggling with its diversity, and with its inner weaknesses and contradictions. Russia has recovered from its post-Communist stupor, and embarked once more on the road to imperial rule and conquest. How should we interpret the revolutionary events of 1989 and the changes they brought? Is the future of Europe in its past again?