abortions forbidden
after fall of Berlin Wall
agriculture
army
Church
closed to outside world
demonstrations in
dictator’s birthday
dissidents
energy rationing
fighting
food rationing
football
foreign debt
and Hungarian border
Hungarian minority
industrial unrest
living standards
new government established
newspaper ban
orphanages
police state
political prisoners
Rational Nourishment Commission
relative independence
‘sale’ of political exiles
samizdat publishing
secret police (Securitate)
‘systemisation’ policy
television
trial of Ceauescus
weapons trade with US
yoga in
Romanian Communist Party
Romanian German minority (Szelkers)
Romanian refugees in Hungary
Rome
Rosendahl, Rüdigger
Rosen, Moses
Rousova, Pavlina
Rudé Právo newspaper
Rumsfeld, Donald
Ruse, Bulgaria
Russian armies, see Red Army
Russian Civil War
Rust, Matthias
Rusu, Lt. Marian
Ryabenko, Alexander
RYAN (roketno yadernoye napadenie) intelligence-gathering operation
Rybakov, Anatoli
Rybicka, Bozena
Ryzhkov, Nikolai
Saarland, the
Safranchuk, Vasily
Sagdeyev, Roald
Saher Gul
Saigon, US Embassy
Sakhalin Island
Sakharov, Andrei
Salang Highway
samizdat publications
in Czechoslovakia
in Romania
Sandinistas
Sartre, Jean-Paul
Schabowski, Günter
and demonstrations
and Honecker
and journalists
and opening of border
and refugees
Schabowski, Irina, and mother
Schalck-Golodkowski, Alexander
Schmidt, Helmut
Schmidt, Lutz
Schult, Reinhard
Schürer, Gerhard
Scînteia newspaper
Scowcroft, Gen. Brent
Secu, Maj. Ion
Seidel, Manfred
Seinescu, Victor
Seiters, Rudolf
Serban, Alex
Shakhnazarov, Georgi
Sharansky, Natan
Sharapov, Viktor
Sheludko, Alexei
Shevardnadze, Eduard
and Afghanistan
appointed Foreign Minister
and Ceauescu
and Chernobyl disaster
and East Germans leaving through Hungary
and Eastern Europe
and Hungary
and Ligachev
and listening devices in American Consulate
and non-intervention policy
and withdrawal of forces from Eastern Europe
Shevardnadze, Nanuli (nee Tsargareishvili)
Shultz, George
Siberia
Sibiu, Romania
Šimeka, Milan
Sinkovits, Imre
Sitnikov, Anatoli
Siwicki, Gen. Florian
Skravena camp
Škvorec, Josef
Slánsk, Rudolf
Slipchenko, Gen. Vladimir
Slovakia
Smetana, Bedrich
Šmíd, Martin
Snagov, Romania
Snetkov, Gen. Boris
Sobadijev, Lyubimor
Sobchak, Anatoli
socialism
Socialist Unity Party (Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands - SED)
Society for a Merrier Present, The
Sofia
Sokolov, Marshal Sergei
Solidarity (Solidarnoæ) union
allowed to exist underground
and Archbishop Glemp
Brussels office
elections
as government
and imposition of martial law
leaders arrested
legalised
occupation strikes
as part of government
and presidential election
proposed talks with Jaruselski
and referendum
Round Table talks
television signal interruption device
US and Vatican support
Wałsa’s opponents
Solzhenitsyn, Alexander
Sopron, Hungary
Soukup, Ondej
Soviet Air Defence Force (PVO)
Soviet Union
borders after World War Two
handling of Armenian earthquake
and non-intervention policy
perception abroad
rules of exchange with colonies
support for Third World regimes
supports other Eastern Bloc countries
Spanish Civil War
Spannaus, Birgit
Speer, Albert
Spencer, Stuart
Spitak, Armenia
Sputnik magazine
Stalin, Joseph
crimes exposed
palaces of culture
purges
and Romania
and Tito
and Ulbricht
and writers
Stanchev, Ivan
Stanchev, Krassen
Stnculescu, Gen. Victor
Stnescu, Geta
Star Wars project (Strategic Defence Initiative)
Starkov, Vladimir
Starodubov, Viktor
Stasi (East German secret police)
begin to destroy files
confiscate paintings and ceramics
and demonstrations
and elections
files on all citizens
HQ, Normannenstrasse
informers
and refugees in Budapest
and Stefan Heym
and Vera Lengsfeld
and ‘wall-jumpers’
Stassenburg, Gen. Gerhard
Stavropol
Štpán, Miroslav
Stockman, David
Stokłosa, Henryk
Stoph, Willi
Strategic Defence Initiative (Star Wars project)
Strauss, Franz Josef
Streletz, Col-Gen. Fritz
Štrougal, Lubomír
Studsvik energy laboratory, Sweden
Subev, Father Kristopher
Sununu, John
Suslov, Mikhail
Sverdlovsk
Sweden
Swiss Guards
sycophancy in bureaucracies
Szczecin shipyard
Szilágyi, Jószef
Szüros, Mátyás
Tafrov, Stefan
Tamás, Gáspár
Tanev, Georgi
Taraki, Mohammed
Tarasenko, Sergei
Târgovite, Romania
Tehran
Teltschik, Horst
Teodorescu, Nicu
Termez
Teslenko, Gen. Gennady
Thatcher, Margaret
and Ceauescu
and Gorbachev
visit to Hungary
Thürmer, Gyula
Tikhonov, Nikolai
Timioara, Transylvania
demonstrations in
Tisch, Harry
Tito, Josip Broz
Todor Ikonomovo, Bulgaria
Todorova, Maria
Tökés, Edit
Tökés, Pastor Lászl�
�
Tökés, Mate
Tolbukhin, Bulgaria
Tolstoy, Leo
Trabant cars
‘Trabi trail’
Transylvania
Transylvanian refugees
Trianon, Treaty
Troyanovsky, Oleg
Tsargareishvili, General
Turcu, Liviu
Turks in Bulgaria
Turner, Adm. Stansfield
Tygodnik Powszechny (Catholic weekly)
Tygodnik Solidarnoœ weekly
Uhl, Peter
Ulbricht, Catrin
Ulbricht, Walter
Union of Democratic Forces (Bulgaria)
United Nations Convention on Refugees
United States
arms build-up (1980s)
arms supplies to Mujahideen
and fighting in Romania
military exercises
support for Mujahideen
support for Solidarity
view of Gorbachev
weapons trade with Romania
United States National Intelligence Estimate 11-4-89
United States Navy, Pacific Fleet
‘universities, flying’
Urban, Jerzy
Ursus tractor plant
Uschner, Manfred
Ustinov, Marshal Dmitri
Václavík, Jaroslav
Vaculík, Ludvík
Várga, Lajos
Várgha, János
Vásárhelyi, Miklós
Vatican, the
Vatican Bank
Velikhov, Yevgeni
Velvet Underground
Verdet, Ilie
Vessey, Gen. John
Veverka, Ota
Visegrád, Hungary
Vistula, River
Vlad, Gen. Iulian
Vlk, Father Miloslav
Voican-Voiculescu, Gelu
Voice of America
Vondra, Alexander
VONS (Committee in Defence of the Unjustly Persecuted) (Czechoslovakia)
Vzglyad TV programme
Wajda, Andrzrej
Walentynowycz, Anna
Wałsa, Feliksa
Wałsa, Lech
agreement with Jaruzelski for elections
arrested
attempts to discredit
considers candidates for Prime Minister
does not want Solidarity government
and elections
and formation of government
and Gdask shipyard strike
harassment
under house arrest
and Mazowiecki
meets Bush
presidential election
proposed talks with Jaruzelski
and question of presidency
refuses to join government
and strikes
talks with government
talks with Kohl
turns down Premier’s job
TV debate
TV interview
wins Nobel Peace Prize
Wałsa, Mirosława Danuta ‘Danka’
Wałsa, Stanisław
Wandlitz
Warsaw
Bush visits
Europejski Hotel
Gorbachev visits
Mickiewicz Street
Polish United Workers Party HQ
Radziwill Palace
rebuilt after World War Two
St Stanisław Kostka
Solidarity election HQ (Café Surprise)
strikes (1980)
Ursus tractor plant
Warszawski, Dawid (Konstanty Gebert)
Wazyk, Adam
Weinberger, Caspar
Werbellinsee, Thuringia
West Germany, see German Federal Republic
Wiatr, Prof. Jerzy
Wiegand, Rainer
Wie (Catholic magazine)
Wilms, Dorothee
Wojtyła, Edmund
Wojtyła, Karol, see John Paul II, Pope
Wojtyła family
Wolf, Christa
Wolf, Jrí
Wolf, Markus
Wolfowitz, Paul
Wollenberger, Knud
women in Afghanistan
women in Romania
Worker in a Worker’s State
World Bank
World Peace Council
World War Two
Wötzel, Roland
writers in GDR
writers valued by communism
Wyszyski, Cardinal
Yakovlev, Alexander
and Afghanistan
and Chernobyl disaster
and non-interference in Eastern Europe
and ‘restructuring’
Yalta conference (1945)
Yazov, Gen. (later Marshal) Dmitri
Yekaterinburg
Yeltsin, Boris
Yerevan
Zagladin, Vadim
Zaitsev, Anatoli
Zappa, Frank
ZDF TV channel
Today programme
Zhelev, Zhelyu
Zhivkov, Ludmilla
Zhivkov, Todor
coup against
and Turks
Zhivkov, Vladimir
Zia-ul-Haq, President
Zifák, Lt. Ludvik
Zimmermann, Pastor Peter
Zsindely, Sándor
a The president of the tribunal, Colonel Gica Popa, was well known as a Ceausescu courtier. A paunchy fifty-seven-year-old, he was a good friend of the dictator’s brother, Ilie, who was a Deputy Minister of Defence. On 1 March 1990, less than three months after the trial, Popa shot himself in a mysterious suicide. The causes have never been entirely clear. Popa was not the kind of man to have developed a conscience about the way the court proceedings were run or about his past relationships with the Ceausescu circle. At the time of his death he was facing investigation on a range of criminal allegations from embezzlement to murder.
b In ancient Rome a nomenclator was a slave whose duty was to remind his or her master of the names of people with whom to exchange greetings. It was particularly important in the rampant office-hunting in the late days of the Republic. The word had good Polish ancestry, according to the Great Polish Encyclopedia. In medieval times, it was the Latin term for the list of properties owned by the great landed magnates, and of the tenants who lived in them. The Communists simply borrowed it with no sense of historical irony.
c Kuklinski was one of the most valuable agents the CIA ran during the Cold War. In 1971 he volunteered himself as a spy for the Agency in a letter dispatched to the American Embassy in Bonn and for the next decade he passed on a series of vital military secrets to the West in more than 30,000 documents. They included Warsaw Pact battle plans, technical diagrams on new ranges of missiles and intelligence. He was active for nearly ten years until he defected in 1981. Three years later he was sentenced to death, in absentia. The sentence was rescinded in 1989, but Kuklinski was never officially pardoned and many Solidarity supporters who loathed communism and the Russians - such as Lech Wałesa - always regarded him as a traitor.
d Most of the few women doctors, teachers and other professionals who qualified in Afghanistan were trained in the brief period the People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PPDA) were in charge of the country. Naturally none of them were permitted to practise their chosen professions after the Islamists came to power a few years later.
e A cheerful, bearded, witty polymath, he wrote under the pseudonym Dawid Warszawski.
f Casey was firmly convinced that the KGB was behind the assassination attempt on Pope John Paul in May 1981. Though his deputy, Bob Gates, conducted an exhaustive inquiry that started from the premise that the Soviets were responsible and all that was needed was to find the proof, no evidence has been found linking the KGB with the crime. In fact, the best evidence suggested the Soviets were not involved. That did not deter Casey, though, who believed to his dying day that the KGB tried to murder the Pope through a bungling amateur assassin from Turkey, Mehmet A
li Agca.
g The three lower-ranking officers directly involved in the murder, Lieutenant Leszek Pekala, Captain Grzegorz Piotrowski and Lieutenant Waldemar Chmielewski, were originally sentenced to twenty-five years in jail, but three years later their sentences were reduced to between six and ten years. The senior officer who ordered them to commit the crime, Colonel Adam Pietruszka, received a twenty-five-year sentence, reduced in 1987 to ten years. Efforts were twice made in the 1990s to prosecute more senior commanders, but both trials collapsed when the prosecution produced insufficient evidence.
h Vera Lengsfeld became a Christian Democrat politician after the reunification of Germany and old habits died hard with her. As a Member of Parliament she was frequently rebellious and critical of the CDU leadership under Chancellor Angela Merkel. For a while Knud Wollenberger made a name for himself on chat shows and he published a slim volume of poetry. Nature enacted a painful retribution on him: he was afflicted with a rare form of Parkinson’s disease that left him semi-blind and crippled.
i Boldin was among several of Gorbachev’s key aides who ultimately betrayed him. He took part in the (failed) coup against Gorbachev in August 1991 when a group of lacklustre conservative diehards tried to seize power in Moscow while the leader was on holiday at his seaside villa in the Crimea. One of Gorbachev’s weaknesses was that he was not always a good picker of aides and advisers - a factor which, as time went on, became a serious problem for him.
j Godfather to Rajk’s then seven-year-old son, Kádár, in order to save his own life, was forced to visit his friend in jail and try to extract a confession of treason out of him. The interview was secretly taped and a transcript published towards the end of 1990. It makes gruesome reading, but is instructive of life in a totalitarian police state.
k The Ceauescus closely monitored, and interfered with, their children’s relationships. For a brief period in the 1970s Zoia dated Petre Roman, son of a leading Communist official, a glamorous and well-connected scholar who later became Romania’s first post-Communist Prime Minister after the Revolution. Elena, in particular, did not approve of the liaison. She rang Petre’s father, Walter Roman, and demanded the couple put a stop to their relationship. ‘One Jew in the family is enough,’ she told him - a reference to her brother’s wife, who was Jewish. She and Roman pe‘re dispatched the young man abroad to study and the romance fizzled out. She organised a match for her favourite son, Nicu, with a woman she did approve of, Poliana Cristecu. Marriage was the last thing the rakish Ceauescu son wanted. The wedding ceremony was performed by the Mayor of Bucharest and attended by family and a few leading Party chieftains. Immediately afterwards, as the couple signed the marriage register, he turned to his new bride and said: ‘Now, go live with my mother . . . she should sleep with you because she chose you.’
Revolution 1989 Page 56