Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaja is accused of planning terror in Belarus. The demonstrations in Minsk and other cities in the country have been going on every weekend since the election last autumn, in which President Aleksandr Lukashenko allegedly received 80% of the vote. The opposition has claimed throughout the election that it was…
On Christmas Day 1989, Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife were sentenced to death in a trial that lasted a few hours and can hardly be called anything other than a pro forma trial. The death penalty they received was given in advance. Soon after the trial, they were taken to a brick wall to…
Belarusian police are almost hunting journalists and other troublemakers. They have raided a total of 22 journalists, human rights activists and trade union members. Two of the journalists have been arrested and risk up to 3 years in prison. These are the journalists from the TV channel Belsat. Katsyaryna Andreyeva and Darya Chultsova. The…
The Soviet Union’s grip on Eastern Europe stretched beyond the 1980s. Central to what was to lead to the fall of the Eastern Bloc was the Polish trade union Solidarity. The leader Lech Walesa in particular played a big role. In September 1980, the trade union Solidarit was founded. The leader was Lech Walesa….
Once again, the military has taken power in Myanmar. Once again we see military leaders defying the will of the people. The Myanmar coup is a slap in the face to all democracy advocates. What exactly is the purpose of the Myanmar coup is somewhat unclear to me. In practice, the military already had…
On January 5, 1968, Alexander Dubcek was elected secretary of the Czechoslovak Communist Party. This means that he became the country’s supreme leader. He started by introducing a number of reforms. These reforms included the introduction of a market socialist economy, a degree of freedom of expression and the press, the possibility of allowing…