The Books: “The Collapse of Communism” (NY Times)

And here is my next excerpt of the day:

I have now finished with the first bookshelf – in my kitchen – and have decided to now do excerpts from the books in my History/Biography bookshelf. I’m scared! But I will press on.

The first 3 shelves of this particular bookcase is my “history” section. As will become apparent – it is mainly the history of totalitarian regimes around the globe.

First book on this shelf is a favorite of mine called The Collapse of Communism – and it’s a compilation of every article on the events in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Russia and China (well – all over, actually) – from The New York Times – from winter 1988 to Summer 1991. We leap around – and because we read the actual articles, and not just a retrospective report on it – we feel like we are once again right in the middle of events. Things were happening almost too quickly for anyone to grasp.

It’s a great resource, this book. I reference it all the time. They include, of course, enormous pieces of reportage – front-page articles – but then the editors also include the smaller human interest stories – which really give you a sense of the individuals involved.

It’s hard to even choose an excerpt – the book is huge with so much in it … reportage from all over the world – But I just flipped through and picked out one excerpt – it gives you a real sense of the immediacy of the whole book. It’s from an article written on August 23, 1991. It’s by Henry Kamm, and he writes from Tallinn, Estonia.

From The Collapse of Communism, by New York Times correspondents round the world – edited by Bernard Gwertzman

The Icons Topple

by Henry Kamm

Tallinn, Estonia, Aug. 23 – From late afternoon well into the evening, the people of this capital city did something they said they had never done — they flocked to Communist Party headquarters; then they stood there and laughed.

They stood in a large arc that constantly renewed itself as men, women and children came and went and stared and pointed at an empty marble pedestal. Until early today, a larger-than-life bronze statue of Lenin had stood there in the familiar rhetorical pose, opposite the entrance to the modern headquarters building.

A crew came this morning and carried out a Government decision to remove the statue in the aftermath of the failure of the coup by doctrinaire Communists against the Government of President Mikhail S. Gorbachev.

“It was done with respect,” said Aino Siiak, a retired economist, her voice full of sarcasm. “A crane came; they put a chain around his neck and took the great philosopher away.”

While in Lithuania and Latvia, the two other Baltic republics, the Communist Party was virtually outlawed today, Estonians expressed their sentiments through a symbolic act.

“Estonians do things slowly,” Mrs. Siiak said. “We have no temperament.” The way in which she and many others at the scene gave vent to long-suppressed emotion suggested otherwise. Voices trembled and faces quivered as Estonians recalled their sentiments through the tumultuous days that began with the ouster of Mr. Gorbachev on Monday.