June 4, 1989

June 4 was a tumultuous date in 1989. The Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran, who led the Iranian Revolution ten years before to overthrow the Shah, died the day before; the funeral of this controversial figure was held on this date. Millions attended. Wikipedia informs me that June 4 was also the date that of an Ufa train disaster in Russia. In passing, two trains threw sparks at each other near a leaky natural gas pipeline; 645 people were killed in the resulting explosion.

In addition, two big events really mark this date as unique and significant--a date of celebration or infamy. First, if you have been following the news today, you will have seen on the front page, beside the news of Obama's speech in Cairo, the 20th Anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre. (Missed it? Try this one, this one, Hong Kong's vigil, Beijing's silence, this collection of photos and commentary, and the photographer's perspective on returning 20 years later). In late May 1989, students began gathering in Beijing to protest corruption; however, these protests turned into a call for democracy, including a raising of the Goddess of Democracy. However, protests turned ugly when tanks rolled into the square. The army opened fire on June 4, and countless numbers of unarmed students were killed and injured in the massacre. Today, these anonymous protesters are remembered around the world as heroes for democracy, though controversy continues in China.


One of the most famous images of 1989 Tiananmen Square


Buried behind the headlines, you might have seen word of another remarkable anniversary: the 20th anniversary of Solidarity's victory in Poland in the polls. At first, this may not seem so remarkable, but consider that the pre-1989 world was divided into spheres--the Soviet spheres of influence and communist countries and the American spheres of influence and democratic countries. The Iron Curtain was not merely a metaphor, but a reality of life--there was no passage between East and West.

Yet on June 4 in Poland, a pro-Western and pro-democracy party (originally a labor union in Gdansk) achieved an incredible victory in one of the first legitimate elections held in the Eastern Bloc, thus marking a turning point in the entire course of European history. The success of Solidarity--which had struggled to exist for ten years, had been banned many times in Communist Poland, and was only legitimized again a few months prior to the election--was the first of many cracks in the rigid Iron Curtain. European leaders commemorated this turning-point today; in retrospect we can see that through this election, the Poles led the way in the anti-communist revolutions across Eastern Europe and the transition to democracy. And in Poland's case, this was all accomplished both legally through elections and peacefully without any loss of life.

Across the globe, June 4, 1989 was a date of cries for democracy and the beginning of change.


Solidarity founder (and later Polish president) Lech Wałęsa and Solidarity