The Magic Lantern

To conclude the work, Garton Ash celebrates that the Communist system will no longer dominate Eastern Europe, whatever structural challenges and political battles lie ahead. When considering why the dissolution occurred, Garton Ash notes that some think communism was entirely unworkable, or unfeasible when imposed by force. He rejects the idea that Gorbachev alone is responsible for the course of the region’s revolutions, arguing that while a change in Soviet leadership was a necessary condition, to truly understand 1989 one must consider domestic politics. He argues that John Paul II’s visit to Poland, and the formation of Solidarity there, were integral to what came later.

Garton Ash then proceeds to engage in what he calls the favorite “parlour game” of the historian, comparing 1989 to the “springtime of nations” of 1848, when nationalist and socialist movements challenged monarchies and began to demand reform (120). Both revolutionary periods were a kind of intellectual backlash against reactionary regimes, and a rejection of specific ideologies. Garton Ash argues that the “semantic occupation” of Marxist-Leninist ideology via control of the mass media, was a key means of regime maintenance, if for no other reason than that it prevented open debate (123).