History of the Present

by Timothy Garton Ash

  LATE MARCH. First outbreaks of interethnic fighting between Serbs and Croats, in Serb-populated Krajina and eastern Slavonia regions of Croatia.

  MARCH-APRIL. The Civic Forum in the Czech lands splits into three successor parties.

  1 APRIL. Formal dissolution of the military structures of the Warsaw Pact.

  16 MAY. Serbs in the Croatian province of Krajina call for the union of their territory with Serbia.

  19 MAY. Croatians vote for independence in a referendum boycotted by Serbs living in Croatia.

  29 MAY. Basque terrorists (ETA) bomb a Civil Guard barracks, killing nine people.

  12 JUNE. Boris Yeltsin is elected president of the Russian Federation.

  12-14 JUNE. In Prague, François Mitterrand attempts to launch his European Confederation.

  12-14 JUNE. Prague. I am among those invited to found the European Confederation. Even before we arrive, it is clear that this is essentially a French scheme for a grand, velvet-wallpapered waiting room in which the former communist countries can wait a long, long time before joining the EC. The EC, meanwhile, would remain a right, tight little West European affair with—and here’s the real point—France at its political center, as it had been throughout the history of the European Community in the cold war. At the political center of an enlarged EC, by contrast, would be Germany.

  Fortunately, in the first day of discussions, it soon emerges that many other delegates see and object to this, too. Although Vaclav Havel had agreed to host the meeting, the Czechs also understand that it is not really in their interest to make it work. Soon, the French participants are fighting a magnificent rearguard action, with all the formidable intellectual brilliance and diplomatic trickiness at their command. The French justice minister, Robert Badinter, who serves as President Mitterrand’s field commander, pleads eloquently for a “structure trés légère, trés légère.” The Germans, Britons, Dutch, and others present are not having even that.

  In the concluding session, Mitterrand gives one of the finer rhetorical performances that I have witnessed, disguising what is, in fact, a quadruple backward somersault as a great, balletic leap forward. But the European Confederation will remain a joke.

  17 JUNE. Signature of a German-Polish treaty on good neighborliness and friendly cooperation.

  20 JUNE. The Bundestag votes to move the federal capital from Bonn to Berlin.

  25 JUNE. Croatia and Slovenia declare their independences.

  25 JUNE. A newspaper photograph shows men having their beards shaved off in Prague. They began to grow these beards on 21 August 1968, when Soviet troops invaded, and swore they would shave them off only when the last Soviet soldier had left their land. Now he has.

  27 JUNE. Additional units of the Serb-dominated Yugoslav federal army enter Slovenia but subsequently withdraw after Slovene armed resistance and Western diplomatic protests. The “ten-day war.”

  27 JUNE-1 JULY. EC dispatches the current “troika” of foreign ministers—Jacques Poos of Luxembourg, Gianni de Michaelis of Italy and Hans van den Broek of the Netherlands—to bring peace to Yugoslavia. Poos declares, “The hour of Europe has dawned.”

  28 JUNE. Comecon, the economic organization of the former Soviet bloc, is formally dissolved.

  1 JULY. The Warsaw Pact is formally dissolved.

  26 JULY. The Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union approves Gorbachev’s party program leading to a free market and multiparty democracy.

  30 JULY. Russian president Boris Yeltsin signs a treaty recognizing Lithuania’s independence.

  JULY-AUGUST. Fighting between the Serb-dominated Yugoslav federal army and Croatian troops in eastern Slavonia.

  29 JULY-1 AUGUST. A Bush-Gorbachev summit in Moscow. Signature of the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START).

  19-21 AUGUST. A coup is attempted against Mikhail Gorbachev, intended to reverse changes in the Soviet Union. Yeltsin leads resistance in Moscow.

  23 AUGUST. The Communist Party is suspended in Russia.

  27 AUGUST. EC countries agree to establish diplomatic relations with the Baltic states.

  29 AUGUST. Soviet legislators vote to suspend all activities of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Formation of the “Weimar Triangle” of foreign-policy cooperation between France, Germany, and Poland.

  7 SEPTEMBER. An EC peace conference on Yugoslavia opens in The Hague under the chairmanship of Lord Carrington.

  17 SEPTEMBER. Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania are admitted to the UN.

  26-28 SEPTEMBER. Kraków, Poland. At a conference to mark the end of the Fondation pour une Entraide Intellectuelle Européenne, a foundation dedicated to helping opposition intellectuals in Eastern Europe during the cold war, Adam Michnik warns in dramatic terms of the danger of a new clerical, nationalist authoritarianism in Poland. I think he overdramatizes the danger, partly in a quest for the kind of clear, Manichaean dichotomy between good and evil in which dissidents lived under communism. We argue all the way to passport control at Warsaw Airport.

  26-30 SEPTEMBER. Kosovar Albanians hold an unofficial referendum on independence.

  3 OCTOBER. Carl Bildt heads a new center-right coalition government in Sweden.

  4 OCTOBER. The Czechoslovak federal parliament passes a “lustration” law, providing for the vetting and banning from public service of people who collaborated with the communist secret police or held certain positions in the communist state.

  8 OCTOBER. The Soviet Union agrees to withdraw its troops from Poland by November 1992.

  13 OCTOBER. The opposition Union of Democratic Forces wins Bulgarian parliamentary elections.

  15 OCTOBER. Bosniak (or “Muslim”) and Bosnian Croat members of the parliament of Bosnia-Herzegovina vote for independence. Bosnian Serbs leave in protest.

  27 OCTOBER. The first free parliamentary elections in Poland produce a fragmented parliament.

  OCTOBER-NOVEMBER. The Serb-dominated Yugoslav federal army destroys the Croatian city of Vukovar and attacks Dubrovnik.

  14 NOVEMBER. The German Bundestag passes a law giving people access to their Stasi files from January 1992.

  21 NOVEMBER. Following a referendum, the Macedonian parliament proclaims the sovereign, independent Republic of Macedonia. The head of state is the former communist leader Kiro Gligorov.

  1 DECEMBER. In a referendum in Ukraine, a clear majority votes for independence. Former communist Leonid Kravchuk is elected president.

  8 DECEMBER. Leaders of Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus agree to establish the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).

  9-11 DECEMBER. The EC’s Maastricht summit agrees terms of the Treaty on European Union. Monetary union is to happen by 1 January 1999 at the latest, providing that “Maastricht criteria” are met. EC and other “pillars” of institutionalized cooperation between its member states will be combined in a “European Union.”

  14-16 DECEMBER. Oxford. At the suggestion of the Czech prime minister Petr Pithart, a conference brings together, in Magdalen College, a Czech delegation led by him and a Slovak delegation led by their prime minister Ján Čarnogursky Pithart, who spent some time in Oxford after the Soviet invasion in 1968, touchingly hopes that they will all see reason in these civilized, dignified, and neutral surroundings. Czechoslovakia will be saved in Oxford.

  At the meeting, the Czechs talk grandly about the “civic principle.” The Slovaks talk bitterly about the way they have been exploited in the shared state. A Slovak literary historian reels off fantastical statistics about Czech economic discrimination against Slovakia. Then they all slip away together to do their Christmas shopping at Marks and Spencer department store.

  15 DECEMBER. The UN Security Council resolves to send peacekeeping forces to former Yugoslavia. These will become known as the United Nations Protection Force: UNPROFOR.

  16 DECEMBER. The signature of so-called Europe Agreements between the EC and Poland, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia, Under pressure from Germany, EC foreign ministers agree to diplomatic
recognition of former Yugoslav republics on 15 January, if certain conditions are met.

  19 DECEMBER. The Bonn government announces that it is going ahead with the recognition of Slovenia and Croatia before Christmas, as it had previously, unilaterally promised, Serbs in Croatia proclaim the “Serb Republic of Krajina,” with its capital in Knin.

  21 DECEMBER. At Alma Ata, eleven republics of the former Soviet Union sign agreements creating the Commonwealth of Independent States.

  23 DECEMBER. The conservative anticommunist Jan Olszewski forms a government in Poland.

  25 DECEMBER. Gorbachev resigns as Soviet president, marking the effective end of the Soviet Union.

  1992

  15 JANUARY. The EC’s “Badinter Commission” says only Slovenia and Macedonia among former Yugoslav republics qualify for diplomatic recognition. Most EC states nonetheless proceed to recognize Croatia as well as Slovenia but not Macedonia, because of opposition from Greece.

  19 JANUARY. Zhelyu Zhelev is confirmed as president of Bulgaria in direct elections.

  3-10 FEBRUARY. MOSCOW. I meet General Sergei Kondrachev, once head of KGB operations in Western Europe but now rapidly retooling as “historian” and “archival specialist.” He argues that the spies in East and West saved us from a third world war, since through their efforts both sides knew so much about each other’s defenses that the danger of either risking a nuclear attack was diminished. On the moral chessboard of the post—cold war world, I call this the Kondrachev Defense.

  Kondrachev was stationed in London during the 1950s. In perfectly modulated, slightly old-fashioned English, he tells me, “I have the fondest memories of my trips to Cambridge.”

  7 FEBRUARY. Signature of the Maastricht Treaty on European Union.

  28 FEBRUARY. Slovak prime minister Ján Čarnogursky says he would like Slovakia to enjoy international recognition.

  FEBRUARY. Beginning of arrests in a growing Italian political-corruption scandal. The first focus of investigation is the Italian Socialist Party of Bettino Craxi.

  3 MARCH. President Alija Izetbegovic declares Bosnian independence, after a referendum boycotted by Bosnian Serbs.

  5 MARCH. German foreign minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher presses for international recognition of Bosnia-Herzegovina.

  6 MARCH. Formation of a Council of Baltic Sea States, including Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Russia, and Sweden.

  11 MARCH. After a year of failed attempts to negotiate a new Czechoslovak federation, the heads of the Czech and Slovak parliaments suspend talks until after June elections.

  27 MARCH. Bosnian Serbs, led by Radovan Karadžić, declare a “Serb Republic” in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

  LATE MARCH/EARLY APRIL. Outbreak of war in Bosnia.

  2 APRIL. President Mitterrand appoints socialist Pierre Bérégovoy prime minister of France.

  5 APRIL. The siege of Sarajevo begins.

  6 APRIL. Sali Berisha, a cardiologist from the northern part of the country, is elected president of Albania.

  7 APRIL. The USA recognizes Bosnia-Herzegovina, Slovenia, and Croatia.

  9 APRIL. A general election in Britain returns to office a Conservative government under Prime Minister John Major.

  27 APRIL. Declaration of a new Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY), consisting of Serbia (including Kosovo and Vojvodina) and Montenegro. Not recognized by the West.

  29 APRIL. A list of suspected agents of the communist secret police is published in Prague.

  18 MAY. Hans-Dietrich Genscher resigns after eighteen years as German foreign minister. He is succeeded by Klaus Kinkel.

  22 MAY. Slovenia, Croatia, and Bosnia-Herzegovina are admitted to the UN.

  24 MAY. Kosovar Albanians hold clandestine elections. Ibrahim Rugova is elected “president of the republic.” In Austria, Thomas Klestil is elected president, replacing disgraced Kurt Waldheim.

  25 MAY. Oscar Luigi Scalfaro becomes president of Italy.

  27 MAY. Massacre of civilians in Sarajevo.

  30 MAY. The UN agrees on sanctions against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

  2 JUNE. In a referendum, Danish voters reject ratification of the Maastricht Treaty by a narrow majority.

  5 JUNE. The Olszewski government falls in Poland after identifying leading politicians as former collaborators with the communist secret police: the “night of the files.”

  5-6 JUNE. Parliamentary elections in Czechoslovakia. The Civic Democratic Party of Václav Klaus wins in the Czech lands, and the Movement for a Democratic Slovakia of Vladimír Mečiar wins in Slovakia.

  15 JUNE. Serbian writer Dobrica Ćosić becomes president of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

  17 JUNE. The Slovak parliament votes a declaration of “sovereignty.”

  18 JUNE. Giuliano Amato becomes prime minister of Italy.

  JUNE. Serious escalation of the war in Bosnia and the siege of Sarajevo. Student protests against Milošević in Belgrade.

  JUNE-AUGUST. Czech prime minister Václav Klaus and Slovak prime minister Vladimír Mećiar agree to dissolve the Czecho-Slovak federation by the end of the year.

  3 JULY. Bosnian Croats declare their own statelet in western Bosnia-Herzegovina.

  10 JULY. A summit meeting of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, which now has fifty-one member states.

  12 JULY. Hanna Suchocka, from a liberal-conservative post-Solidarity party, forms a coalition government of seven parties in Poland.

  14 JULY. Milan Panic, a Serb-American businessman, becomes prime minister of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

  17 JULY. Following Slovakia’s “declaration of sovereignty,” Václav Havel announces his resignation as president of Czechoslovakia, as of 20 July.

  2 AUGUST. Croatian nationalists (HDZ) led by Franjo Tudjman win Croatian parliamentary elections. Tudjman is reelected president of Croatia.

  26-28 AUGUST. At the London Conference on the former Yugoslavia, it is agreed that borders should not be altered by force and that ethnic cleansing should cease. War and ethnic cleansing continue.

  30 AUGUST. Sarajevans standing in a breadline are killed and wounded.

  3 SEPTEMBER. Lord (David) Owen and Cyrus Vance become joint chairmen of a new EC-UN conference on former Yugoslavia.

  4 SEPTEMBER. Former Bulgarian communist leader Todor Zhivkov is found guilty of embezzlement.

  16 SEPTEMBER. Massive speculation against the pound forces Britain to “suspend” its membership in the Exchange Bate Mechanism of the European Monetary System: “Black Wednesday.”

  17 SEPTEMBER. The Italian lira is also forced out of the Exchange Bate Mechanism.

  20 SEPTEMBER. In a referendum called by President Mitterrand following the Danish referendum, 51 percent of French voters approve ratification of the Maastricht Treaty. In Estonia, parliamentary elections are won by parties of the center-right. Only Estonian citizens are enfranchised, so most of the nearly 40 percent non-Estonian population is not able to vote.

  27 SEPTEMBER. Ion Iliescu is confirmed in office as president of Romania. His authoritarian National Salvation Front wins most seats in parliament.

  5 OCTOBER. Nationalist intellectual Lennart Meri becomes president of Estonia.

  11 OCTOBER. Former Soviet foreign minister Eduard Shevardnadze becomes head of state in Georgia. He faces a Russian-supported revolt in Abkhazia.

  13 OCTOBER. The veteran socialist Andreas Papandreou again becomes prime minister of Greece, replacing the right-wing government of Constantine Mitsotakis.

  25 OCTOBER. Lithuanian parliamentary elections produce a landslide victory for former communists under Algirdas Brazauskas.

  26 OCTOBER. Czech prime minister Václav Klaus and Slovak prime minister Vladimír Mećiar agree on a customs union after Czechoslovakia will be divided on 1 January 1993. Erich Mielke, former head of the East German State Security Service (Stasi), is convicted for his part in the murder of a policeman in 1931.

  3 NOVEMBER. Bill Clin
ton wins the U.S. presidential elections.

  THE VISIT

  “ARE YOU BRINGING ANY LAUNDRY?” ASKS THE PORTER AT THE fortified entrance to Moabit prison.

  When I laugh, he says defensively, “I was only asking,” and grimly stamps my permit to visit remand prisoner Honecker, Erich.

  Into a waiting room full of chain-smoking wives and lowlifes in black leather jackets. Wait for your number to be called from a loudspeaker. Through an automatic barrier. Empty your pockets and put everything in a locker. Body search. Another automatic barrier. Unsmiling guards, barked orders. “Moment! Kommen Sie mit!” Then you’ve come to the wrong place. Collect all your belongings again. Pack up. Walk around the redbrick fortress to another gate. Unpack. Sign this, take that. Another huge metal door. The clash of bolts. A courtyard, then the corridor to the prison hospital, bare but clean.

  Somehow this all seems increasingly familiar. I have been here before. But where and when? Then I remember. It’s like crossing through the Friedrichstrasse underground frontier station into East Berlin, in the bad old days. West Germany has given Honecker back his Berlin Wall.

  Inside, it is warm and safe. There is food to eat—plain fare, to be sure, but regular and ample. There is basic, free medical care for all. Good books are to be had from the library, and there is guaranteed employment for men and women alike. And life is, of course, very secure. Just like East Germany.

  THE FIRST TIME I saw, at close quarters, the chairman of the Council of State of the German Democratic Republic and general secretary of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany was at the Leipzig trade fair in 1980. A horde of plainclothes Stasi men heralded the arrival of the leader. Eastern functionaries, West German businessmen, British diplomats all flapped and fluttered, bowed and scraped, as if at the Sublime Porte of Suleiman the Great. His every move, every tiny gesture, was studied and minutely interpreted, with all the arcane science of Sovietology. Significantly, graciously, the chairman and general secretary stopped at the Afghan stand, which displayed rugs and nuts. “And these are peanuts, and those are salted peanuts,” came the breathless commentary of the rattled Afghan salesman. Graciously, significantly, the chairman and general secretary clapped him on the shoulder and said, “We regard your revolution as a decisive contribution to détente. All the best for your struggle!” Ah, happy days, the old style.