Along the banks of the River Spree runs a 1.3km long section of the wall that divided East and West Berlin for 28 years. This particular part of the wall, the longest stretch still standing, is now home to the East Side Gallery, which hosts over 100 paintings by artists from all over the world. Originally begun in 1990, the paintings eventually fell victim to graffiti, vandalism, and overall neglect. Many of them were recently renovated, however, in time for the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

GDR Leader Erich Honecker kissing Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev: “Dear God, help me survive this deadly love.”

More photos here.

Life recently released a set of never-before-published images of the Führerbunker taken shortly after the fall of Berlin. They are worth perusing if you have an interest in World War II history.

I visited Berlin a few months ago, back in December 2009. Incredibly, this was my first visit to Germany. How foolish of me not to visit when I lived in London; it’s truly a lovely city. My primary interest, of course, is in the various World War II and Cold War sites that are scattered throughout the city. On one cold morning I found myself wandering through several side streets, family in tow, looking for the location of the Führerbunker, where Hitler spent the final weeks of his life watching helplessly as the Soviet forces encircled Berlin.

And this is what remains of the Führerbunker:

A rather nondescript location, it’s hard to imagine that under this small patch of grass surrounded by parking lots and apartment buildings is where the disgusting reign of the Third Reich, a dictatorship that terrorized and killed millions across Europe and North Africa, finally came to an end on April 30, 1945 when Hitler killed himself.

After the war, Soviet forces tried to destroy the bunker but their attempts met with minimal success. During the Cold War, the site was a no-man’s land on the East German controlled side of the Berlin Wall. Parts of the bunker were further destroyed and filled with rubble in the 1980s and 1990s when the government began constructing the apartment buildings that now dominate the area. Fearful that the site would become a shrine for neo-Nazis, the German government neglected to mark the location of the bunker until 2006 when the government installed a sign that you can see in the above pictures.

More photos here.

Photos from my family trip to Berlin, Prague, and Vienna on December 24, 2009 – January 3, 2010.

The NYTimes has an excellent series of articles commemorating the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. I was only seven years old when this happened, but can still remember watching the news reports showing Berliners attacking the wall with sledgehammers as they were sprayed with firehoses. What an amazing moment in history. I’m looking forward to visiting the city, hopefully next month.

Günter Schabowski, a member of the East German Politburo, was designated to announce the new travel regulations at a news conference in the late afternoon. I had no way of filing to the paper from East Berlin, so even before he finished I rushed back to get through Checkpoint Charlie ahead of the mob of newsmen. All through the evening there were reports that people were gathering at checkpoints on both sides. As midnight approached, I was writing away in my room at the Kempinski Hotel in West Berlin when there came a knock on the door. It was Victor Homola, my translator from East Berlin.

“I’m busy, Victor,” I snapped.

“But, Serge…”

“Not now! Not now…”

Wait! Victor was an East German. He was not allowed to cross into the West!

He’d never been to the West! And it was midnight.

“Victor, what on earth are you doing here?”

“That’s what I’m trying to tell you, Serge. The wall is open!”

Remember Knut, that adorable polar bear cub that was abandoned by his mother but went on to grace the cover of Vanity Fair and earn the Berlin Zoo a few million bucks? Yeah, the zoo is trying to sell him now, because he is old, and therefore kinda boring. I will offer the Zoo $10 for Knut. He can live in my parent’s backyard and swim in their pool. I’m sure they wouldn’t mind since they love polar bears so much. Here is your chance to save one, Mom!

Cute

Old and busted

Not at all surprising:

A pipeline that Russia and Germany want to build under the Baltic Sea is facing so much opposition and scrutiny that the pipeline company, Nord Stream, has yet to obtain a single construction permit from any of the countries surrounding the sea, according to government officials.

[...]

Since the announcement of the pipeline deal nearly three years ago, Nord Stream has been beset by problems. It has been forced to alter the routes because of a boundary dispute between Denmark and Poland. It has been refused access to Estonia’s territorial waters. And last month, Nord Stream abandoned the idea of building platforms to support the pipes after objections, based on environmental considerations, by Sweden.

The costs have also increased, from around 4.5 billion euros, or $7 billion, to about 7.4 billion euros, according to the company.

The financing can only be finalized once the company has agreed on the final route with the countries bordering the Baltic Sea. They include Denmark, Finland, Germany, Russia and Sweden, which have to issue the permits, and four other countries, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland. As yet, Nord Stream has received no permits to start laying the pipes in the Baltic Sea.

I read a lot of news and blogs, most of it about Russia or energy. Here’s what you should read, too:

World’s most expensive cities? Two of my favorite, of course. Moscow takes the #1 spot while London comes in second.

Berlin hotel recreates East Germany Honecker portraits on the wall? Yeah, count me in!
Go Trabi Go! A Rattletrap East German Icon Has Its Day Again

Awesome color photos from the Russian Empire, taken by Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii

Russian president says no one should seek to make Russia feel guilty about Stalin-era purge
Speaking with the teachers, Putin suggested the United States’ use of atomic weapons against Japan at the end of World War II was worse than the abuses of Stalin.

Surprise, surprise, Gazprom wrestles control of the Kovykta gas field from BP. Related: Gazprom woes could hurt Putin’s drive for energy dominance, Investing in Russia: A BP perspective

Retired Gen. George Washington Criticizes Bush’s Handling Of Iraq War (The Onion)

Touring North Korea. Yes, I still really want to do this. Maybe in ‘08.

Pyongyang rollercoaster: I’ve been on some pretty scary roller coasters (hello, Cedar Point amusement park) but I don’t know if you could drag me onto this one in Pyongyang, North Korea.

Creed Bratton’s blog, www.creedthoughts.gov.www\creedthoughts, lives! (Video)

In the past two weeks I’ve seen three movies: Music and Lyrics, Reno 911!: Miami, The Lives of Others (Das Leben der Anderen). Because my opinion, like that of all bloggers, totally matters, I will share it with everyone on the world-wide internets.

Music and Lyrics
This film was a cinematic masterpiece worthy of an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture of 2007.
OK, obviously that’s total BS. The movie’s plot is thinner than a coked out Nicole Richie. But let’s be honest, comrades…no one sees a Hugh Grant movie for the plot or groundbreaking cinematography. We go for the eye candy and that adorable British accent.

Hugh Grant still looks as adorable as ever even though he is 46. WTF!? Hugh Grant is 46!? That’s effin’ crazy! He’s soooo old. I mean, it seems like just yesterday he was cruising around Sunset Boulevard in his BMW looking for prostitutes. My, how time flies.

Anyways, Music and Lyrics follows the typical Hugh Grant movie plot: Sarcastic British Boy lives in Big City. Boy becomes attracted to slightly bizarre Girl. Girl also becomes attracted to Boy (well, it’s Hugh Grant, so obv). Boy does something stupid that pisses Girl off. After much introspection, Boy realizes he was a dumbass and begs Girl for forgiveness, employing some cute antics that usually result in public embarrassment of Boy. Surprise! Girl forgives Boy. Boy and Girl live happily ever after in Big City. Blah blah blah.

The weakness of the plot is excused, however, because this particular film is inundated with Hugh Grant dancing a la Love Actually. I, for one, could not get enough of Hugh Grant shaking his ass to the Pointer Sisters and dancing around 10 Downing Street. Yeah, the movie isn’t brain food, but it’s nevertheless entertaining.

Be forewarned, however, that an ultra-cheesy song in the movie called “Pop! Goes My Heart” will be stuck in your head for days – nay, weeks! It’s effin’ painful. I suggest blasting some Rage Against the Machine after leaving the theatre in order to rid your head of that pop nonsense.

And in somewhat related news, Hugh split with his girlfriend, whatshername, oh yeah, Jemima. Dude, call me!

Reno 911!: Miami

There’s not much to say about Reno 911!: Miami other than…it’s hilarious. If you’re a fan of the Comedy Central show, then you’ll love it. If you’ve never seen the show before you will probably still enjoy it, and perhaps be motivated to rent the DVDs of the actual TV show.

The Lives of Others (Das Leben der Anderen)
The Lives of Others is the Academy Award-winning (Best Foreign Language) German film exploring the role of the Stasi (Ministry for State Security) in East Germany – a country that, in many respects, did its best to “out-Soviet” its Soviet patrons. Yeah, I know, quite a change from the mindlessness of Hugh Grant and Lieutenant Dangle’s hotpants. I loved this film (I’m a huge Cold War buff, obv) and thought it did an amazing job of showing the viewer how the Stasi pervaded every facet of East German society – bugging each room of your tiny apartment, opening your mail, and turning your wives, husbands, friends, and co-workers into informants who would report on your alleged “crimes” against the state.

If you don’t get in line, we’ll lock you away

If you have any interest in the Cold War, I would highly recommend this film. Afterwards, pick up a copy of Timothy Garton Ash’s fascinating book, “The File: A Personal History“, which details his own efforts to locate his personal Stasi file and track down his “friends” who informed the Stasi about every detail of his life while he studied in East Berlin.

Not many other movies out right now that I want to see…well, except for “Breach”…I heard that one is good. But “Norbit” and “The Number 23?” Who in their effin’ mind greenlights this stuff?

(Russian troops, Summer 1941)

On this day in 1941, over 3 million German troops invade Russia in three parallel offensives, in what is the most powerful invasion force in history. Nineteen panzer divisions, 3,000 tanks, 2,500 aircraft, and 7,000 artillery pieces pour across a thousand-mile front as Hitler goes to war on a second front.

Exactly 129 years and one day before Operation Barbarossa, another “dictator” foreign to the country he controlled, invaded Russia–making it all the way to the capital. But despite this early success, Napoleon would be escorted back to France–by Russian troops.
Source: The History Channel

Also, an interesting article: “It’s Not PC to Remember the Soviets Lost More Soldiers Breaking the Back of the Nazi Army than We Did”

On June 5, 2004, Ronald Reagan, the 40th President of the United States, passed away at his home in Bel Air, California.

One of my earliest memories of Ronald Reagan was when my parents and I watched Reagan’s Presidential motorcade make its way down Monterey Avenue in Palm Desert. Reagan was good friends with Walter Annenberg and often vacationed at Annenberg’s Rancho Mirage estate. While I don’t recall the exact date when I saw Reagan’s motorcade, I assume he was in town to visit with the Annenbergs. Nevertheless, I do recall a large amount of people lining the sidewalk, ready to see the President’s limo pass by. It was an exciting event back then…it wasn’t until living in Washington that I would look upon the Presidential and Vice-Presidential motorcades as frequent annoyances. When the motorcade finally passed us, I remember squealing “Mom, the President waved to me!” Ah, to be a little kid again…

But fast forward to the present day, or at least to the past three years, a majority of which I spent studying Soviet/Russian politics and history at GWU. It was there that I became incredibly frusturated with the conservative camp’s proclivity to credit President Reagan for the dissolution of the Soviet Union and fall of other communist regimes throughout Eastern Europe. Statements such as “Reagan won the Cold War” or “Reagan masterfully engineered the downfall of the USSR” and my personal favorite, “Reagan pushed the USSR towards bankruptcy” are constantly trumpeted by conservative politicians, newspaper columnists, and TV pundits who know little about the history of the Soviet Union. If you repeat something long enough, though, then perhaps the American public will begin to accept it as the truth. This is exactly what has happened, and with Reagan’s recent death, the lie has become even louder.

If Reagan did not singlehandedly bring an end to the Soviet Union, then what did? I present a few reasons below…

Economics: By the 1980s, the Soviet economy was showing serious problems in all sectors of its economy, but these problems were most prevalent in agriculture and oil production. The USSR, in fact, was forced to import grain from the U.S. and Canada to feed its population. Most importantly, though, was the USSR’s slow rate of technological modernization in an era that was increasingly dominated by high-tech products from the U.S., Western Europe, and Japan. Soviet industry continued to rely on technology that had been formulated decades ago, and the scarce supply of computers was distributed to only the most trusted Soviet workers (scientists, etc).

Of course, there were serious structural weaknesses that were built into the Soviet economy, chief among those being the command style economy. In such an economy, the ability to output a product in large quantities was more important that actually producing a quality good. There was no room for innovation in such an economy, as factory managers simply followed the orders that were passed down to them from the bureaucrats in GOSPLAN. (“Hmmm…I could try implementing these new production techniques that might speed up the output of the factory goods, but what if it fails? I’ll lose my job, my dacha, and my car. And even if it does work, then GOSPLAN will set even higher quotas for next year. I think I’ll just stick with what I do every year.”) Furthermore, there was no rational relationship between supply and demand – this, too, was determined by Moscow bureaucrats. A majority of Soviet industry was geared towards producing weapons for the military or other heavy industry machinery. None of these products satisfied Soviet consumers who desired the same blue jeans, cars, and kitchen appliances that were commonplace in the Western countries.

As I mentioned above, agriculture was an especially problematic sector of the Soviet economy. In the 1930s, farmers were forcibly collectivized and the “wealthier” peasants (the kulaks, who were among the most efficient farmers in the USSR) were liquidated by the Soviet security services. The peasants that lived on collective farms devoted a majority of their time to tending their own personal gardens instead of the community crops, and a large percentage of crops simply rotted in the fields. The crops that eventually made it to the large cities would sit for months in warehouses, where another large percentage would be lost to spoilage.

Since the USSR could continue to export its vast amounts of oil to other countries for hard currency, it would basically use these earnings to cover up the shortfall produced by its problematic sectors of the economy. The USSR would then use this hard currency to purchase machinery and grain from other countries, and continued to neglect any real attempts to reform agriculture or heavy industry.

It is quite conceivable that the Soviet economy could have continued to perform miserably for decades without any political crisis enveloping the nation. And then along came Gorby…

Glasnost and Perestroika: While serving as an agriculture official, Mikhail Gorbachev experienced firsthand the problems of collective agriculture. When he came to power as the General Secretary of the Communist Party, he unleashed a set of reforms known as glasnost and perestroika.

Perestroika, which means “restructuring” in Russian, was Gorbachev’s campaign to reform the Soviet economy. Gorbachev did not strive to abandon socialism – he simply wanted to reform the most inefficient sectors of the economy and raise the standard of living in the Soviet Union. He pushed through reforms that allowed for private farming and cooperative business ventures. Gorbachev hoped that these cooperatives, which were really the first private businesses in the USSR, would provide goods and services that were in high demand by consumers (but the Soviet state by itself did not have the resources to meet this demand). In the realm of state owned enterprises, Gorbachev enacted measures that transferred decision making power from GOSPLAN bureaucrats to the factory directors themselves. The result, then, was an chaotic hybrid economy that included both capitalist and communist characteristics.

Glasnost, (“openness”) was Gorbachev’s campaign to relax media censorship. The aim of glasnost was to allow for some criticism of the government and more open discussion about past atrocities committed by the Soviet state. Gorbachev intended to use glasnost as a platform to attack the “old guard” Communist Party members that were vehemently opposed to his economic reforms. With their reins loosened, the Soviet media began to report on corruption, waste, bribery, and other problems that plagued Soviet enterprises and public services. The highlighting of such problems called into doubt the Communist Party’s claim that the USSR was a shining example of socialism. Unfortunately for Gorbachev, glasnost soon spiraled out of control. Ethnic groups in the Soviet Republics used the freedoms provided by glasnost to air their grievances with the Soviet government and demand greater freedoms from Moscow. Tensions flared between various ethnic groups in the USSR, and Gorbachev responded by sending Soviet troops to quell the rising tide of violence. Such actions, though, only exacerbated the situation, and groups within the Soviet Union formed popular fronts to demand independence.

Demokratizatsiya: Another goal of Gorbachev’s was to infuse new “progressive” blood into the ranks of the Communist Party. He hoped that by doing so, he could bypass the “old guard” Communists and more easily enact his economic and political reforms. Gorbachev did not intend to create a multiparty electoral system, but much like glasnost and perestroika he was unable to control the forces unleashed by demokratizatsiya. The constitutional provision that assigned a leading role to the Communist Party was eliminated, and political movements/parties across the USSR began to compete with each other for seats in the Supreme Soviets of each republic.

Of course, the above are merely a few (although, in my opinion, the most important) of the reasons for the decline of Soviet power and the eventual breakup of the USSR. The list is endless: Afghanistan, the Helsinki Agreements, the Sinatra Doctrine, the hardliner coup against Gorbachev, the rise of Boris Yeltsin and “take all the sovereignty you can swallow,” Ostpolitik, human rights groups…etc, etc. To expound upon all of these in one blog post would be impossible…there are tons of books that focus on the collapse of the USSR…pick up one of these and you will see that the fall of the Iron Curtain cannot be credited to a man that lived comfortably at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, DC. In fact, to do so would be an insult to those citizens that fought against the communist regimes that denied them their basic freedoms.

Ultimately, Reagan did not win the Cold War…he was a bit player in a long drawn out contest between two great superpowers, one of which collapsed due to its poor economic performance, imperial overstretch, and failed political reforms. That Reagan is given so much credit for ending communism is ridiculous, and only adds to his cult of personality that continues to grow with each passing year.