[FlamesAddiction]

This is kind of a follow up to the "History's Epic Failures" thread posted a while ago.

I am specifically thinking of small events that happened which changed the coarse of the world. Here is one I that think about sometimes. I don't think people who started the act of kindness though it would bring down the whole system in 2 months,

Everyone remembers the East Germans and West Germans pulling that wall down, but that even may have not happened, at least that soon, if Hungary and Austria didn't collaborate to show that they could essentially
make the wall useless. It wasn't without risk either. Hungary could have been severely reprimanded for help.

The Pan-European Picnic

On Aug 19, 1989, Hungary was sick of being controlled by the Soviet block and after seeing Poland have a successful revolution unscathed by Russia, they decided to not obey the Soviet border restriction imposed on them and open their border to Austria. Citizens cut the barbed wire fences and allowed hundred of east German families to unite with their West German counter parts in what was both heart wrenching and joyful to watch. It was the first free border between the capitalist West and a communist country still technically with the Soviet Bloc.

I feel this was the indirect act of civil disobedience which brought the whole bloc system down, inducing the USSR eventually. By November, there was little East Germans could do to stop their citizens from travelling through Hungary to defect or visit. The East Germans relaxed their own border with West Germany to try and stop it, but by that time. Within 5 days of passing that new law, the Berlin Wall came tumbling.

It's also worth mentioning that Hungary's 1956 revolution to leave the block was crushed by Russian tanks, but in the end, they figured out just how to do it the right way.



Edit Sorry this post is full of shabby writing. So tired today, I fixed some but try your best...