8 - “Perhaps Without You, Our Revolution Would Not Be”

Summary

The pace of progress accelerated in the months following the Vienna Meeting, ushering in significant developments in the Helsinki process. Within the CSCE framework, almost all contentious issues were resolved, enabling agreements on such topics as adherence to the principles of pluralistic democracy, market capitalism, and the rule of law. More broadly, stunning changes transformed Eastern and Central Europe between 1989 and 1991, and Helsinki monitors were active in the movements that toppled communist leadership in Czechoslovakia and Poland. The broader Helsinki network was one element in a kaleidoscope that shaped the changes across Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union throughout this period. This chapter, which draws its title from a speech given by Charter 77 activist and Czechoslovak President Václav Havel to Helsinki Watch in February 1990, demonstrates how Helsinki activism influenced the transformation of Europe both directly and indirectly. The steps taken by Gorbachev to ensure the acceptance of the Moscow conference had signaled a momentous shift in Soviet attitudes toward human rights and the CSCE. Concessions such as the release of political prisoners, granting exit visas to long-time refuseniks, and allowing travel to the West were crucial to the broader end of the Cold War. My work suggests the Helsinki process was one factor that shaped Gorbachev's thinking about human rights, self-determination, and nonviolence, all of which contributed to the demise of communism in Eastern Europe and the collapse of the Soviet Union.