Now, amid fading memories of the period, mass demonstrations in post-Soviet eastern Europe – such as the ones in Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, from late November 2013 – prompt a subtly different reaction in the west. Among western populations, there is a degree of confusion and some concern, reflecting the fact that no one is quite sure what is at stake this time; since 1989, after all, people have come to take it for granted that the eastern Europeans had won back their freedoms.
Open Democracy: Ukraine, and a Europe-Russia crack
EuroMaidan protesters keep gathering on Maidan Nezalezhnosti.
In the good old cold-war days when divisions in Europe were clearer, popular upheavals in Soviet-run eastern Europe were met with a measure of consternation in western capitals and some sympathy among western populations. At that time, everyone knew that freedom was at stake - and also that the demand for freedom couldn’t be fulfilled.
