A Christmas Worth Remembering 30 Years Ago Today

While we celebrate the birth of Christ this Christmas we also remember this moment thirty years ago today when the flag of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (U.S.S.R.) came down and 69 years of communist terror collapsed and so with it came the shedding of one independent republic after another. The Soviet Union was gone and General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev resigned as the last General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

He addressed his people in his Christmas Day address saying the people had determined their own destinies and that the fruits of free enterprise, privatization, and self-determination had prevailed before the old system's remnants of a centrally planned system had withered away.

I remember writing a paper two and half years ago in my 20th Century Russian History class on what caused the Soviet Union to collapse. It was harder than I thought to write when I started my research, and learned more about it. I wrote that it was not merely an arms build up alone, but it was the power and will of the people of Russia and of Eastern Europe to change their circumstances, and the corrupt broken socialist system that couldn't be repaired in solving the problems of the new age because socialism denies incentive because it doesn't take into account individual talents. Ever since my interest in Russia and Eastern Europe was sparked, and I made Russian and Eastern European Studies my minor. I became fascinated by this region of the world given its deep, rich, and complicated history.

Premier Gorbachev relinquished his power when he didn't have to. This simple act was unheard of in a country that puts so much emphasis on state power, and had for over 400 years. He willingly stepped away from power against the advice of many in the politburo, but he did it because he said the waves of democratic reform were too strong to allow him to remain in power. He believed the will of the people must come first.

He addressed the Russian people who had suffered so much Christmas morning with this:

"I am leaving my post with apprehension, but also with hope, with faith in you, your wisdom and force of spirit. We are the heirs of a great civilization, and its rebirth into a new, modern and dignified life now depends on one and all."

The news that the Soviet Union had dissolved stunned the world. But with its dissolution the birth of a new future for the people of Russia and Eastern Europe was born.

It was a moment rich with promise of a better life free from the grips of totalitarianism. There couldn't have been a better Christmas present to them than self-determination.

Свободная Россия!

Освободите Навального!

Счастливого Рождества всем!