Samizdat. Register of Documents (English edition). Munich:
Samizdat Archive Association. From 1977.
Ferdinand J. M. Feldbrugge. Samizdat and Political Dissent in the
Soviet Union. Leyden: A.W. Sijthoff, 1975.
Claude Widor. The Samizdat Press in China's Provinces, 1979-1981. Stanford CA: Hoover Institution, Stanford University, 1987.
Nicolae Ceausescu (1918-1989). His life can be summed up in John
Sweeney's statement: "In Ceausescu's Romania, madness was
enthroned, sanity a disease" cf. The Life and Evil Times of
Nicolae Ceausescu, London: Hutchinson, 1991, p. 105.
Berlin Wall. Erected in August, 1961, the wall divided East and West Berlin. Over the years, it became the symbol of political oppression. Hundreds of people were killed in their attempt to escape to freedom. The political events in East Europe of Fall, 1989 led to destruction of the wall, a symbolic step in the not so easy process of German reunification. See also: J. Ruhle, G. Holzweissig. 13 August 1961: die Mauer von Berlin (Hrsg von I. Spittman). Köln: Edition Deutschland Archiv, 1981.
Red. B. Beier, U. Heckel, G. Richter.9 November 1989: der Tag der
Deutschen. Hamburg: Carlsen, 1989.
John Borneman. After the Wall: East Meets West in the New Berlin.
New York: Basic Books, 1991.
Political unrest, due to intense resentment of the Soviet occupation, and economic hardship led to the creation of an independent labor union, the Solidarnosc (Solidarity) in 1980. In 1981, nationwide strikes brought Poland to a standstill. Martial law was imposed and Solidarity was banned in 1982 after dramatic confrontations at the Gdansk shipyards. Reinstated in 1989, Solidarity became a major political factor in the formation of the new, non-communist government.
Massimo d'Azeglio (1798-1866): I miei ricordi. A cura di Alberto
M. Ghisalberti. Torino: Einaudi, 1971.
Germany has a rather tortuous history behind its unification. After the peace of Westphalia (1648) ending the Thirty Years' War, a sharp division between Catholic and Protestant states arose. After Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo (1815), the German Confederation (led by Austria) prepared the path towards future unification. In 1850, the attempt to form a central government was blocked, to be resuscitated after the Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871). On his defeat of Ludwig II of Bavaria, the Prussian Wilhelm I became the first emperor of a unified Germany in 1871, and Bismarck his first chancellor.