![]() ![]() ![]() Garton Ash reflects that his take on events reflects the immediacy of his perspective. Though Garton Ash is a trained historian with scholarly experience on Eastern Europe, this book constitutes his personal reflections on the political revolutions of 1989, which saw East Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Hungary, among other nations, transition from communist one-party rule to competitive parliamentary democracies as independent nations. He finds himself giving an impromptu speech, which, he reflects, is indicative of his broader project in the work. The work opens with Garton Ash recalling his travel to Poland during the 1989 parliamentary elections, the first competitive democratic elections in that country after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. ![]() Polish “w” is typically pronounced “v,” “ł” is pronounced more like “w,” and “ę” is pronounced “en.” Thus, for “Wałęsa,” “Vawensa” is the closest English approximation. Lech Wałęsa’s surname may pose specific challenges to the Anglophone reader. The “c” in Václav, as in Václav Havel, is pronounced as “ts,” making the name sound like “Vatslav” in English. It should also be noted that the honorific pan appears in Polish and Czech-this is roughly equivalent to sir or madam and is used in formal address. A note on language and pronunciation: This guide preserves all accent marks and diacritics for Polish, Hungarian, and Czech names. ![]()
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