  1989

On 17 November 1989, demonstrations at Prague University and Wenceslas Square marked the beginning of the virtually non-violent end of the communist regime in what was then Czechoslovakia: the Velvet Revolution. Thirty-five years on, how do things stand with the ideals that so many fought for back then?

The Czech Republic and Slovakia celebrated the 30th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution which began on 17 November 1989. The celebrations also saw mass demonstrations in Prague, where 250,000 people protested against the threat to democracy which they believe the political elites pose. Europe's press takes a closer look at how the Czech Republic is faring today.

The 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall was celebrated in Berlin, Germany and Europe last weekend. Commentators in Eastern and Western Europe examine what has become of the spirit of 1989.

On the evening of August 23, 1989, roughly two million Estonians, Latvians and Lithuanians formed a human chain more than 600 kilometres long that stretched from Tallinn across Riga to Vilnius. Fifty years after the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact people in the three states stood side by side in pursuit of freedom and independence in one of the biggest non-violent protests the world has ever seen: the Baltic Way.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel will visit the Hungarian city of Sopron today to commemorate the Pan-European Picnic together with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. On 19 August 1989 GDR citizens used this event to flee to the West across the Austrian-Hungarian border. Commentators find it notable that of all politicians these two are coming together to celebrate the first cracks in the Iron Curtain.

On June 4, 1989, Poland held its first partially free elections - a novelty in the communist East Bloc. From Poland's perspective the results were of similar significance to the fall of the Berlin Wall. Commentators look back on the historic vote and the three decades that followed.

After the death of the comparatively liberal Communist Party leader Hu Yaobang in mid-April 1989 hundreds of thousands demonstrated on Tiananmen Square for political reforms. The peaceful protest ended at the start of June in a massacre carried out by the army that left hundreds dead. In China all discussion of the events is still taboo.

The remains of Imre Nagy, former head of government and Hungarian national hero since his execution in 1956, were reburied 30 years ago. At the public ceremony marking Nagy's rehabilitation on June 16, 1989, Viktor Orbán, the incumbent prime minister, called for Soviet troops to withdraw from Hungary. Commentators take stock 30 years on.