I blog from Poland, where 25 years ago Solidarity began its mission of workers overthrowing an alleged workers' state. Specifically, I blog from Wroclaw, where I visited the Wroclaw Museum of History's exhibition on the Stasi, the infamous secret police of East Germany. Located in western Poland, Wroclaw (pronounced Vrotswaf) had long been a German-ruled city prior to its rule by the Communists after World War II, so the appeal of a museum exhibit focusing on the Big Brother of the GDR makes sense for this German-Polish crossroads. Standing out was a display on the risks GDR citizen-inmates took in attempting to escape their prison-state. Methods of departure included submarines, boats, a mad-dash followed by a bullet-evading Berlin Wall climb, and, in the case of an East German woman, a train ride hidden in her French fiancee's luggage.

In Krakow, I took in a tour of Nowa Huta, a model Communist community that now more closely resembles an elaborate Western housing project. Launched in the postwar era to house employees of the Lenin Steelworks, the planned city based on principles of Socialist Realism boasted tens-of-thousands of inhabitants. The modern, Communist Nowa Huta was supposed to eclipse its sister city, the medieval, Catholic Krakow. Nowa Huta was a self-contained city outside a city, complete with schools, restuarants, playgrounds, theatres, and stores to accompany the many apartment buildings, which each housed 3,000 to 4,000 people. The street planning made transit remarkably simple. Work, play, everything the people wanted was here--at least that's how it was supposed to work. The people wanted something the Communists refused to give them--a church. Led by Krakow's bishop Karol Wojtyla, the steelworkers demanded a house of worship. More than a quarter century after conscripted Poles broke ground on Nowa Huta, its inhabitants finally got their church. A year later, the man who led that fight, became pope.

Instead of eclipsing Krakow, Nowa Huta has been absorbed by it. It's part of Krakow now, albeit a much forgotten, rarely visited part. The soot-covered buildings face renovations and colorful paint jobs. The giant, centerpiece statue of a walking Lenin is gone, sold to Swedes who have put it on display as a novelty. It's probably for the best, as the metallic Lenin would not have liked what he saw in today's Nowa Huta. Lenin Square has been renamed Ronald Reagan Square. The Lenin Steelworks have been renamed too. There is a boulevard named for John Paul II.

In Prague, the Museum of Communism announces, "We're Above McDonalds, Across from Bennetton." Containing such curiosities as a factory poster explaining, "Timely Arrival to Work Deals the Decisive Strike Against the American Aggressors," and Communist literature blaming local crop failures on US biological warfare (a potato bug of American sabateurs), the museum takes sides: against lies and for truth, against communism and for freedom. Like the East German Stasi, Czechoslovakian soldiers kept in locals by force. Border guards were awarded bonuses, such as wrist watches and extra leave, for shooting their fleeing fellow countrymen. Most interesting in this city of ancient structures was the museum's exhibit on the Communists' attempt to contribute to the local landmarks. In 1950, the state embarked on a stone statue of Stalin, measuring some 30 meters in height. Other local construction projects stopped for years, as efforts focused on the massive Stalin monument. Work was completed in 1955, but by then Stalin was dead--and soon to be out of fashion after Krushchev denounced him in 1956. So, by the early 1960s, the enormous, 17,000-ton Stalin, like so many others living under Communism, simply disappeared.

Within three decades, Communism would disappear--in Wroclaw, in Prague, in Krakow, in Bucharest, in Dresden, in Budapest, and a thousand European points beyond. "We are more than a political party," Bohumir Smeral, founder of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, remarked long ago. "We are the vanguard of the new life. We create new relations, we want to create a new people." But the old people got in the way. And if it were not for the meddlesome human beings, Communism, which had never failed in its theorists' imaginations, would have succeeded wildly.

"Ronald Reagan Square"! Can you get a photo or other image?

30 meters is 98feet 5inches...glad to oblige.

Isn't it ironic that millions in Cuba still live under the same tyrannical system that enslaved Eastern Europe for decades, thanks in large part to the Party of Human Rights (also known as the Party That Feels Your Pain But Won't Lift a Finger to Free You) and the likes of James Earl Carter?

When you coming home? Will you be in Boston this weekend?

Jeremiah, although I felt tempted to steal the street sign, I settled for getting a picture beneath it, which had Reagan's name spelled in a Polish variant. I didn't see any streets named after Mikhail Gorbachev.

Auc, I will be in Boston, God willing, early Saturday afternoon. Call me at W Street and leave a number. I have no number for you.

Nowa Huta. I recently saw a movie that was based on a brick-layer who helped build Nowa Huta. (fiction though). The movie is by Wajda, and its called Czlowiek z marmuru [Man of Marble).

Have a see if you get a chance.
Cheers.