Telegram from the Romanian Embassy in Beijing to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs regarding the arrival of 25,000 soldies to Tiananmen Square and the removal of students from the Square

Saul reports on the aftermath of the Tiananmen Square crackdown.

On the day after Solidarity had swept Poland’s first open elections, ultimately winning 99 of 100 Senate seats, the Polish Communists vent their shock and dismay ("a bitter lesson," "the party are not connected with the masses," "We trusted the Church and they turned out to be Jesuits" were typical comments). Comrade Kwasniewski (who was later elected President of Poland) remarks that "It’s well known that also party members were crossing out our candidates" (only two out of 35 Party candidates survived the epidemic of X’s). But they see no choice but to negotiate a coalition government, and specifically "[w]arn against attempts at destabilization, pointing at the situation in China" -- since the Tiananmen massacre occurred the same day as the Polish elections, the road not taken.

This extract from a Politburo discussion indicates the attention paid to monitoring Western broadcasts for the top Party elite and Party leader Zhivkov’s impatience with the regime monitors’ focus on RFE broadcasts.

Discussion of broadcasts of "Radio Free Europe" and other Western media on Bulgaria's policies towards the country's Turkish minority.

Note from the Romanian Embassy in Beijing to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs regarding the situation in Beijing in the aftermath of Tiananmen Square and the institution of restrictive measures under the rubric of martial law

The paper addresses the change in economics, politics, and social structures in the Soviet bloc (Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, Hungary, and the GDR) as a result of the USSR loosening up regulations.

According to Polish reports from Pyongyang, the North Korean leadership interpreteted the Tiananmen Square protests in Beijing in relation to lack of monolitic unity among the Chinese leadership and China's reform policies.

GDR Chairman Honecker and Shevardnadze discuss the state of the German Democratic Republic and the CPSU's outlook on and relationship with East Germany, as well as both of their perspectives on the sociopolitical landscape in Poland, its recent election and the battle to maintain socialism in Poland.

In response to Western reports about the Tiananmen Square protests, Chief Erich Mielke alerts State Security to suppress all offensive anti-Chinese activity and propaganda in the GDR.

The agreement was signed at the first plenary meeting of the National Roundtable talks. The document put on record the legal framework and the conditions of the subsequent tripartite negotiations which lasted until 18 September. At the next meeting, on 21 June, two intermediate-level committees were established for political and social-economic issues, each having six working subcommittees in which the bulk of the legal work leading to the establishment of parliamentary democracy in Hungary was carried out. Between March and June the crucial question of the transition was whether the Hungarian Socialist Workers’ Party [HSWP] was willing to eventually accept the fact that it would have to negotiate with a unified opposition represented by the Opposition Roundtable [ORT]. Although the HSWP leadership tried to do everything it could to prevent this, by the beginning of June it gave up its previous position. However, the opposition parties had to make a serious concession too, since it was a precondition of the HSWP in agreeing to start official negotiations on the political transition with the ORT that the talks should be tripartite. The “third side” included mass organizations and civil associations, all of which were supporters of the HSWP and/or represented left-wing political ideas.

Gorbachev and Weizsäcker discuss Soviet-American relations and the Bush administration.

Chairmen of the fourty-six regional committees discuss the upcoming round of elections in Poland.

Gorbachev and Kohl share their impressions of the newly elected George Bush and discuss events in Eastern Europe.

Discussion between Gorbachev and FRG Chancellor Kohl regarding arms control and the evolving diplomatic relationship between West Germany and the Soviet Union.

Transcribed from previously unpublished video recordings, these discussions point to the unwritten "rules" of mutual civility that arose in the nonviolent dissident movements and found an echo among the Communist reformers during the negotiated revolutions of 1989. For example, Dr. Istvan Kukorelli from the Patriotic People’s Front proposes to "refrain from questioning the legitimacy of each other, since the legitimacy of all of us is debatable. It is a question which belongs to the future - who will be given credit by history and who will be forgotten."

The DPRK Embassy to the GDR thanks the GDR Ministry of Foreign Affairs for establishing border crossing procedures for Korean nationals in Germany.

Gorbachev and Kohl discuss relations with the United States, Kohl's upcoming visit to Poland, and the status of reforms in various socialist countries.

KGB Chief Kryuchkov reports that research into Soviet repression in the 1930’s through 1950’s reveals that Imre Nagy willingly worked for the NKVD as an informant. Using the pseudonym “Volodya,” Nagy information is said to have led to sentences for Hungarian émigrés. Kryuchkov states that the documents should be shown to the Secretary General of the HSWP and possibly used in response to calls for Nagy’s rehabilitation.

An introductory note to the CPSU Central Committee Resolution on military cooperation with non-Socialist countries.