H. Res. 892 
In the House of Representatives, U. S., 
November 7, 2009. 
Whereas the year 1989 witnessed a series of remarkable 
events in Europe that helped lead to the end of the Cold 
War and the beginning of the creation of a Europe whole, 
free, and at peace; 
Whereas, on February 6, 1989, after almost 10 years of un-
armed struggle, the Polish free trade union Solidarity fi-
nally succeeded in forcing the Government of Poland to 
begin talks on broad political and economic change; 
Whereas, on April 6, 1989, Solidarity was legalized, enabling 
it to contest elections for 35 percent of the seats in the 
Sejm and all the seats in the Senat, resulting in the his-
toric election victory for Solidarity on June 4 in which 
Solidarity won all the seats available to it in the Sejm 
and 99 out of 100 seats in the Senat, leading to the in-
stallation of the first non-Communist government since 
January 1945; 
Whereas, on May 2, 1989, the Hungarian government began 
dismantling the barbed wire fence separating Hungary in 
the Soviet-controlled East from Austria in the free West, 
causing a ‘‘tear in the Iron Curtain’’ that was never to 
be closed again;
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Whereas, following the exodus of several hundred East Ger-
mans from Hungary between May and mid-July 1989, 
the Hungarian government announced on September 10, 
that as of midnight, the border to the West would be 
open for all East Germans wishing to leave, leading to 
the departure of thousands of East Germans and rep-
resenting the first break in the Warsaw Pact policy of 
preventing each other’s citizens from fleeing to the West; 
Whereas, on August 23, 1989, 2,000,000 people living in the 
Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania linked 
hands to form a human chain almost 400 miles long in 
a peaceful protest of Soviet rule and in order to demand 
the restoration of independent statehood; 
Whereas, on November 9, 1989, in response to protests that 
had grown to include over a million people in Berlin’s 
Alexanderplatz, now referred to as the ‘‘Peaceful Revolu-
tion’’, Gunter Schabowski, the communist East German 
Minister of Propaganda, announced that the border 
would be opened for ‘‘private trips abroad’’; 
Whereas, on November 9, 1989, thousands of East Germans 
streamed into West Berlin, following the opening of 
checkpoints between the two halves of the divided city 
and resulting in the days that followed in one of the most 
momentous events of the 20th century, the tearing down 
of the Berlin Wall; 
Whereas, on November 24, 1989, months of protests by pro- 
democracy forces in Czechoslovakia led by visionary lead-
er Vaclav Havel resulted in the culmination of the ‘‘Vel-
vet Revolution’’ and the en masse resignation of the en-
tire Czechoslovak ruling Politburo, followed by the res-
ignation of President Gustav Husak on December 10,
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and a new democratic beginning with the election of 
President Havel on December 29; 
Whereas in November 1989, the first-known post-war public 
protests in Bulgaria organized by civil rights groups led 
to the ouster and resignation of Communist Party leader 
Todor Zhivkov after 34 years in power, and the first free 
elections since 1946 in Bulgaria the following June; 
Whereas, on December 17, 1989, in the town of Timisoara, 
Romania, citizens protesting against the arrest of a local 
priest were brutally killed by Romanian security forces 
under orders of President Ceausescu, causing inter-
national outrage and condemnation, and leading to mass 
protests and escalating violence throughout the country, 
resulting at the end of the year in the overthrow of the 
Ceausescu regime and his execution; 
Whereas the events of 1989 prove that the will and the desire 
of millions of people for freedom cannot be forever re-
pressed and that the actions of a few courageous leaders 
can inspire millions of others to join the inexorable strug-
gle to be free; 
Whereas in the past 20 years, most of the countries of Cen-
tral and Eastern Europe have become stable, prosperous, 
and vibrant democracies, with many becoming members 
of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and 
the European Union (EU); 
Whereas in the past 20 years, the prospect of membership in 
NATO and the EU has been a major stabilizing force 
and has helped promote greater peace and prosperity 
within Europe; and 
Whereas there is still much work that needs to be done to 
overcome the remaining challenges within Europe and to
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create a Europe whole, free, and at peace: Now, there-
fore, be it 
Resolved, That the House of Representatives— 
(1) recognizes the events of 1989 that helped lead 
to the end of the Cold War; 
(2) congratulates the countries of Central and East-
ern Europe who have made great progress in the past 
20 years and emerged as strong, vibrant democracies; 
(3) expresses strong support and friendship for the 
countries of Central and Eastern Europe, and reaffirms 
its commitment to the solemn obligations set forth in ar-
ticle 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty; 
(4) welcomes the commitment by the European 
Union (EU) and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization 
(NATO) to keep the door to membership open for all 
European countries which meet the conditions for acces-
sion; and 
(5) supports the continued efforts to create a Eu-
rope whole, free and at peace. 
Attest: 
Clerk.