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Title details for The Picnic by Matthew Longo - Available

The Picnic

A Dream of Freedom and the Collapse of the Iron Curtain

by Matthew Longo
Tom Parks
Audiobook
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In August 1989, a group of Hungarian activists organized a picnic on the border of Hungary and Austria. But this was not an ordinary picnic-it was located on the dangerous militarized frontier known as the Iron Curtain. Tacit permission from the highest state authorities could be revoked at any moment. On wisps of rumor, thousands of East German "vacationers" packed Hungarian campgrounds, awaiting an opportunity, fearing prison, surveilled by lurking Stasi agents. The Pan-European Picnic set the stage for the greatest border breach in Cold War history: hundreds crossed from the Communist East to the longed-for freedom of the West. Drawing on dozens of original interviews, Matthew Longo tells a gripping and revelatory tale of the unraveling of the Iron Curtain and the birth of a new world order. Just a few months after the Picnic, the Berlin Wall fell, and the freedom for which the activists and refugees had risked imprisonment was suddenly available to everyone. But were they really free? And why, three decades since the Iron Curtain was torn down, have so many sought once again to build walls? Cinematically told, The Picnic recovers a time when it seemed possible for the world to change. With insight and panache, Longo explores the opportunities taken-and the opportunities we failed to take-in that pivotal moment.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    December 7, 2023

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781696613057
      • File size: 296779 KB
      • Duration: 10:18:17

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      September 25, 2023
      Political scientist Longo (The Politics of Borders) delivers a stunning recap of the “greatest breach of the border in Cold War history.” The Pan-European Picnic took place on Aug. 19, 1989, in Sopron, Hungary, on the border with St. Margarethen, Austria. High-ups in the Hungary Communist Party—sensing the Soviet Union under the leadership of Mikhail Gorbachev was loosening its grip on its satellite countries in Eastern Europe—had given permission to the picnic organizers to open a “small, gated crossing” in a muddy field on the border, allowing Austrians and Hungarians to freely mingle and celebrate “European togetherness and freedom.” But the event quickly turned into “utter chaos” when some 600–1,000 East Germans saw the picnic as their chance to escape East Germany’s repressive regime. Longo traces the heart-wrenching stories of these freedom-seekers and interviews the Hungarian commanding officer who was under orders to shoot them but refused. His impressive research reveals “a shadow archive of secret decisions,” showing not only how closely the secret police were watching the picnic organizers, but also how reformists within the Party paved the way for it to happen, even as they received death threats from the hard-line opposition. This captivating narrative brings an underreported Cold War turning point into focus.

    • Library Journal

      May 31, 2024

      Longo (political science, Leiden Univ., Netherlands) follows up The Politics of Borders, where he examined the walls separating nations after 9/11, with an account of the 1989 Pan-European Picnic that brought such borders down. With the measured tones of a calm investigative reporter, narrator Tom Parks authoritatively describes this momentous event, which was organized by Hungarian activists and took place on the border between Hungary and Austria. The picnic, conceived as an initial test of the Soviet Union's reaction to the opening of the border, was touted as an opportunity for comingling and fellowship but soon became a chaotic chance for many to escape from Soviet-controlled lands. The book traces the origins of the event, from Otto von Habsburg and Ferenc M�sz�ros's first meeting to architect M�ria Filep's planning of the event to the ultimate fall of the Iron Curtain. Parks makes tangible the emotions felt by the players Longo interviewed during the picnic's 30th anniversary: former West Germans scornful of former GDR citizens, former East Germans proud of their past, and those who made lives for themselves across the border, many of whom were overwhelmed and disillusioned with their experience with freedom. VERDICT An in-depth dive, presented objectively, into the politics of nation-building..--Stephanie Bange

      Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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