Forget the fall of the Berlin Wall. Forget the crowds roaring through Prague in late November. None of that would have been possible without what happened exactly 20 years ago on this day here, in Poland. Today marks the 20th anniversary of the first free elections in a Soviet Bloc country, and the first domino that set the events of 1989 in motion. But the elections were not as glamorous, as iconic as a wall coming apart. They weren’t as bloody as a dictator being hunted on the streets of Bucharest. Most Europeans forget about them, and most Americans are never told about them in the first place. So in celebration, today I’m asking you to educate yourself.

Forget the fall of the Berlin Wall. Forget the crowds roaring through Prague in late November. None of that would have been possible without what happened exactly 20 years ago on this day here, in Poland. Today marks the 20th anniversary of the first free elections in a Soviet Bloc country, and the first domino that set the events of 1989 in motion.

But the elections were not as glamorous, as iconic as a wall coming apart. They weren’t as bloody as a dictator being hunted on the streets of Bucharest. Most Europeans forget about them, and most Americans are never told about them in the first place. So in celebration, today I’m asking you to educate yourself.

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