"In the summer of 1989, neither Helmut Kohl nor I anticipated ... that everything would happen so fast. We didn’t expect the wall to come down in November. And by the way, we both admitted that later. I don’t claim to be a prophet. This happens in history: it accelerates its progress. It punishes those who are late. But it has an even harsher punishment for those who try to stand in its way. It would have been a big mistake to hold onto the Iron Curtain. That is why we didn’t put any pressure on the government of the GDR. When events started to develop at a speed that no one expected, the Soviet leadership unanimously – and I want to stress “unanimously” – decided not to interfere in the internal processes that were under way in the GDR, not to let our troops leave their garrisons under any circumstances. I am confident to this day that it was the right decision."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Mikhail Gorbachev, as quoted in an interview with Russia Beyond (16 October 2014)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Berlin_Wall
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Berlin Wall
30 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Berlin Wall →
Related Quotes
"A reformation of relations between the Soviet people and the German people is not possible along the lines pursued by…"
"At midnight on August 13, all troops involved in the construction of the Wall are alerted. The action begins, it is s…"
"The world is full of the markers of abandoned empires, from Hadrian’s Wall to the Great Wall of China, from the remna…"
"Honecker was deposed by his colleagues on 16 October 1989, but, under pressure from popular action, they could not ga…"
"Walls in the mind often stand longer than those built of concrete."
"On the very same day the first brick of the Ram Shila foundation was being laid at Ayodhya, the Berliners were removi…"
"For almost three decades the Berlin Wall was the Cold War’s most powerful symbol. In a surrounded West Berlin the Wes…"
"The [Berlin] wall can disappear when those conditions that created it fall away."
"It was a historic deed that preserved the liberty of our people and laid the foundations for the sustained prosperity…"
"The Soviet Government and the Soviet people should not lend themselves to co-operating in the conversion into a conce…"