02318cam a2200409 i 4500 1042531355 TxGeo 20231114120000.0 231030s2023||||||||||||||||||||||||eng|u 9780393540772 hbk. 0393540774 hbk. (OCoLC)1407118252 TxGeo rda Longo, Mathew, author. The picnic : a dream of freedom and the collapse of the iron curtain / Mathew Longo. New York, NY : W. W. Norton & Company, [2023] xvi, 304 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm. txt rdacontent n rdamedia nc rdacarrier sti rdacontent n rdamedia nc rdacarrier Includes bibliographical references. "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--including Hungarian activists and border guards, East German refugees, Stasi secret police, and the last Communist prime minister of Hungary--Matthew Longo tells a gripping and revelatory tale of the unraveling of the Iron Curtain and the birth of a new world order."-- Provided by publisher. 20231130. Cold War. Communist countries. Post-communism. Nineteen eighty-nine, A.D. Interviews. Europe, Eastern History 1945-1989. Hungary Politics and government 20th century. Hungary Boundaries Austria History. Austria Boundaries History. QS5