Mariann Rajki was born on 21 February 1989 in Budapest, Hungary She studies history at the city's Pazmany Peter Catholic University Her parents are divorced; her father lives in Budapest and her mother in Holland but I prefer learning about ancient Iran and the Middle East to studying communist Hungary And right-left divisions still dominate politics here "I think I'm probably closer to my friends now than my parents were to theirs I think they were suspicious and even scared of each other in the communist days not knowing who was giving information to the authorities We have other worries now and life can seem uncertain and unstable It is hard for young people to find work and It is tough now to earn enough to look after a family "I don't know what I will do in the future: I prefer to focus on enjoying my life here and now I like to read history books and novels in English and Hungarian I watch films and go out dancing with my friends "For holidays I love to go anywhere in Italy I must have been to Italy at least 10 times my parents had never even left the country." Dan McLaughlin Stanislaw Michalek is studying chemical technology at Warsaw Polytechnic He was born on 13 February 1989 and works as a masseur to pay his way through college He has little free time for any hobbies or interests The pursuit of money and material gain that capitalism has brought since 1989 "Poland is now a typical western consumer society but 20 years ago, as my parents still like to tell me, things were very different. Getting hold of even the most basic consumer goods was unimaginably complicated. When my mum was pregnant with me she heard that it was possible to get a washing machine in Silesia, hundreds of miles away on the other side of Poland In those days there were no disposable nappies so a washing machine was a dream come true for a pregnant woman She and my dad travelled to Silesia and brought the washing machine all the way back to Warsaw They had to get people to help them all the way "Now we are much better off materially but relations between people have deteriorated Life was so hard then that people used to help each other much more People won't even get up for old ladies in the bus and they don't react if someone behaves badly in public If they spank a child they could end up in court They can't count on support from parents the way they used to Now parents side with their children rather than supporting teachers "People only care about being rich now - this is the only way to achieve social prestige careers weren't so important; people had more time for their friends In the countryside life has changed completely My granny lives in the southern mountains and in her village Now they are selling off their cows because the milk is worth nothing There is no future in small farming and the young people are leaving for the towns It's sad when I go there because I'm watching a whole way of life disappear "I hope that Poland will bring in laws and regulations that make life easier for people the way it is with the bureaucracy we have now I hope I can get a job that pays well enough for me to own a flat and also travel around the world."Hilary Davis The Soviet Union did not collapse until 1991 but Mikhail Gorbachev's perestroika was already in full swing in 1989 who enjoyed the benefits of state sponsorship of the arts Dmitry is a first-year piano student at the prestigious Moscow Conservatory My mother told me about the queues and shortages and about the coupons she used to get for food She would queue for four hours for meat and still not get any So my parents used to buy that and melt it down into milk for me "I do remember that when I was about six I heard the screech of car tyres and a shot ring out and then there was a body The intelligentsia struggled to make ends meet but my family was not as badly affected as others "What I know about communism I have learnt from my own reading At school they didn't tell us much about the mass repressions but I have read Edvard Radzinsky on Stalin I know the communists built a terrible totalitarian system a closed society that tried to make everyone the same "In the 90s Mum and Dad used to say they were happier under communism because life was stable Now they are starting to see gradual improvements everything was forbidden: you couldn't do this and you couldn't do that; you couldn't go anywhere I'm not sure Mum and Dad fully realise how damaged they were by that system "I have far more opportunities than they did within the limits of my budget and what my conscience will allow I know that the other side of freedom is responsibility I get a grant but I also have to work to pay my way Money is important to me but it is a means to an end I know lots of Russians these days are too focused on money "I suppose there will always be some people who care only for money But for me there are more important things: love I didn't agree with Bush's foreign policy but for me Russia is my home but I feel part of the world I can understand English but I'm too shy to speak it Isabell Mielke was born on 17 September 1989 in the small town of Ueckermünde in the eastern German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern She is studying for her Abitur (equivalent to A-levels) She lives with her parents on a housing estate in Ueckermünde has seen large numbers of young people emigrate for work "It's hard to say what 1989 means for me because I was obviously too young to register all the events that took place We haven't even really covered it much in school - it's on the agenda over the next few weeks It's something I've spoken to my parents about a lot and I see the extent to which it changed their lives and how different my life would now be if the Berlin Wall were still in place I have an image of communism as a time when people spent ages standing in queues sometimes not knowing even what they were queuing for If I want to go somewhere I go to the airport without having to apply for permission to leave Now they don't treat them with any respect Nowadays people are stressed about their jobs In the old days your place of work was guaranteed "My parents were able to buy a house after the Wall fell And we go on holiday to places like Spain and Cyprus So there have been lots of positive changes "But many friends have left because there's no work here lots of neo-Nazis who protest against the high level of foreigners who've moved here "I hope to have a good job which allows me to combine work and family to be able to buy a flat and to be able to make ends meet."Kate Connolly Victoria Chiticariu was born in Timisoara, western Romania the day that the bloodiest of all the revolutions in eastern Europe began She was hailed in the press as the first Romanian child to be born free from the communist regime Now an economics student at Timisoara University she likes to spend her time going out with friends "People died in the streets while I was born Tanks were thundering over people and there was gunfire everywhere This is what I know from my parents' stories My mother says all she could hear during my birth was gunshots She was seven months pregnant when she learnt that a tank had run over a pregnant woman She was so scared that she went into labour and gave birth that day I get so terrified when I watch films and pictures from the revolution it was very hard to live during communist times had electricity for only a few hours a day and their lives were very restricted But I believe in some ways we have gone from one extreme to another - there is almost too much freedom now Now we appreciate things less because we have so many to choose from "My parents often make me compare what I have and what I can do now with their life before 1989 They tell me how they weren't allowed to speak freely in public When I say I don't like something or I don't want to do something my parents tell me that when they were my age they might have wanted to say no to that thing too but they wouldn't have been allowed to "My parents worked in a factory and were married and had my sister by the time they were 20 People used to take their lives into their own hands much earlier then we do now I don't think I could take on such responsibility at that age I have so many other things to do - to attend university I'll have time for kids five years on from now maybe The revolution has given us so many new opportunities."Anca Enoiu He is a student of English and American literature at Prague's Charles University "My father comes from Slovakia and my mother is from Ukraine so I grew up with lots of diverse influences from eastern Europe Although they didn't agree with the political regime I think my parents were happy before 1989 because they had each other My life is very different from what theirs was like at my age I have a lot more opportunities to go abroad though I've never been to an English-speaking country "My chemistry teacher in high school had wanted to be an artist Her father didn't agree with the government and they tried to persecute him through his daughter She wanted to go to a fine arts high school and they wouldn't let her There isn't some invisible hand that stops you "One thing I hate here in Prague is the way people talk about Russians They don't even know any Russians personally but they still talk badly about them because of the past 'I would have hated to live before 1989.' But I think if they were alive back then said that it's actually harder to live right now Now it's hard to know who is the enemy." Evan Rail Filip Simic was only a few months old when communism collapsed across eastern Europe. But the IT student from Split, Croatia says the revolutions that swept the communist bloc in 1989 completely changed his life "I find it hard to imagine what my life would be like if communism was still here I do the same kind of things as young guys in western countries do watch films and I go out with friends to bars and clubs But I know from what my parents tell me that there was no way they would have been able to do those things "During communism they did not have clubs My parents tell me that to buy a pair of jeans they needed to travel to Italy Thankfully I don't have to go hundreds of miles for decent jeans There were other things at the time I was born which seem so strange now there were only ever one or two on the shelves here And then there were the queues - lines stretching back out of the supermarket just to get some coffee It sounds like a bad joke now but at the time it was no joke for my parents and other people I no longer need to leave this country to lead the life I want My hope is to finish my studies and get a good job here."Ivo Scepanovic This is the archive of The Observer up until 21/04/2025 The Observer is now owned and operated by Tortoise Media.