Beginning in apparently controlled fashion in Hungary in 1989, the retreat of communism picked up speed that summer when Poles won an overwhelming victory over their pro-Soviet rulers in free elections. East Germany and Czechoslovakia achieved freedom in the fall, with less violence than anyone believed possible. Only Romania, at the end of the year, witnessed a savage battle and the hurried execution of the worst of the eastern European dictators, Nicolae Ceausescu. In The Patriots’ Revolution Mark Frankland, who reported on these dramatic events for the London Observer, describes how the once powerful communist system crumbled with little or no resistance in the face of demonstrators armed only with candles and slogans of protest. Drawing on more than thirty years’ experience in Eastern Europe, Mr. Frankland re-creates what communism meant for Eastern Europeans and thus reveals the reasons for its breathtakingly rapid disappearance. Evoking the mood and preoccupations of these countries in the year of revolution, his colorful book allows the reader to relive one of the most extraordinary episodes in the history of the 20th century and provides the background for a better understanding of the new Eastern Europe.