Older Languishites: When did you realise the USSR/Eastern Bloc was over?

[Solmyr]

I thought it was still around just with a different name?  Man, am I out of touch...

It still exists and even does some stuff.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_of_Independent_States

[Josquius]

It exists. As does the union of Belarus and Russia. Its not quite what it says on the tin though. Certainly not the successor of the ussr but democratic it was presented as.

[Sheilbh]

One vivid memory I have is watching some new report with Romanians waving their flags with holes in the middle.  I was interested in flags at that time, and that super complicated crap in the middle of the Romanian flag always annoyed me, so I was happy to see people cutting it out.  I liked simple tricolor flags.  It wasn't until much later than I understood the significance of the hole in the flag.

I loved flags (and capital cities) as a kid - I think it's quite a common thing, though I could be wrong.

Interesting responses - thanks. I'm a little too young. I'm a 90s kid so my first international/political memory is Kosovo. But it's just strange because we are still in a world I very much recognise from my childhood - it's still a recognisably 90s style world. Though I wonder if the pieces are in flux at the minute and will, perhaps surprisingly quickly, settle into a new norm. It's just really striking that the previous post-war world which also seemed permanent changed so utterly and so quickly.

Everything here is an example of that - how late everyone realises and how decisive the changes already were by that point.

[saskganesh]

When the Wall came down. When Ceausescu was shot the next Christmas, that was another falling brick. When the Russian countercoup failed in 91, and Yeltsin stood on a tank, risking snipers, it was over.

It was like one of those weird dreams you keep waking up from. There were layers of realization.

[Jacob]

When the Wall came down. When Ceausescu was shot the next Christmas, that was another falling brick. When the Russian countercoup failed in 91, and Yeltsin stood on a tank, risking snipers, it was over.

Yeah, those were the three events that really registered with me as well. I don't know if I'd say "I knew the USSR/ Eastern Bloc was over" at the time, but those were momentous events that made it clear that everything had changed.

[crazy canuck]

August 1989, taking part in a party in the main square of Budapest - all ages were there.  The amazing energy and hope in crowd was something that is hard to describe.  But I knew there was no going back.

[Richard Hakluyt]

A relatively early sign was the use of backdoor routes by DDR citizens to move to the federal republic. They would get permission to visit Czechoslovakia or Poland and from there get to Hungary which had opened up its border with Austria (19th August 1989 apparently). I kept waiting for the inevitable crackdown but it never came.

[Monoriu]

I'm a 90s kid so my first international/political memory is Kosovo.

When I was a kid, I used to ignore the news.  Until one day, my parents told me that Hong Kong would be handed over to Mainland China.  That's my first political memory. 

[The Brain]

I'm a 90s kid so my first international/political memory is Kosovo.

When I was a kid, I used to ignore the news.  Until one day, my parents told me that Hong Kong would be handed over to Mainland China.  That's my first political memory.

"-One day all this will be theirs."

[Richard Hakluyt]

I'm a 90s kid so my first international/political memory is Kosovo.

When I was a kid, I used to ignore the news.  Until one day, my parents told me that Hong Kong would be handed over to Mainland China.  That's my first political memory.

I was going to say that my earliest was the Six day war, but I was living in Singapore in 1965 when they gained their independence from Malaysia. There was an excellent parade shortly after 

[Maladict]

I was too young to really understand what was happening, but the Berlin Wall and Ceaucescu stand out as memories.

And I was also sad to see the SU go 
They seemed like the underdog, and all the imagery and secrecy had an effect on an impressionable kid.

[The Larch]

I don't really remember the Berlin Wall falling down, for some reason or the other it didn't really register in my 10 y.o. mind at the time. I do remember the 91 coup, though, and how it seemed to be a pretty big deal. It took place while we were visiting my maternal grandparents in the countryside, and all the adults in the house were glued to the tv those days.