Nineteen eighty nine. The fall of the Berlin Wall signals the demise of Communism in Eastern and Central Europe and the Balkans. What initially was seen as a symbolic gesture of destroying the chasm between East and West has given rise to widespread reforms in political, educational, cultural, economic, and religious thinking. Who among us could have predicted the sweeping breadth of change that was created out of this simple act of demolition.

As governments change, the landscape of the whole continent is being transformed. Individuals are given new freedoms to express and explore. Leaders grapple with the market economy and political uncertainty. Capitalism has crashed uncomfortably into the formerly Marxist states leaving a trail of unrest while paving a path for possible future prosperity.

Daily newspaper headlines help us to know and better understand the key individuals and governments who have set the wheels of change in motion. Many of us can recognize the names of those that enable, foster, and apply a philosophical change unprecedented in the history of the region. They are the leaders who pass the legislation, who develop new economic policies, and who exercise new controls on their militaries.

Lost in the popular perception, however, is a whole group of lesser-known individuals, the everyday men and women. These people are the ones who implement the changes about which we read. These are the people who struggle with the philosophical, political, educational, cultural, and spiritual adjustments. These are the people who wrestle with the mandate to find a way to integrate these new principles into their lives and those of the people around them.

Our focus will be on these people. As the New World Order races into the twenty-first century, it is these grass-roots leaders who are working among the people in the towns, who are implementing reforms in the schools, and who are assuming leadership posts in local government. They are the entrepreneurs, artists, political activists, writers, teachers, and thinkers who will be the subjects of this book. Now, more than a decade after the fall of the Berlin Wall, you will meet and get a close look at the lives of these people and discover how they are effecting change in Central and Eastern Europe.

The Curtain Rises