7. The Cuban Revolution
The phrases "Patria o muerte!", not to mention "No pasaran!", are known even to some advanced, as they say, schoolchildren. And all thanks to the Cuban Revolution of 1959, when the bearded men led by Castro and Che Guevara overthrew the regime of the Cuban dictator Batista. The Cuban Revolution slightly fueled the optimism of Soviet people, who by the end of the 1950s had grown weary of poverty and communal living quarters. The song "Cuba, My Love" was especially popular, but some minds rewrote it like this: "Cuba, take your sugar! Cuba, fuck you!". Half-century later Che Guevara's image has finally lost its connection with history and became a brand, and Cuba remains the last stronghold of socialism on the planet. It's a strange stronghold, with a salary of $20 a month and widespread prostitution for five average monthly salaries.
6. The Scientific-Technological Revolution
In 1940-1950's the mankind and first of all the heads of European countries, tired of the endless wars, have at last put aside the slingshot and started to improve the quality of life. Televisions, home appliances, medicines, spaceships, furrowing the Great Theater... But instead we could have had even cooler tanks and laser swords! If we had not, of course, perished in a nuclear conflagration.
5. The Sexual Revolution
In the early 1960's, when everyone had more or less enough money, a few individuals questioned the axiom that marriage was a must and that sex outside it was a sin. Eventually they agreed on the legality of homosexuality, masturbation and pornography. Fidel and Che Guevara were John Lennon and Yoko Ono, who filmed nude for the album "Unfinished Music No.1: Two Virgins" and held a press conference in a hotel bed in Amsterdam. However, some historians believe that the sexual revolution was actually made by hormonal pills, which opened to society new horizons of sexual freedom. Then, however, everyone found out about AIDS, but that's another story.
The Islamic Revolution in Iran
The revolution that changed the face of Iran beyond recognition did not happen immediately. The Iranian Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi even led the country along the path of reform for a while: he maintained relations with the West, allowed women to go out in public without the hijab. All this, alas, displeased the local "religious vigilantes" and mass demonstrations erupted in Iran in 1978 - in the name of higher reason and tradition, yes. The Shah's regime, alas, did not last long: after a series of economic strikes, Pahlavi was forced to hand over the reins to the prime minister and fled the country. In February 1979, the bloody obscurantist Khomeini returned to Teheran, and Iran was declared the first Islamic republic, to the horror of the world community.
3. The Velvet Revolution
In 1989, a series of bloodless changes of the socialist regime took place in Eastern European countries. At that time, perestroika was already in full swing in the USSR, and the Warsaw Pact countries began to realize that they would not risk a friendly visit from Soviet tanks if they declared independence. The term "velvet revolution" itself originated in Czechoslovakia, where, at the end of November 1989, the leadership of the Communist Party resigned under pressure from a waking people. Vaclav Havel was elected president of the country. In some places, though, the velvet turned red: the Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, for example, was shot together with his wife in December of 1989.
The Orange Revolution
In November and December 2004, Ukraine protested against the victory of Viktor Yanukovych, suspecting that he had not won the election fairly. Instead of gobbling up crap about the 146% of voters and patiently sitting down in the police cars, tens of thousands of Ukrainians descended on Kiev's Maidan and protested against the election results. Then there was dioxin, Yushchenko, gas wars, and more. Even though Ukraine has long had a new president, Kremlin officials can still sometimes be haunted by the specter of the orange menace.
1. the Arab Spring
The latest revolution has shown that being a dictator is not only untrendy but also dangerous. A series of popular uprisings in the Middle East and Africa began in December 2010, when Mohamed Bouazizi, a fruit seller desperate to get the attention of the Tunisian authorities, set himself on fire in the town square. Not only were passersby (especially those with children) unhappy with his walk that day, but a wave of protests rose across the country.
Tunisian President Ben Ali visited the severely burned Bouazizi in hospital, but this did not help him to hold on to power: the regime collapsed, dragging down governments in Egypt, Yemen and Libya. The authorities in neighboring Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, understandably chickened out, paid their subjects a tidy sum, the king of Jordan resigned two consecutive cabinets, and only the indomitable Bashar Assad in Syria refused to budge. But his collapse, too, seems only a matter of time.
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