“I am not as highly educated as you gentlemen, but I liked history and I learned one thing. Hannibal’s power has fallen. Caesar’s and Trajan’s empire fell. And the Communist empire will fall, for nothing is ever forever. “
Ilie Bodaproste
— Medical assistant, cantor and prisoner in Siberia during World War II
These were my grandfather’s words to a group of Romanian intellectuals who were complaining and doubting that my country would be free of communism. That was in July 1986. It took 3 years. In December 1989, his prediction came true.