The [Berlin] wall can disappear when those conditions that created it fall away.
Meaning
Reported five months before the Berlin Wall opened, this remark treated the barrier as a symptom of Cold War division rather than the cause. Lasting change comes from removing the causes. When a personal barrier feels fixed, such as distrust with a neighbor, look for the conditions behind it and change those first.
Source: As quoted in The New York Times (16 June 1989)
About the author
Mikhail Gorbachev (1931-2022) was the last leader of the Soviet Union, serving as General Secretary of the Communist Party from 1985 to 1991. His reforms of glasnost and perestroika helped end the Cold War, and he received the 1990 Nobel Peace Prize.
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