To the Russians, Gorbachev was responsible for the economic chaos of the late 1980s
对于俄国人而言,戈尔巴乔夫要对20世纪80年代末期的经济混乱负责
and his bungling foreign policy they believe lost the network of East European states for which so many Russains had fought and died.
俄国人也认为戈尔巴乔夫差劲的外交政策使得东欧附庸国关系网络尽失,而这是这么多俄罗斯人浴血奋战才得以建立起来的
At present, Gorbachev is not only alive but also following international developments very closely.
现在,戈尔巴乔夫不仅还活着而且还在密切关注国际动态
To judge from what he has to say about the world today in 2007, he's not too happy with anybody these days.
从他2007年对当今世界动态所说的话看来,近来他对什么人都不觉得满意
4. The dominoes fall
第四,多米诺效应
One must not underestimate the role of the average man or woman in the street.
我们决不能低估了街头普通男女所扮演的角色
Although the communists tried to remake human nature in their own image, I think that the human spirit proved too resilient.
尽管共产党试图以自己的形象来重塑人性,我认为人类精神适应性还是太强了
Perhaps none of the millions of acts of human resistance, great or small, in itself was enough to turn the tide.
可能上百万的人类抵抗,不管是大是小,本身都不足以逆转潮流
For example — although 40,000 Hungarians lost their lives in the 1956 revolution, freedom did not come for another 33 years.
例如——尽管1956年有4万匈牙利人在革命中牺牲在此后的33年里,自由还是没有到来
When the Warsaw Pact forces invaded Czechoslovakia in 1968, instead of fighting like the Hungarians had done,
当1968年华沙公约军队入侵捷克斯洛伐克的时候,捷克人没有像匈牙利人那样奋起反抗
individual Czechs protested the occupation by dousing themselves in gasoline and setting themselves afire.
而是通过向自己身上泼汽油,然后自焚来表达对占领的抗议
The Communist government of Poland declared martial law in 1981 to put the Solidarity movement out of business,
波兰共产主义政府在1981年宣布戒严令来压制团结工会运动
but Solidarity leader Lech Walesa eventually wound up as the President of a democratic Poland.
但是团结工会运动的领导人莱赫·瓦文萨最终还是成为了民主波兰的总统
As I have mentioned earlier, the client states to be the dominoes which wound up toppling the entire rotten edifice of the Soviet Union...
正如我之前讲过的,附庸国就像多米诺一样最终会推倒整个腐朽的苏联
yet another possible downfall of empire.
这也是苏联解体的另外一个可能的原因