I remember being in eighth grade and hearing about the events in Hungary as they happened. It seemed so surreal, because I had just learned about communism in social studies the year before in seventh grade, and there was absolutely no indication given in our class that Europe wouldn’t be divided into communist and capitalist forever.
ETA: In 2006, I went to Prague on vacation. I never thought I would get to go to any place behind the Iron Curtain. They now have a Museum of Communism near the McDonald’s there.
I was working in Poland from 1990-1992 and got to see the fall of communism up close and personal.
It was kinda scary at the time, since it wasn’t clear that it would all be peaceful. But it was amazing to witness, and I’ll tell my grandchildren all about it.
I wish I had paid more attention to it. The whole thing coincided with my HS graduation and freshman year of college, so I had other things I was more interested in.
I do remember the wall coming down though. That was something I’ll be telling the grandkids about.
I remember our history teacher telling us, I think in middle grade, before the open borders though, that sooner or later, Soviet communism would be over and just one other period in history of Russia. I felt stunned because everybody else acted as if this ideological divide had never been there before; but for historian, hundred years are nothing, and things are broadly repeating themselves.
I don’t remember my seventh grade social studies teacher saying anything either way about the future of communism. But I definitely left the class with the impression that it was here to stay.