EACH GENERATION HAS ITS OWN

BERLIN WALL
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November 18, 2014 | by Garry Kasparov

During the 2014 Liberty Forum & Freedom Dinner, the emphasis was on the topic of
addressing those barriers to freedom that still exist, or today's Berlin Walls. During the
closing gala ceremonies of Freedom Dinner, Garry Kasparov, Atlas Network's 2014
Templeton Leadership Fellow, gave the featured presentation. His talk is shared in full
below.

Garry Kasparov Atlas Foundation Freedom Dinner Keynote Address

November 13, 2014 New York City
Usually saying thank you for having me here is a perfunctory opening, but for me,
especially on this occasion, it has a very sincere and personal meaning. The kind of brave
people in this room, and a few actual people in this room, share some of the credit for my
freedom and the freedom of hundreds of millions of people like me who were born behind the
Iron Curtain. I thank you and we all thank you for your efforts and your belief that the right to
individual liberty should not be based on where you are born.

Unfortunately, that attitude seems to have fallen along with the Berlin Wall. If people like
Obama and Cameron had been in charge instead of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher in
the 1980s I would still be playing chess for the Soviet Union!
But instead, I am truly very happy to be here. If only my die-hard Communist grandfather
could see me now!

November 9, 1989, was one of the most glorious days in

the known history of the world. Hundreds of millions of people were released from
totalitarian Communism after generations of darkness.
There is no shortage of scholarship and opinions about why the Wall came down when it did.
I am happy to engage