After Tyrants, the People Must Act

"But above all, a repressed society needs a motivated populace if it is to become politically vibrant again. To be more precise, it needs patriotism, historical consciousness, education, ambition, optimism and, especially, patience. The destruction wrought by totalitarian governments always takes decades even generations to repair. "  Anne Applebaum, columnist for The Washington Post and the author of “Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe, 1944-1956."

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/04/opinion/sunday/the-dead-weight-of-past-dictatorships.html?pagewanted=1&ref=global

In the chaos of Berlin in 1945, women cleared away rubble. Popperfoto/Getty Image