In Europe

everything revolves is 1999.
    In Europe
reflects the work of a great number of historians, journalists and other chroniclers, a long row of the living and the dead who continued to inspire me with their books and their journalistic work. In addition, I also made regular use of first-hand, eyewitness accounts and observations. That offers advantages: it brings history closer to people, it reveals certain moods, it sometimes uncovers important details and makes inexplicable matters suddenly understandable. At the same time, everyone knows that such observations are not always reliable. Memories serve to process the past, and to impose a certain sense on our personal histories – and every person has the tendency to focus on certain matters and let others lie. That goes for individuals, but also for whole nations. The stories in this book therefore speak for themselves, with their weak and their strong points.
    The form this book has taken has resulted in certain limitations too. Being on the road put me in contact with unexpected eyewitnesses, it opened up new sources of information – newspaper archives, many localmuseums – and it confronted me again and again with the remarkable atmosphere surrounding the phenomenon of the ‘historic location’.
    But it also made for certain constraints. For practical reasons, there were countries I could not include in my itinerary, certain subjects I could not cover, others on which I placed more than the usual emphasis. Such choices, as every journalist and every historian knows, are not to be avoided. All of Europe cannot fit in a single book.
    A project of this scope, covering more than twenty countries, could only succeed thanks to the help of a great many friends and colleagues. They gave me advice, made contacts, acted as interpreters and guides, and supported me wherever they could.
    With regard to the European Union, I could have wished no better mentor than Max Kohnstamm. The evenings I spent with him and Kathleen were unforgettable. And there are many others to whom I am extremely grateful as well. In Amsterdam: Laura Starink, Hubert Smeets, Martin van Amerongen, Rudy Kousbroek, Sasz Malko, Gisela and Dik Linthout. In Belfast: Pauline Kersten. In Belgrade: Sažsa Mirković. In Berlin: Isabelle de Keghel, Wolf and Imke Siedler, Gisela Nicklaus, Rüdiger Safranski. In Bucharest: Cornelis van der Jagt. In Bosnia: Dužsko Tubić. In Brussels: Geert van Istendael and Pierre Plateau. In Guernica: Monica Ibañez-Angulo. In Kiev: Irina Trantina. In Lamanère: Martine Groen and Paul Kuypers. In Lisbon: Rui Mota. In London: Frans van Klaveren and Hieke Jippes. In Madrid: Steven Adolf. In Moscow: Frank and Suzanna Westerman, Adriënne van Heteren, Tony Crombie. In Normandy: Max and Els van Haasen. In Novi Sad: žZelimir Zilnić – a prominent authority on the Russian
Cosmopolitan
– and Sarita Matijević. In Odessa: Natalya Syevkoplas and Charel Krol-Dobrov. In Prague: Veronika Havlíková. In Rome: Gianni Principe and Anne Branbergen. In St Petersburg: Nadya Voznenko and Yuri Klejner. In Stockholm: Lars-Olof Franzén. In Chernobyl: Nikolai Dmytruk and Rita Rindenko. In Vásárosbéc: Peter Flik and Edith van der Poel. In Warsaw: Wladek and Rosita Matwin. In Bussum: the boys and girls of Gerco Travel (ATP).
    During the writing of this book, there were also a few people who remained at my side: my publishers Emile Brugman and Ellen Schalker, who supervised the project from beginning to end with great calm,friendship and professionalism; Charlotte Schrameijer, who helped me with the research; René van Stipriaan, who, in sometimes exuberant night-long sessions, carefully ran through the text with me; Koen Koch, who critically read through the whole thing again – I myself, of course, bear full responsibility for all blunders that remain; Sjoerd de Jong who, keen as always, saved me the embarrassment of dozens of misspelled names, incorrect dates and other assorted mishaps. All this work took place behind the scenes, but without their knowledge and expertise this project could never have come to a good end.
    The same goes for my very closest surroundings. For five long years I terrorised my friends and family with Europe. I spent months in a permanent state of transit, then lived for ages with blinkers on. Yet my life-partner remained with me, everywhere and always. She travelled with me when she could, she was constantly enthusiastic, stimulating, supportive and, at difficult