![]() ![]() The Hungarians got rid of that in 1972, but until Monday the 165 miles of fencing along the border with Austria had 16 volts of electricity running through it. This part of the world used to be a minefield. Onlookers swiped discarded segments of rusting barbed wire as a memento of the way the world used to be. ![]() The Iron Curtain lay in shreds in the mud on the flat, windswept plain just outside this small border town on the main road to Vienna from Budapest. As they progressed along three miles of the Austro-Hungarian frontier, they left behind them the detritus of 40 years of Cold War. The soldiers worked on, like suburban gardeners with their secateurs, tree-loppers and protective gloves. Their boss, Colonel Balazs Novaki, had one explanation for the grins: ‘It makes Hungarians feel better that we have no old-fashioned borders with the West.’ Grinning from ear to ear, they were relishing yesterday’s assignment, not even halting for a smoke. Read more Eyewitness: Hungary turns the Iron Curtain into scrapĪnkle-deep in mud, and exposed to the biting wind and rain, the seven Hungarian soldiers did not seem to mind. ![]()
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