Flutterby™! : defecting from the east

In these heady days after the fall of the Soviet Union, it's easy to forget the evils that lurked in the statist regimes of eastern Europe and beyond. As I've mentioned several times before, my parents have lots of friends who escaped from assorted eastern European countries, I was born in Germany because my dad was serving in the military there, so I grew up on stories and slides and images from the border regions. If It Had Not Been For 15 Minutes is the tale of Thomas Wagner, formerly known as Michael Michnowski, and his mother escaping from east Germany.

If you're familiar with such tales it's probably similar to stories you've heard before, but it's worth a refresher to remember what living under a government and a culture out of control can be like.