@cstross I was born in 1980. In 1981 there was martial law, in 1986 there was the Chernobyl scare, in 1987 I got carbon monoxide poisoning, in 1988 the economic crisis got so bad my parents couldn't afford anything for next 5 years, in 1989 there was a revolution, in 1992 there was the "night of the briefcases" (basically a failed coup attempt), and I'm going to run out of characters before I get to the one good part (2004, EU accession).