One hundred thousand people gathered in Rome to remember the first anniversary of the death of John Paul II, the Polish pope who helped liberate Eastern Europe from communism. Thousands of others gathered in Krakow and around Poland.

John Paul was a democratic revolutionary in the purest sense of the idea.

Many of us know about how he undermined the communist regimes of Poland and elsewhere by working with the Israelis to provide intelligence and material aid to the Solidarity leaders imprisoned inside the communist regime. You can read about it in Peter Schweitzer’s splendid book, Victory, about what Reagan, Weinberger, Casey, Thatcher and John Paul did to help free these countries from the iron grip of communism. John Paul had such immense respect for Ronald Reagan – the two understood each other instantly very early on, with both coming to office — along with Lady Thatcher — at approximately the same time.

But in my opinion, material help to end communism was not as important as his other actions.

What he really did, and what what terrified the old gray men of the Kremlin and in their satellite-state-politburos was light the path for democratic revolution that was accomplished by the people themselves.

He was the master of understanding the power of the crowds. Wherever he went, he drew MILLIONS of people to his masses. Millions. When he went to Philippines, he drew a crowd of about six million, the largest known crowd ever assembled in one place on earth. Shortly afterward, the Marcos dictatorship toppled through People Power – something that strongly reverberated Eastern Europeans who got wind of it through some state television and through the underground press.

In Poland, John Paul II had an incredible impact. He got elected as the first-ever Polish Pope in the late 1970s at about the time the Solidarity labor union movement was beginning to form. As Polish pope, he electrified Poland when he landed down on his first pilgrimage back to his homeland. The old gray men of the Polish Politburo were terrified of this visit and really didn’t want it to happen – and they were right, because it was the bell that tolled for their doom in coming years.

When John Paul landed and the crowds formed, the Polish people realized, for the first time in their lives, their collective power. They were enslaved by a monstrous regime and all of a sudden, they learned they were not alone. The whole aim of communism is to isolate you from the world and make you feel all alone, fearful of your neighbors, worried about informants and the power of the state, striving to save your own skin.

This great new pope had brought them out and showed them the beautiful collective power of their numbers. It was a revelation to the Poles. And it encouraged them to go forward. It also inspired the oppressed peoples in Hungary, in Czechoslovakia, in East Germany, in Romania – and through the whole region. And into the monstrous and inhuman Soviet Union itself.

This wasn’t the only thing John Paul understood. He had a special interest in youth, who are almost always the cornerstone of democratic revolution. He held youth festivals and wrote lots of books addressed to the young and sought to meet them wherever he went. He said they revitalized him.

In other words, he knew very well about Babes of Politics as a sign of an authentic people’s revolution in the works. He knew it well before his time, well before even PJ O’Rourke expounded the first written words about the phenomenon. Young people who smile, gather, and are visually, but unintentionally, beautiful are, as far as we can see in this age of revolution, the first igniters of all democratic revolution.

Another thing he did was emphasize the universality of revolution. The Indian media, for example, are full of warm tributes to him right now. Indians are mostly Hindus of course, with many Muslims, too, and have only a small Christian community. John Paul was the first pope to meet with Muslims – the youth of course! – as friends, and to extend to them the hand of democratic revolution, too. In retrospect, it is absolutely amazing how ahead of the times this great pope was.

John Paul has been dead for one year and thus far, is not forgotten. Tens of thousands of people are gathered to remember him in Rome and millions more remember him outside Rome. I find it amazing that he still has this power even in death. It goes to show that there is still enough life left in forces that truly changed the world – particularly in Eastern Europe – and that bodes well for the future.

John Paul II was an authentic revolutionary for the ages.

Allegra at The Anchoress has a marvellous blog roundup that can be read here.