Erich Mielke demonstrations politically and giving "every DDR citizen the right to travel." On 17 October 1989, Mielke and the rest of the GDR's Politburo met to follow Gorbachev's demand, voiced in August, for Erich Honecker be removed as General Secretary of the SED and State Council chairman. Suspecting that Honecker's personal bodyguards might try to arrest the members of the Central Committee when they met to vote Honecker out in favour of Egon Krenz, Mielke saw to it that Stasi agents were stationed near the meeting room. While deliberations were underway, Mielke told Honecker that "we simply cannot start shooting with
Revolutions of 1989 However, Honecker remained opposed to internal reform, with his regime even going so far as forbidding the circulation of Soviet publications that it viewed as subversive. In spite of rumors that the Communists were planning a massacre on 9 October, 70,000 citizens demonstrated in Leipzig that Monday, and the authorities on the ground refused to open fire. This victory of the people facing down the Communists' guns encouraged more citizens to take to the streets. The following Monday, 16 October, 120,000 people demonstrated on the streets of Leipzig. Erich Honecker had hoped that the Soviet troops stationed in the GDR,