Varieties of Opposition to Bureaucratic Leninism in Eastern Europe, 1968–1985

2021 ◽  
pp. 223-236
Author(s):  
George W. Breslauer
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Communist Party ◽  
Warsaw Pact ◽  
East European ◽  
Narrow Scope ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Special Service ◽  
Economic Stagnation ◽  
Prague Spring

Brezhnev’s Bureaucratic Leninism was broadly emulated (or imposed) in East European communist regimes. But it was controversial and led to many rejections. The Prague Spring of 1968 was an effort to democratize the communist party from within. It was crushed by Warsaw Pact troops. Poland experienced a repeated wave of worker rebellions, as well as a cross-class alliance that resulted in Solidarity almost coming to power, until it was crushed in 1981 by Polish special-service troops. Hungary experimented with narrow-scope marketization of its economy, insufficient to create prosperity, but enough to avoid the extent of economic stagnation plaguing the Soviet Union. All these set the stage for Gorbachev’s reforms.

scholarly journals In the Line of Fire: The Soviet Crackdown of Hungary, 1956-58

1999 ◽  
pp. 56
Author(s):  
Johanna Granville
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Communist Party ◽  
The West ◽  
Suez Crisis ◽  
The Soviet Union

About forty years ago, the first major anti-Soviet uprising in Eastern Europe-the 1956 Hungarian revolt-took place. Western observers have long held an image of the Soviet Union as a crafty monolith that expertly, in the realpolitik tradition, intervened while the West was distracted by the Suez crisis. People also believed that Soviet repressive organs worked together efficiently to crack down on the Hungarian "counterrevolutionaries. " Newly released documents from five of Moscow's most important archives, including notes ofkey meetings of the presidium of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) taken by Vladimir Mal in, reveal that the Soviet Union in fact had difficulty working with its Hungarian allies.

Jewish Communist, Socialist, and Maverick Lawyers

2003 ◽  
pp. 329-343
Author(s):  
John Cooper
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Communist Party ◽  
Second Generation ◽  
Legal Reform ◽  
Labour Party ◽  
East European ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Business Perspective ◽  
European Immigrants

This chapter reflects on Jewish communist, socialist, and maverick lawyers. Whereas many Jewish solicitors viewed their profession primarily from a business perspective—and were extremely successful in both business and professional terms—another group of solicitors from the same east European background were driven by more altruistic motives, impelled by a zealous pursuit of justice on behalf of their clients or devoted to active campaigning for specific legal reform. Some members of this latter group were communists; a larger number of the outstanding Jewish lawyers from the second generation of east European immigrants were associated with the Labour Party; still others were mavericks. Since the disintegration of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, it has become apparent that the recruitment of Jewish lawyers into the Communist Party was a passing phase born out of the frustrations of the 1930s, and the misplaced idealism of the early 1950s. Towards the end of the century, Jewish radicalism continued in new forms.

The Collapse of East European Communism and the Repercussions within the Soviet Union (Part 3)

2005 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-96 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Kramer
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Political System ◽  
Mikhail Gorbachev ◽  
East European ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
External Context ◽  
Final Segment ◽  
Extended Analysis ◽  
The Impact

This is the concluding part of a three-part article that discusses the transformation of Soviet-East European relations in the late 1980s and the impact of the sweeping changes in Eastern Europe on the Soviet Union. This final segment is divided into two main parts: First, it provides an extended analysis of the bitter public debate that erupted in the Soviet Union in 1990 and 1991 about the “loss” of Eastern Europe and the collapse of the Warsaw Pact. The debate roiled the Soviet political system and fueled the hardline backlash against Mikhail Gorbachev. Second, this part of the article offers a concluding section that highlights the theoretical implications of the article as a whole. The article, as the conclusion shows, sheds light on recent literature concerning the diffusion of political innovations and the external context of democratization and political change.

Warsaw Pact Countries’ Involvement in Chile from Frei to Pinochet, 1964–1973

2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 56-87 ◽  
Author(s):  
Radoslav A. Yordanov
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
European Countries ◽  
Party Leader ◽  
Military Coup ◽  
Soviet Bloc ◽  
Left Wing ◽  
Warsaw Pact ◽  
East European ◽  
The Soviet Union

This article examines the policies of Warsaw Pact countries toward Chile from 1964, when Eduardo Frei was elected Chilean president, until 1973, when Frei's successor, Salvador Allende, was removed in a military coup. The article traces the role of the Soviet Union and East European countries in the ensuing international campaign raised in support of Chile's left wing, most notably in support of the Chilean Communist Party leader Luis Corvalán. The account here adds to the existing historiography of this momentous ten-year period in Chile's history, one marked by two democratic presidential elections, the growing covert intervention of both Washington and Moscow in Chile's politics, mass strikes and popular unrest against Allende's government, a violent military coup, and intense political repression in the coup's aftermath. The article gives particular weight to the role of the East European countries in advancing the interests of the Soviet bloc in South America. By consulting a wide array of declassified documents in East European capitals and in Santiago, this article helps to explain why Soviet and East European leaders attached great importance to Chile and why they ultimately were unable to develop more comprehensive political, economic, and cultural relations with that South American country.

scholarly journals Sociology in Eastern Europe: Trends and Prospects

Slavic Review ◽  
1971 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 317-339 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bogdan Denitch
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Social Science ◽  
Eastern Europe ◽  
East European ◽  
Social Science Community ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Major Stage ◽  
Science Community ◽  
The One ◽  
Seventh World

The Seventh World Congress of Sociologists in Varna, Bulgaria, held in September 1970, marked a major stage in the development of social science, particularly sociology, in the one-party states of Eastern Europe. Taking place in the most orthodox country of an increasingly diverse bloc, the congress was characterized by the largest and best-organized participation to date of sociologists from Eastern Europe. One country in the area—Albania—did not participate at all; and Yugoslavia, which is probably the country with the most developed social science community and institutions, had a notably small delegation. Yet the fact is that for prestige reasons, if no other, the East European countries and the Soviet Union did their best to show the state of their current development of sociology. This was shown in both quantitative and qualitative terms. Most delegates presented papers.

The Collapse of East European Communism and the Repercussions within the Soviet Union (Part 1)

2003 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 178-256 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Kramer
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Political Elite ◽  
Eastern Bloc ◽  
Mikhail Gorbachev ◽  
Coup D'etat ◽  
East European ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Soviet Foreign Policy ◽  
Collapse Of Communism

The largely peaceful collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe in 1989 reflected the profound changes that Mikhail Gorbachev had carried out in Soviet foreign policy. Successful though the process was in Eastern Europe, it had destabilizing repercussions within the Soviet Union. The effects were both direct and indirect. The first part of this two-part article looks at Gorbachev's policy toward Eastern Europe, the collapse of Communism in the region, and the direct “spillover” from Eastern Europe into the Soviet Union. The second part of the article, to be published in the next issue of the journal, discusses the indirect spillover into the Soviet Union and the fierce debate that emerged within the Soviet political elite about the “loss” of the Eastern bloc—a debate that helped spur the leaders of the attempted hardline coup d'état in August 1991.

Reflections on NATO's New Mission: Conflict Prevention in the Struggles for Ethnic Self-Determination

2004 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 247-256
Author(s):  
Francis Gabor
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Civil Wars ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
European Continent ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
Warsaw Pact ◽  
Military Organizations ◽  
The Soviet Union

AbstractDuring the Cold War, both NATO's role and purpose were clearly defined by the existence of the threat posed by the Soviet Union. The traditional confrontation between the NATO and the Warsaw Pact military organizations effectively has ceased to exist. The dissolution of the Warsaw Pact—combined with the emerging constitutional democracies in Central and Eastern Europe and the transformation of the Russian Federation—has essentially assured that the future threat of a confrontation between the major armies on the European continent is highly unlikely. However, it soon became obvious that several non-traditional, and quite unexpected, risks would give NATO a new mission and new challenges. One of the greatest challenges for post-Cold War Eastern Europe lies in the unresolved questions of ethnic self-determination. The unprecedented human tragedy of two world wars failed to resolve these questions. The concept of ethnic self-determination has been the central theme of the conflicts in the Yugoslav civil wars. NATO played a significant, if not central, role in the final resolution of the Yugoslav civil wars, particularly in the case of Kosovo. The Kosovo experience creates a real challenge for NATO and international legal scholars to create a more precisely defined body of international law to protect ethnic minorities and to build an effective institutional framework for the observation and implementation of so-called minority rights. which would have prevented the tragedy of the Yugoslavian civil war and can prevent future conflicts.

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