Eastern Europe
Political Transformation
1989 in context
• Momentous events:
– Fall of the Berlin Wall
– collapse or transformation of Communist regimes in
east-central Europe
• Hungary
• DDR (German Democratic Republic)
• Poland
• Czechoslovakia
• Bulgaria
• Romania
• Followed by
– Re-unification of Germany, 1990
– break up of the Soviet Union, 1990-91
Soviet and East European regimes
• Ostensibly regimes in which a ruling
Communist party was overseeing
transition from socialism to communism
• Party-state systems in which
– The state owns means of production
– Ruling party interpenetrates state apparatus
– State plans and directs the economy through
5 year plans
Functions of ruling Communist
parties
• Typically the only legal party:
– Restricted membership
– Purges – especially in Stalin period
• Constitutionally the “leading and guiding force”
• Party is vast bureaucratic structure, paralleling
and shadowing state structures -- functions as
vast employment agency (nomenklature)
– recruiting and socializing loyal members
– Deploying them through state apparatus
• Ideological orthodoxy enforced in varying
degrees
The USSR
• Stalin and Stalinism
– Purges and show trials in 1930s
– Collectivization of agriculture
– Rapid industrialization
• Following death of Stalin in 1953
– Relaxation of totalitarian features
– Denunciation of Stalin at 20th Party Congress (1956)
– Continuation of central planning – but some shift
toward consumer goods
– Some (limited) space for dissent within an
authoritarian party-state
Communism in Eastern Europe
• Soviet-style systems established after WW
II
• Ruling Communist parties purged
• Similar attempts at central planning
• Uprisings and rebellions suppressed
– East Germany – 1953
– Hungary – 1956
– Czechoslovakia (“Prague Spring”) 1968
Variations in “Actually Existing
Socialism”
• Hungary
– Gradual relaxation following 1956 repression
– Managerial autonomy
• Poland
– Inability to establish complete control
– Worker’s resistance to price increases
– Formation of Solidarity Trade Union in 1981
– Independent position of the Roman Catholic Church
• Yugoslavia
– Wartime partisan movement comes to power
– independent of Soviet control from 1948
– Experiments with workplace democracy
More orthodox regimes
• German Democratic Republic (DDR)
– Repression of revolt in 1953
– Construction of Berlin Wall, 1961
– Maintenance of vast spy apparatus – Stasi
• Czechoslovakia
– Strong domestic communist party comes to
power after WW II
– Repression continues after 1968
Problems in the 1970s and 1980s
• Limits of central planning
– Difficulty of targeting
– All thumbs and no fingers
• Growing problems of corruption: party
and the nomenklature as new elite
• Ability to improve living conditions to a
certain extent but not beyond
• Growing stagnation, especially in the
USSR
Reform and transformation in the
USSR
• 1970s – rule by aging gerontocracy
• Andropov (1981-83) Gorbachev (1985-91)
– Growing awareness of stagnation
– Diminishing ability to compete militarily with West
– Attempts to reform the system from within –
• First, try to discipline the party – tighten up
• Then, encourage competition within party
• Loosen grip of party on state
• Consequences:
– Internal turmoil in USSR
– Party looses grip on state
– USSR loosens grip on Eastern Europe
Transformation in Eastern Europe
• DDR
– Massive demonstrations
– Increased exit (via Hungary)
– Regime attempts transformation – loses grip and will
to repress –opens Berlin Wall
• Poland
– Military had assumed power following 1981
– Cat and mouse game with Solidarity
– Negotiated transition in 1989 – with seats guaranteed
for Communists
Transformation– cont’d
• Czechoslovakia
– Comes alive in late 1989
– Demonstrations
– Regime collapses
• Hungary
– Communist Party surrenders monopoly, permits
competition
• Bulgaria
– Elections permitted
• Romania
– Rebellion from within regime