The collapse of communism in Eastern Europe

The collapse of communism in Eastern Europe, marked most graphically by the destruction of the Berlin Wall in November 1989, was intimately related to events in the Soviet Union but also had roots of its own. The nations of Eastern Europe had experienced only forty years of communist rule as opposed to the seventy of the Soviet Union and in all cases except Yugoslavia had had communism imposed on them rather than choosing it them­selves. The suddenness of communist collapse in Eastern Europe, the relative ease with which citizens shed the habits of forty years, suggests that those habits were to a considerable extent a matter of form. One important force which had held them in place since the late 1940s was the threat of Soviet interven­tion to reimpose orthodoxy should Eastern Europe­ans stray from the path set down for them. Two things therefore need explaining:

1. The sources of opposition in Eastern Europe to communist rale.

2. The Soviet Union's decision not to intervene to check the uprisings which took place in the summer and autumn of 1989.

The legacy of protest in Eastern Europe

After Stalin's draconian imposition of Soviet rule between 1947 and 1953 Khrushchev had acknow­ledged the principle of separate paths to socialism, though within strict limits. In practice this meant that where socialism and the integrity of the bloc itself seemed at risk, as in the popular uprisings in Hungary in 1956 and Czechoslovakia in 1968, Mos­cow would act uncompromisingly. The crushing of the Czechoslovak revolt in August 1968 was justified on the principle of 'limited sovereignty' for Eastern bloc nations (also known as the Brezhnev doc­trine). Where, as in Poland in 1956 and 1980-1, indigenous leaders could be found to enforce Mos­cow's will, direct Intervention could be avoided.

Where, however, as in Romania and Albania, com­munism developed distinctively national forms but within the framework of rigid dictatorships, Moscow was prepared to tolerate, or at least grudgingly accept, a greater or lesser degree of detachment from Moscow. In the case of Albania, a small nation with no border with the Soviet Union, this went as far as alignment with China in the growing split between the Soviet Union and China. Romania under Ceaus­escu maintained a somewhat ambiguous relation­ship with Moscow and the Warsaw Pact, not unlike France's with NATO: political and military independence within the framework of broad bloc alignment. In short, the Eastern bloc was more diverse and potentially more fragile than the word 'bloc' would suggest.

In accounting for the events of 1989 it would be hard to overestimate the importance of the rise of Solidarity in Poland in 1980. Poland had always been critical to Moscow both because of its strategic position on the Soviet border and because of the leg­acy of hatred between the Poles and the Russians. Formed in the shipyards of Gdansk as a union of workers, Solidarity quickly assumed the status of a quasi-political body independent of the Communist Party, its membership comprising one-third of the Polish people. It called for a referendum on Polish membership of the WTO and on the principle of one-party rule. With alarm bells ringing furiously in Moscow, Soviet military intervention was forestalled only by the insertion of a new Polish leader, General Jaruselski, who was willing to do Moscow's bidding by declaring martial law and banning Solidarity. However, the difference from earlier instances of suppression of opposition was that Solidarity con­tinued a thriving underground existence during the 1980s, while the Catholic Church carried on public opposition along lines laid down by Solidarity. Dissidence thus achieved momentum and extended beyond small groups of intellectuals.

Box 5.4. Revolutions in Eastern Europe
1988
May	Janos Kadar replaced as General Secretary of the Czechoslovak Communist Party.
1989
Jan.	Hungarian parliament permits independent parties.
April	Ban on Solidarity in Poland repealed.
June	Elections in Poland won overwhelmingly by Solidarity candidates.
July	Solidarity invited by General Jaruselski to form coalition government.
Sept.	Hungary allows East German refugees to cross into Austria.
Oct.	Hungary adopts new constitution which guarantees multiparty democracy. East German leader Erich Honecker resigns and is replaced by Egon Krenz.
Nov.
3rd	Czechoslovakia opens border for Easteners seeking to go to the West.
10th	Berlin Wall dismantled; General Secretary of the Bulgarian Community Party, Zhivkov, resigns. 24th: Czechoslovak leadership resigns.
Dec.
6th	East German government resigns.
22nd	Ceausescu overthrown in Romania and executed (on the 25th).

Beyond Poland, though events were less dramatic, dissidence also had a history and gained some new stimulus from the development of organizations designed to monitor compliance of Eastern bloc governments with the human rights provisions of the Helsinki Accords, agreed at the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe (1975). Particu­larly important was Charter 77 in Czechoslovakia. A similar group existed in Moscow itself. Though these organizations were hounded by the authorities, their members imprisoned and in some cases deported, they attracted enormous attention in the West and exerted some leverage over Soviet bloc governments. They were after all simply demanding that their governments make good the promises they had made on human rights in signing the Helsinki Accords. In this way the detente agreements proved to have import­ant subterranean effects in the Soviet bloc.

Flowing directly from this point, and of crucial significance in accounting for the timing of the col­lapse of communism in Eastern Europe, was the demonstration effect of glasnost and perestroika in the Soviet Union. After 1985, above all in Poland and Hungary, while dissidents demanded the same— indeed more—from their governments as Gorbachev was giving to the Soviet people, the Eastern Euro­pean leaderships were bereft of the instrument they had always been able to rely on in the past—the threat of Soviet intervention. By the middle of 1988 the opposition in Hungary had forced the removal of the Communist Party leader, Janos Kadar. In January 1989 General Jaruselski was forced to repeal the ban on Solidarity and hold elections. In the elections, which were won decisively by Solidarity, Jaruselski found himself being urged by Gorbachev to accede to a Solidarity-led government (Gati 1990: 167; Dawisha 1990: 155).