Comrades No More The Seeds of Change in Eastern Europe

by De Nevers, Renee

• ISBN13: 9780262541299
• ISBN10: 0262541297
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-06-20
• Publisher: The MIT Press

Summary

In 1989, Soviet control over Eastern Europe ended when the communist regimes of the Warsaw Pact collapsed. These momentous and largely bloodless events set the stage for the end of the Cold War and ushered in a new era in international politics. Why did communism collapse relatively peacefully in Eastern Europe? Why did these changes occur in 1989, after more than four decades of communist rule? Why did this upheaval happen almost simultaneously in most of the Warsaw Pact? In Comrades No More, Renee de Nevers examines how internal and external factors interacted in the collapse of East European communism. She argues that Gorbachev's reforms in the Soviet Union were necessary to start the process of political change in Eastern Europe, but domestic factors in each communist state determined when and how each country abandoned communism. A "demonstration effect" emerged as Hungary and Poland introduced reforms and showed that Moscow would not intervene to prevent political and economic changes. De Nevers analyzes the process of change in Hungary, Poland, Bulgaria, the German Democratic Republic, Czechoslovakia, and Romania. She traces the pattern of reform in each country and shows how these patterns influenced their postcommunist political evolution.

Author Biography

Renee de Nevers is a Program Officer at the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

Table of Contents

List of Tables and Figures	vii
Acknowledgments	ix
Map	xi
Introduction	1	(10)
Legitimacy, the Demonstration Effect, and the Collapse of the Warsaw Pact	11	(44)
Gorbachev and Eastern Europe	55	(22)
Reform from Above and Below: Regime and Solidarity in Poland	77	(42)
Reform from Above: The Hungarian Gamble with Transformation	119	(38)
Reform from Below: Popular Protests and Regime Collapse in the German Democratic Republic and Czechoslovakia	157	(56)
Late Reform from Above: Bulgaria Switches Course	213	(26)
Late Reform: Mixed Signals in the Romanian Upheaval	239	(32)
Conclusion	271	(18)
About the Author	289	(2)
Index	291	(17)
About the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs	308