Manchester University Press
3 The multifaceted external Soviet role in processes towards unanticipated revolutions
Abstract
Mikhail Gorbachev was an essential enabler of revolutions in Eastern Europe. As General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) from March 1985, he framed changes and developments and was shaped by them in an unfolding multivariate dynamic. As initiator of perestroika (restructuring), Gorbachev sent signals to East European leaders that restructuring was a domestic policy for the USSR. In lengthy political mobilisations that took place across the USSR in the run up to the 27th party congress from February to March 1986, relevant signals about future policies were being given. The historical irony was that some reformers in Eastern Europe believed that they should seize the political space to make choices to a degree not desired, nor envisioned by Gorbachev. Gorbachev's view of German Democratic Republic (GDR)-Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) relations in 1985 showed consistency with recent Soviet security concerns.
Abstract
Mikhail Gorbachev was an essential enabler of revolutions in Eastern Europe. As General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) from March 1985, he framed changes and developments and was shaped by them in an unfolding multivariate dynamic. As initiator of perestroika (restructuring), Gorbachev sent signals to East European leaders that restructuring was a domestic policy for the USSR. In lengthy political mobilisations that took place across the USSR in the run up to the 27th party congress from February to March 1986, relevant signals about future policies were being given. The historical irony was that some reformers in Eastern Europe believed that they should seize the political space to make choices to a degree not desired, nor envisioned by Gorbachev. Gorbachev's view of German Democratic Republic (GDR)-Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) relations in 1985 showed consistency with recent Soviet security concerns.
Chapters in this book
- Front matter i
- Contents v
- Notes on contributors vii
- Acknowledgements x
- List of abbreviations and glossary of terms xi
- Timeline xiv
- Leaders of East European and Soviet communist parties, 1945–91 xvii
- East European communist parties and their post-communist successors xix
- 1 The collapse of communism in Eastern Europe 1
-
Part I The historical longue duree
- 2 Echoes and precedents 33
-
Part II The 'Gorbachev factor'
- 3 The multifaceted external Soviet role in processes towards unanticipated revolutions 55
- 4 ‘When your neighbour changes his wallpaper’ 73
-
Part III The East European revolutions: internal and external perspectives
- 5 The demise of communism in Poland 95
- 6 The international context of Hungarian transition, 1989 113
- 7 Creating security from below 136
- 8 The demise of the communist regime in Czechoslovakia, 1987–89 154
- 9 Discourse and power 172
- 10 A revolution in two stages 192
-
Part IV Then and now: continuity and change in the academic and cultural perceptions of the communist era and its aftermath
- 11 A hopeless case of optimism? 213
- 12 Meanings of 1989 235
- 13 From the ‘thirst for change’ and ‘hunger for truth’ to a ‘revolution that hardly happened’ 253
- Afterword 271
- Select bibliography 285
- Index 289
Chapters in this book
- Front matter i
- Contents v
- Notes on contributors vii
- Acknowledgements x
- List of abbreviations and glossary of terms xi
- Timeline xiv
- Leaders of East European and Soviet communist parties, 1945–91 xvii
- East European communist parties and their post-communist successors xix
- 1 The collapse of communism in Eastern Europe 1
-
Part I The historical longue duree
- 2 Echoes and precedents 33
-
Part II The 'Gorbachev factor'
- 3 The multifaceted external Soviet role in processes towards unanticipated revolutions 55
- 4 ‘When your neighbour changes his wallpaper’ 73
-
Part III The East European revolutions: internal and external perspectives
- 5 The demise of communism in Poland 95
- 6 The international context of Hungarian transition, 1989 113
- 7 Creating security from below 136
- 8 The demise of the communist regime in Czechoslovakia, 1987–89 154
- 9 Discourse and power 172
- 10 A revolution in two stages 192
-
Part IV Then and now: continuity and change in the academic and cultural perceptions of the communist era and its aftermath
- 11 A hopeless case of optimism? 213
- 12 Meanings of 1989 235
- 13 From the ‘thirst for change’ and ‘hunger for truth’ to a ‘revolution that hardly happened’ 253
- Afterword 271
- Select bibliography 285
- Index 289
