Chapter 9: Upheavals in Eastern Europe
"Eastern Europe" refers to the eight countries located in the southeastern and central regions of Europe, on the western side of the Soviet Union: Bulgaria, Romania, Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Albania, the German Democratic Republic and Yugoslavia. The socialist countries of Eastern Europe were all socialist systems established after the Second World War, and they all underwent drastic changes before the collapse of the Soviet Union.
After the end of World War II in Europe, the Yalta system began to take shape. In 1949, the US-led NATO was established in Western Europe and on both sides of the Atlantic, promoting capitalism and vigorously propping up anti-Soviet regimes (whether democratic or **), while the Soviet Union strengthened its military occupation of Eastern European countries, promoted communism and fostered pro-Soviet communist regimes. In 1955, the Warsaw Pact was founded, and all Eastern European countries except Yugoslavia joined, and the socialist camp led by the Soviet Union formally formed a military alliance in Eastern Europe. The political bloc between the United States and the Soviet Union began a full-scale confrontation in Europe, and history entered the "Cold War period".
In the latter part of the Cold War, the contradictions in various aspects of Eastern European countries became increasingly prominent. In terms of economy, Eastern Europe followed the highly centralized economic development model of the Soviet Union, one-sidedly developing heavy industry while ignoring light industry and agriculture, and the people's living standards could not be effectively improvedOn the political front, the ruling parties in Eastern Europe and** because of the lack of oversight and elections, corruption, violations of the law and human rights are on the rise. Under external influences, after Gorbachev came to power, the Soviet Union put forward the so-called "humane democratic socialism", promoted the program of building "democratic socialism", and promoted the reorganization of the parties in Eastern Europe. In the face of domestic and foreign difficulties, coupled with the peaceful evolution and democratization pursued by the Western countries led by the United States, drastic changes have taken place in the socialist countries of Eastern Europe.
The main reasons for the drastic changes in Eastern Europe are: First, historical reasons. After the communist parties of Eastern European countries came to power, most of them copied the Soviet model and were largely constrained by the Soviet Union, which forced the Eastern European countries to align their domestic and foreign policies with them. The countries of Eastern Europe have not actually attained an independent status. Historically, the Soviet Union and Poland, Romania and other countries have always had ethnic grievances and tense ethnic relations. On the issue of religion, some countries in Eastern Europe have been under the long-term influence of the Catholic forces, which have a deep mass base, and the religious forces have sharply contradicted the rigid religious policies of the Eastern European countries.
The second is internal reasons. Economically, most countries have developed slowly, have not achieved much in reform, and the gap between them and the countries of Western Europe is widening. Economic difficulties lead to economic crises, which in turn induce political crises and politically, due to the serious undermining of democracy and the rule of law, the parties and the party in the countries of Eastern Europe are seriously detached from the masses. In the course of several decades of socialist construction, the Communist Party has gone through twists and turns, and there has been almost no peace, and there have been major mistakes in the party's self-building. The parties in Eastern Europe have a huge contingent and a very high proportion of the entire population, generally reaching 10 percent, and some even 20 percent; as the number of party members increases, the quality of the party will inevitably decline. Because it is the ruling party, joining the party is the capital of being an official, and many people who do not meet the conditions have entered the party one after another. After the increase in the number of party members, the political education of party members was also relaxed, or even abolished. The phenomenon of party cadres, especially leading cadres, engaging in specialization and enjoying privileges, and the corruption of their lives are very serious, undermining the party's self-building. For example, the former supreme leader of the GDR Party, Honecker, his wife, son, and daughter are all senior party cadres.
The third is the Soviet factor. Gorbachev's reforms "loosened" the shackles of Eastern European countries, and his program of building "humane and democratic socialism" and the "new thinking" of foreign policy led to ideological confusion within the communist parties of Eastern European countries and promoted the reorganization, reorganization, and transformation of the parties in Eastern Europe.
Fourth, the Western factor. Western countries have used various means such as loans, technological and ideological infiltration to induce Eastern European countries to move closer to the West and "peacefully evolve" towards capitalism. Under the banner of democracy, freedom, and human rights, we have interfered, subverted, and infiltrated socialist countries in the political, economic, cultural, and other fields. From 11 to 13 July 1989, Bush visited Poland and Hungary. Bush said that in order to speed up Poland's process of moving toward a free enterprise system and a democratic society, the United States will provide Poland with $1 billion. In addition to economic assistance, it has also stepped up its political and cultural infiltration, and through so-called cultural exchanges, it has peddled Western social outlook, political outlook, outlook on life and values to Eastern Europe; In this way, Marxism is counterbalanced and socialism is negated.
The most distinctive and striking of the upheavals in Eastern Europe is the Yugoslav model. The Yugoslav model was formed by the rupture of relations between the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia. The main reason for this was the Soviet Union's hegemonic behavior of great powers and the idea of being a boss with a supremacist attitude. First, it ignored the sovereignty of Yugoslavia's territory and adopted "secret diplomacy" to use the territory of a third country as a bargaining chip to sign international treaties. Second, it was an attempt to control Yugoslavia's economic lifeline and give Yugoslavia the status of a union republic of the Soviet Union. Third, it has wantonly criticized and criticized Yugoslavia's foreign and state policies.
In 1945, Yugoslavia was liberated from Nazi Germany and the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia was proclaimed, with Tito as its chairman. After World War II, Yugoslavia underwent nationalization and land reform, and began socialist construction. Due to the long-standing discord between Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union, and Tito's reluctance to be subject to the Soviet Union, in 1948, relations between Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union broke down, and the Yugoslav Communist Party was expelled from the Soviet-led Communist Intelligence Service. Since then, relations between South Africa and the Soviet Union have been at a low level, and South Africa has not joined the international economic organization, the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance, and the Warsaw Pact, a military organization of the "socialist camp" led by the Soviet Union. In 1963, Yugoslavia amended its constitution and changed its name to the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The former Yugoslavia pursued an independent foreign policy of non-alignment, and Tito was the initiator of the Non-Aligned Movement. He opposed the monopoly of international affairs by the great powers, opposed war, maintained peace, and won Yugoslavia international respect and status. In 1980, after Tito's death, the federation implemented collective leadership, and the republics became more and more loose. In 1991, the four republics of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Macedonia, declared independence. On 27 April 1992, the Parliament of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia adopted a new constitution proclaiming the union of the two republics of Serbia and Montenegro as the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was officially dissolved.
The main elements of the Yugoslav model and its achievements are: First, the adoption of a high degree of "self-government". That is, the workers' committee is the highest body of the enterprise, which enjoys the right to plan, manage and execute the enterprise, and has the right to decide on the distribution of part of the profits and accumulation, and so on. The second is social ownership. That is to say, all means of production and resources are not only the public property of all the people, but also the property of everyone, so that the ownership of the means of production is unified with the right to use and manage. Third, social planning should be integrated with the market economy. That is, the state gives the overall development goals, directions, proportional relations and management methods of the social economy, and at the same time uses the value law of the market economy to optimize the allocation of resources. Fourth, the policy of agricultural collectivization should be adjusted in accordance with the principle of voluntariness, and peasants should be allowed to voluntarily withdraw or join collective farms.
The Yugoslav model has extensively endowed and fully affirmed the economic and political democratic rights of the broad masses of laborers, mobilized the enthusiasm of the masses of the people in building socialism, and achieved fruitful results. First, she revealed to the world the compatibility between the market economy and the socialist public-owned planned economy. Second, she showed people the diversity of socialism. Third, Yugoslavia's economic development has attracted worldwide attention. In the decade from 1953 to 1963, the industrial growth rate of South Africa was 138%, and the national economic income has more than doubled.
The main reasons for the demise of the Yugoslav model were: First, there is too much emphasis on democracy and a lack of centralization and unity. Failure to counter the theories that have emerged in the past to negate socialism has encouraged nationalist and a-list behaviors. At the same time, the theory of socialism cannot be inherited and developed in a scientific and systematic way. Second, the economy has a high degree of autonomy and macroeconomic regulation and control is ineffective. While the economy is practicing a high degree of joint autonomy, too much emphasis is placed on "non-state centralization," which has led to the prevalence of decentralization in economic life, the loss of control over the scale of investment, the inability of macroeconomic regulation and control, and the serious imbalance in economic development. Third, there is no way to deal with the crisis, and it has escalated. After the deaths of Kader and Tito, hyperinflation broke out, which, under the conditions of a market economy, failed to control inflation, production began to decline, and the people's lives were difficult, which eventually led to the collapse of Yugoslavia's economy and induced a political crisis. In the event of a crisis, the contradictions between the localities and the nationalities inevitably intensified, and in an irreconcilable situation, eventually led to the disintegration of the socialist system in Yugoslavia.