Opposition in Eastern Europe

329 Pages·1979·35.496 MB·English

by  Rudolf L. Tőkés (eds.)

OPPOSmON IN EASTERN EUROPE
By the same author
B6la Kun and the Hungarian Soviet Republic
Soviet Society and Politics in the 1970s ( ed. with H. W. Morton)
Dissent in the USSR (ed.)
Eurocommunism and Detente (ed.)
OPPOSITION IN
EASTERN EUROPE
Edited by
TOKES
RUDOLF L.
Professor ofP olitical Science
University ofC onnecticut
in association with
Palgrave Macmillan
Selection, editorial matter and Chapter 1 © Rudolf L. T~k~s 1979;
Chapter 2 © VladimirV. Kusin 1979; Chapter 3 ©Jacques Rupnik 1979;
Chapter 4 ©Werner Volkmer 1979; Chapter 5 ©George SchOpflin 1979;
Chapter 6 © lvm Szel~nyi 1979; Chapter 7 ©Alex Pravda 1979;
Chapter 8 ©Paul G. Lewis 1979
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1979 978-0-333-25971-9
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
without permission
First published 1979 by
THE MACMILLAN PRESS LTD
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Phototypeset in Great Britain by
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British Libnry Catalopblg In Publication Data
Opposition in Eastern Europe
1. Europe, Eastern-Politics and government
2. Opposition (Political science)
I. TlSk~. Rudolf L ll. St Antony's College
322.4'2'0947 DJK50
ISBN 978-1-349-04474-0 ISBN 978-1-349-04472-6 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-04472-6
This book is sold subject
to the standard conditions
of the Net Book Agreement
Contents
Preface vii
Notes on the Contributors ix
Introduction xiii
1 Human Rights and Political Change in Eastern Europe
RudolfL . T8kes 1
2 Challenge to Normalcy: Political Opposition in
Czechoslovakia, 1968-77
Vladimir V. Kusin 26
3 Dissent in Poland, 1968-78: the end of Revisionism and
the rebirth of the Civil Society
Jacques Rupnik 60
4 East Germany: Dissenting Views during the Last Decade
Werner Volkmer 113
5 Opposition and Para-Opposition: Critical Currents in
Hungary, 1968-78
George SchOpflin 142
6 Socialist Opposition in Eastern Europe: Dilemmas and
Prospects
Ivdn Szelenyi 187
7 Industrial Workers: Patterns of Dissent, Opposition and
Accommodation
Alex Pravda 209
8 Potential Sources of Opposition in the East European
Peasantry
Paul G. Lewis 263
Index 292
Preface
This volume owes its origins to fortuitous circumstances and events
that contributed to the decision to prepare a volume of original studies
on the subject of political opposition in Eastern Europe in the 1970s.
As the editor of another and, on the whole well-received, work,
Dissent in the USSR (1975), and the recipient of much helpful advice
from readers and reviewers, I became persuaded that the post-1968
record of dissident and open oppositionist politics of Eastern Europe
warranted closer scrutiny and perhaps a book-length treatment as
well. These initial thoughts became compelling concerns thanks to an
intellectually rewarding six-month sojourn in 1976-7 as a Senior
Associate Member of St Antony's College, Oxford, where I greatly
benefited from stimulating discussions about communist politics with
A. H. Brown, W. Bros, M. Kaser, R. Kindersley and other distin
guished members of that University. While in England I also had the
opportunity to read papers on questions of political dissidence and
systemic stability at faculty seminars at Cambridge University, the
London School of Economics, the University of Manchester and the
Institute for Soviet and East European Studies, the University of
Glasgow. I am indebted to friends and colleagues in those institutions
for their searching critique and thoughtful advice about these matters.
Aided by these preparations, I served as convenor of a panel on
political opposition in Eastern Europe at the Ninth National Meeting
of the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic and East
Europe Studies in October, 1977 in Washington, D.C. Contributions
from members of the panel (F. C. Barghoorn, V. V. Kosin, G.
Sch<Spflin, H. G. Skilling and S. Staron) and offers of assistance from
several colleagues, some of whom have subsequently contributed
chapters for this volume, finally made it possible to develop a concep
tual framework for a book of original studies on this subject.
Although indebted to many, my special thanks go to V. V. Kosin and
G. Sch<Spflin for their encouragement and support; to the Editorial
Board of the joint St Antony's-Macmillan publication programme for
their agreement to publish this study under their auspices; to the
Council of the University of Connecticut Research Foundation for its
generous support of research and administration of the project, md to
the staff of the Center for Slavic and East European Studies for many
kinds of help and assistance.
vii
viii Opposition in Eastern Europe
As an expression of our support for the freedom of speech through
out the world, the authors and the editor dedicate this book to
prisoners of conscience East and West and to Amnesty International, a
steadfast defender of their cause.
Rudolf L. T<'Skes
Storrs, Connecticut
July 1978
Notes on the Contributors
VLADIMIR KUSIN was born in 1929 in Czechoslovakia. He is
Director of the International Information Centre for Soviet and East
European Studies, University of Glasgow, the Executive Secretary for
the International Committee for Soviet and East European Studies
and editor of the International Newsletter of ICSEES. He earned a First
Degree in Modem Czechoslovak History and Politics at the Prague
School of Political and Economic Sciences in 1953 and a Ph.D. at
Charles University, Prague in 1968. Since coming to Britain in 1968 he
has been a member of the Institute of Soviet and East European
Studies, University of Glasgow. He is the translator into Czech of three
books, and is the author of The Intellectual Origins oft he Prague Spring
(1971), Political Grouping in the Czechoslovak Reform Movement
(1972), and From DubCek to Charter 77: A Study of 'Normalisation' in
Czechoslovakia 1968-1978 (1978). He has co-authored, edited and
compiled other publications and written many articles and reviews.
PAUL G. LEWIS, who was born in London in 1945, is Lecturer in
Government at the Open University. He studied as an undergraduate
and graduate student at the University of Birmingham (Centre for
Russian and East European Studies) where he obtained his Ph.D.
During the course of postgraduate study he also spent two years in
Poland at the Universities of Poznan and Warsaw. The subject of his
doctoral thesis was the politics of the Polish peasantry. He is the editor
(with D. Potter and F. G. Castles) of The Practice of Comparative
Politics (2nd ed., London, 1978). He has prepared a number of texts on
comparative, Soviet and East European politics for publication by the
Open Unive1sity and has written several articles on East European
themes.
ALEX PRAVDA was born in Prague in 1947, but was educated in
England. After taking a degree in history as a scholar at Balliol
College, Oxford in 1968, he completed a doctorate on the Czecho
slovak Reform Movement at St Antony's College, Oxford, in 1972. He
taught for a year in the Department of History and Politics at Rudders
field Polytechnic before taking up a lectureship in politics at the
University of Reading in 1973. Alex Pravda is author of Reform and
Change in the Czechoslovak Political System: January-August, 1968
ix
X Opposition in Eastern Europe
(1975) and co-editor (with Andrew Oxley and Andrew Ritchie) of
Czechoslovakia: the Party and the People (1973). He has published a
number of articles on East European politics and is currently writing a
comparative study of workers, trade unions and politics in Communist
states.
JACQUES RUPNIK was born in Prague in 1950 and is a researcher
on East European Affairs for the BBC External Services in London.
He studied history and politics at the University of Paris (Diplome du
Cycle Su¢rieur d'Etudes sur l'URSS et l'Europe Orientale, Institut
d'Etudes Politiques de Paris, 1972). Following this he earned an M.A.
degree (1974) at Harvard University and was a Research Associate at
Harvard University Russian Research Center in 1974 -5. The topic of
his doctoral thesis at the Sorbonne was 'History of the Communist
Movement in Czechoslovakia, 1918-1948', and it is scheduled for
publication in Paris in 1979. He is the author of articles on the history
of the international communist movement, and is co-editor of The
WorkingClassinEastemEurope, 1945-1978(Paris, 1978}.
GEORGE SCH0PFLIN was born in Budapest in 1939 and is Joint
Lecturer in the Political Institutions of Eastern Europe at the London
School of Economics and the School of Slavonic and East European
Studies, University of London. From 1957 to 1962 he studied at
Glasgow University, where he graduated with M.A. and LL.B. de
grees. After pursuing his studies at the College of Europe in Bruges, he
joined the Royal Institute of International Affairs in London, moving
to work at the Central Research Unit of the BBC External Services in
1967. During 1973-4 he was Hayter Fellow at the School of Slavonic
and East European Studies, University of London. He is the editor of
'The Soviet Union and Eastern Europe: a Handbook (London, 1970)
and has contributed a number of articles to scholarly journals and
symposia.
IVA N SZE~NYI was born in Budapest in 1938 and is Professor of
Sociology and Head of the Sociology Department in the School of
Social Sciences, the Flinders University of South Australia. He took an
M.A. in Economics at the Karl Marx University for Economics in
Budapest and a Ph.D. in philosophy and sociology under the auspices
of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. He was a Research Fellow at
the Hungarian Central Statistical Office and at the Institute of Socio
logy, Hungarian Academy of Sciences; Scientific Secretary and later