DIFFERENCES IN THE COMMUNIST PARTIES
In: The annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Band 317, S. 1-7
ISSN: 0002-7162
Historically & at their inception the East European Communist parties differed greatly from one another. Whereas those of Czechoslovakia, Hungary, & Poland were workers' parties, those of Bulgaria & Rumania were essentially parties of revolutionary intellectuals. From 1945-1948 the Communist parties, strongly supported by Soviet military power, established their one-party dictatorships. There followed a period of intensive econ pressures to create the maximum in heavy industry & general mobilization. Though the pattern was the same in all these countries, some were more severely affected than others. Where revolutions did occur-as in Poland & Hungary-a definite cleavage of opinion at the highest level of the party existed as did a surviving Communist leader of great prestige who symbolized all the desire for reform & freedom which had accumulated over the yrs. In the remainder of Eastern Europe the parties, internally unstable though they are, have changed very little. It will, nonetheless, be well to watch here for diff's in personalities, policies, & tactics, for in changed international circumstances these may prove pol'ally decisive. AAAPSS.