Eastern Europe on Trial
Abstract
Mikhail Gorbachev's efforts to modernize and restructure the Soviet Union may be impeded by the East European client states it has dominated since the end of World War II. Moscow's six allies -- East Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, and Hungary -- are key members of its military alliance, the Warsaw Pact, and of its economic alliance, the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance. The Soviet Union has long established functional and symbolic, bilateral and multilateral, and formal and informal means for their subordination. Now, in the era of glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring) -- at a time when the imperatives of Soviet systemic reform demand external quiescence and assistance -- the very legacy of Soviet control may imperil this vital region. Eastern Europe is now on trial. Soviet leaders have sought the integration of this highly variegated region with little success. Non-Eastern Europe's aging political elites face a future constrained by economic disarray, ecological and social ills, structural maladjustment, and a separation of society from the state. The region's military forces have been functionally integrated, but their larger societies remain attitudinally alienated. For Moscow, the forces of disruption in this turbulent region are too overwhelming for the forces of integration to effectively control. In the absence of attitudinal integration, the challenge to General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev in Eastern Europe is clear. For perestroika to produce the results glasnost promises, Gorbachev must grant greater autonomy to East European peoples and institutions despite the potential threat this poses to the basic premises of Moscow's political control.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jun 01, 1988
- Accession Number
- ADA516156
Entities
People
- David T. Twining
Organizations
- United States Army War College