ABSTRACT
The Stalinist regime and Soviet domination of Central and Eastern Europe introduced after the Second World War, in most cases, had no popular support and indeed generated a genuine, fundamental resistance. The first lethal blow was Tito’s split with Stalin in 1948. Tito alone openly rejected Soviet leadership and began organizing a socialist Balkan confederation-a potential rival to the Soviet Union. Stalin reacted furiously and attempted to remove Tito, but failed. The result was that Yugoslavia followed its own independent road. The “October Revolutions” in Poland and Hungary, in 1956 represented two further setbacks. A spontaneous worker’s uprising in Poznaæ and then its military suppression generated a deep political and moral dilemma among the Polish communist elite. They reacted by removing the Stalinist leadership and re-elected Wł adisł aw Gomuł ka, the purged and imprisoned “nationalist deviator,” as Secretary General of the party. It was an open and successful revolt against Soviet political intervention. The Hungarian revolution at the same moment turned into the only national, armed uprising and, albeit briefly, the only successful military struggle for independence against the Soviet Union. Under the momentary leadership of Imre Nagy, it led to the collapse of communism, a declaration of neutrality, and the reintroduction of a multiparty democracy.
