East European Political and Ideological Perceptions and Concerns

This chapter focuses on the interaction between the East European political and ideological perceptions and concerns, and the prospects for adaptation in Eastern Europe to changes taking place in the Soviet Union. It discusses the reciprocal, Soviet-East European perceptions and concerns under Gorbachev again in terms of three issue-areas: the Soviet goals in Eastern Europe; the internal situation in the individual countries in the region, and the state of East-West relations. One of the possible results of the interaction and adaptation to the new circumstances influencing Soviet-East European relations might be a creation of a more “viable,” “cohesive” or “organic” Soviet-East European relationship. From a purely ideological viewpoint, the Kremlin’s stake in Eastern Europe has rested on the success or failure of a Communist polity to become firmly embedded in a given East European society, thus validating if not legitimizing the Soviet brand of Marxism-Leninism as a universal model.