ABSTRACT
Relating the development of reform in Eastern Europe to Soviet perestroika, it is possible to discern types of East European responses. Todov Zhivkov has welcomed Soviet perestroika with verbal enthusiasm, particularly the link between economic and political reforms. The country’s extremely cautious approach to intensifying economic reform measures is evident in the fact that the reforms in Czechoslovakia’s central state sector are apparently no more far-reaching than the Soviet Union’s own plans. The two trail blazers for far-reaching economic reforms in Eastern Europe are Poland and Hungary. The Soviet leadership is satisfied with the relatively peaceful process of political pluralization in Hungary; in turn, Budapest is grateful for the support Hungary’s reform has received from perestroika itself and from declarations made by protagonists of perestroika. Soviet publications pay particular attention to the reforms in the German Democratic Republic, Hungary, and Bulgaria, but increasingly to those in the People’s Republic of China as well.
