ABSTRACT
A series of studies has shown that the radical restructuring of Russian-East European relations was initiated in Moscow with support from reformist leaders in Hungary and Poland. In the past, Moscow had been willing to accept the cost of the "outer empire" because of the region's strategic and ideological importance. Moscow began to adopt a less pro-Western, more nationalist stance in foreign policy generally. As early as 1986, the core issue of Soviet dominance over Eastern Europe—the Brezhnev Doctrine, or the concept of limited sovereignty—was being critically discussed by the Politburo in Moscow. The central rationale of Soviet post-war policy in Europe had been to prevent the rise of a strong, militarized Germany allied to the West. In the avalanche of events in 1989, inevitably Mikhail Gorbachev became concerned over the eventual outcome of Soviet withdrawal from the region. The central debate over withdrawal relates to the extent of Soviet readiness to pull out of Eastern Europe.
