ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a comparative view of these important events and the fundamental features of transformation programs and actions in Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Poland. It discusses the economic situation in the three countries and an assessment of the most important economic problems. The changes in Soviet domestic and foreign policy raised much interest and hopes in the Central-Eastern European countries (CEECs) and very soon opened the way for the economic, political and social transformation of those countries. Once again, the Hungarian party was the most determined in attempting to keep the leadership of changes under its own governance, by establishing an increasingly bold economic reform agenda. In spite of martial law between 1981 and 1983 and the uneasy situation in following years, the Polish government tried to revitalize a very difficult economic situation with a pragmatic approach and a set of unconventional reforms. Systemic collapse began in Poland in 1989, and continued into Hungary, East Germany, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia and Romania.
