ABSTRACT
Stalinism clearly brought some kind of revolution to Central Europe, but though it was far-reaching it was also perverse and contradictory, both in its guiding principles and social consequences. Apart from major economic initiatives in terms of industrialization and collectivization, the pattern of Stalinism in Central Europe contained two main strands. One was implementation of the theory of the political supremacy of the party and assertion of the dictatorship of the proletariat. The political supremacy of the party had grown steadily through the period of the post-war coalitions and had been consolidated, organizationally and numerically, with the absorption of the social-democratic parties. The second component of Stalinism was the intensification of the class struggle, directed not just to the confrontation of known hostile classes but also to the identification, unmasking and elimination of those enemies who had infiltrated the communist movement. Nevertheless, the central political role of the communist party in society was a major feature of Stalinism.
