ABSTRACT
Although in some distant ways the democratic opposition was born out of the revolution of 1956 and the reformist ideas of 1968, it appeared as an independent group only at the end of the 1970s. Earlier, the dissidents directed more sporadic and isolated acts of criticism against the socialist regime. From 1981 onward the dissidents started to define themselves as a tightly knit and increasingly well-organized democratic opposition. Yet before discussing this, I describe the political context: The practices and institutions the communist party leadership used to scrutinize public expression and restrict the freedom of speech.
