How We Survived Communism and Even Laughed

This umbrella term refers to states that built their governments on the socialist principles of Karl Marx, and, if they were aligned with the Soviet Union, with Marxism-Leninism. Social classes and their material position in history are key concepts in this ideology: The working class, or proletariat, is destined to overthrow the bourgeoisie, those who exploit laborers and own the means of production. Marxism-Leninism declared that Marx’s proletarian revolution could be carried out through the leadership of a single, enlightened party, which could lead peasants and workers to the formation of a revolutionary government, the “dictatorship of the proletariat.” This might be termed the ideological orthodoxy underpinning socialist rule. In practice, these states had key distinguishing factors: an ideology that elevated workers and the leadership of a single party around socialist principles, state involvement in the economy, and strict surveillance and control over freedom of expression to prevent any erosion of socialist leadership or infiltration of capitalist ideology. In daily life, this resulted in what scholar Katherine Verdery has called an “economy of shortages” that de-emphasized consumer goods, but committed to fulfilling citizen’s basic needs (Verdery, What Was Socialism and What Comes Next, Chapter 1).

The umbrella term given to Bulgaria, Poland, Romania, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, East Germany (GDR), Albania, and briefly included Yugoslavia. All of these states had Communist governments installed after 1945, with varying degrees of electoral interference from the Soviet Union and the Communist Parties that took some direction and support from Moscow. These states were not members of the Soviet Union, but were ideologically, militarily, and economically aligned with it. Yugoslavia was only included briefly, as Stalin had a falling out with Tito in 1948, and Tito officially championed non-alignment with both the West and the Soviet bloc. 

These refer to the various political and social upheavals that led the Eastern bloc to transition to democracy and capitalist economies. Labor unrest in Poland helped force the resignation of the Communist government and the formation of a new government under the democratic labor movement, Solidarity. The most famous event that year was the fall of the Berlin Wall in November of 1989, which was a potent symbol of communism’s collapse. Most of the transitions were peaceful, with Romania’s overthrow and execution of its brutal dictator a rare exception. Drakulić writes about these events as an observer, as Yugoslavia’s path to liberalization also included civil war and lasted into the 1990s.