Abstract
The “Spring of Nations” that took much of East-Central Europe by storm last autumn was without doubt a political phenomenon. An apparent abandonment of the doctrine of military intervention in subordinated East-Central Europe by the Gorbachev regime had encouraged change for some time. The Hungarian decision to dismantle border fortifications at the border with Austria triggered a flood of East German refugees to the West that put pressure on the East German communist regime. Once Honecker fell, Czechoslovak neo-stalinists found themselves isolated and the pressure applied skillfully by the opposition resulted in the smoothest possible transfer of power. The fall of Ceausescu completed the domino effect.
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Winiecki, J. (1991). How It All Began: Sources of the Recent Breakdown of the Soviet Economic System. In: Giersch, H. (eds) Towards a Market Economy in Central and Eastern Europe. A Publication of the Egon-Sohmen-Foundation. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-76572-8_3
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