History Changes Gear: the Transition in East-Central Europe

Abstract

We shall now look briefly at political developments during the early stages of the transition in the countries of East-Central Europe, starting with Hungary. In Hungary it was the communist party itself which undertook a series of measures during 1989 by which it destroyed its own power position. This was a result of the victory of the liberal communists over the conservatives, or ‘defenders of the castle’ (Bruszt) around Károly Grósz. The liberals started by pushing through a commitment to multiparty pluralism in February 1989, followed by the renunciation of democratic centralism (April), and the abandonment of the nomenklatura system (May). During the summer of 1989 they engaged in a series of roundtable negotiations with the non-communist opposition, culminating in the agreement of September under which they agreed to their opponents’ demand for a ‘one-step transition to democracy’. At the same time the defence of the ‘iron curtain’ frontier with Austria was abandoned (September), a move which set off an exodus of East German holidaymakers westwards and ultimately led to the fall of the GDR.