Budapest, 1956

Abstract

Fastern Europe was experiencing considerable tension in the early 1950s. Whatever prestige Cornmunists had enjoyed by association with the defeat of Hitler had been lost. Stalin, by imposing Communist regimes, had turned Communists into servants of foreign domination. Such regimes could never have the legitimacy of the Soviet state. Even more harmful were the Stalinist economic programmes these regimes had been required to impose. Five-year plans, requiring rapid development of heavy industry and the collectivisation of agriculture were ordered without heed to the consequences. The social and economic costs were disastrous.