GORBACHEV AND EASTERN EUROPE.

INTERNATIONAL relations; GLASNOST; PERESTROIKA; GORBACHEV, Mikhail, 1931-2022

SOVIET Union; EASTERN Europe

This article analyzes the impact of Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev's glasnost and perestroika on Eastern Europe. While most people in Eastern Europe welcome the changes made and the changes promised in the Soviet Union, and hope for similar changes in their region as well, most leaders worry about the likely repercussions. In the past, while reforms in the Soviet Union proved to be manageable or even reversible, the pressure for change in Eastern Europe proved to be uncontrollable. With East European officials showing signs of aversion to starting Gorbachev-style reforms or accelerating existing ones, most of the region is out to step with the Soviet Union. While in Moscow criticism and self-criticism are in vogue, in East Berlin the party leadership reaffirms its own correct course. With the exception of Romania, all East European members of the Warsaw Pact have nonetheless endorse the party line emanating from Moscow. In descending order of sincerity, the leaders of Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia and even East Germany have spoken in favor of what the Communist Party of the Soviet Union is doing. Polish Prime Minister Wojciech Jaruzelski has been especially full of praise for Gorbachev, stating that the Soviet leader's energy, courage, and farsightedness deserves respect and sympathy.