Existing comment:
DISSENT AND DEVELOPMENTS IN THE SOVIET BLOC
Most Slovaks had a passive political stance during the 'normalization' period, with few active opponents of the regime-dissidents- demonstrating open opposition. The biggest and best-organized opposition force in Slovakia was the 'secret church', which supported the largest public protest against the transgressing of religious and human rights: the Candle Manifestation (Bratislava, March 1988). Liberal intellectuals played a key role in the dissent process by openly defending civil and human rights. These included the signatories of Charter 77-the leading dissident group in the former Czechoslovakia. Slovak dissent also included a group of former communists- known as the 'sixty-eight'-who had been expelled from the Communist Party after 1970 for advocating the quashed 'socialism with a human face' policy. Citizens' initiatives with an environmental and cultural focus also gained impact, culminating in the Bratislava/outload publication in 1987 that portrayed the genuine status of society.
With the onset of the 1980s, dissent activities increased due to developments in the global geopolitical situation: Ronald Reagan's election as U.S. President brought about a heightening of the Cold War. Having been termed the 'evil empire', the Soviet Union faced increased political and economic pressure. The Soviet bloc's growing crisis was characterized by a faltering economy, foreign policy failures, and internal political developments in various member countries: for example, the Pole Karol Wojtyla becoming Pope John Paul II, the Soviet army's failure in Afghanistan, and events in Poland where the Solidarity-led popular uprising resulted in emergency rule.
Mikhail Gorbachev becoming the USSR's General Secretary brought about a relatively youthful generational change in the Soviet Communist Party's leadership. He sought to reform the communist system and improve the superpowers' foreign policy relations. He pledged non-interference in socialist countries' internal affairs. Yet the policies of 'perestroika' (restructuring) and 'glasnost' (openness) weakened the very foundations on which totalitarianism was built. Less state control and oversight consequently led to satellite countries being liberated from Soviet Union rule. Without the USSR's support, national communist regimes began to collapse in the late 1980s-an incremental process that peaked in 1989. |