« The main lesson from 1968 was that communism was unable to reform itself ». Discuss
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history 1789 to present
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date published 24/07/2006
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Summary“People lost faith in the possibility of reform” said Mikhail Gorbatchev during a conversation analysing the Prague Spring and its consequences. Eastern European socialist countries experienced three attempts of reform at two different times. The first wave is a consequence of the destalinization process. In 1956, after Khrushchev's secret speech, Gomulka came to power in Poland and led a communist reformism. However the reformism led in during the Polish October was not to be considered 'dangerous' by the Soviet Union. In Hungary, that same year, things did not go as well: the popular movement turned into a popular revolution. So to protect their own interest and supposedly the interest of the socialist bloc, Soviet troops invaded Hungary. The second wave of reform came in 1968, in Czechoslovakia. And again, Soviet troops invaded the country.
Was the main lesson from 1968 that communism was unable to reform itself? Communism has many different definitions depending on what focus you want. It can be Communism as the ideology developed by Marx or communism as the social and economic system developed in the Eastern bloc.
In fact we will focus on the second definition as it is more relevant to study systems that were
actually put into practise and the problems they encountered. In that case, communism and socialism
are equivalent terms as socialism should lead to communism.
Table of Contents- The Prague Spring as an event (the reforms that occurred, how the soviet and other socialist countries perceived them and the intervention)
- What consequences 1968 and the invasion had on Czechoslovakia, on the Soviet Union and also on the soviet world
- Different attempts of reforms of communism after 1968
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