On the night of November 9, 1989, the Berlin Wall-the most potent symbol of the cold war division of Europe-came down. Earlier that day, the Communist authorities of the German Democratic Republic had announced the removal of travel restrictions to democratic West Berlin. Thousands of East Germans streamed into the West, and in the course of the night, celebrants on both sides of the wall began to tear it down.

The collapse of the Berlin Wall was the culminating point of the revolutionary changes sweeping East Central Europe in 1989. Throughout the Soviet bloc, reformers assumed power and ended over 40 years of dictatorial Communist rule. The reform movement that ended communism in East Central Europe began in Poland. Solidarity, an anti-Communist trade union and social movement, had forced Poland’s Communist government to recognize it in 1980 through a wave of strikes that gained international attention. In 1981, Poland’s Communist authorities, under pressure from Moscow, declared martial law, arrested Solidarity’s leaders, and banned the democratic trade union. The

In the wake of the collapse of the Berlin Wall, Czechs and Slovaks took to the streets to demand political reforms in Czechoslovakia. Leading the demonstrations in Prague was dissident playwright Vaclav Havel, co-founder of the reform group Charter 77. The Communist Party of Czechoslovakia quietly and peacefully transferred rule to Havel and the Czechoslovak reformers in what was later dubbed the “Velvet Revolution.” In Romania, the Communist regime of hardliner Nicolae Ceausescu was overthrown by popular protest and force of arms in December 1989. Soon, the Communist parties of Bulgaria and Albania also ceded power.

“Does not Marx speak of the importance of "striving and will"…Why then did Marx try to develop the proletarians' "will and striving" in the socialist spirit, why did he conduct propaganda among them if he attached no importance to "striving and will? Or, what did Engels talk about in his well-known articles of 1891-94 if not the "importance of will and striving?”

The different forms of Communist rhetoric and other forms of propaganda (although not explicitly mentioned in the title it warrants a mention) require to some extent a different method of analysis. It is the official party rhetoric, ie the speeches of leaders and officials which provide us with the clearest gauge, but posters, films and other forms of media also colour the view. It is perhaps through posters that we see most clearly the paternalistic tone and low assumptions that the party addressed its subjects with. Posters with captions like ‘You must sweep the floor thoroughly every day’ (M.Cheremynkh, 1922) show little except that the party wished to associate itself with even the positive minutiae of everyday life. This is all important in the construct I wish to propose, namely that the Communist rhetoric was discredited as a result of the inability (largely economic) of the Party to provide an environment in which the rhetoric could progress beyond asking for blind faith. The very nature of a Marxist-Leninist state is that the control of a central government is a transitory feature, necessary only until education has progressed sufficiently to allow pure Marxism. Since the people of the Soviet Union were never in a comfortable enough economic situation to enjoy the necessary faith in the regime for this to happen, the party could never allow its rhetoric to develop and its control to loosen. In 1967 Talcott Parsons wrote that ‘I do believe that [Communism] will prove unstable…in the long run its legitimacy will certainly be undermined if the leadership continues to be unwilling to trust the people it has educated’. With the benefit of hindsight, unwilling could possibly be replaced by unable.

From this, it is relatively simple to track the progress of official rhetoric. It underwent an inflation of terms, as the promises and theories of each leader were in turn proven to be false. From Lenin’s relatively optimistic and high level of support it is a long step to the words of Stalin in 1936.

“While the State exists, there can be no freedom. When there is freedom there will be no State.”

Some topics in this essay:
Soviet Union, Baltic Republics, Lenin Revolution, Soviet Russia, Russia Lenin, Poland’s Communist, Mancur Olsen, Communist Party, Stalinist Communism, Talcott Parsons, soviet union, east central europe, central europe, east central, communist rhetoric, berlin wall, throughout soviet, soviet bloc, soviet economy, communist government, military force, namely communist rhetoric, throughout soviet bloc, collapse berlin wall, night november 9,