Between resistance and opposition: developments after Stalinism
ENStalin’s death in 1953 marked the beginning of a new era in Communist Europe. Not only did the worst forms of open tyranny disappear, but as the squeezing grip of terror became looser, clear discrepancies between the many states ruled by Communist parties in Eastern and Central Europe with respect not least to state and society relations started to appear or, more correctly, re-appear. In many instances, the opening-up meant that the profound differences existing already in the pre-Communist period surfaced once again, while having been temporarily “frozen” during the worst years of Stalin’s rule. While totalitarianism may have been a correct characteristic of the Stalin era since the early 1940s, the death of the dictator marked a significant shift towards a state of post-totalitarianism, yes, even authoritarianism in some satellite states in Central Europe (cf. Linz and Stepan, 1996; Lagerspetz, 1996, 34–35). In particular, the move from the “total state” showed in the tendencies, more pronounced in certain states and republics than in others, for civil initiatives to emerge outside the realm of the Communist Party. To outside observers, most of the Communist parties may have appeared fairly similar in their ideological rhetoric and practice, in their ambitions to permeate all levels of the state as well as the societal spheres, and in their control of oppositional tendencies.
