Word: blocs
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...quiet ways, some change is at work; its most advanced expression is in Hungary. Communist Party Chief Janos Kadar, who demonstrated his fealty to Moscow during the 1956 uprising, in 1968 launched the East bloc's most successful economic reforms. He began to decentralize the economic system, introducing some free-market management methods and profit incentives. Later, the state allowed private ownership for some small and middle-size businesses. In effect, Kadar entered into an unwritten contract with the Hungarian people, allowing them a measure of freedom in their domestic lives as long as they left politics to the party...
...most East Europeans, hope for meaningful change depends on substantial shifts within the Soviet Union; thus East bloc citizens are closely watching Gorbachev's moves. But the Soviets are unlikely to allow a wave of economic innovation to sweep through the East bloc, and prospects are even more dim for any significant moves toward greater political freedom or national independence...
...unease of Western and Eastern Europe comes together where the victorious Allies met in 1945: Germany. In the 1970s, the age of East-West détente, West Germany tried to build bridges to the East with its Ostpolitik, a reaching out to East Germany and the rest of the bloc through increased economic, diplomatic and personal ties. For their part, the 17 million East Germans took solace from an economy that, while it lagged far behind West Germany's, provided them with a standard of living higher than that of the Soviets...
Life has been troublesome too for Erich Honecker, 72, the East German leader. After decades of unrelenting East bloc propaganda that described "the spirit of militarism and fascism" as a purely Western affliction, Honecker has tried to steer a more nationalist course, chiefly on cultural and historical issues. King Frederick the Great of Prussia and Otto von Bismarck, the "Iron Chancellor," have been restored to grace in East German schoolbooks. In 1983, East Germany celebrated the 500th anniversary of the birth of Martin Luther, who is now described as "an initiator of a great revolutionary movement." The celebration underlined Honecker...
...whose embarrassed executives have since tightened security controls, has not been the only defense contractor victimized by employees turned traitors. An increasing number of spies are raking in East bloc money by selling secret information on microelectronics, computers and signal-processing techniques. "Science and technology is the largest growth industry" in espionage, says Edward O'Malley, an FBI assistant director in charge of the intelligence division. Some recent examples: a Northrop engineer pleaded guilty in March to attempting to transmit Stealth technology to the Soviets for $55,000; the husband of a worker at a Silicon Valley defense firm used...