Word: communist
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Maybe -- and maybe not. Instead of co-opting the protests, the Communist government of Milos Jakes beat them down. Riot police armed with long white clubs and plastic shields put an end to the five-hour march with tear gas and truncheon attacks, injuring dozens of protesters and arresting about...
...elevated to the Politburo only two weeks ago, faced a parliament rapidly awakening to popular calls for more democracy. At an emergency session, delegates to the once ineffectual legislature proposed to remove the constitutional guarantee of a "leading role" for the party, a phrase as basic to Communist dogma as "We the People" is to the U.S. Constitution. On Friday Modrow presented a 28-member Cabinet that included eleven representatives of officially sanctioned minor parties that have begun to wean themselves from Communist domination. Modrow also announced the establishment of "the rule of law," "protection from the law," and "freedom...
...disavowal of the 1968 invasion. Amazingly, that might be in the offing. Rude Pravo reported that Prague's chief of ideology, Jan Gojtik, had met with his Soviet opposite number in Moscow. Rude Pravo confirmed that the two men had dealt "with the history of the relations between the Communist parties, including the year 1968" and that "they reached a full identity of views." It has long been the accepted wisdom among Western and Czechoslovak experts that if the legitimacy of the 1968 invasion were ever officially questioned, it would be the Jakes regime's death warrant. This week East...
...demonstrations last week were soon overwhelmed by popularly organized protests. For the moment their prime target is the hated Zhivkov, who is widely accused of arrogance, corruption and a czarlike accumulation of personal wealth. Said Slavcho Trenski, a Central Committee member: "Bulgaria became a hunting reserve for the President." Communist leaders may buy time and cheer hearts with a modicum of reform, but it is all too possible that they also could be surprised by the chain reaction that arises from the very exhilaration of new freedoms...
East Germany's desperate gamble did not, however, save the Communist Party from the prospect of political oblivion. There seemed to be little doubt that its absolute and often brutal 40-year rule would come to an end. Despite his role in the reform initiatives and opening of the Wall, Krenz is so widely distrusted that he stands in danger of losing his top role. Restive members demanded that an emergency party conference scheduled for mid-December be elevated into a full-scale congress that will have the power to dump the entire Central Committee...