Eastern Europe in the 1950s - the failure of reform attempts

Kun, Miklos

After Stalin's death in 1953 the new leaders in the Kremlin and their retainers had to focus on strengthening state socialism on the peripheries of the empire, for the dictator left the country in a disastrous situation both in political and economic terms. The political attitude of suppressing peoples, nations and social classes combined with the forceful expansion of the empire resulted in revolts both in and outside the Soviet Union. The largest gap in the wall of the dictatorship was made by the Hungarian Uprising in 1956.
In the course of the fierce struggle for power, in order to save both the empire and their own positions, the members of the "collective leadership" came up with a wide range of reforms regarding domestic and foreign policies. Khrushchev's secret speech at the 20th Congress of the Soviet Communist Party was an example of these efforts. The threat of a nuclear confrontation seemed to decrease, the Kremlin gave its consent to end the wars in Korea and Vietnam, withdrew its troops from many locations and made an attempt to merge Yugoslavia into the community of "people's democracies".
However, in the mid-'50s they increased control as well. The new leaders created the Warsaw Pact, and in the spring of 1956 Soviet tanks in the streets of Budapest sent to the people of the empire the message that enough was enough. State socialism and reforms proved completely incompatible.

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