A nice article and more pictures here;
http://euroheritage.net/polishresistancetocommunism.shtml
National communism. What’s that? If a true communist is one with no state, no nation, how can there be “national communism”? Maybe there can’t be. Maybe that was one of the problems.
Why did the “Cold War” the USSR, and commuism in East Europe collapse? Some will say, Reagan in the 80s, and his “tear down this wall!” speech, but these chapters tell another story. Here, in CZ in 68, in Poland in 1980 we see the resurgence of independence that these countries had once known, and not too long ago, held dear. These are very good quiz/term related topics. What was CZ’s history and what was Poland’s history? How do these histories feed into tension over communist rule according to White?
What evidence is here of the collapse? Look at Hungary in 1956, and China, and try to make a case for the collapse of communism that eventually will come in the late 1980s. It will do you well.
Here’s another promised article on the role of the Pope;
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/06/international/worldspecial2/06communism.html?_r=0
A comment made in the reading that interested me was that communism had no country. A worker for communism was an international worker. Communism itself was based in the struggles of the working class to make more and contribute to society. A comment that struck me was that Communism was a noble cause. Although it failed and resulted in the oppression of millions of people, the idea that it based itself in, of a classless society with no rich and no poor, was a wonderful concept. Communism was so successful in Russia because the majority of the population were working class people and they sought to raise their status in society. In the reading, I thought it was ironic when the author says that in Russia, many believed that capitalism couldn’t last whereas in the US, it was the opposite view. To me, this is maybe a reason why the conflict lasted so long; each was holding on to the secret “knowledge” that the other couldn’t stand the pressure of their influence. To me, this is maybe why the Cold War ended, because both sides, realized that Communism was the loser, and that Capitalism had won to fight another day.