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Dissent in Eastern Europe: Rudolf Bahro's Criticism of East European Communism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Wolfgang Schlauch
Wolfgang Schlauch*
Affiliation:
Eastern Illinois University
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Extract

Since the signing of the Final Act of the Conference on Security in Europe (CSCE) in Helsinki on August 1, 1975, the communist parties of Eastern Europe have been confronted with growing human rights movements from diverse individuals and groups. In the Soviet Union, so-called Helsinki Watch Committees were founded in 1976, in order to monitor the implementation of the Helsinki human rights provisions and those of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In Czechoslovakia, the human rights movement was coordinated by the publication of “Charter 77” in January 1977, which, like its counterpart in the Soviet Union, asked its government to comply with the Helsinki human rights provisions signed earlier by the Prague government. “Charter 77” has been signed by more than a thousand individuals, many of whom have been arrested or terrorized by the Secret Police. In Poland, the “Committee for the Defense of the Workers” (KOR) was founded after the June 1976 uprising of Polish workers in Ursus and Radom. The Committee's purpose was to provide legal and financial aid to those workers subjected to the Party's repression and physical terror for having participated in the June uprisings. KOR also criticized the government's violation of fundamental rights, such as the right to work, freedom of expression, and the right to participate in meetings and demonstrations. Again in 1980 during the Polish workers’ strikes, KOR under the leadership of Jacek Kuron assisted the strikers. They denounced the decline of the Polish Communist Party's credibility and the complete collapse of communication between rulers and the ruled. Even Hungary and Rumania have experienced the emergence of individuals and small groups who either want their governments to observe the human rights provisions, or who support human rights movements in other eastern European countries.

Type
Articles
Information
Nationalities Papers , Volume 9 , Issue 1 , Spring 1981 , pp. 105 - 116
Copyright
Copyright © 1981 by the Association for the Study of the Nationalities (USSR and East Europe) Inc. 

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References

Notes

1. In 1977 KOR reconstituted itself as the “Committee for Social Self-Defense — KOR” (KSS-KOR)Google Scholar

2. Detailed information on human rights movements in Eastern Europe, in U.S. Congress, Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, Hearings, Implementation of the Helsinki Accords, 95th and 96th Cong., 1977–1980, vols. I-XII; U.S. Congress, Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, Report, Implementation of the Final Act of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe: Findings and Recommendations Five Years after Helsinki, 96th Cong., 2d Sess., 1980; Jiri Pelikan and Manfred Wilke (eds.), Menschenrechte. Ein Jahrbuch zu Osteuropa (Reinbek: Rowohlt Taschenbuch Verlag GmbH, 1977); Walter D. Connor, “Dissent in Eastern Europe: A new Coalition?” Problems of Communism, 29, 1 (January-February 1980), pp. 1-17, also Rudolf L. Tokes, Opposition in Eastern Europe (Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 1979).Google Scholar

3. The impact on Eurocommunism in eastern Europe, in Heinz Timmermann, “Eurocommunism and Eastern Europe,” The Atlantic Community Quarterly, 16, 3 (Fall 1978), pp. 264-273, 274-281; Jiri Valenta, “Eurocommunism and Eastern Europe, “Problems of Communism,” 27, 2 (March-April 1978), p. 52; Heinz Timmermann, “Eurocommunism: Moscow's reaction and implications for Eastern Europe,” The World Today, 33 (November 1977), pp. 376-385; Kevin Devlin, “The Challenge of Eurocommunism,” Problems of Communism, 15,1 (January-February 1977), pp. 1-20; also Rudolf L. Tokes (ed.)., Eurocommunism and Detente (New York: New York University Press, 1979).Google Scholar

4. Time, July 24, 1978, p. 24.Google Scholar

5. The Department of State Bulletin, 73 (Sept. 1 1975), 325, 340; Ilse Spittmann, “Risiken des Wandels,” Deutschland Archiv 10 (March 1977), pp. 225-229.Google Scholar

6. Andreas W. Mytze (ed.), Robert Havemann: Berliner Schriften (Munich: Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, 1977), p. 197 f.; Manfred Jäger, “Des Ende einer Kulturpolitik,” Deutschland Archiv, 9 (December 1976), p. 1237; Peter Roos (ed.), Exil. Die Ausbürgerung Wolf Biermanns aus der DDR. Eine Dokumentation (Cologne: Kiepenheuer & Witsch, 1977); “Fakten zum Fall Biermann,” Deutschland Archiv, 10 (January 1977), pp. 104-105).Google Scholar

7. Text and signers of the “Biermann Petition,” in: Deutschland Archiv, 9 (December 1976), p. 1235; Reaction to the “Biermann Petition.” in “Zwei Monate aus dem Kulturleben der DDR,” Die Zeit (American edition quoted throughout), Jan. 7, 1977, p. 9; Andreas W. Mytze, (ed.), Biermann und die Folgen, europaische ideen, special issue, (Berlin: Verlag europäische ideen, 1977); Harald Kleinschmid, “Kulturpolitik der Widersprüche,” Deutschland Archiv, 10 (June 1977), pp. 566-571; “Kultureller Aderlass,” Deutschland Archiv, 10 (July 1977), pp. 675-677; “Wirklichkeit and Utopie,” Deutschland Archiv, 11 (January 1978), pp. 10-14; Fritz Raddatz, “Drüben wird der Geist ausgetreten,” Die Zeit, August 19, 1977, p. 12; “DDR-Autoren für längere Zeit ausser Landes,” Der Spiegel, December 26, 1977, pp. 100-102.Google Scholar

8. For biographical information on Bahro, see Rudolf Bahro, Eine Dokumentation (Cologne, Frankfurt/Main: Europäische Verlagsanstalt, 1977), p. 62f.; p. 74f.Google Scholar

9. Rudolf Bahro, Die Alternative. Zur Kritik des real existierenden Sozialismus. (Cologne, Frankfurt/Main: Europäische Verlagsanstalt, 1977).Google Scholar

10. “Das trifft den Parteiapparat ins Herz,” Der Spiegel, Aug. 22, 1977, pp. 30-32.Google Scholar

11. “Geistige Leere,” Der Spiegel, Aug. 29, 1977, p. 34; Joachim Nawrocki, “Die Angst der DDR-Führung vor ihren Kritikern Bahro and anderen,” Die Zeit, Sept. 9, 1977, p. 3; Ilse Spittmann, “Der Fall Bahro, Deutschland Archiv, 10 (October 1977), pp. 1009–1011.Google Scholar

12. Rudolf Bahro, The Alternative in Eastern Europe, trans. David Fehrenbach (New York: Schocken Books, 1978). All page references in the text refer to the English translation.Google Scholar

13. Rudolf Bahro, Eine Dokumentation, p. 12.Google Scholar

14. In November 1978 European Leftists discussed Bahro's The Alternative at an “International Congress on and for Rudolf Bahro” in West Berlin. Papers presented by Hermann Weber, Herbert Marcuse, Jiri Pelican, Rudi Dutschke and others are published in: International Journal of Politcs, X, No. 2-3 (Summer-Fall 1980).Google Scholar

15. Joachim Nawrocki, “Ein Riese unter den Pygmäen,” Die Zeit, July 14, 1978, p. 1.Google Scholar

16. Interview with Bahro, in: Der Spiegel, October 22, 1979, pp. 20-33.Google Scholar

17. Bahro, The Alternative, p. 406ff., p. 430f.; Bahro's concepts on ecology and socialism are also contained in a major speech delivered in Freiburg on November 11, 1979, entitled “Sozialistische Alternative and “Ökologie.” Copy of manuscript is in author's possession.Google Scholar

18. DDR: Das Manifest der Opposition. Eine Dokumentation. (Munich: Wilhelm Goldmann Verlag, 1978), pp. 39-46.Google Scholar

19. “Das Manifest des Bundes Demokratischer Kommunisten Deutschlands,” in: Der Spiegel, Jan. 2, 1978, pp. 21-24; Jan. 9, 1978, pp. 26-30; also in: DDR: Das Manifest der Opposition, pp. 12-39.Google Scholar

20. An excerpt of this critical analysis of the Polish party and state apparatus entitled “Without Pressure from Below no Reform from Above,” authored by the group “Experience and Future,” was published in: Die Zeit, August 29, 1980, pp. 3-4.Google Scholar