Chapter 27 1. Eastern Europe 20 years ago

Chinese people care about Eastern Europe because Eastern European countries used to be socialist countries.How did the upheaval in Eastern Europe happen?What about the situation after the upheaval in Eastern Europe?Who is better in Eastern Europe and today's China?I went to Eastern Europe 20 years ago, and I have been to many Eastern European countries 20 years later, so I have some real observations and thoughts. The upheavals in Eastern Europe in 1989 shocked the world. At that time, I happened to have the opportunity to go to Vienna for a meeting, so I stopped by Czechoslovakia (the Czech Republic and Slovakia had not yet separated) and Hungary.I still clearly remember that one night in November of that year, I set off from the Vienna Bus Terminal by a Czech bus, walked through the brightly lit bustling streets of Vienna, and arrived at the border post of Czechoslovakia half an hour later.I entered Eastern Europe and Bratislava, but from this moment on, I found that the street lights were dimmed, the roads were narrow, and people were dressed in rustic clothes. This strong contrast is still fresh in my memory.

Bratislava is the capital of Slovakia. Its bus terminal is very similar to the county long-distance station in China in the past, with dim lights and dirty toilets.Here, for the first time, I found so many poor-looking people in Europe. A dozen or so disheveled Slovak men huddled together in a stagnant restaurant drinking potato soup and nibbling on black bread. He squinted at the black and white TV in the dining room, and talked excitedly along with the TV programs from time to time.Anti-government demonstrations were broadcast on the TV, and there were slogans one after another: "Human rights", "freedom", "Gorbachev".The next day, I learned that the leader of the Czech Communist Party had resigned and that the new leader had started negotiations with Havel, the representative of the opposition "Charter 77".

Bratislava is a lifeless city of gray, drab "Stalinist" buildings and empty shops in the main streets of the city centre.I was thirsty, but I couldn't buy a bottle of drink. After walking for a few streets, I finally bought a bottle of soda in a small shop near the train station, but after a closer look, there was a layer of mold floating in it.Seeing this, the female salesperson was a little embarrassed, and immediately changed the bottle for me, "This bottle should, should, there is no problem." There was still some hesitation in her tone.At that time, the light and heavy industries in the Soviet Union and most of Eastern Europe were seriously unbalanced, and consumer goods were scarce and of low quality.

I visited Romania with a Chinese leader in 1986 and stayed at the Romanian State Guesthouse.But the soap provided by the State Guesthouse does not produce any foam, and the TV in the room is produced in Romania itself, but it can only be "viewed through the fog", and the sound will suddenly disappear, and then you have to tap it a few times before it can make any sound.In the busiest department store in Bucharest, I saw people queuing up to buy MAXAM toothpaste made in Shanghai, and Beetle cars made in Romania and East Germany were running on the streets.I also visited the pre-disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1990, when the market in the Soviet Union was even more depressed than Romania in 1986.

This situation caused complaints from the common people in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, and also gave the West a great psychological and discourse advantage.I once watched a documentary made by Americans at that time.An American reporter asked the person in charge of the propaganda department of the CPSU: "The American system provides the people with a high standard of material life. Can your system provide it?" The Soviet propaganda cadre was speechless and didn't know how to answer.There were a lot of political jokes about scarcity in the USSR and Eastern Europe at the time.One of them said this: One day, Ivan, a member of the collective farm, caught a big fish in the river. He returned home happily and said to his wife: "Look, we have fried fish to eat!" The wife said: "There is no oil. Ah." "Then cook it!" "There is no pot." "Then bake it!" "There is no firewood." Ivan threw the fish back into the river angrily.The fish swam in the water for a while, jumped up and shouted excitedly: "Long live Comrade Brezhnev!"

Twenty years ago, Eastern European countries had "iron rice bowls" and various welfare systems (many people miss that era now), but their overall material living standards and economic competitiveness were significantly lower than those in the West.Opposition figures also took advantage of this situation to continuously put forward slogans for radical political change. Bronislaw Geremek, a think tank of the Polish Solidarity trade union, said: "From the beginning, the Solidarity trade union Wanting bread and wanting freedom is a combination of political demands and material demands.”

Three days later I arrived in Budapest, the capital of Hungary, by train.Budapest Railway Station is a very imposing classical building, with bustling crowds, lively shops, hawkers yelling, many "scalpers" reselling foreign currency, and old men and women asking you to rent their apartments. This vivid scene was at that time Eastern Europe is very different, which shows that the economic life here is more free.In fact, Hungary is one of the earliest countries in Eastern Europe to implement economic reforms. The Hungarian incident broke out in October 1956. A large number of demonstrators attacked the party and government departments. Prime Minister Nagy announced his withdrawal from the Warsaw Pact. The Soviet Union sent troops to suppress it. 44-year-old Kadar became the supreme leader of the Hungarian Communist Party, but was criticized by many ordinary people in the country. Said he was a "traitor".Kadar endured humiliation, worked hard, and quietly promoted many reform measures to improve people's livelihood, reversing the ultra-left policy pursued by his predecessor Laksh. By the 1970s, Hungary seemed to have changed from an ugly duckling to a golden phoenix, and became one of the few countries in Eastern Europe. There are not many relatively prosperous countries, and Budapest is also known as "Little Paris of the East".

But by the mid-1980s, Hungary's reforms had stagnated, coupled with the ongoing energy crisis and excessive debt, the economic situation began to deteriorate, and criticism of Kadar from both inside and outside the party was increasing. Chinese Foreign Minister Wu Xueqian visited Hungary in 1986. I was working in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs at the time, and I heard Foreign Minister Wu talk about his meeting with Qatar in private.On that day, Wu conveyed to Kadar the greetings from Deng Xiaoping, the Chinese leader, and talked about how he led the Hungarian people to overcome many difficulties, explored the road of socialism and achieved gratifying achievements when he was ordered in a crisis. "He was obviously a little excited when he heard it," Wu said, "Kadar visited China twice in 1956 and 1957, the most difficult years for him, and met Chairman Mao, Premier Zhou and Comrade Xiaoping, and his relationship with China was extraordinary. "

In October 1987, Kadar visited China again. Deng Xiaoping and Kadar held hands and walked slowly into the meeting hall in Zhongnanhai. This was also an unusual move for Comrade Deng Xiaoping, which shows their mutual respect.The conversation between Deng Xiaoping and Kadar was very specific. Deng Xiaoping said: "Poverty is not socialism, and too slow development is not socialism. Otherwise, what is the advantage of socialism? Socialism develops productive forces, and the results belong to the people." Deng Xiaoping Seemingly anticipating that something was going to happen in Eastern Europe, he warned Kadar to "not copy the practices of Western capitalist countries, nor copy the practices of other socialist countries, let alone lose the superiority of our system."Talking about China's reform and opening up, Deng Xiaoping emphasized that "the business we are doing now is a brand-new business" and said that we "will use two, three, or even four generations to achieve this goal (modernization). By that time, Then we can truly use the facts to say with confidence that socialism is superior to capitalism.”Kadar himself agreed with Deng Xiaoping's views, but his radical colleagues in the party disagreed with him. They advocated that Hungary immediately promote "radical political reform" and turn Hungary into a "laboratory of democratic socialism."

At the party congress in May 1988, Kadar had a heated debate with party radicals on political reform.He insisted that reforms must be carried out within the existing system, rather than reinventing the wheel.However, his physical condition was already poor, and the general environment of the entire Soviet Union and Eastern Europe was also very unfavorable to him, and the division within the Hungarian Party intensified.Kadar himself was physically and mentally exhausted, and finally resigned due to health reasons in May 1989. He died on July 6 at the age of 77. Under the leadership of the radicals, the Central Committee of the Hungarian Party adopted a more radical program, proposing that "national socialism has plunged Hungary into crisis, and the model must be changed as soon as possible", and Hungary's "transition to democratic socialism is inevitable."Unlike Poland and the Czech Republic, Hungary does not have such powerful opposition organizations as Solidarity and the "Charter 77", nor does it have such influential opposition leaders as Walesa and Havel.The Hungarian party first split within itself, and then the split factions cooperated with forces outside the party, and finally disintegrated the regime.In the evening, I had dinner with Mr. H and his wife. Mr. H studied political science at the University of Geneva. We are old acquaintances.The couple are now teaching at a university in Budapest. Jun H told me:

"Hungary has changed its name, the word 'people' has been removed from the 'People's Republic of Hungary', and there is no red star on the national flag. Our constitution has also been revised and a multi-party system has been implemented." He also told me very excitedly : "Within one month, more than 50 political parties have registered to participate in politics." He talked about the necessity of political change: "Now that the Hungarian economy has been declining all the way, one person can only live by working two jobs. Everyone thinks that economic reform has come. In desperation, only political reform can bring hope to the people." His wife added: "In fact, we in Hungary have always been freer than other Eastern European countries. Almost everyone has a passport. As long as we have money, we can go abroad at any time, but we cherish the country's Independence, and now the Soviet army is still occupying our country." Mr. H nodded: "They must go back, this is our country." This reminds me of the poem by the Hungarian poet Petofi: "Life is precious, love is more expensive High; for the sake of freedom, both can be discarded.” They also talked about their views on Kadar, Mr. H said beyond doubt, “Kadar is outdated, and what he said is commonplace. What Hungary needs is Al Gore A leader with new thinking like Bachev, or a liberal leader like Havel, otherwise the people will see no hope." There are many reasons for the collapse of communist regimes in Eastern Europe: these countries have traditionally been greatly influenced by Western culture, politics and religion; The Communist Party of the Soviet Union headed by Stalin came to power; many Eastern Europeans believed that their countries were still occupied and controlled by the Soviet Union, and had not really achieved independence. The three Baltic countries were annexed by the Soviet Union only during World War II.Many of the practices of the Soviet Union also caused small Eastern European countries to worry about it.For example, the Czech Communist Party considered accepting the "Marshall Plan" proposed by the United States after World War II, but was severely criticized by Stalin; the Soviet Union invaded the Czech Republic in 1968; strong revenge.A senior official of the Hungarian government once told me that more than 700,000 Hungarians were exiled to Siberia, the Soviet Union, and 300,000 of them never returned.I don't know if this number is reliable, but the antagonism of national sentiment is obvious. Eastern European countries later carried out reforms to varying degrees, but the reforms were intermittent. Even Hungary, which went the farthest, failed to break through the ideology that the market economy equals capitalism. The gap is getting bigger and bigger, which has aroused strong dissatisfaction among ordinary people in the country.In this sense, the significance of China's successful transformation from a planned economy to a socialist market economy, from a severe shortage of materials to an unprecedented prosperity of the market and a great improvement in people's lives cannot be overestimated.Deng Xiaoping once said: Without economic development, without reform and opening up, without improving people's living standards, there can only be a dead end.This is indeed one of the main reasons why Eastern Europe is on this dead end.With the economic downturn and the decline of people's living standards, coupled with the powerful discourse offensive of the West, the rulers of these countries have lost their self-confidence.By the mid-1980s, even Gorbachev, the leader of the Soviet Union who controlled Eastern Europe, was conquered by Western discourse. As a result, the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the collapse of Eastern European regimes became predictable.