Abstract

The vision that has shaped and continues to shape our perception of Eastern Europe was formed largerly during the fifteen year period between the 1953 worker's uprising in Berlin, the 1956 Hungarian uprising, and the 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia. It is a vision of small countries crushed by the enormous might of the Soviet Union. Many of these East European countries, including East Germany, Czechoslovakia and Hungary, participated as fullfledged members in the world market and world division of labor prior to their induction into the Soviet empire. Thus, the idea remains that if the Soviet military presence were, in some fashion, neutralized, East European countries would immediately leave the Soviet bloc and return to the world market system.