> And if, as you seem to think, the GDR was something progressive with a mass
> support base, I find it hard to understand why it (along with the rest of
> the Soviet Bloc) imploded so suddenly with barely a whimper from ordinary
> people.
On the off chance that this is not a rhetorical question, imo, part of the answer is the comprador capitalist class resulting from the special trade status of East Germany as a result of the Treaty of Rome, later enabling the so-called Vodka-Cola pact.
There may have been "barely a whimper" at the time, but the backlash now is huge with the leftover of communist party, the PDS/Linkspartie, among the most popular in East Germany, holding many seats at various levels of Government. I do not endorse this Party, however I think it's support
does disprove your comment about the mass support base.
"De-Stalinisation," including the Vodka-Cola pact and the Sino-Russian falling out, is much bigger factor in the collapse of the Soviet block than "Stalinism," imo.
I'm not sure if the DDR was "something progressive" or not, as I believe that the State everywhere and always serves the interest of the elite, however I have no doubt that losing their sovereignty to the BRD and having their their productive assets appropriated was bad for DDR workers.
I also have no doubt that many worker concerns, such as education, gender and family issues and child-care, health care and housing where more "progressive" in the reformist sense I suspect you mean it in.
-- Dmytri Kleiner <dk at telekommunisten.net> editing text files since 1981
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