Six common factors that we can learn from our study of Hungary, Berlin and Czechoslovakia

1. That hope was squashed and squashed again

1. • Socialism appeared attractive after WW1, the Great Depression +WW2

   • But Stalinism was repressive

   • Khrushchev and Brezhnev both disappointed

2. That political repression was the only means to keep control

   • No freedom

   • Censorship

   • Secret Police

   • Rigid control from Moscow (Cominform)

3. That economic failures were highlighted by comparisons with the West

   • Economies geared towards Soviet needs

   • A very weak consumer economy

   • Berlin seen as a “gaping hole”

4. That young people were particularly frustrated

   • Students led the revolts in H + C

   • Skilled people in particular fled Berlin

5. That there was a sense of being occupied

   • Soviet tanks on the streets of Budapest

   • The USSR build the Berlin Wall

   • Soviet troops (amongst others) quash the Prague Spring

6. That, apart from resentment about a lack of freedom and weak economies, there was the matter of frustrated nationalism