What are everyone's thoughts on the former Eastern Bloc countries (DDR, Poland, USSR, etc.)?
What are everyone's thoughts on the former Eastern Bloc countries (DDR, Poland, USSR, etc.)?
Like title says, have recently gotten around to reading "Stasi State or Socialist Paradise?" but would like to hear how successful each country was and maybe where they fell short. Feel free to share any literature on this if you can, thanks comrades!
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R/communism has a series of masterposts on these countries. Overall, they all improved standards of living and were way better than feudalism or fascism. The majority of people in the Eastern Bloc say life was better under socialism except in a few countries like Poland and Czechia. The GDR was probably the most successful of the Eastern Bloc countries despite suffering at first from war reparations.
In terms of LGBT rights, the Warsaw Pact countries (besides Romania) were much more progressive than the USSR itself and all decriminalized LGBT relationships in the 1960s.
Flaws include Yugoslavia never collectivizing land, allowing kulaks into the party, and sometimes siding with the USA in foreign policy; Romania’s nationalist deviations and bad abortion policy; Poland’s lack of a domestic revolution and reliance on Soviet occupation for their revolution; and Albania’s isolationism, which caused stagnation even though Hoxha was right in criticizing Khrushchev.