The Political Elites

This chapter considers the individuals and groups who subscribe to the goals of state-socialist society and to the values of Marxism-Leninism. The various groups forming the socialist state may have different political, economic and social priorities. State-socialist societies have all moved from a revolutionary situation to a post-revolutionary one. The political composition of the post-revolutionary political elite shows considerable similarity to that of the Kiangsi Soviet. The case of the Soviet Union is in many ways distinct from the other countries: in addition to its cultural setting, the Soviet Union has had a much longer continuous history of Communist Party rule than any other society. The chapter examines four countries of Eastern Europe which in many ways were explicitly set up after the Second World War on the Soviet pattern. These countries are: Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Bulgaria.