Chapter 223 Changes in Eastern Europe
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A few months ago, the Hungarian political situation at the forefront of the Iron Curtain experienced surprising changes. Kadar, who had been the leader of Hungary for many years, lost the election as the general secretary of the Hungarian Socialist Workers Party. The leadership within the party, followed by some policies, made Hungary abandon the political path it had followed for many years and began to change in a different direction.
Kadar's defeat did not invite interference from the Soviet Union and other Warsaw Pact organizations, which emboldened the newly elected Hungarian leader. After Khrushchev’s October incident in 1956, when he launched an armed intervention in Hungary’s internal affairs, about 200,000 Hungarians fled to the neighboring country Austria. The refugee issue has been an unavoidable issue for Austria and Hungary for many years. Shortly after Kadar stepped down, Austria and Hungary negotiated the border issue independently without the permission of the Soviet Union. In order to solve the problem of insufficient domestic supply of goods and refugees, the Hungarian government made a decision to open the border between the two countries , and allowed Hungarians who had left Hungary in 1956 to return to their own country without holding them accountable. So far, the Iron Curtain, which has been tightly sealed since the end of World War II, has torn a gap in Hungary.
The opening of the border allowed European and American goods to enter the Hungarian market in a big way, and at the same time it also had some impact on the entire socialist camp. Seryozha's early partner, the East German William Peek was originally a smuggling businessman, and now he has discovered a more profitable industry, that is, smuggling. In the past, if East Germans wanted to flee to West Germany, they had to try every means to cross the heavily guarded Berlin Wall. However, the keen William Pick discovered a new and safer route, which was to start from East Germany, pass through Czechoslovakia or Poland, Hungary, a country that entered the socialist camp, and then leave the border between Hungary and Austria to reach Austria. Finally head north to West Germany.
This route is too safe, and the living standards of the people of East Germany are second to none in the socialist camp. It is still affordable for them to travel abroad to travel to the brother countries of the Warsaw Pact camp. Anyway, in the end, as long as you arrive in Hungary, you can enter Austria smoothly, and then come to West Germany, where you may not be able to reach it even if you risk your life, to live a good life. .
So William Pick closed his own chain of pharmacies and started a travel agency business. After organizing several successful smuggling operations, William Pick gradually gained a firm foothold in this industry. As a pioneer in the market, William Pique did seize the opportunity, but soon many followers also entered the industry. It can be said that at the beginning of 1989, the most enthusiastic business of East German gangs was smuggling.
This small gap in the iron curtain began to cause a large loss of population in East Germany. This phenomenon quickly attracted the attention of the East German government, but the East German government could not prevent its citizens from traveling to socialist countries. Otherwise, it will cause the dissatisfaction of the brother countries. So Honecker attributed the responsibility to the separate negotiations between the Hungarian Socialist Workers Party and Austria. He personally called Gorbachev and called on the Soviet Union to warn and deal with the internal affairs of the Hungarian Socialist Workers Party. problem of bourgeois liberalization.
Honecker and Brezhnev are old friends for many years, and his influence in the Warsaw Pact camp is very important. Naturally, Gorbachev did not dare to neglect his request, but now the domestic Georgia issue is still burning, and Gorbachev is really powerless about the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party. So he asked Shevardnadze for his opinion on the matter. As soon as he opened his mouth, Shevardnadze resolutely rejected Honecker's request.
"General Secretary, our current Leningrad Special Economic Zone mainly relies on the help of the West. West Germany is one of our main investment countries. If we offend the West German government on the issue of the Austro-Hungarian border, our Leningrad Special economic zones are also likely to be affected." Shevardnadze persuaded Gorbachev.
"Then how should we reply to Comrade Honecker?" Gorbachev asked worriedly.
"I will personally consult the new leader of the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party, Gross, about this issue. Anyway, we have asked about it, but this matter is an internal decision of the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party, and we are inconvenient to interfere too much! This I will also explain this to Comrade Honecker!" Shevardnadze replied.
At this moment, the leadership of the Soviet Union has not yet realized what changes this small gap in the Iron Curtain will bring to the entire Warsaw Pact camp, and even Seryozha, a soul traveler, is not aware of the coming danger.
In fact, Seryozha is always paying attention to the crisis of drastic changes in Eastern Europe. However, Seryozha's attention was focused on Poland, and he installed many cronies of the Gorky Brotherhood in Solidarity. Always watching Lech Walesa's every move. Judging from the current situation, although Poland is in danger of changing the sky, Lech Walesa's ability is limited. Although he has a great reputation, he still does not have the ability to get Poland out of the socialist camp.
Therefore, after the Solidarity trade union led by Walesa reconciled with the Polish government, the wave authorities decided to allow the Solidarity trade union to participate in domestic political life in order to quell the dissatisfaction of the domestic people. Walesa was quickly elected a representative of the people, and then the Polish United Workers' Party began to implement a policy called "round table conference" under the call of Jaruzelski. Although Jaruzelski was the leader of the Polish United Workers' Party for many years, he was always afraid that the Soviet Union would intervene in Poland's internal affairs because of the Solidarity issue, which would once again cause a painful lesson similar to the time in Poznan, so in Jaruzelski Erski was eager to resolve the Solidarity problem within Poland.
Jaruzelski, as the leader of a satellite country, is always careful to safeguard the interests of Poland. Therefore, Jaruzelski is actually more urgent than Walesa on the issue of the Solidarity Union. Without a stable and united situation, Poland cannot develop its economy with peace of mind. In addition, Poland's economy has always ranked low in the socialist camp, and its foundation is low. Since the Poznan incident in 1956, one after another massive strikes have brought Polish production to a standstill from time to time. Jaruzelski felt that instead of continuing this vicious circle, it is better to try to break this vicious circle. In addition, Jaruzelski also hopes that the reform of the Polish United Workers' Party can win more popular support, so that the Polish United Workers' Party can not only solve the big troubles of the Solidarity trade union, but also continue to lead Poland to move forward with a new attitude .