Essay: What Has Happened to Totalitarianism?

With the approach of the 30th anniversary of the Hungarian revolution, 122 East Europeans last month signed a declaration praising the uprising, denouncing Soviet intervention and calling for democracy. Two generations after the liberation of Europe, tyranny remains the condition of its eastern half. But the fact that 122 souls in four countries felt secure enough to declare so publicly indicates something has changed.

Something has changed. After 30 years, revolutionary Hungary is now the fattest and freest of all the Soviet satellites. China has discovered the free market. Poland bends to the Roman Catholic Church. Even the Soviet Union is...

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