Many East Europeans watched the dismantling of the Soviet Communist Party last week with a sense of deja vu. Although it has been almost a year since the last Soviet bloc nation was ruled by a communist monolith (Bulgaria in December), traces of the party still lace everyday life in most former satellites.
Few countries have followed the example of Germany, where communist cadres were thoroughly purged following unification. A former senior Central Committee member was reduced to washing dishes at Berlin's Grand Hotel. Lower- ranking staff fared no better. A handful of interpreters and administrators aside, East Germany's entire 2,500-member...
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