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The score of men who rule Russia, and their outriders and satraps, now had a perilous decision to make. Should they continue to appease the satellites, move cautiously ahead with more concessions and hope to achieve the "national Communism" they were prepared to accept? Or should they renounce the liberalization policy (and throw out its discredited advocate, Khrushchev), return to the iron ways of Stalin, crush opposition ruthlessly, and wait for a new generation to grow?
The harsh course has superficial plausibility but grave disadvantages. It not only invites a blood bath in Eastern Europe but requires a return to one-man dictatorship in Russia, for it takes a Stalin to impose Stalinism. To go forward with liberalization risks the gradual dismemberment of the satellite empire. But in the end, the sins, fallacies and weaknesses of Soviet Communism may compel the Russians to take that risk, in order to save what they can.