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<blockquote data-quote="Melan" data-source="post: 404423" data-attributes="member: 1713">What mmu said. There is no way Poland or Hungary would have joined with the SU willingly. Communists in Hungary were almost nonexistant - the party had roughly 100 members in the 20s.After 1945, until they started to rig elections and liquidate rival politicians, they were still pretty insignificant - the Smallholder's Party won all elections with the Social Democrats as a close second (they had 800.000 members, IIRC).It was only brutal opression and an extremely huge army that could accomplish their victory - and, as evident from 1953 (DDR), 1956 (Poland and Hungary), 1968 (Czechoslovakia) and 1980 (Poland), even that wasn't enough all of the time. The belief that the Russians* or Communism were/are well liked is bunk. Lazy journalism (&quot;Hey, we should do a report on the Romanians! Don't forget the bread lines and the old guy who goes to the dictator's grave with the flower.&quot; &quot;But I couldn't find any guy like that.&quot; &quot;Well, give someone 50 DM and be done with it!&quot;**).And sorry, this topic may not be political for some, but for those who live in CE, it is. If I went out of line, feel free to moderate me.*Soldiers.**Actual conversation, as told by Zsolt Bayer, journalist</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Melan, post: 404423, member: 1713"] What mmu said. There is no way Poland or Hungary would have joined with the SU willingly. Communists in Hungary were almost nonexistant - the party had roughly 100 members in the 20s. After 1945, until they started to rig elections and liquidate rival politicians, they were still pretty insignificant - the Smallholder's Party won all elections with the Social Democrats as a close second (they had 800.000 members, IIRC). It was only brutal opression and an extremely huge army that could accomplish their victory - and, as evident from 1953 (DDR), 1956 (Poland and Hungary), 1968 (Czechoslovakia) and 1980 (Poland), even that wasn't enough all of the time. The belief that the Russians* or Communism were/are well liked is bunk. Lazy journalism ("Hey, we should do a report on the Romanians! Don't forget the bread lines and the old guy who goes to the dictator's grave with the flower." "But I couldn't find any guy like that." "Well, give someone 50 DM and be done with it!"**). And sorry, this topic may not be political for some, but for those who live in CE, it is. If I went out of line, feel free to moderate me. *Soldiers. **Actual conversation, as told by Zsolt Bayer, journalist [/QUOTE]

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