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Article: East Europe: You'd Better Hope for a Miracle
- Article from:
- The Washington Post
- Article date:
- April 23, 1988
CopyrightThis material is published under license from the Washington Post. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Washington Post. (Hide copyright information)
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Stephen S. Rosenfeld's column "An Alternative Future for East
Europe?" {op-ed, April 1} is thoughtful and timely, but I regret I do
not believe there is a future for the region other than Soviet
domination as a sort of "Super Soviet Union."
Some believe that the Soviet empire has already entered the path
of disintegration. I do not share this optimism.
The Soviets are cleverer than their czarist predecessors. The
old Russian empire was ethnocentric, and all the non-Russians in it
represented a powerful centrifugal force that, by the end of World
War I and aided by external factors, threatened the empire with
disintegration.
This disintegration was not only stopped by the Bolsheviks but ...