Date: 1995
Type: Article
Intellectuals, nationalism, and the exit from communism : the case of East-Germany
Comparative studies in society and history, 1995, Vol. 37, No. 2, pp. 213-241
JOPPKE, Christian, Intellectuals, nationalism, and the exit from communism : the case of East-Germany, Comparative studies in society and history, 1995, Vol. 37, No. 2, pp. 213-241
- https://hdl.handle.net/1814/71311
Retrieved from Cadmus, EUI Research Repository
In Eastern Europe, succeeding generations of intellectuals have been at the forefront of first creating and then demolishing the communist regime. Because communism was ultimately based on ideas (“logocracy,” says C. Milosz), the abandonment of these ideas by intellectuals turned dissidents was a critical factor in the regime's demise. As Daniel Chirot (1991:20) emphasizes, communism died more from ideological exhaustion and “utter moral rot” than from its economic malaise or the pressure of organized opposition movements. The dissident intellectuals, powerless as they seemed to be, delivered the decisive blow when they denounced the regime's underlying ideology as ritualized lies out of touch with reality.
Additional information:
First published online: 03 June 2009
Cadmus permanent link: https://hdl.handle.net/1814/71311
Full-text via DOI: 10.1017/S0010417500019642
ISSN: 0010-4175
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
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