The change in the party began in Hungary. Imre Pozsgay, the leader of the liberal nationalist wing, was one of those responsible for the "thaw" in the public media. He also encouraged an accommodation with the "nationalist" wing of the opposition... The Hungarian opposition was weaker than the Polish, and from the beginning it was divided into two currents, nationalist and liberal...

Poland went furthest, as the government's Round Table negotiations with Solidarity broke through the iron logic of the communist regime and opened it up to ideas that had not been heard since August 1980, when it was at its height... it was a major revolution without a revolution. No one took to the streets; there were no barricades, and no executions... it is unclear how things would have developed if both sides in Poland had realized that their decisions would lead to German unification.

...East Germany was a barrack-state that would not exist without the Red Army. The East German opposition thought differently. It had the most left-leaning opposition of all the East bloc countries. It sought the democratization of East Germany. The autumn demonstrations in East Germany began with the slogan "We are the people" before the slogan "We are one people" emerged.