The CRCE Newsletter
The CRCE has held several conferences in the beautiful surroundings of Lake Bled in Slovenia.
News Roundup Spring 2003
News
In February Vaclav Klaus was elected President of the Czech Republic, a major blow to the governing coalition led by the left-leaning Social Democratic Party. Klaus, who introduced market reforms, served as Czechoslovakia's finance minister after the demise of the communist regime. In 1993 he became Czech prime minister when the Czech Republic and Slovakia split, and parliamentary speaker from 1998 to 2002. Marketa Kolabilova, a CRCE Newsletter reader from Prague, told us that Klaus was the only presidential candidate to pay tribute to Vaclav Havel, his notable predecessor! Before these events, Klaus attended a CRCE Conference in Vienna and has remained in touch with the CRCE. (See Publications below.)
Meetings
The CRCE organised two Talks in February. The first was rather unusual, focusing on events during the Second World War. The speaker was Professor Jerca Vodusek-Staric of Maribor University who specialises in research on the Communist Party in Slovenia. She recently published Slovene Spies and the SOE (at present available only in Slovene), which was the subject of her fascinating talk, given to a packed audience which included eminent historians and other specialists.
The second CRCE talk, "Can the Russian Economy Keep On Growing?" was given by Professor Philip Hanson The audience discussion that followed was lively and well informed. We were particularly pleased to welcome Vladimir Mau. Our congratulations on his appointment as Rector of Russia's Academy of National Economy. This talk is now an Occasional Paper.
In April Lisl Biggs-Davison represented the CRCE at the Russian Economic Forum held in Westminster's QEII Centre. This is now an annual event in London, and, according to the organisers, rivals Davos. Speakers included Anatoly Chubais and Boris Nemtsov. Lisl was also a guest at the London-Russia Society addressed by Peter Reddaway on the current situation in Russia. He is Professor of Political and International Affairs at George Washington University.
In May Lisl met representatives from Latvia's Research Centre Free Europe at the Congress for Democracy to discuss the proposed new Constitution for Europe. In his speech, Lord Howell echoed some of Ljubo Sirc's comments in his CRCE Briefing. (See Publications below.)
CRCE Seminar
On 28 May, the CRCE held a seminar in Westminster focusing on new challenges to democracy in Central and Eastern Europe. Discussion leaders included Ljubo Sirc, Alex Standish and Sebestyen Gorka, our guest from the Institute for Transitional Democracy & International Security, Budapest.
Twelve years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the general assessment is that democratic institutions have been successfully put into place in Central and Eastern Europe. Moreover, most countries are thought to have fully made the transition to democracy because of their commitment to Western institutions and alliances.
Alliances shifted during the Iraq campaign with unclear consequences. The former communist leaders, now governing in Eastern Europe, declared almost total support for the alliance led by America and Britain. whereas some of their followers indulged in the old anti-American protests.
At the seminar we asked whether these leaders are using Leninist communist tactics or have really changed. Lip service to Western values would assist them to survive politically and even to infiltrate the 'camp' to which in the past they were exceedingly hostile. Dr. Sirc's CRCE Briefing, Communists Favour World Disorder is essential reading for those interested in these topics, as is last year's Briefing, Communist Ideas and Influence after 1989.
Post-Communist Economies
The Spring number of the CRCE's journal Post-Communist Economies is now available. For more information, contact Carfax, the publisher.
CRCE Publications
Communists Favour World Disorder by Ljubo Sirc CBE. CRCE Briefing, May 2003. Price: £5.00 including postage. Also available at the same price: Communist Ideas and Influence after 1989, July 2002. Order both at the special price of £7.50.
Can the Russian Economy Keep on Growing? By Philip Hanson, Occasional Paper No: 12 March 2003. Price: £7.50.
Estonia: Little Country that Could by Mart Laar. New Series 19, July 2002. Price £20.00. Special Offer to Newsletter readers: £16.00 including postage in UK and Europe, £18 Overseas. Please quote: NL no 17.
European Union or Not? by Vaclav Klaus and Pedro Schwartz Occasional Paper 11. 2nd Printing: October 2002. Price: £7.50.
Further Reading: The Rise and Fall of the Soviet Economy - an Economic History of the USSR since 1945 by Philip Hanson, Longman, 2003.
The Tragedy of Russia's Reforms - Market Bolshevism against Democracy by Peter Reddaway and Dmitri Glinski, United States Institute of Peace Press, 2002.
Gulag: A History of the Soviet Camps by Anne Applebaum, Allen Lane, Price £25. pp.610
We have heard from Prague that Gerald Frost's article (Newsletter 16) "EU Gets Expansion on the Cheap" has now been translated into Czech and distributed to many interested readers. Gerald adds: 'I am delighted when Central Europeans make use of our material. I think they have been treated very shabbily. If you come across examples of EU bullying (or worse) do let me know.'
Focus on Communists & Secret Police
The CRCE is sometimes criticised for discussing past times as "communism fell twelve years ago". We have, however, found others who agree with us that the influence of communism is still very much part of our world, not least in Central and Eastern Europe. Many of these colleagues are young, which is very encouraging. The following is a brief account of some of the projects they are pursuing.
We have already mentioned Professor Jerca Vodusek-Staric, who has done much research into her country's communist archives. Her publications have been read by a Swiss student, whom we invited to our Bled Conference last year. He has made the post-war massacres the topic of his PhD. We have also met a young American teaching linguistics in Ljubljana, who in his spare time carries out research on the communists in and after the Second World War.
Furthermore, the criminal records files of the former Yugoslavian secret police, UDBA, (KGB equivalent) were published on the Internet in April 2003 (http://www.udba.net). There are about one million names (classified by operatives, collaborators, sources and victims) and there have also been claims that hundreds of prominent Slovenes - including former President Milan Kucan, President Janez Drnovsek, the speaker of parliament, Borut Pahor, his deputy, Miha Brejc, and other leaders - collaborated with the feared agency. In May, Jerca and Ljubo were interviewed about the archives on Slovene television.
Much interest has been awakened in the activities of the UDBA and Ljubo Sirc is often called upon for his expert knowledge and experience. A most enlightening interview with him in Vecer, a Maribor newspaper, is available in English from the CRCE on request.
Sebestyen Gorka was appointed to research the secret police archives and discovered that Hungary's prime minister had worked for the secret police. It is thus particularly shaming that the BBC should televise a drama, The Cambridge Spies (about Philby, Burgess, Maclean and Blunt), that distorts so seriously the facts of these traitor's lives. In 1949 Philby betrayed hundreds of Albanian émigrés who had been trained in the West to mount an insurrection. Most were shot when the landed on the Albanian coast. Amongst those Philby betrayed the following year was Sebestyen Gorka's father, Paul v. Gorka, who was imprisoned for six years. He was smuggled out of Hungary to Britain during the 1956 Revolution. In 1985 Paul published Budapest Betrayed. The host at the book launch was Lisl's late father, John Biggs-Davison MP. Shortly before his death two months ago, Paul published a Hungarian edition of this work.
The Lithuanian Free Market Institute is allocating a day at their forthcoming conference, Toward Liberty, "to touching the history of Liberty and Oppression" which includes a visit to Grutas Park (Stalin's World) and to the KGB Museum "to evaluate the consequences of disregarding freedom".
On 5th June, Lisl met many friends and colleagues at the IEA when Anne Applebaum launched Gulag: A History of the Soviet Camps. In her presentation she underlined the connection between individual freedom and democracy and markets - a theme particularly appropriate for the IEA setting. Of course, Ljubo Sirc, together with the IEA founders, realised this when starting the CRCE nearly twenty years ago.
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