Episode 3: If you can't win them over, then buy then off; Goulash communism defined as the death of ideology in the 1960's and the concentration on raising living standards - anything for a quiet life; the corrupt bargain and how this affects ordinary people; Goulash communism in a crisis; What if regimes lack the resources and buy people off? George Schopflin Professor of Western European Politics London School of Economics. Leszek Kołakowski, former Polish Communist Party member, Professor of Philosophy, Warsaw University. Peter Wiles, Professor of Economics of the Soviet Union, London School of Economics George Urban, Specialist, Hungarian Affairs, Professor of Politics, Sussex University Peter Redway, Professor of Politics, London School of Economics Pavel Tigrid, Editor of the Czech Journal, Witness Name withheld, Czech journalist.

The Russian revolution was really a disaster for communism. This astonishing assessment of the long-term sets off the discussion in the first programme of a series which examines emergent crises in Eastern bloc countries. The rising tide of criticism and dissent within the Soviet bloc, coupled with the ferment of Euro-Communism revisionism in Western Europe poses yet another threat to Soviet leadership. Produced for the Canadian and American Broadcasting Corporations, Gwynne Dyer looks at what's happening on Russia's front door, Eastern Europe. Over five episodes Dyer speaks with experts on the Soviet Union and Eastern bloc dissidents.