Cold War Survivor: Soviet &"sister" party leaders: IMRE NAGY is the SURVIVOR !

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

I'm not going to vote for Ochab. Guy acted pretty resonably during a transition from Stalinism and resigned in protest of March 1968 anti-semitic actions.

Milos Jakes, another brief leader

[Associate Justice PiT]

     Jakes

[big bad fab]

I've hesitated with Jakes... He wasn't credible...

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Kadar wasn't (relatively) bad. He was probably the best leader Hungary could've had during that time. Hungary had the most mild regime of the Eastern Bloc, no large secret police force, and was probably more free than some NATO and Western European countries (Spain, Portugal under the mid-70s and Greece under the military regime.)

I vote Khrushchev again.

[Hans-im-Glück]

I vote for Milos Jakes

Of course, this will end as Dubček v. Nagy.

All other finals would be very big surprises

[big bad fab]

The hypocritical, mediocre and, in fact, conservative Jakes (his so-called "gorbachevism" was only opportunism) is out, but in a low turnout.

Come on guys, vote, vote, vote, even during Atlasia's election days!

ROUND TWENTY-FOUR IS OPEN

We have now some two-face leaders, some ambiguous ones and some quite good ones.
Hard to choose, really.
It should be good to get rid of Ochab, a small one and an orthodox (even if he wasn't the worst).

But, this round, I vote for Gheorghe Apostol.

All those so-called "reformist" Rumanians were fake. They were reformists when they saw the end coming closer and closer... He was, first, a big leader in the 1950s-1960s and not a smooth one.

[Hans-im-Glück]

Wojciech Jaruzelski (Mr. Martial law)

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

Hungary had the most mild regime of the Eastern Bloc

Actually post 1956 Poland was closer with martial law exceptions

[Хahar 🤔]

Kadar

[big bad fab]

Wojciech Jaruzelski (Mr. Martial law)

Jaruzelski was the first to launch real negotiations with an organized opposition. He was probably a clever guy. It seems as though he didn't do it on Andropov's and Gorbachev's order, but on its own.
It seems as if the martial law was a way to avoid a Soviet military intervention.

But at the same time, he may have tried to (*ahem*) polish his own image: he lost partially his vision because of the Siberian snow, during captivity there; he was a saviour, sort of; all these may have been pure rewritings of history...
And, well Solidarnosc and the Catholic Church were so strong that nobody could have ignored them.
And in 1981, even if an ailing Brezhnev and, more than him Suslov, Gromyko, Ustinov and even Andropov were very angry at Poland, how could they have intervened with the Afghan war, a stretched economy and a restful Soviet population after some very bad harvests.

Jaruzelski, like Kadar and Andropov, was a typical ambiguous guy.

Kadar betrayed Nagy, but said he had to do this just to "save" Hungary from an even worse fate. Are we so sure ? And Hungary had a mild regime, sort of, but, what is more, a mediocre regime with a sort of "political correctness" that didn't favored strong and smart oppositions as in Poland and Czechoslovakia.

Therefore I think Apostol deserves to go first : at least, Kadar and Jaruzelski have done something positive, even after very bad things.
Apostol hasn't done anything: he tried, with Iliescu, Brucan, Voican, Manescu, to take advantage from Ceausescu's fall of power and to rewrite history by making these guys "real" opposition !

[Edu]

Gheorghe Apostol

[big bad fab]

Statistics updated, including round 23:

Biggest total of votes in the round when eliminated:
Stalin: 10
Chernenko, Husak: 7

Lowest total of votes in the round when eliminated:
Zhivkov, Ulbricht, Novotny, Alia, Malenkov, Jakes: 3

Biggest vote in a round though not being eliminated:
Ceausescu: 4

Biggest total of votes up to elimination:
Krenz: 13
Bierut, Chervenkov, Husak: 12
Stalin, Ceausescu: 10

Biggest rate of votes when eliminated:
Stalin: 100%

Lowest rates of votes when eliminated:
Zhivkov, Alia: 37,5%
Gottwald: 44,4%
Ulbricht, Novotny, Malenkov, Pieck, Jakes: 50%

Eliminated without having received votes in previous rounds:
Stalin (no previous round), Hoxha, Gheorghiu-Dej, Ulbricht, Novotny, Dimitrov, Pieck, Jakes

Biggest delay between first vote and ousting:
Husak: 11->21
Gomulka: 10->19
Krenz: 14->22
Honecker: 9->16

Biggest turnout:
10 (first round)

Lowest turnout:
5 (seventh round)

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

Gheorghe Apostol

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

Wojciech Jaruzelski (Mr. Martial law)

Jaruzelski was the first to launch real negotiations with an organized opposition. He was probably a clever guy. It seems as though he didn't do it on Andropov's and Gorbachev's order, but on its own.
It seems as if the martial law was a way to avoid a Soviet military intervention.

But at the same time, he may have tried to (*ahem*) polish his own image: he lost partially his vision because of the Siberian snow, during captivity there; he was a saviour, sort of; all these may have been pure rewritings of history...
And, well Solidarnosc and the Catholic Church were so strong that nobody could have ignored them.
And in 1981, even if an ailing Brezhnev and, more than him Suslov, Gromyko, Ustinov and even Andropov were very angry at Poland, how could they have intervened with the Afghan war, a stretched economy and a restful Soviet population after some very bad harvests.

Jaruzelski, like Kadar and Andropov, was a typical ambiguous guy.

Kadar betrayed Nagy, but said he had to do this just to "save" Hungary from an even worse fate. Are we so sure ? And Hungary had a mild regime, sort of, but, what is more, a mediocre regime with a sort of "political correctness" that didn't favored strong and smart oppositions as in Poland and Czechoslovakia.

Therefore I think Apostol deserves to go first : at least, Kadar and Jaruzelski have done something positive, even after very bad things.
Apostol hasn't done anything: he tried, with Iliescu, Brucan, Voican, Manescu, to take advantage from Ceausescu's fall of power and to rewrite history by making these guys "real" opposition !

You know, following two years of PiS rule I'm, as a large part of Polish population, rather alergic on using historical contests in politics, and Jaruzelski was one of such "issues".

For a generation of my parents in 1980s Jaruzelski was a personification of evil and dictatorship following declaration of martial law, but today, from perspective, many of them, former Solidarity members like my parents, who fought with communism and are glad from victory, actually shares the views that he did so to prevent worse scenario.

And, as Big Bad Fab mentioned here, Jaruzelski was the first to launch real negotiations with an organized opposition. We shall not forgot that.

Very complicated and tragic person anyway. Comparing him to many others fellow in this list is really unfair.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     Apostol

[GMantis]

Gheorge Apostol
Complete non entity

[big bad fab]

Apostol has been swiftly eliminated and Romania joins Bulgaria, Albania and East Germany among the countries with no more leader surviving.

Some fine discussions too.

ROUND TWENTY-FIVE IS OPEN

I vote for Ochab.

Again, an orthodox one, even if he disagreed with anti-semitic campaigns (his wife was a Jew).
And, as GMantis would say, rather a non-entity.
It would be fine to get rid of him before ousting the ambiguous, double-face and quite good leaders.

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

All right, all right, Ochab, because he was very brief leader

Interstingly, many Poles can't say who was Frist Secretary between Bierut and Gomułka

[Associate Justice PiT]

     Ochab

[Edu]

Ochab

[GMantis]

Edward Ochab

[Hans-im-Glück]

Ochab

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Nikita Khrushchev

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

Ochab landslide is cooming

[big bad fab]

Ochab (small) landslide indeed.

ROUND TWENTY-SIX IS OPEN

I vote for Gierek.

Many "promises", few successes. Unable to face unrest, unable to dare to speak with the opposition, unlike Kania or Jaruzelski.

He was in fact a little Brezhnev (remember, in 1960-1964 and just after K's ousting, Brezhnev was a young, smiling, dynamic and peaceful leader: many in the East and the West were happy to see him ousting the rebel and unforeseeable K, especially after Cuba). BTW, he was Brezhnev's man in Poland.

Even more, he may have been a little Kosygin: young technocrat promising reforms but implementing few things and succeeding in even fewer; and Kosygin was first promoted during the last years of Stalin's era, just like Gierek climbed the hierarchy during Bierut and then Gomulka years, without any problem.

I'm not saying he was evil, but we are now at a point where we begin eliminating not entirely evil men.
I must acknowledge it's difficult for me to vote "for" Khrushchev yet... Even though I don't like him and he was a pure Stalinist, he did very courageous things. But would have Béria been more efficient ?