... in a communist run country when they were reaping the financial benefits but they could see that a free market economy had many benefits against their current system. The personalities of various leaders can be seen as vital to the eventual collapse of the Soviet Union, starting with Khrushchev and ending with Gorbachev who was described by Margaret Thatcher as "a man we can do business with." It cannot be said that Khrushchev abandoned Stalin's policies completely because in the Hungarian uprising of 1956 Warsaw Pact troops fought against Hungarian rebels in bloody street battles when Imre Nagy was replaced by Janos Kadar. This goes to show that despite some liberalisations, Hungary would not be allowed to "leave the fold" and set the precedent for other Eastern European countries at that time. As Leonid Brezhnev said in May 1968 at a politburo discussion "Liberalization and democratization are in essence counter-revolution." ...

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