The table was composed of a small number of elite organizations, whose grassroots links were poorly developed and whose very existence stemmed in part from the collaboration of key Communist reformers.
In last Sunday's referendum, the voters chose to delay indefinitely the presidential election out of fear that even a Communist reformer might win - but the margin of decision was surprisingly tiny.
The uprising, which broke out on Oct. 23, swept to power Imre Nagy, a Communist reformer.
A6 German Communist reformers will try to oust hard-liners.
A resonant rite occurs in Hungary today when the remains of Imre Nagy and other Communist reformers are moved from a potter's field to the dignity of marked graves.
The image projected to the world was of two like-minded Communist reformers.
A dozen years ago in this newspaper he referred to would-be Communist reformers as "boot lickers."
Sidqi responded with further crackdowns, and many of the Communist reformers fled the cause.
TWO decades ago Communist reformers in Eastern Europe wanted to build a new type of economic system, one that would be a bold mix of Marxism and the free market.
The regime's next worry is the peril of disruption from the imminent visit by a new Communist reformer - Mr. Brezhnev's latest successor, Mikhail Gorbachev.