The Communist Party

Why did the Communist Party decline in power in Western Europe during the late 1950s? 1. The Soviet Union’s 1956 revelation and condemnation of Stalin’s tyranny. 2. The Party’s attempted take-over of Great Britain through revolutionary violence in 1954 alienated many leftists in the rest of Europe.

3. The Party’s weak retreat from Eastern Europe disillusioned hard-liners in Western Europe. 4. The Party was too centrist in a postwar political culture that valued political extremes.