Editing Eastern Bloc (section)

===Political and civil restrictions===
{{further|Political repression in the Soviet Union|Human rights in the Soviet Union|Elections in the Soviet Union|Population transfer in the Soviet Union|Gulag|Telephone tapping in the Eastern Bloc|Suppressed research in the Soviet Union|Samizdat|Sharashka}}
In addition to emigration restrictions, civil society, defined as a domain of political action outside the party's state control, was not allowed to firmly take root, with the possible exception of [[History of Poland (1945–1989)#Final decade of the Polish People's Republic (1980–89)|Poland in the 1980s]].<ref name="hardt18">{{Harvnb|Hardt|Kaufman|1995|p=18}}</ref> While the institutional design of the communist systems were based on the rejection of rule of law, the legal infrastructure was not immune to change reflecting decaying ideology and the substitution of autonomous law.<ref name="hardt18"/> Initially, communist parties were small in all countries except Czechoslovakia, such that there existed an acute shortage of politically "trustworthy" persons for administration, police, and other professions.<ref name="wettig40">{{Harvnb|Wettig|2008|p=40}}</ref> Thus, "politically unreliable" non-communists initially had to fill such roles.<ref name="wettig40"/> Those not obedient to communist authorities were ousted, while Moscow cadres started a large-scale party programs to train personnel who would meet political requirements.<ref name="wettig40"/> Former members of the middle-class were officially discriminated against, though the state's need for their skills and certain opportunities to re-invent themselves as good Communist citizens did allow many to nonetheless achieve success.<ref name="James, M (2005)">{{cite journal |last1=Mark |first1=James |title=Discrimination, opportunity, and middle-class success in early Communist Hungary |journal=The Historical Journal |date=June 2005 |volume=48 |issue=2 |pages=499–521 |doi=10.1017/S0018246X05004486 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/33CC6D7338635CA31C36D84DE015E1AD/S0018246X05004486a.pdf/div-class-title-discrimination-opportunity-and-middle-class-success-in-early-communist-hungary-div.pdf |archive-date=27 April 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190427095703id_/https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/33CC6D7338635CA31C36D84DE015E1AD/S0018246X05004486a.pdf/div-class-title-discrimination-opportunity-and-middle-class-success-in-early-communist-hungary-div.pdf}}</ref>

Communist regimes in the Eastern Bloc viewed marginal groups of opposition intellectuals as a potential threat because of the bases underlying Communist power therein.<ref name="Pollackxiv">{{Harvnb|Pollack|Wielgohs|2004|p=xiv}}</ref> The suppression of dissidence and opposition was considered a central prerequisite to retain power, though the enormous expense at which the population in certain countries were kept under secret surveillance may not have been rational.<ref name="Pollackxiv"/> Following a totalitarian initial phase, a post-totalitarian period followed the death of Stalin in which the primary method of Communist rule shifted from mass terror to selective repression, along with ideological and sociopolitical strategies of legitimation and the securing of loyalty.<ref name="Pollackxv">{{Harvnb|Pollack|Wielgohs|2004|p=xv}}</ref> Juries were replaced by a tribunal of professional judges and two lay assessors that were dependable party actors.<ref name="crampton247">{{Harvnb|Crampton|1997|p=247}}</ref>

The police deterred and contained opposition to party directives.<ref name="crampton247"/> The political police served as the core of the system, with their names becoming synonymous with raw power and the threat of violent retribution should an individual become active against the State.<ref name="crampton247"/> Several state police and secret police organizations enforced communist party rule, including the following:
* Soviet Union – [[KGB]]
* East Germany – [[Stasi]], [[Volkspolizei]] and [[Combat Groups of the Working Class|KdA]]
* Czechoslovakia – [[StB|STB]] and [[People's Militias (Czechoslovakia)|LM]]
* Bulgaria – [[Committee for State Security (Bulgaria)|KDS]], usually referred to as just "Darzhavna sigurnost" ("State Security")
* Albania – [[Sigurimi]]
* Yugoslavia – [[Directorate for State Security (Yugoslavia)|UDBA]]
* Hungary – [[State Protection Authority|ÁVH]] and [[Workers' Militia|Munkásőrség]]
* Romania – [[Securitate]] and [[Patriotic Guards (Romania)|GP]]
* Poland – [[Urząd Bezpieczeństwa]], [[Służba Bezpieczeństwa]] and [[ZOMO]]