Eastern Europe Below the Speed Limit

Under the old East German regime, no institution was more loathed than the Stasi -- the nickname for the Staatsicherheitdienst, or state security police. So it was hardly a surprise that the angriest protests since the November revolution were ignited last week when the government of Communist reformer Hans Modrow proposed that the Stasi, declared defunct on Dec. 17, be revived in a revamped form. It was also revealed that the ministry, which had 85,000 employees when it was officially disbanded, still has some 50,000 agents on the job.

What did seem shocking was the violence of the protest. While an East Berlin crowd of more than 100,000 cheered from outside, several thousand demonstrators tore through part of the huge, 3,000-room building complex on Normanenstrasse. In November protesters entered Stasi offices, but only when accompanied by ordinary police and as part of an effort to ensure that records were not destroyed or spirited away. This time there was no such decorum. The invaders ripped through desks and files, shattered windows and upended furniture.

By the standards of most young revolutions prior to the annus mirabilis of 1989, the event was rather tame. There was even some speculation that the Communist government had fomented the trouble to spread fear of disorder. Nonetheless, the sacking of Stasi headquarters epitomized a rising impatience with the pace of change in several East European countries. Increasingly aware of the strength they can wield in open demonstrations, many East Germans, Rumanians and Bulgarians seem to be growing more restive, more insistent in their demands. Their sights are often set, as they were in East Berlin, on the efforts of Communist officeholders to cling to their old jobs, or to any jobs. Yet the protesters also seem intent on bringing about open confrontations, and this has thrown into question just how orderly life in these countries will remain.

In East Germany, even before the raid, the Modrow government acceded to demands that the issue of resurrecting a state security ministry be left until after elections are held on May 6. Even so, the question of order loomed larger, and the spectacle of the rampage discomfited the government and opposition alike. Said Konrad Weiss, a leader of the Democracy Now movement and an organizer of the protest that preceded the riot: "We found out that radicals in this country can easily misuse a peaceful demonstration."

Fears of unrest were also sounded in Bonn, where authorities are worried about ferment within East Germany and the continuing tide of immigrants to the West, which is still running at about 2,000 a day. A top official of Chancellor Helmut Kohl's government, wary of calling too brazenly for unification, urged another formulation. East Berlin, he suggested, should declare that a federal state binding together the two Germanys is the goal of both countries. That, West German officials felt, might help reassure would-be immigrants and stanch the flow.

If Modrow's grip on power is slipping, the authority of Rumania's new government seems to be splintering completely. Two weeks ago, 1,000 demonstrators converged on the headquarters of the ruling National Salvation Front in Bucharest, screaming, "Death for Communists!" The Front, whose eleven-member ruling board is made up entirely of former party members, immediately outlawed the Communist Party.