Introduction: Subversion, Dissent and Opposition in Communist Europe and Beyond

This essay introduces “Between Subversion and Opposition: Multiple Challenges to Communist Rule,” a special issue of East Central Europe. It focuses on four broader questions raised by the contributions: the different periodizations associated with communist rule; the meanings attached to different forms of subversion and dissent; the broader transnational contexts in which activists operated—including the role of contacts with activists in the West; and, finally, the different ways oppositional activity has been remembered and represented.