„Prologue" refers to the ethnic-nationality composition which is much more varied and mixed in Eastern Europe than in Western Europe. It is still not enough stressed precursor of a problem of Eastern Europe which is a historical category. Together with the other well known specific features the dangerous resurfacing of the syndrome that „only we belong to Europe" can be traced back to that everywhere.

The participants of the round table, noted West European Marxists and bourgeoise experts analyse the causes and consequences of the collapse of the East European systems. They try to find the difference between Marxism and „Marxism-Leninism", the Leninist and social democratic basis of interpreting Marxism and its relative truth. They do not only see the decay but also the unexpected emergence of the revolutionary activity of the masses, the possibbility of the development of a new left wing unity which does not simply mean identification with social democracy.

How do people in the Soviet Union imagine the reform of ownership framed in the term of „a multitude of forms of socialist ownership"? How do workers' collectives operating in the form of hiring and genuine cooperatives try to break the irrational limitations posed by state ownership and make their enterprises profitable? We get an answer to this question backed by examples.