„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.

The analysis tries to review and group the political trends of the multiparty system in the Soviet Union which exists in a very initial form as yet, and it separates the the different phases of the emergence of a multi-party system. It states that the Soviet Communist Party which cannot be classified as a party for quite some time, involves the most different forces and when these are separated, this party will not have a future any more. The main political forces in the Soviet Union, too, include the national-conservative, the liberal-bourgeois and the labour-socialist (and the „vanguard" which is being pushed into the back). The author's sympathy is with the future party of the workers which, however, is still far from being able to mobilise masses of people.