We turn now to a study of the contrasting patterns of reality in respect of a 'second society" in Central and Eastern Europe. We shall deal briefly with Czechoslovakia and Poland, already analysed in detail in preceding chapters, and more extensively with other countries of the area, including Soviet Russia before the 1980s, and Poland after martial law. Our aim is to estimate the degree to which the germs of a second polity or a parallel or independent society, or what Hankiss in his revised article termed "an alternative society" developed (or did not develop at all). We shall also examine the distinctive terms and concepts which were used to interpret such developments.¹