You are right, it is hard to generalize: for example Albania did not dependent on Moscow at all and Romania even had its own foreign policy that did not automatically follow Moscow. Go figure...
You could leave the GDR - but you had to wait for the permit for several years and your ability to earn an income was severely restricted during that period; In the USSR Jews could apply for emigration since the seventies, and permission was very dependent on the current political climate and the whims of the higher ups.
You could leave the GDR - but you had to wait for the permit for several years and your ability to earn an income was severely restricted during that period; In the USSR Jews could apply for emigration since the seventies, and permission was very dependent on the current political climate and the whims of the higher ups.