Communism in eastern europe always operated under the fiction that it had broad popular support. I find it striking that you find this striking!

I was brought up in the U.S. in the Cold War and regularly heard that several states Novikov mentions became "democratic" and underwent "democratization" in the 1990s because of the fall of the Soviet Union. It was striking to me that he used precisely the same word and concept to refer to the creation of the states that fell at that time, so that it was used unironically and even routinely to refer both to establishing and destroying them.

You have to remember that there was an internal narrative to communism. These people didn't sit on their chairs stroking white cats, thinking about how evil they were being. Many of them were opportunists, but there were also true believers. And everyone used the language of true believers to justify why things were the way they were.

The idea was that most people in capitalist countries were oppressed by the economic system, and that in the people's democracies they finally had a chance to have a say in how the country was governed, through workers' councils, a Party that represented them, and various forms of collective rule.

The difference was that one is real democracy, and the other a sham. But notice how even the most authoritarian states go to great lengths to pretend they have broad social support. Everyone loves democracy!

Just to substantiate this:

"As a result of their reorganization on democratic principles, in such former enemy countries as Bulgaria, Finland, Hungary, and Romania regimes have been created which have set themselves the task of strengthening and maintaining friendly relations with the Soviet Union. In the Slavic countries - Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia - liberated by the Red Army or with its help, democratic regimes have also been created and are consolidating which maintain relations with the Soviet Union on the basis of friendship and mutual aid agreements."

In Romania the "democratic regime" had received something like 3% of the votes at its inter-war peak and had later been banned for subversive activities sponsored by the Soviets.

There were solid reasons those "former enemies" were enemies.