The Rebirth of East Europe

by Roskin, Michael G.

• ISBN13: 9780130341204
• ISBN10: 0130341207
• Edition: 4th
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2019-03-29
• Publisher: Pearson

Summary

This book is designed toquicklyenlighten readers about nature of East Europe. Comprehensive and multiperspective--yet easy and enjoyable to read--it provides an accessible overview ofeverythingthat's politically relevant for the regiongeography, political history, Soviet occupation, Cold War, and system collapse.Caught between Empires. Flunking Democracy: The Interwar Years. East Europe and World War II. The Communist Takeovers. The Hated Regimes. "We Pretend to Work" : The Decay of Communism. 1989: The Gorbachev Factor. The Struggle for Democracy. The Horrors of Yugoslavia. Lessons, Hopes, Fears.For those interested in Eastern European Politics, Cold War History, Comparative Politics, International Relations.

Table of Contents

Preface	xiii
Introduction: East Europe as a Unit of Study	1	(1)
Is There Still a Second World?	2	(2)
What Did We Know and When Did We Know It?	4	(1)
The Study of East Europe's Politics	5	(2)
Caught Between Empires	7	(19)
East Europe's Ethnic Groups	8	(2)
Weak States	10	(2)
East or Central Europe?	11	(1)
Four Empires	12	(8)
The Ottoman (Turkish) Empire	13	(1)
Balkanization	14	(1)
The Last Ottoman Problem: Palestine	15	(1)
The Habsburg (Later Austro-Hungarian) Empire	15	(2)
``Divide and Rule''	17	(1)
The Tsarist Russian Empire	17	(1)
Are Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia Part of East Europe?	18	(1)
The Partitioning of Poland	19	(1)
The Prussian (German) Empire	19	(1)
The Eastern Question	20	(2)
Is East Germany Part of East Europe?	20	(1)
Key Treaties of Ottoman Decline	21	(1)
The Good Soldier Schweik	22	(1)
World War I in East Europe	22	(3)
Woodrow Wilson on East Europe	24	(1)
Suggested Readings	25	(1)
Flunking Democracy: The Interwar Years	26	(22)
Bordering on Madness	26	(9)
Poland	28	(1)
The Curzon Line	29	(1)
Czechoslovakia	29	(1)
Hungary	30	(1)
Yugoslavia	31	(1)
Romania	32	(1)
Bulgaria	32	(1)
Transylvania: Hungarian or Romanian?	33	(1)
Albania	34	(1)
Political Instability	35	(7)
Poland	36	(1)
Czechoslovakia	37	(1)
Conservatism and Fascism	38	(1)
Hungary	38	(1)
Yugoslavia	39	(1)
Romania	40	(1)
Bulgaria	41	(1)
Albania	41	(1)
International Alignments	42	(4)
Suggested Readings	46	(2)
East Europe and World War II	48	(16)
Ulbricht: A Stalin Puppet	48	(1)
The Structure of Communism	49	(3)
Stalin and Hitler's Rise	51	(1)
World War II in East Europe	52	(4)
Tito: Not a Stalin Puppet	54	(2)
Stalin's Approach to East Europe	56	(2)
The Katyn Massacre	57	(1)
``People's Democracy''	58	(1)
Yalta	58	(5)
The Balkan ``Percentages'' Deal	59	(1)
Yalta, 1945	60	(3)
Suggested Readings	63	(1)
The Communist Takeovers	64	(16)
Salami Tactics	65	(5)
Stalinism	68	(2)
The Postwar Takeovers	70	(6)
Poland	70	(1)
East Germany	70	(1)
Czechoslovakia	71	(1)
Hungary	72	(1)
Masaryk: Murder or Suicide?	72	(1)
Yugoslavia	73	(1)
Romania	74	(1)
Bulgaria	75	(1)
Albania	75	(1)
The Start of the Cold War	76	(3)
The Cold War	77	(2)
Suggested Readings	79	(1)
The Hated Regimes	80	(19)
The Stalinist Model	80	(8)
The Party in Power	80	(1)
Security Services	81	(1)
Communism and Socialism: What's the Difference?	82	(2)
The Warsaw Pact	84	(1)
Information Monopoly	85	(2)
How Much Did Ideology Count?	87	(1)
Russian Language and Culture	88	(1)
The Tito-Stalin Split	88	(4)
Yugoslavia's Maverick Communism	91	(1)
The Rumblings of Freedom	92	(6)
Pilsen, Czechoslovakia, 1953	92	(1)
East Berlin, 1953	92	(1)
The Uses of Anti-Semitism	93	(1)
Poznan, Poland, 1956	93	(2)
Khrushchev's Anti-Stalin Speech	95	(1)
Budapest, 1956	96	(1)
Did the United States Betray the Hungarian Revolution?	97	(1)
Suggested Readings	98	(1)
``We Pretend to Work'': The Decay of Communism	99	(21)
Economic Problems of Socialism	100	(3)
Comecon	102	(1)
Collectivization of Agriculture	103	(1)
The Long-Term Impact of Socialism	103	(7)
The Trouble with Statistical Comparisons	105	(1)
Falling Behind	106	(1)
The Diseducation of East Europe	107	(2)
The Jealousy Factor	109	(1)
Locked in a Bloc	110	(2)
The Berlin Wall	111	(1)
The Corruption Factor	112	(1)
The Beginnings of System Breakdown	112	(7)
Prague, Czechoslovakia, 1968	112	(2)
The Brezhnev Doctrine	114	(1)
Gdansk, Poland, 1970	115	(1)
The Rise of Solidarity	115	(2)
The Church Factor	117	(2)
Suggested Readings	119	(1)
1989: The Gorbachev Factor	120	(22)
``Liberal Communist'' Interlude	120	(3)
The Poisoning of East Europe	121	(2)
Gorbachev's New Thinking	123	(7)
The Debt Factor	124	(1)
The 1989 Pattern	125	(1)
The Reagan Factor	126	(2)
Imperial Overstretch	128	(2)
The Dominoes Fall	130	(10)
Poland	130	(1)
The Popieluszko Factor	131	(1)
The Contagion Factor	132	(1)
Hungary	132	(1)
``Fried Snowballs'': Is Reform Communism Possible?	133	(1)
East Germany	134	(2)
Czechoslovakia	136	(1)
Bulgaria	137	(1)
Romania	138	(1)
Even Albania	139	(1)
Suggested Readings	140	(2)
The Struggle for Democracy	142	(21)
Slovenia and Croatia	143	(1)
Splinter and Alternation	144	(2)
East Europe's Election Rules	145	(1)
A Model East European Party System	146	(2)
Poland	147	(1)
The Return of the Left	148	(1)
Romania	149	(1)
Emerging Party Systems	149	(3)
The Czech Republic	150	(1)
Slovakia	151	(1)
Founding Elections	152	(2)
Hungary	153	(1)
Nationalist Outbidding	154	(1)
Cabinet Instability	155	(2)
Bulgaria	156	(1)
The Key Issue	157	(2)
Economy, Democracy Corruption	158	(1)
To Punish or to Start Anew?	159	(1)
The Rip Van Winkle Effect	160	(1)
Albania	161	(1)
Suggested Readings	161	(2)
The Horrors of Yugoslavia	163	(18)
The Origins of Serbian Nationalism	163	(2)
The First Failure of Yugoslavia	165	(1)
The Second Failure of Yugoslavia	166	(2)
Yugoslavia's Structural Defects	167	(1)
The Wars of Yugoslav Succession	168	(4)
Searching for Blame	169	(3)
And What of Bosnia?	172	(4)
Hyped Hatred	173	(1)
Three Balkan Wars and How They Ended	174	(2)
Unprofor Lousy Ifor Excellent	176	(1)
The Kosovo Campaign	176	(3)
What Should We Do?	177	(1)
Unsettled Macedonia	178	(1)
Suggested Readings	179	(2)
Lessons, Hopes, Fears	181	(16)
Some Lessons	181	(6)
Socialist Economies Work Poorly	181	(1)
Is Marxism Dead?	182	(1)
What Is the Alternative to Capitalism?	183	(1)
Political Culture Is Not Very Malleable	184	(1)
Empires Are Expensive	185	(1)
There Is No Middle Ground between a Communist System and a Democratic System	185	(1)
Likewise, There Is No Middle Ground between a Centrally Controlled Economy and a Market Economy	185	(1)
A Rapid Transition to a Free Economy Is Best	185	(1)
Anti-Ifonlyism	186	(1)
Some Hopes	187	(4)
East Europe Will Join the European Union	187	(1)
The Russians Don't Panic Over East Europe	187	(1)
More ``Fried Snowballs''? Is Market Socialism Possible?	188	(2)
East Europe Turns Capitalist and Prosperous	190	(1)
Some Fears	191	(4)
Authoritarian Regimes Take Over in East Europe	191	(1)
Extreme Nationalist Regimes Take Over in East Europe	192	(1)
West Europe Fails to Open Its Markets to East Europe	192	(1)
Is Germany a Menace?	193	(1)
A United Europe Locks Out Foreign Goods	193	(1)
Foreigners Fail to Invest in East Europe	194	(1)
Germany Takes Over East Europe	195	(1)
Suggested Readings	195	(2)
Index	197

Excerpts

THIS BOOK IS NOT WRITTEN BY AN EXPERT ON EAST EUROPE, NOR IS IT INTENDED l for such experts. It grew out of my decision to include East Europe in an introductory comparative politics course. At the time, the upheaval in East Europe was making headlines every day; I could think of no way to make comparative politics more exciting or relevant. I looked for an introductory text and found nothing suitable. Existing works on East Europe tended to be overly specialized studies, sometimes of single countries, that had been overtaken by events. Many of these studies, prepared with great diligence by careful scholars, became irrelevant; Some were based on mistaken assumptions. Furthermore, the leading edge of political science requires its practitioners to theorize too much. To read some studies, one might think East Europe was populated by theories rather than by humans. The net package was a literature that was inaccessible to undergraduates, especially first-time students of East Europe. Many students have never been exposed to the basics that make something like East Europe intelligible. Especially lacking in the specialized literature are geography and twentieth-century history. How many students, for example, can locate Southern Dobrudja on a map? (Even worse, after they have been shown, a few still cannot locate Northern Dobrudja.) Accordingly, an introductory text must fill in many gaps in basic student knowledge. Writing this book gave me the opportunity to return to an area that was of great interest to me many years ago. From 1963 to 1964, I studied at the University of Belgrade, and I authored an earlier book ( Other Governments of Europe,Prentice Hall, 1977) that included Yugoslavia and East Germany. It was good to get back to an area that in recent years has not attracted the attention it deserves. For classroom instruction, East Europe and its recent upheavals provide some wonderful examples and case studies of legitimacy (or lack thereof), ideology (or lack thereof), the relation between politics and economics, international dependency, political culture, institution building, and party systems. Especially fascinating are the differences between East and West Europe and how rapidly the former will catch up with the latter. In the course of writing this book, it occurred to me that I was engaged in dialogues with three imaginary figures: one a leftist, one a rightist, and the third an optimistic political scientist. These figures are composites of people I have known over the years. The leftist, while uncomfortable with the actual workings of Communist East Europe, still thinks that Marx was basically right and that some type of socialism, perhaps the alleged "humanist" variety of the young Marx,, is the progressive thing to aim for. But East Europe really was socialism in action: What you saw was what you got. The rightist, on the other hand, is little aware of how bad and backward East Europe was before the Communists took over and, afterward, how difficult the transition from Communism will be. Rightists tend to believe that everything will be great with the Communists out of power. It is not that simple. The sources of instability are many in East Europe, and attitudes and institutions are not yet fully attuned to pluralist democracy and a market economy. Extreme and sometimes bloody nationalism erupted after the Communist blanket was removed. I still hope that after a long and difficult period of adjustment, most of East Europe will join West Europe as modern democracies and free economies. The imaginary political scientist, steeped in theories of systems and stability, for some years thought East Europe was headed for a middle way of hybrid regimes in which the Communists shared power with others. After some decades of reflecting on middle ways or third paths between communism and democracy, controlled and market economies (the purpose of my year in Yugoslavia), I concluded that they do not exist, or, if attempted, have short life spans. Events in East Europe and the ex-Soviet Union, I think, bear me out. My imaginary scholar also closely analyzed party elites, too closely to notice that the whole system depended on the threat of Soviet intervention. Take away that threat and the game of musical chairs in some politburo is about as significant as arranging deck chairs on the Titanic. This fourth edition has allowed me to get into the dynamics of building democracy and the violence of ex-Yugoslavia. Chapter 8 borrows from my article on party systems in the March 1993 East European Quarterly.My thanks go to its editor, Stephen Fischer-Galati, for permission to use portions of this article. Chapter 9 includes portions of my article on the war in ex-Yugoslavia in the Autumn 1994 Parameters,the journal of the U.S. Army War College, where I served as a visiting professor from 1991 to 1994. This experience was a time of intellectual growth and challenge, during which I came to appreciate more sharply the security dilemmas of the region. Dr. Gary Guertner and retired Col. John Madigan, editor of Parameters,encouraged me to elaborate some of my ideas on ex-Yugoslavia. One of the highlights of the Army War College is working with International Fellows, some of whom were directly relevant to this book. I must thank Col. Gunther Wolfframm of Austria; Lt. Col. Thadeusz Lesniowski, Col. Zdzislaw Wojcik, and Col. Kazimierz Sikorski of Poland; Col. Tibor Nagy and Maj. Gen. Ferenc Vegh of Hungary; and Lt. Col. Jiri Sedivy of the Czech Republic, from whom I learned so much. Special thanks must also go to Zsuzsa Kelen, an economist and distant cousin in Budapest, who gave me many insights into the economic difficulties of the transition to a market system. Doctors Cestmir Konecny and Miloslav Had of the Institute of International Relations in Prague illuminated the factors underlying the Czech-Slovak split. 44. Gen. Pavol Gavlas, director of the Institute for Strategic Studies in Prague, gave me a lucid, somber orientation on the security implications of Slovak separation, and Dr. Andrzej Karkoszka of the Polish Institute of International Affairs in Warsaw gave me a clear perspective on the various impacts of Poland''s massive economic change. Dr. Anton Zabkar of the Slovenian Defense Ministry gave me an insider''s view of the breakup of Yugoslavia and the role of the Yugoslav army in it. I also owe special thanks to my Lycoming colleagues. Historian Robert Larson, with whom I toured Central Europe in 1992, made important comments about and corrections in some of my historical chapters; he saved me from making several misstatements. Mathematician Andrzej Bucki gave me an insider''s view of Solidarity and taught me how to pronounce Polish names. Additionally, I wish to thank Donald E. Pienkos of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee; Zachary T. Irwin of the Pennsylvania State University-Erie, The Behrend College; and Joan Serafm of Frostburg State University in Maryland for their conscientious and helpful remarks on the first edition. Full responsibility, of course, is mine. I welcome all professional comments and corrections for possible future editions. They can be sent directly to me at Lycoming College, Williamsport, PA 17701, or e-mail [e-mail]. Michael G. Roskin