Central and Eastern Europe, 1944–1993: Detour from the Periphery to the Periphery

by Ivan Berend

• ISBN13: 9780521550666
• ISBN10: 0521550661
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1996-09-13
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

In this wide-ranging account, Ivan Berend traces the post-war fortunes of the countries lying between Germany and the former Soviet Union. Professor Berend draws both on his academic expertise and personal involvement in many of the events which he describes to produce a synthesis of a huge array of materials. His study stretches beyond the confines of economic history to provide insights into the complex interplay of ideological, social and political forces in the 'Eastern Bloc' countries over the last fifty years of revolutionary change. In particular Berend's analysis of totalitarianism, the development of nationalism, and the personalities at the centre of political life in eastern Europe offers a new perspective on the economies of the state-socialist regimes at the periphery of the western industrialised world.

Table of Contents

Preface	ix	(9)
Acknowledgments	xviii
I Out from Europe: the introduction of state socialism, the Stalinist decades, and revolts against them	1	(152)
1 Communist seizure of power, 1944-8	3	(36)
2 The closed society in Stalinist state socialism after 1948	39	(55)
3 Reforms, revolutions, and the loosening bloc, the 1950s and 1960s	94	(59)
II Temporary success and terminal failure: the post-Stalinist decades - modernization, erosion, and collapse	153	(148)
4 Post-Stalinist state socialism and its legitimization	155	(27)
5 Economic and social performance of state socialism, 1950-89	182	(40)
6 Cirsis and erosion of state socialism, 1973-88	222	(32)
7 The collapse: a revolutionary symphony in four movements, 1989	254	(47)
III Back to Europe? Post-1989 transformation and pathways to the future	301	(81)
8 Building a parliamentary market system	303	(38)
Economic decline - political challenge - rising nationalism	341	(41)
References	382	(19)
Names index	401	(6)
Subject index	407