Download or read book The Dilemmas of De Stalinization written by Polly Jones and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2006-04-07 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Providing a comprehensive history of reform in the Khrushchev era, this book focuses specifically on social and cultural developments. It appraises how far 'Destalinization' went and whether developments in the period represented a real desire for reform, or rather an attempt to fortify the Soviet system, but on different lines.
Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of the History of Communism written by S. A. Smith and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2014-01-09 with total page 834 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The impact of Communism on the twentieth century was massive, equal to that of the two world wars. Until the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, historians knew relatively little about the secretive world of communist states and parties. Since then, the opening of state, party, and diplomatic archives of the former Eastern Bloc has released a flood of new documentation. The thirty-five essays in this Handbook, written by an international team of scholars, draw on this new material to offer a global history of communism in the twentieth century. In contrast to many histories that concentrate on the Soviet Union, The Oxford Handbook of the History of Communism is genuinely global in its coverage, paying particular attention to the Chinese Revolution. It is 'global', too, in the sense that the essays seek to integrate history 'from above' and 'from below', to trace the complex mediations between state and society, and to explore the social and cultural as well as the political and economic realities that shaped the lives of citizens fated to live under communist rule. The essays reflect on the similarities and differences between communist states in order to situate them in their socio-political and cultural contexts and to capture their changing nature over time. Where appropriate, they also reflect on how the fortunes of international communism were shaped by the wider economic, political, and cultural forces of the capitalist world. The Handbook provides an informative introduction for those new to the field and a comprehensive overview of the current state of scholarship for those seeking to deepen their understanding.
Download or read book Stalinism for All Seasons written by Vladimir Tismaneanu and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2003-10-15 with total page 412 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This history of the Romanian Communist Party (RCP) traces its origins as a tiny, clandestine revolutionary organization in the 1920s, to its years in national power from 1944 to 1989, and to the post-1989 metamorphoses.
Download or read book Stalin and the Fate of Europe written by Norman M. Naimark and published by Belknap Press. This book was released on 2019-10-08 with total page 369 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner of the Norris and Carol Hundley Award Winner of the U.S.–Russia Relations Book Prize A Financial Times Best History Book of the Year The Cold War division of Europe was not inevitable—the acclaimed author of Stalin’s Genocides shows how postwar Europeans fought to determine their own destinies. Was the division of Europe after World War II inevitable? In this powerful reassessment of the postwar order in Europe, Norman Naimark suggests that Joseph Stalin was far more open to a settlement on the continent than we have thought. Through revealing case studies from Poland and Yugoslavia to Denmark and Albania, Naimark recasts the early Cold War by focusing on Europeans’ fight to determine their future. As nations devastated by war began rebuilding, Soviet intentions loomed large. Stalin’s armies controlled most of the eastern half of the continent, and in France and Italy, communist parties were serious political forces. Yet Naimark reveals a surprisingly flexible Stalin, who initially had no intention of dividing Europe. During a window of opportunity from 1945 to 1948, leaders across the political spectrum, including Juho Kusti Paasikivi of Finland, Wladyslaw Gomulka of Poland, and Karl Renner of Austria, pushed back against outside pressures. For some, this meant struggling against Soviet dominance. For others, it meant enlisting the Americans to support their aims. The first frost of Cold War could be felt in the tense patrolling of zones of occupation in Germany, but not until 1948, with the coup in Czechoslovakia and the Berlin Blockade, did the familiar polarization set in. The split did not become irreversible until the formal division of Germany and establishment of NATO in 1949. In illuminating how European leaders deftly managed national interests in the face of dominating powers, Stalin and the Fate of Europe reveals the real potential of an alternative trajectory for the continent.
Download or read book Eastern Europe 1945 1969 written by Ben Fowkes and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-05-12 with total page 189 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Here is an essential short guide to the history of Eastern Europe under the early decades of communist rule. The study explores the communists attempt to transpose a uniform economic and social system across the region copied from the Soviet model. Dr Fowkes shows how this did not always succeed and he reveals the local variations which became more pronounced after the death of Stalin. The book includes detailed analysis of the dramatic events in Poland and Hungary and in the assessment section there is a useful summary of the strengths and weaknesses of the communist model in its heyday. It is an illuminating study, full of maps and photographs as well as over 30 documents (most previously unavailable in English) which brings this complex subject alive. and helps us to understand the special conditions the people of the region have faced in catching up with the West both in terms of material prosperity and more recently in the establishment of democratic political systems.
Download or read book Theory of International Law written by Grigoriĭ Ivanovich Tunkin and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 1974 with total page 534 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Monograph on the theoretics of international law as seen in the context of the concepts and principles of Marxism-leninism - covers the process of forming norms, and the legal nature and essence of contemporary international law, foreign policy and diplomacy, the laws of societal development and international organizations (legal status), the general character and forms of State responsibility under international law, etc., and includes a bibliography of published works of gi tunkin (1938 to 1973), etc.
Download or read book Iron Curtain written by Anne Applebaum and published by Anchor. This book was released on 2012-10-30 with total page 803 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the long-awaited follow-up to her Pulitzer Prize-winning Gulag, acclaimed journalist Anne Applebaum delivers a groundbreaking history of how Communism took over Eastern Europe after World War II and transformed in frightening fashion the individuals who came under its sway. At the end of World War II, the Soviet Union to its surprise and delight found itself in control of a huge swath of territory in Eastern Europe. Stalin and his secret police set out to convert a dozen radically different countries to Communism, a completely new political and moral system. In Iron Curtain, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Anne Applebaum describes how the Communist regimes of Eastern Europe were created and what daily life was like once they were complete. She draws on newly opened East European archives, interviews, and personal accounts translated for the first time to portray in devastating detail the dilemmas faced by millions of individuals trying to adjust to a way of life that challenged their every belief and took away everything they had accumulated. Today the Soviet Bloc is a lost civilization, one whose cruelty, paranoia, bizarre morality, and strange aesthetics Applebaum captures in the electrifying pages of Iron Curtain.
Download or read book Soviet Workers and Stalinist Industrialization written by Donald A. Filtzer and published by . This book was released on 1986 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: No
Download or read book The Development Century written by Stephen J. Macekura and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2018-09-06 with total page 367 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Offers cutting-edge perspectives on how international development has shaped the global history of the modern world.
Download or read book Kim Il Sung in the Khrushchev Era written by Balázs Szalontai and published by Stanford University Press. This book was released on 2005 with total page 388 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Concentrating on the years 1953-64, this history describes how North Korea became more despotic even as other Communist countries underwent de-Stalinization. The authors principal new source is the Hungarian diplomatic archives, which contain extensive reporting on Kim Il Sung and North Korea, thoroughly informed by research on the period in the Soviet and Eastern European archives and by recently published scholarship. Much of the story surrounds Kim Il Sung: his Korean nationalism and eagerness for Korean autarky; his efforts to balance the need for foreign aid and his hope for an independent foreign policy; and what seems to be his good sense of timing in doing in internal rivals without attracting Soviet retaliation. Through a series of comparisons not only with the USSR but also with Albania, Romania, Yugoslavia, China, and Vietnam, the author highlights unique features of North Korean communism during the period. Szalontai covers ongoing effects of Japanese colonization, the experiences of diverse Korean factions during World War II, and the weakness of the Communist Party in South Korea.
Download or read book Imagining the West in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union written by Gyorgy Peteri and published by University of Pittsburgh Pre. This book was released on 2010-11-28 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume presents work from an international group of writers who explore conceptualizations of what defined "East" and "West" in Eastern Europe, imperial Russia, and the Soviet Union. The contributors analyze the effects of transnational interactions on ideology, politics, and cultural production. They reveal that the roots of an East/West cultural divide were present many years prior to the rise of socialism and the Cold War. The chapters offer insights into the complex stages of adoption and rejection of Western ideals in areas such as architecture, travel writings, film, music, health care, consumer products, political propaganda, and human rights. They describe a process of mental mapping whereby individuals "captured and possessed" Western identity through cultural encounters and developed their own interpretations from these experiences. Despite these imaginaries, political and intellectual elites devised responses of resistance, defiance, and counterattack to defy Western impositions. Socialists believed that their cultural forms and collectivist strategies offered morally and materially better lives for the masses and the true path to a modern society. Their sentiments toward the West, however, fluctuated between superiority and inferiority. But in material terms, Western products, industry, and technology, became the ever-present yardstick by which progress was measured. The contributors conclude that the commodification of the necessities of modern life and the rise of consumerism in the twentieth century made it impossible for communist states to meet the demands of their citizens. The West eventually won the battle of supply and demand, and thus the battle for cultural influence.
Download or read book The Thaw written by Denis Kozlov and published by University of Toronto Press. This book was released on 2013-09-20 with total page 529 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The period from Stalin’s death in 1953 to the end of the 1960s marked a crucial epoch in Soviet history. Though not overtly revolutionary, this era produced significant shifts in policies, ideas, language, artistic practices, daily behaviours, and material life. It was also during this time that social, cultural, and intellectual processes in the USSR began to parallel those in the West (and particularly in Europe) as never before. This volume examines in fascinating detail the various facets of Soviet life during the 1950s and 1960s, a period termed the ‘Thaw.’ Featuring innovative research by historical, literary, and film scholars from across the world, this book helps to answer fundamental questions about the nature and ultimate fortune of the Soviet order – both in its internal dynamics and in its long-term and global perspectives.
Download or read book The Cambridge History of Communism written by Norman Naimark and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2017-09-21 with total page 700 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The second volume of The Cambridge History of Communism explores the rise of Communist states and movements after World War II. Leading experts analyze archival sources from formerly Communist states to re-examine the limits to Moscow's control of its satellites; the de-Stalinization of 1956; Communist reform movements; the rise and fall of the Sino-Soviet alliance; the growth of Communism in Asia, Africa and Latin America; and the effects of the Sino-Soviet split on world Communism. Chapters explore the cultures of Communism in the United States, Western Europe and China, and the conflicts engendered by nationalism and the continued need for support from Moscow. With the danger of a new Cold War developing between former and current Communist states and the West, this account of the roots, development and dissolution of the socialist bloc is essential reading.
Download or read book The Near Abroad written by Zbigniew Wojnowski and published by University of Toronto Press. This book was released on 2017-01-01 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In The Near Abroad, Zbigniew Wojnowski traces how Soviet Ukrainian identities developed in dialogue and confrontation with the USSR's neighbours in Eastern Europe.
Download or read book The Last Days of Stalin written by Joshua Rubenstein and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2016-01-01 with total page 299 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Monografie over de laatste maanden in het leven van Stalin en de periode daarna.
Download or read book The Other Europe written by Jacques Rupnik and published by Schocken Books Incorporated. This book was released on 1989 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jacques Rupnik, one of the foremost experts on Eastern Europe, looks at the countries behind the Iron Curtain not merely as subjects of the Soviet Empire, but from within. Proposing a new way of thinking about the "other Europe"--One which takes seriously the predicament of individual nations squeezed between two superpowers -- Rupnik analyzes what made the Communist takeovers possible in the first place, describes the repressive delirium of the Stalinist era, and examines the demise of Marxism-Leninism both as ideology and as a credible system of government. Rupnik analyzes the lessons learned from previous attempts at reform and concludes that change is now taking place in the context of decay -- economic, social, environmental, and political -- and may bring about the retreat of the Communist Party. Finally he considers the "Gorbachev factor" : will reform in Moscow accelerate the dynamics of change, or will it force the Soviet Union to strengthen its hold on the outposts of its empire, the countries of the "other Europe"? - Jacket flap.
Download or read book The State in Socialist Society written by Neil Harding and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 1984-06-30 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The focus of all the essays in this collection is the problem of state power in Communist regimes. The problematic nature of the relationship between state and society has troubled the marxist tradition since its inception and continues to be an unresolved issue for its contemporary theorists. Western attempts to characterise the state formations of Communist regimes are equally notoriously debatable and fraught with methodological problems. Both indigenous and Western attempts to theorise these formations are thoroughly reviewed in the early chapters of this book. Later chapters, each written by an expert in the field, go on to explore particular issues (the problem of nationalism within a multi-national state, for instance) or the recent experience of selected Communist regimes in attempting to adapt their institutions to meet new problems. Special attention is paid to the USSR in view of the enormous significance of the Soviet State and the extent to which it has served as a model. Other case studies have been included on the basis that these state formations display unique features (Yugoslavia), that size and importance commends them (China), or that failure in the process of institutional adaptation is instructive for their pathology (Poland). What this book sets out to do is to bring a variety of approaches and a varied expertise to bear upon a very large but relatively neglected issue in contemporary politics—the nature of the state formations of Communist regimes.
