From The Soviet Bloc To The European Union

An authoritative study that covers the social and economic history of Central and Eastern Europe since 1973.

The Soviet Union's dramatic collapse in 1989 was a pivotal moment in the complex history of Central and Eastern Europe, and Ivan Berend here offers a magisterial new account of the dramatic transformation that culminated in ten former Soviet Bloc countries joining the European Union. Taking the OPEC oil crisis of 1973 as his starting point, he charts the gradual unravelling of state socialism in Central and Eastern Europe, its ultimate collapse in the revolutions of 1989, and the economic restructuring and lasting changes in income, employment, welfare, education and social structure which followed. He pays particular attention to the crucial role of the European Union as well as the social and economic hurdles that continue to face former Eastern-bloc nations as they try to catch up with their Western neighbours. This will be essential reading for scholars and students of European and economic history, European politics and economics.

This volume deals with the nature of the relationship between the countries of Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union and those of the Third World, offering some background to the decline in the Soviet Union's international position, both politically and economically.

This book traces the evolution of Soviet and East European responses to the multifaceted pressures of a rapidly changing world and looks at the implications of ideological developments in the Soviet bloc for economic reforms, general policymaking, and political and social change. The authors discuss the concept of developed socialism and its essential components as seen in communist societies; analyze current policy and likely future policy directions in the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, Poland, and Yugoslavia in light of the concept; and assess the impact that ideological trends have had, and are likely to have, on the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe in general.

More than 25 years after the fall of the Soviet Union, European integration remains a work in progress, especially in those Eastern European nations most dramatically reshaped by democratization and economic liberalization. This volume assembles detailed, empirically grounded studies of eleven states—Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Slovenia, and the former East Germany—that went on to join the European Union. Each chapter analyzes the political, economic, and social transformations that have taken place in these nations, using a comparative approach to identify structural similarities and assess outcomes relative to one another as well as the rest of the EU.

Approaching the early decades of the “Iron Curtain” with new questions and perspectives, this important book examines the political and cultural implications of the communists’ international initiatives. Building on recent scholarship and working from new archival sources, the seven contributors to this volume study various effects of international outreach—personal, technological, and cultural—on the population and politics of the Soviet bloc. Several authors analyze lesser-known complications of East-West exchange; others show the contradictory nature of Moscow’s efforts to consolidate its sphere of influence in Eastern Europe and in the Third World. An outgrowth of the forty-sixth annual Walter Prescott Webb Lectures, hosted in 2011 by the University of Texas at Arlington, Cold War Crossings features diverse focuses with a unifying theme.

This volume deals with the nature of the relationship between the countries of Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union and those of the Third World, offering some background to the decline in the Soviet Union's international position, both politically and economically.