The Dissolution of Communist Power
The Dissolution of Communist Power

Author: Ágnes Horváth

Publisher: London ; New York : Routledge

Published: 1992

Total Pages: 280

ISBN-13:

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The speed and seeming ease with which the communist systems of Eastern Europe collapsed raise interesting questions about the stability of the structure that held them in place. Agnes Horvath and Arpad Szakolczai attempt to explain the demise of communist power by analysing in detail the internal apparatus of the communist regime in Hungary shortly before these historic changes took place. The book is based on unique empirical material: the result of a sociological survey carried out in 1988 in the district level communist party committees of Budapest. Extensive interviewing and direct questionnaires to party workers revealed the extent of the interpenetration of communist power and society, but also began to reveal the gradual self-elimination process of the communist system. As events gathered momentum in Hungary, the data gained significance as the documentation of a system in dissolution. This material is published here in English for the first time, and serves as the basis for a study which uses the methods of Foucault to provide insight into the social relationships of the old system and the connected problems of the post-communist epoch. The authors provide evidence of the subtle influence still retained by communist method in a country which is attempting to forge a new course.

The Collapse of Communist Power in Poland
The Collapse of Communist Power in Poland

Author: Jacqueline Hayden

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2006-03-23

Total Pages: 194

ISBN-13: 1134208014

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Based on extensive original research, including interviews with key participants, this book investigates the sudden and unforeseen collapse of communist power in Poland in 1989. It sets out the sequence of events, and examines the strategies of the various political groupings prior to the partially free election of June 1989. This volume argues that the specific negotiating strategies adopted by the communist party representatives in the Round Table discussions before the elections was a key factor in communism’s collapse. The book shows that on many occasions, PZPR decision-makers ignored expert advice, and many Round Table bargains went against the party’s best interests. Using in-depth interviews with major party players, including General Jaruzelski, General Kiszczak and Mieczyslaw Rakowski, as well as Solidarity advisors such as Adam Michnik, the text provides a unique source of first-hand accounts of Poland’s revolutionary drama.

The Collapse of Communism
The Collapse of Communism

Author: Lee Edwards

Publisher: Hoover Institution Press

Published: 2013-11-01

Total Pages: 224

ISBN-13: 0817998160

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Experts continue to debate one of the most important political questions of the twentieth century—why did Communism collapse so suddenly? These essays suggest that a wide range of forces—political, economic, strategic, religious, add the indispensable role of the principled statesman and the brave dissident—brought about the collapse of communism.

How the Soviet Union Disappeared
How the Soviet Union Disappeared

Author: Wisła Suraska

Publisher: Duke University Press

Published: 1998

Total Pages: 204

ISBN-13: 9780822321248

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Argues that the collapse of the Soviet Union was the result of an attempt by Gorbachev to concentrate political power, and that the breakdown of the economy was a consequence not a cause of his reforms.

Uncivil Society
Uncivil Society

Author: Stephen Kotkin

Publisher: Modern Library

Published: 2010-10-12

Total Pages: 257

ISBN-13: 0812966791

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Twenty years ago, the Berlin Wall fell. In one of modern history’s most miraculous occurrences, communism imploded–and not with a bang, but with a whimper. Now two of the foremost scholars of East European and Soviet affairs, Stephen Kotkin and Jan T. Gross, drawing upon two decades of reflection, revisit this crash. In a crisp, concise, unsentimental narrative, they employ three case studies–East Germany, Romania, and Poland–to illuminate what led Communist regimes to surrender, or to be swept away in political bank runs. This is less a story of dissidents, so-called civil society, than of the bankruptcy of a ruling class–communism’s establishment, or “uncivil society.” The Communists borrowed from the West like drunken sailors to buy mass consumer goods, then were unable to pay back the hard-currency debts and so borrowed even more. In Eastern Europe, communism came to resemble a Ponzi scheme, one whose implosion carries enduring lessons. From East Germany’s pseudotechnocracy to Romania’s megalomaniacal dystopia, from Communist Poland’s cult of Mary to the Kremlin’s surprise restraint, Kotkin and Gross pull back the curtain on the fraud and decadence that cashiered the would-be alternative to the market and democracy, an outcome that opened up to a deeper global integration that has proved destabilizing.

Reagan and Gorbachev
Reagan and Gorbachev

Author: Jack Matlock

Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks

Published: 2005-11-08

Total Pages: 402

ISBN-13: 0812974891

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“[Matlock’s] account of Reagan’s achievement as the nation’s diplomat in chief is a public service.”—The New York Times Book Review “Engrossing . . . authoritative . . . a detailed and reliable narrative that future historians will be able to draw on to illuminate one of the most dramatic periods in modern history.”—Los Angeles Times Book Review In Reagan and Gorbachev, Jack F. Matlock, Jr., a former U.S. ambassador to the U.S.S.R. and principal adviser to Ronald Reagan on Soviet and European affairs, gives an eyewitness account of how the Cold War ended. Working from his own papers, recent interviews with major figures, and unparalleled access to the best and latest sources, Matlock offers an insider’s perspective on a diplomatic campaign far more sophisticated than previously thought, waged by two leaders of surpassing vision. Matlock details how Reagan privately pursued improved U.S.-U.S.S.R. relations even while engaging in public saber rattling. When Gorbachev assumed leadership, however, Reagan and his advisers found a willing partner in peace. Matlock shows how both leaders took risks that yielded great rewards and offers unprecedented insight into the often cordial working relationship between Reagan and Gorbachev. Both epic and intimate, Reagan and Gorbachev will be the standard reference on the end of the Cold War, a work that is critical to our understanding of the present and the past.

Goodbye to the USSR
Goodbye to the USSR

Author: Steve Crawshaw

Publisher:

Published: 1992

Total Pages: 252

ISBN-13: 9780747511670

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This book tells the story of the perestroika era, from Gorbachev's appointment in 1985 through the failed coup and revolution of August 1991 to the suspension of the Communist Party's activities and beyond. The author describes first-hand the revolutionary changes in the Baltic Republics; the mood among striking miners in the Ukraine and Siberia; anti-Kremlin feeling in the Caucasus and the growing mood of rebellion against Communism in Russia itself.

The Collapse of Communism
The Collapse of Communism

Author: Lee Edwards

Publisher: Hoover Institution Press

Published: 1999-11-01

Total Pages: 224

ISBN-13: 0817998128

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Ten years after the fall of the Berlin Wall and eight years after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, experts continue to debate one of the most important political questions of the twentieth century--why did Communism collapse so suddenly? A comprehensive and often unexpected answer is provided in this unique volume of essays by the world's leading authorities on Communism. Presidential adviser Zbignew Brzezinski discusses the critical role of policymakers like Ronald Reagan, Mikhail Gorbachev, and John Paul II in the demise of Communism. Richard Pipes and Martin Malia debate the importance of history and ideology. Robert Conquest analyzes the deleterious impact of the Stalin years, and Michael Novak delineates the missing element of faith in Communism. Andrzej Brzeski exposes the fatal flaws of Communist economics; Brian Crozier discusses why there was a cold war. Paul Hollander concludes with a consideration of who in the academy was right--and wrong--about Communism. These insightful essays suggest that a wide range of forces--political, economic, strategic, and religious--along with the indispensable role of the principled statesman and the brave dissident, brought about the collapse of Communism.

The dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. Was the main cause a popular revolution?
The dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. Was the main cause a popular revolution?

Author:

Publisher: GRIN Verlag

Published: 2020-10-01

Total Pages: 8

ISBN-13: 3346259218

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Presentation / Essay (Pre-University) from the year 2020 in the subject History Europe - Other Countries - Europe in the Cold War, grade: 10/10, , language: English, abstract: The essay discusses the main causes of the dissolution of the Soviet Union - the liberalisation of politics, economic decline, changes in social consciousness, the loss of the Eastern European sphere of influence, and nationalism within the republics of the USSR. The August coup of 1991 is named as the short-term, final trigger. It concludes that the main cause of the collapse was not a popular revolution of the 'ordinary people'. Rather, Gorbachev's policies of glasnost and perestroika weakened the Communist Party's own power structures, thereby destroying all forms of control and exposing the disparities between propaganda and real life.