Soviet Occupation of Romania, Hungary, and Austria 1944/45?1948/49

Soviet Occupation of Romania, Hungary, and Austria 1944/45?1948/49

Author: Csaba Bekes

Publisher: Central European University Press

Published: 2015-08-30

Total Pages: 405

ISBN-13: 963386075X

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This book compares the various aspects ? political, military economic ? of Soviet occupation in Austria, Hungary and Romania. Using documents found in Austrian, Hungarian, Romanian and Russian archives the authors argue that the nature of Soviet foreign policy has been misunderstood. Existing literature has focused on the Soviet foreign policy from a political perspective; when and why Stalin made the decision to introduce Bolshevik political systems in the Soviet sphere of influence. This book will show that the Soviet conquest of East-Central Europe had an imperial dimension as well and allowed the Soviet Union to use the territory it occupied as military and economic space. The final dimension of the book details the tragically human experiences of Soviet occupation: atrocities, rape, plundering and deportations.


Austria in the Nineteen Fifties

Austria in the Nineteen Fifties

Author: Gunter Bischof

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2020-03-09

Total Pages: 272

ISBN-13: 100067584X

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In American history the 1950s are remembered as an affluent and harmonious decade. Not so in Austria. That nation emerged out of World War II with tremendous war-related destruction and with a four-power occupation that would last for ten years until 1955. Massive American economic aid enabled the Austrian economy to start recovering in the 1950s and reorient it from East to West. Unlike the United States, however, general affluence did not set in until the 1960s and 1970s even though Austria's dramatic baby boom enabled it to recover from the demographic catastrophe resulting from manpower losses of World War II., This volume deals with these larger trends. Stephen E. Ambrose discusses American-European relations and sets the larger international context for the Austrian scene. Oilver Rathkolb retraces the changing importance of the Austrian question for the Eisenhower administration. Michael Gehler presents an in-depth analysis of the intriguing question of whether Austria's unification at the price of permanent neutrality might have been a model for Germany. Franz Mathis and Kurt Tweraser look at economic reconstruction and the roles played by both the Austrian public industrial sector and the American Marshall Plan. Karin Schmidlechner looks at the youth culture of the era. Franz Adlgasser shows how Herbert Hoover's food aid was instrumental in the containment of communism in Hungary. Beth Noveck analyzes Austrian political culture of the First Republic from the perspective of Hugo Bettauer. Rolf Steininger presents an insightful historical overview of how the Austro-Italian South Tyrol conflict was resolved after seventy-five years of tension.


A Cardboard Castle?

A Cardboard Castle?

Author: Vojtech Mastny

Publisher: Central European University Press

Published: 2005-04-10

Total Pages: 786

ISBN-13: 6155053693

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This is the first book to document, analyze, and interpret the history of the Warsaw Pact based on the archives of the alliance itself. As suggested by the title, the Soviet bloc military machine that held the West in awe for most of the Cold War does not appear from the inside as formidable as outsiders often believed, nor were its strengths and weaknesses the same at different times in its surprisingly long history, extending for almost half a century. The introductory study by Mastny assesses the controversial origins of the "superfluous" alliance, its subsequent search for a purpose, its crisis and consolidation despite congenital weaknesses, as well as its unexpected demise. Most of the 193 documents included in the book were top secret and have only recently been obtained from Eastern European archives by the PHP project. The majority of the documents were translated specifically for this volume and have never appeared in English before. The introductory remarks to individual documents by co-editor Byrne explain the particular significance of each item. A chronology of the main events in the history of the Warsaw Pact, a list of its leading officials, a selective multilingual bibliography, and an analytical index add to the importance of a publication that sets the new standard as a reference work on the subject and facilitate its use by both students and general readers.


The Hungarian Agricultural Miracle?

The Hungarian Agricultural Miracle?

Author: Zsuzsanna Varga

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2020-11-09

Total Pages: 355

ISBN-13: 179363436X

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This book examines Soviet agriculture in post-1945 Hungary. It demonstrates how the agrarian lobby, a development following the 1956 revolution, led to contact with the West which allowed for the creation of an effective agricultural system. The author argues that this ‘Hungarian agricultural miracle,’ a hybrid of American technology and Soviet structures, was fundamental to the success of Hungarian collectivization.