Bitter Legacy
Bitter Legacy

Author: Richard C. Lukas

Publisher: University Press of Kentucky

Published: 2021-12-14

Total Pages: 258

ISBN-13: 081318911X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

In this most timely book, Richard C. Lukas offers the historical perspective that any reader, scholar, or layman needs to grasp the political turmoil in Poland in the decades after World War II. Bitter Legacy is the first major analysis of Polish-American relations from the Potsdam Conference through the Polish elections of 1947, the critical period during which Poland became a satellite in the Russian sphere. Drawing on an impressive array of primary and secondary sources, a number of which have never been used by scholars before, Lukas shows in detail why and how American policy was never able to reverse the process, begun at the Yalta Conference, that transformed Poland into a communist state. In a clear and unambiguous style, he deftly combines two traditions in the writing of diplomatic history—one that stresses intergovernmental relations and one that emphasizes domestic concerns and pressures. The result is a revealing book that adds significantly to our understanding of Polish-American relations and of domestic history in Poland and the United States during this important Cold War phase. It will appeal not only to scholars but also to all those with an interest in Poland's history. Bitter Legacy is a sequel to Lukas's earlier volume, The Strange Allies, which has been acclaimed as the best treatment in English of United States-Polish relations during World War II. If offers the same impeccable scholarship and balanced interpretation that characterized Lukas's earlier study.

Europe Since 1945
Europe Since 1945

Author: J. Robert Wegs

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2017-09-16

Total Pages: 368

ISBN-13: 0230211224

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

As Europe has expanded its influence in world economic and political affairs, there has been an increased need to understand how Europe recovered from the devastation of World War II to become a major world player. This concise history offers a comprehensive overview of Europe's political, social, economic and cultural developments since 1945. J. Robert Wegs and Robert Ladrech balance a narrative of the major events and personalities of the post-war political scene with a critical assessment of key issues and themes, such as: - The development of the welfare state - European integration and the European Union - The Cold War - The rise and fall of the Soviet Empire - The political-economic turmoil in eastern Europe since 1989 - The place of Europe in the globalisation of the world's political-economic affairs The text also features further reading sections at the end of each chapter to aid more detailed study, and is enhanced throughout with tables, maps and illustrations. Written for students and general readers alike, this thoroughly revised, updated and expanded new edition is an ideal introduction for anyone with an interest in the history and politics of post-war Europe, east and west.

History Of The International: World Socialism 1943-1968
History Of The International: World Socialism 1943-1968

Author: Julius Braunthal

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2019-03-20

Total Pages: 581

ISBN-13: 0429727097

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

With this volume the history of the first century of the International reaches its conclusion. Originally I had intended that the trilogy would come to a close with the centenary of the founding of the First International in September 1964. But before I could finish writing the third volume the tragedy of the Communist revolution in Czechoslovakia had played itself out. 'The Spring of Prague' of 1968, having set in motion a process of change from a Communist dictatorship to a Socialist democracy, was followed within a few months by the invasion of the armies of the five Warsaw Pact powers to forestall reformation in Czechoslovakia. Both revolution and counter-revolution were events of the utmost significance for the history of Socialism-the revolution, for showing that it was possible for a Communist system of totalitarian dictatorship to be transformed without resort to force; and the counter-revolution, for showing how the regime in the Soviet Union has remained essentially unaltered since Stalin's death. The invasion of Czechoslovakia brutally called in question any optimistic perspective of development within the Soviet Union itself.

Local Politics in Communist Countries
Local Politics in Communist Countries

Author: Daniel N. Nelson

Publisher: University Press of Kentucky

Published: 1980-01-01

Total Pages: 208

ISBN-13: 9780813113982

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

There are many reasons why it is important to study local politics -- political culture, government, political process -- in Communist party states. As in all politics, local politics in Communist party states are the political articulation of the local community. This is the political arena where policies concerning local issues are formulated by the officials. This is where the officials are approached by citizens with their particular demands. This is where citizens articulate their preferences, aspirations, and values through political participation. And this is where officials, both elected and appointed, are recruited. In this volume, Daniel N. Nelson has assembled a team of international scholars to consider local politics in Communist party states including the U.S.S.R., China, Poland, Yugoslavia, and Romania. Together, they explore how local social and political forces are articulated in the national and party organizations; they also reveal how the study of comparative local politics provides vitality for the study of national politics. Rather than treating local communities as receivers and translators of national inputs, the contributors demonstrate that the local dimension and national politics mutually influence one another and illuminate the social reality in communist societies.

Europe Since 1945
Europe Since 1945

Author: Bernard A. Cook

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2014-01-27

Total Pages: 1572

ISBN-13: 1135179395

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Europe Since 1945: An Encyclopedia is a comprehensive reference work of some 1,700 entries in two volumes. Its scope includes all of Europe and the successor states to the former Soviet Union. The volumes provide a broad coverage of topics, with an emphasis on politics, governments, organizations, people, and events crucial to an understanding of postwar Europe. Also includes 100 maps and photos.

Katyn
Katyn

Author: Allen Paul

Publisher: Northern Illinois University Press

Published: 2010-03-15

Total Pages: 449

ISBN-13: 1501757202

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Twenty years ago, Allen Paul wrote the first post-communist account of one of the greatest but least-known tragedies of the twentieth century: Stalin's annihilation of Poland's officer corps and massive deportation of so-called "bourgeoisie elements" to Siberia. Today, these brutal events are symbolized by one word: Katyn, a crime that still bitterly divides Poles and Russians. Paul's richly updated account covers Russian attempts to recant their admission of guilt for the murders in Katyn Forest and includes recently translated documents from Russian military archives, eyewitness accounts of two perpetrators, and secret official minutes published here for the first time that confirm that U.S. government cover-up of the crime continued long after the war ended. Paul's masterful narrative recreates what daily life was like for three Polish families amid momentous events of World War II—from the treacherous Nazi-Soviet invasion in 1939 to a rigged election in 1947 that sealed Poland's doom. The patriarch of each family was among the Polish officers personally ordered by Stalin to be shot. One of the families suffered daily repression under the German General Government. Like thousands of other Poles, two of the families were deported to Siberia, where they nearly died from forced labor, starvation, and neglect. Through painstaking research, the author reconstructs the lives of these families including such stories as a miraculous escape on the last transport of Poles leaving Russia and a mother's daring ski trek over the Carpathian Mountains to rescue a daughter she had not seen in six years. At the heart of the drama is the Poles' uncommon belief in "victory in defeat"—that their struggles made them strong and that freedom and independence, inevitably, would be regained.

The Seeds of Triumph
The Seeds of Triumph

Author: Hannah Diskin

Publisher: Central European University Press

Published: 2001-09-01

Total Pages: 339

ISBN-13: 9633864704

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The Roman Catholic Church has played a unique role in the history of Poland in the twentieth century: the people and the Church drew closer and closer together during Nazi rule, the Stalinist period and the somewhat milder, though strongly anti-religious and repressive Gomulka regime (1956-1970). The power struggle between the Church and the communist government did in fact play a role in shaping world politics, the Polish Church having been the force behind the opposition movement in Poland. Against this background, a Polish pope appeared and made a major contribution to the collapse of communism. The Seeds of Triumph, the most comprehensive recent book on the opposition of Church and State in post-war Poland, compares the characteristics and consequences of this relationship during three different periods: the first and second periods of Gomulka's rule, and the Stalinist era between the two Gomulka periods. It examines the balance of power, studying to what degree the Church and other factors in the political environment influenced governmental policy-making. The author disproves the common stereotype, held at the time, that domestic conditions played only a marginal role. In examining the regime's policies, she covers the legal background, the general policy characteristics, the specific policies implemented during the period, and the role of the individual actors, most notably the pivotal role of the two main protagonists, Cardinal Wyszynski and Wladislaw Gomulka. In her landmark study, Diskin makes a significant contribution to the study of authoritarian systems and greatly enhances our understanding of the centrality of the Church in recent Polish history.

Poland
Poland

Author: George Sanford

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2012-12-06

Total Pages: 142

ISBN-13: 1136650962

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Poland pioneered the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe. Domestic reformism and the negotiated abdication of ruling elites in 1989 have structured the country's politics in the 1990s. But the division between the communist and Solidarity camps continues to cause problems for a potential reform coalition aiming to complete modernisation through the restructuring required for EU membership. Secular-Catholic and rural-urban conflicts, and well as the growing regional split between the north-west and south-east, have fragmented political life and the party system. Nevertheless, Poland has made remarkable steps in the consolidation of democracy and the development of her political system, whilst maintaining social stability; she is also successfully transcending her historical security dilemma of open western and eastern frontiers and stronger, aggressive neighbours, by embedding herself in Europe through membership of NATO and the EU. Poland is overcoming her historical problems.