Communism and its Collapse

Front Cover
Routledge, Jan 4, 2002 - History - 112 pages

Ranging from the Russian revolution of 1917 to the collapse of Eastern Europe in the 1980s this study examines Communist rule. By focusing primarily on the USSR and Eastern Europe Stephen White covers the major topics and issues affecting these countries, including:
* communism as a doctrine
* the evolution of Communist rule
* the challenges to Soviet authority in Hungary and Yugoslavia
* the emerging economic fragility of the 1960s
* the complex process of collapse in the 1980s.

Any student or scholar of European history will find this an essential addition to their reading list.

From inside the book

Contents

What was communism?
1
The establishment of communist rule
11
National communism in Eastern Europe
21
The limits of reform
30
A system in decline
41
Transition from below
52
Transition from above
61
Explaining communist collapse
71
Further reading 888888
82
Index
88
Copyright

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About the author (2002)

Stephen White Professor of Politics at the University of Glasgow. His many published works include The Bolshevik Poster (Yale, 1988), After Gorbachev (Cambridge, 1994), Russia’s New Politics (Cambridge, 2000) and, with Evan Mawdsley, The Soviet Elite from Lenin to Gorbachev (Oxford, 2000).

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