Ebook: The bloc that failed : Soviet - East European relations in transition

Publisher Synopsis

" ... lucid and stimulating ... " --The New York Times Book Review "Essential reading for anyone who wishes to understand the new Eastern Europe and the collapse of Soviet control over it--informative and incisive." --Zbigniew Brzezinski "Gati's book ... is the most current and best-informed study of this rapidly changing world... Professor Gati is uniquely qualified to understand and give perspective to the impact of perestroika and Soviet 'new thinking' on the events in Eastern Europe." --William H. Luers, Former U. S. Ambassador to Czechoslovakia " ... a superb synthesis of the postwar evolution of Soviet-East European relations and the first up-to-date analysis of the revolutionary events in that part of the world in 1989." --Michael Mandelbaum, Council on Foreign Relations "An up-to-date and lucid overview of the troubled course of Soviet-East European relations at time of momentous change in the Soviet bloc." --Sarah M. Terry " ... excellent analysis and synthesis ... " --Foreign Affairs "this book is written in a lively style and is a good scholarly synthesis of the post-Second World War evolution of Soviet-East European relations ending in the revolutionary events of 1989." --Canadian Journal of Political Science " ... a lively and perceptive account ... " --Military Review "Clearly and simply written, this book is particularly useful as a compact introduction to the prehistory and transformation of East European politics." --Choice "It is well organized, readable, and sensitive to complexity; find the time to read it." --History

Revolution swept each of the six Warsaw Pact countries of
Eastern Europe in 1988-89. The dramatic events began
somewhat gradually in Poland and in Hungary, then continued
in rapid succession during the fall and early winter of
1989 in East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, and finally
Romania. Amazingly, the region's old communist guard stepped
aside, peacefully, except in Romania where a tragic and
gruesome civil war claimed hundreds and perhaps thousands
of lives. Equally surprising is that the East European
revolutions have far outstripped the reforms Mikhail S. Gorbachev
introduced in the Soviet Union. This will lead to
increased popular demand for more drastic and comprehensive
changes within the Soviet Union itself in the 1990s.
With Moscow unwilling to use force to protect the East
European communist parties from their own people, these
unpopular and mostly corrupt parties have lost their monopoly
of power. Popular expectations in all six Warsaw Pact
countries now suggest a desire to adopt Western-style political
and economic institutions and practices. Thus, the Soviet
bloc as it has existed since Stalin has in effect disintegrated;
the countries of Eastern Europe are now on their own.
With the collapse of the region's one-party communist regimes,
the first stage of Eastern Europe's remarkable revolution
has ended. The second stage, which will involve the creation
of new institutions of political and economic pluralism,
will take several years. The third stage will be an even slower
process, during which a variety of internal measures and international
guarantees will consolidate the gains of the revolution,
allowing Eastern Europe to rejoin the European community
of nations.