Captive University: The Sovietisation of East German, Czech and Polish Higher Education, 1945-1956 by John s> Connelly (review)

Abstract

REVIEWS 575 and partly because it would provide a useful demonstration of the policy of 'peaceful coexistence'. The United States accepted the exclusion of Austria from the Westerndefence systembecause 'it did not see its geopolitical world leadership weakened with a neutral Austria'. The Americans came to be persuadedthat the withdrawalof Soviet forceswas sufficientbenefit (p. I52). Bischof has amply demonstratedthat Austrianissuesmattered in the early phase of the cold war. But his theme of the leverageof the weak is over-stated. Formost of thisperiodAustriawas dominatedby the superpowers.Significant Austrianinfluence only began to operate in late I954 and thiswas forreasons unconnected with Austrian action - the failure of Soviet attempts to block German rearmament and the internal politics of the Kremlin. Nevertheless, he is compelling on the impact of Raab's diplomacy: while the opportunity was createdby externalfactors,the Austriansmade the most of them and in a way that emphasized their independent role. For a brief time they genuinely had leverage. Department ofHistogy MICHAEL F. HOPKINS Liverpool HopeUniversity College Connelly, John. CaptiveUniversity: 7he Sovietisation of East German, Czechand PolishHigherEducation, I945-I956. University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, NC, andLondon, 2000. XViii + 432 pp. Notes. Bibliography. Index. ?4 I*50;? I8.50. THIS is the book that the historians of higher education in the twentieth century have been waiting for. And not only historians, but equally those concerned with the study of comparative education, the sociology as well as the politics of education and the fate of Central-EasternEurope in the decade followingthe Second WorldWar. The subtitle clearly defines the level of education, the period and the geographicalareathe book is concerned with, and readersmustkeepthisvery much in mind when considering its contents. The author spent severalyears conducting his research in the archives of Central-Eastern Europe in the I99Os, a task facilitated by the collapse of the communist order in the late I98os. He interviewed numerous important individuals responsible for the determinedattemptsat sovietizationof highereducationin the threecountries concerned, aswell as the people who played a keyrole in resistingit. He spoke to a wide range of historians,politicians,journalists,universityprofessorsand students, elucidating not always with ease -the salient features of the process and revealing the highly interesting differences between the three countries. The result is a penetrating analysis of a process which is of great importance in the politics of higher education under oppressiveregimes. The book exposes the unsatisfactorynature of glib generalizations which have often been accepted as adequateevidence on the basisof biased or incomplete data presentedin tendentiousofficialpublicationson the subject,or simplistic accounts maintaining'daswar damalsdoch ganz gleich!'. The new evidence, examined by the author and put into a comparative perspective, is certainly of great interest. The documents the author 576 SEER, 8o, 3, 2002 scrutinized,the views and opinions he collected and assessed inescapably, often biased, partial, subjective and even conflicting represent in totothe most comprehensive and balanced review of the process of attempted sovietization of Central-European higher learning establishments after the Second World War available so far. Because of the wealth of material taken into account, it would be unreasonable to expect a reviewer to sum up adequately the relative importance of all the elements at play. The intricate networks of professorial bodies, students' organizations and communist authoritiesoperatingat differentlevels and all actingwith differentdegrees of sophistication and effectivenessand attempting to outwit each other, constituted the institutional framework. Yet, each network played its role very differently in each country. With the help of evidence, only now made availableto researchers,the authorunravelsa tangledweb of open and hidden political pressuresand intriguesapplied to control the independent sourcesof free thought and to undermine the uncensored character of all scientific inquiry. The book is very well documented, making it a most reliable source of information. The bibliographyitselfcovers twenty pages and includes books, articles,dissertations,officialcollections of laws and statutes,newspapersand journals in Czech, German, Polish,Russian and English, as well as the names of over forty individuals personally interviewed by the author. The latter include writers and well-known scholars such as Czeslaw Milosz, Stefan Kieniewicz, Jozef Gierowski,Josef Polisenskyand Piotr Hubner. Needless to say, the author also took into account revealingbooks by people like Seweryn Bialer, Zbigniew Brzezinski,Alexander Dubcek, Ernest Gellner, Karl Hartmann , Jan Havranek, Ralph Jessen, Jurgen Kuczynski...