El trébol de cuatro hojas. La International Peasant Union y su actuación durante la Guerra Fría

Abstract

The International Peasant Union was founded in Washington in 1947 as an umbrella organization for the agrarian parties of the countries under Communist rule in Eastern and Central Europe. It developed a remarkable range of activities for three decades, keeping alive the peasantist ideology of the so-called Prague Green International between the wars and at the same time mobilizing every possible ressource for the triumph of the West against the Soviet Union. The exiled agrarian leaders provided a valuable, although biased by their hard personal and political experiences, insight into the reality behind the Iron Curtain, especially in fields related to their expertise (collectivization, agrarian policies and the like). The organization, ideology and range of activities of the IPU are explored at lenght using printed (particularly the IPU Bulletin), archival and bibliographical sources.