From Stalinism to pluralism: a documentary history of Eastern Europe since 1945

Abstract

Bringing together a wealth of historical documents, memoirs, essays, and literature from Eastern Europe, this unique book vividly illustrates how the most original and challenging minds of the region have understood and reacted to Stalinism and its successors since the end of the Second World War. From Stalinism to Pluralism creates a rich mosaic of political and historical development in these countries, presenting extracts from the works of Leszek Kolakowski, Czeslaw Milosz, Milovan Djilas, George Lukacs, Vaclav Havel, Adam Michnik, and George Konrad alongside such seminal primary documents as the Yalta Agreement, the Helsinki Accords, and the Gdansk Agreement, to show that the revolutionary autumn of 1989 occurred neither overnight nor in a vacuum. Organized thematically, the four sections of the book consider the subjugation of Eastern Europe by Stalinist Russia, show how criticism of Soviet domination culminated in the Hungarian uprising of 1956, describe the retreat from politics of many intellectuals after the crushing of the Prague Spring, and detail the resurgence of nationalism in the 1980s. An important and especially timely volume, From Stalinism to Pluralism clearly demonstrates the subtlety and richness of the political and philosophical world of Eastern Europe and offers fascinating insights into the how and why of the Eastern Bloc's return to pluralist development.