The Soviet Bloc: Unity and Conflict / Edition 2

by Zbigniew Brzezinski

Overview

This is the first full-length study of relations among the communist states. The study explores the implications of the status of Yugoslavia and China, the significance of the Hungarian revolution and the position of Poland in the Soviet bloc, and clarifies the Khrushchev–Gomulka clash of 1956 and the complex role of Tito. Zbigniew Brzezinski emphasizes the role of ideology and power in the relations among the communist states, contrasting bloc relations and the unifying role of Soviet power under Stalin with the present situation. He suggests that conflicts of interest among the ruling elites will result either in ideological disputes or in weakening the central core of the ideology, leading to a gradual decline of unity among the Communist states.

The author, while on leave from his post as Professor and Director of the Research Institute on Communist Affairs, Columbia University, and serving on the U.S. State Department’s Policy Planning Council, has revised and updated his important study and added three new chapters on more recent developments. He gives particular attention to the Sino–Soviet dispute.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780674825482
Publisher:	Harvard University Press
Publication date:	01/01/1967
Series:	Russian Research Center Studies , #37
Edition description:	Revised Edition
Pages:	624
Product dimensions:	5.75(w) x 9.25(h) x 1.50(d)

Table of Contents

PART 1: THE FIRST PHASE: 1945-1947

The People's Democracy Institution and Ideological Diversity

1. The Political Background

2. Problems of Theory

3. Problems of Diversity

PART 2: THE SECOND PHASE: 1947-1953

Stalinism Institutional and Ideological Uniformity

4. The Theory Reconsidered

5. Laying the Socialist Foundations

6. Stalinism: A Pattern for the Communist Interstate System

7. The Stalinist Legacy

PART 3: THE THIRD PHASE: 1953-1956

From thaw to Deluge Institution and Ideological Diversity

8. The New Course: Stalinism Dissipated

9.The Impact of Yugoslavia

10. Hungary: The Test Case of National Communism

11. The Polish October: The Challenge of Domesticism

PART 4: THE FOURTH PHASE: 1957-1959

The Communist "Commonwealth" Institutional Diversity and Ideological Uniformity

12. The Maoist effort to Reconstruct
13. Unity Through the Struggle Against Revisionism

14. The Polish Way to Socialism

15. Divergent Unity

PART 5: THE FIFTH PHASE: 1960-1965

Communist Pluralism Institutional and Ideological Diversity

16. the Sino-Soviet Conflict

17. Satellites into Junior Allies

18. The Soviet Alliance System

19. Ideology and Power in Relations among Communist states

Appendix

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Editorial Reviews

This distinguished book analyzes the origins, evolution, and fragmentation of the once unified Communist world. Though the focus is still on relations between the Soviet Union and the East European countries, there is an expanded treatment of the Sino–Soviet dispute. With skill and insight, Brzezinski traces the transformation of the Soviet bloc into a more complicated alliance system, in which Moscow plays a leading, but no longer unchallenged, role. This is a masterful account of the interaction between ideology and power among the Communist states.

Current History

Brzezinski…is uniquely qualified to sift the scattered and often seemingly contradictory data on this subject… [T]he volume is marked by unusual insight, richness of information, and stimulating thought.

The New York Times

Brzezinski’s definitive work on the rise and dissolution of the Soviet Empire in Eastern Europe…is compellingly lucid, unfolds effortlessly, and remains happily unencumbered by jargon. The first edition…was one of the significant pioneering efforts in systematizing the analysis of Communism in Eastern Europe, yet it had all the hallmarks of authorship by a profoundly political thinker. The present Revised and Enlarged Edition, more than ever, uses a political approach toward essentially political phenomena in a part of the world which traditionally thinks in political terms…[and] reveals an encyclopaedic grasp of contemporary developments.

The New Leader

An original and incisive analysis of the dynamics of leadership in the Communist camp and of the national factors that condition this leadership.

American Historical Review

An original and incisive analysis of the dynamics of leadership in the Communist camp and of the national factors that condition this leadership.-- "American Historical Review"

Brzezinski...is uniquely qualified to sift the scattered and often seemingly contradictory data on this subject... [T]he volume is marked by unusual insight, richness of information, and stimulating thought.-- "The New York Times"

Brzezinski's definitive work on the rise and dissolution of the Soviet Empire in Eastern Europe...is compellingly lucid, unfolds effortlessly, and remains happily unencumbered by jargon. The first edition...was one of the significant pioneering efforts in systematizing the analysis of Communism in Eastern Europe, yet it had all the hallmarks of authorship by a profoundly political thinker. The present Revised and Enlarged Edition, more than ever, uses a political approach toward essentially political phenomena in a part of the world which traditionally thinks in political terms...[and] reveals an encyclopaedic grasp of contemporary developments.-- "The New Leader"

This distinguished book analyzes the origins, evolution, and fragmentation of the once unified Communist world. Though the focus is still on relations between the Soviet Union and the East European countries, there is an expanded treatment of the Sino-Soviet dispute. With skill and insight, Brzezinski traces the transformation of the Soviet bloc into a more complicated alliance system, in which Moscow plays a leading, but no longer unchallenged, role. This is a masterful account of the interaction between ideology and power among the Communist states.-- "Current History"

From the Publisher

Brzezinski…is uniquely qualified to sift the scattered and often seemingly contradictory data on this subject… [T]he volume is marked by unusual insight, richness of information, and stimulating thought.

The New York Times