Synopses & Reviews
When this book was first published in 1960
The New York Timescommented: "[Mr.] Brzezinski...is uniquely qualified to sift the scattered and often seemingly contradictory data on this subject...the volume is marked by unusual insight, richness of information, and stimulating thought."
Mr. Brzezinski who is on leave from his post as Professor and Director of the Research Institute on Communist Affairs, Columbia University serving on State Department's Policy Planning Council, has revised and updated his important study wherever necessary and added three new chapters on recent developments. He gives particular attention to the Sino-Soviet dispute.
Review
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
Review
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 ]argon. 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... reveals an encyclopaedic grasp of contemporary developments. The New Leader
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
Synopsis
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.
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