Imagining the West in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union

Imagining the West in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union PDF Author: Gyorgy Peteri
Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Pre
ISBN: 082297391X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 337

Get Book Here

Book Description
This volume presents work from an international group of writers who explore conceptualizations of what defined "East" and "West" in Eastern Europe, imperial Russia, and the Soviet Union. The contributors analyze the effects of transnational interactions on ideology, politics, and cultural production. They reveal that the roots of an East/West cultural divide were present many years prior to the rise of socialism and the Cold War. The chapters offer insights into the complex stages of adoption and rejection of Western ideals in areas such as architecture, travel writings, film, music, health care, consumer products, political propaganda, and human rights. They describe a process of mental mapping whereby individuals "captured and possessed" Western identity through cultural encounters and developed their own interpretations from these experiences. Despite these imaginaries, political and intellectual elites devised responses of resistance, defiance, and counterattack to defy Western impositions. Socialists believed that their cultural forms and collectivist strategies offered morally and materially better lives for the masses and the true path to a modern society. Their sentiments toward the West, however, fluctuated between superiority and inferiority. But in material terms, Western products, industry, and technology, became the ever-present yardstick by which progress was measured. The contributors conclude that the commodification of the necessities of modern life and the rise of consumerism in the twentieth century made it impossible for communist states to meet the demands of their citizens. The West eventually won the battle of supply and demand, and thus the battle for cultural influence.

Imagining the West in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union

Imagining the West in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union PDF Author: Gyorgy Peteri
Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Pre
ISBN: 082297391X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 337

Get Book Here

Book Description
This volume presents work from an international group of writers who explore conceptualizations of what defined "East" and "West" in Eastern Europe, imperial Russia, and the Soviet Union. The contributors analyze the effects of transnational interactions on ideology, politics, and cultural production. They reveal that the roots of an East/West cultural divide were present many years prior to the rise of socialism and the Cold War. The chapters offer insights into the complex stages of adoption and rejection of Western ideals in areas such as architecture, travel writings, film, music, health care, consumer products, political propaganda, and human rights. They describe a process of mental mapping whereby individuals "captured and possessed" Western identity through cultural encounters and developed their own interpretations from these experiences. Despite these imaginaries, political and intellectual elites devised responses of resistance, defiance, and counterattack to defy Western impositions. Socialists believed that their cultural forms and collectivist strategies offered morally and materially better lives for the masses and the true path to a modern society. Their sentiments toward the West, however, fluctuated between superiority and inferiority. But in material terms, Western products, industry, and technology, became the ever-present yardstick by which progress was measured. The contributors conclude that the commodification of the necessities of modern life and the rise of consumerism in the twentieth century made it impossible for communist states to meet the demands of their citizens. The West eventually won the battle of supply and demand, and thus the battle for cultural influence.

The Soviet Union and Cold War Neutrality and Nonalignment in Europe

The Soviet Union and Cold War Neutrality and Nonalignment in Europe PDF Author: Mark Kramer
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 179363193X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 645

Get Book Here

Book Description
The Soviet Union and Cold War Neutrality and Nonalignment in Europe examines how the neutral European countries and the Soviet Union interacted after World War II. Amid the Cold War division of Europe into Western and Eastern blocs, several long-time neutral countries abandoned neutrality and joined NATO. Other countries remained neutral but were still perceived as a threat to the Soviet Union’s sphere of influence. Based on extensive archival research, this volume offers state-of-the-art essays about relations between Europe’s neutral states and the Soviet Union during the Cold War and how these relations were perceived by other powers.

A Concise History of the Modern World

A Concise History of the Modern World PDF Author: William Woodruff
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
ISBN: 9781349122349
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 297

Get Book Here

Book Description


The Soviet Union and Eastern Europe

The Soviet Union and Eastern Europe PDF Author: George Schöpflin
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 664

Get Book Here

Book Description
Contains basic information on each country as well as essays on political, economic and social issues affecting individual countries and the region as a whole.

Economic Reforms in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe since the 1960s

Economic Reforms in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe since the 1960s PDF Author: Jan Adam
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1349197092
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 279

Get Book Here

Book Description
The author discusses the traditional system of management of the economy as it existed in the early 1950s in the USSR and goes on to deal with the reforms of the 1960s and of the 1980s, country by country. He shows that the focus of the reforms is on finding a proper combination of planning and the market mechanism, and their success will be judged by their ability to solve acute economic problems.

The Soviet Union, Eastern Europe and the Third World

The Soviet Union, Eastern Europe and the Third World PDF Author: Roger E. Kanet
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521344593
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 258

Get Book Here

Book Description
Soviet policy towards the countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America underwent substantial expansion and change during the three decades since Khrushchev first initiated efforts to break out of the USSR's international isolation. This 1988 volume examine various aspects of Soviet and East European policy towards the Third World.

The Soviet Union and Eastern Europe

The Soviet Union and Eastern Europe PDF Author: Stephan M. Horak
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Reference
Languages : en
Pages : 398

Get Book Here

Book Description
Intended to aid librarians in small- and medium-sized libraries and media centers, this annotated bibliography lists 1,555 books focusing on the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. The book is divided into four parts: (1) "General and Interrelated Themes--Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics and Eastern European Countries"; (2) "Russian Empire Prior to 1917 and the USSR"; (3) "USSR--Non-Russian Republics, Jews, Other Peoples"; and (4) "Eastern European Countries." Each part is arranged by subject, with priority given to general studies, followed by special studies sections where appropriate. Titles in Part 1 focus on economics; government and law; political theory and communism; international relations; history; language and literature; dissent, nationalism, and religion; sociology and social conditions; and military affairs. Titles in Part 2 deal with anthropology and folklore; the arts, fine arts, and architecture; economics; education and culture; geography, demography, and population; government, state, and politics; diplomacy and foreign relations; history; military affairs; Russian language; Russian literature; philosophy and political theory; psychology and psychiatry; religion; science and research; and sociology. Part 3 presents titles related to the Baltic Republics; Belorussia; Ukraine; Caucasian Republics and peoples; Central Asian Republics and peoples; Jews; Moldavians; Germans and Tartars; and the peoples of Siberia and the Volga Basin. The last part focuses on Albania; Bulgaria; Czechoslovakia; Hungary; Poland; Romania; Yugoslavia; National minorities and dissent; and language and literature. (LH)

Cold War Broadcasting

Cold War Broadcasting PDF Author: A. Ross Johnson
Publisher: Central European University Press
ISBN: 6155211906
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 612

Get Book Here

Book Description
The book examines the role of Western broadcasting to the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe during the Cold War, with a focus on Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty. It includes chapters by radio veterans and by scholars who have conducted research on the subject in once-secret Soviet bloc archives and in Western records. It also contains a selection of translated documents from formerly secret Soviet and East European archives, most of them published here for the first time.

Women's Experiences of Repression in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe

Women's Experiences of Repression in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe PDF Author: Kelly Hignett
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351668072
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 369

Get Book Here

Book Description
Based on extensive original research, including studies of autobiographies and biographies, reminiscences and memoirs, archived oral history data and interviews conducted by the authors, this book provides a rich picture of how women experienced repression in the former Soviet bloc. Although focusing on key years when repression was at its height – 1937 for the Soviet Union, 1941 for Lithuania and Poland, 1948 for Czechoslovakia and 1956 for Romania – the book ranges more widely. It demonstrates that although far fewer women than men were the direct victims of repression, women experienced severe repression in many ways, including exile, deportation and as family members of those arrested, imprisoned and executed.

Socialism Goes Global

Socialism Goes Global PDF Author: James Mark
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192848852
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 376

Get Book Here

Book Description
This collectively written monograph is the first work to provide a broad history of the relationship between Eastern Europe and the decolonising world. It ranges from the late nineteenth to the late twentieth century, but at its core is the dynamic of the post-1945 period, when socialism's importance as a globalising force accelerated and drew together what contemporaries called the 'Second' and 'Third Worlds'. At the centre of this history is the encounter between the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe on one hand, and a wider world casting off European empires or struggling against western imperialism on the other. The origins of these connections are traced back to new forms of internationalism enabled by the Russian Revolution; the interplay between the first 'decolonisation' of the twentieth century in Eastern Europe and rising anti-colonial movements; and the global rise of fascism, which created new connections between East and South. The heart of the study, however, lies in the Cold War, when these contacts and relationships dramatically intensified. A common embrace of socialist modernisation and anti-imperial culture opened up possibilities for a new and meaningful exchange between the peripheries of Eastern Europe, Latin America, Africa, and Asia. Such linkages are examined across many different fields - from health to archaeology, economic development to the arts - and through many people - from students to experts to labour migrants - who all helped to shape a different form and meaning of globalisation.