L'Europe centrale et orientale: De 1918 à la chute du mur du Berlin by Roman Krakovský (review)

The book under review is essentially a college textbook authored by Roman Krakovský, a Francophone historian of Slovak origin. Covering the period between the end of World War I and the fall of the Berlin Wall that became formative for the region of East Central Europe, this book helps in understanding the roots of the current antiliberal (nationalist and populist) wave sweeping over the region.

The volume consists of thirteen chronological chapters divided into subchapters addressing either a specific problem or a distinctive national case. Not restricting the narrative to territorial nationalities of the region, Krakovský includes Jews as full-fledged historical actors of his comparative history, which sets his book apart from traditional historiography.

Although the title sets 1918 as the starting point of the story, the book begins by presenting the long nineteenth century. Titled "The Crisis of Modernization," the first chapter surveys the prehistory of nation-states that emerged in the wake of World War I, and the genesis of modern ideologies that sought contesting solutions to the challenges of modernity.

Interested in structural factors that had shaped the region, Krakovský pays particular attention to its economic development. Economy becomes the central topic in Chapter 4 ("From Reconstruction to the Great Depression"), which helps the author to present a coherent portrait of the interwar period. World War II turned East Central Europe into a battlefield, with the opposing dictatorships, Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia, seeking and finding supporters in local societies. I tend to agree with Krakovský that at Yalta, contrary to the dominant myth, attempts were made to contain Soviet influence in East Central Europe (Pp. 169–170).

The large-scale ethnic cleansings and population transfers in the wake of World War II were instrumental in forging homogeneous, if fragile, nations. Wartime social dislocations cleared grounds for radical political and economic reforms. The preponderance of Soviet power and the wavering support of the governments-in-exile by the Allies resulted in the mass-scale support of local Communist parties. Their membership expanded exponentially, facilitating the turn toward the command economy (Chapter 9, "The Transition to Communism"). The picture would have been even more dramatic had Krakovský included in the table presenting the dynamics of party membership after 1945 (P. 154) data from the 1930s.

Chapter 9, "The Transition to Commiuism," precedes chapter 10, "The Advent of Cold War," which suggests that Krakovský prioritizes the factor of domestic developments over international politics. I believe that the latter factor was more important for the countries of the region, but perhaps Krakovský's approach makes the story more comprehensible for French readers.

Krakovský offers an insightful analysis of the postwar communist regimes that molded their countries into uniform though quasi-pluralistic, classless but class-informed, national yet transnational societies. Chapter 11 includes a fascinating discussion of the role of charisma and rituals, based on Krakovský's previous research. At the same time, I find misleading his juxtaposition of the Polish and Czechoslovak approaches to the religious sphere (P. 184). Restrictions of the church (particularly the Roman Catholic Church) and attempts to put it under control were common to all communist regimes. The church provided an alternative social sphere to the one controlled by the regime. The increasing retreat of citizens into private life (including religion) signaled the communist regimes' failure to live up to their promise and the expectations originally associated with them.

From de-Stalinization in the late 1950s and the search for a new societal compromise and liberalization in the 1960s (Chapter 12), the book turns to the crisis of late socialism, with no political will to reform (Chapter 13). Following the oil crisis of 1973, economic imbalance exacerbated social tensions. As Soviet control continued relaxing through the 1980s, satellite regimes eroded and crashed abruptly at the turn of the decade.

The epilogue tells the story of turbulent postcommunist transformation, up...