*** SUVI KANSIKAS: Socialist Countries Face the European Community. Soviet-Bloc Controversies over East-West Trade. Peter Lang (1 Moosstrasse, P.O. Box 350, CH-2542 Pieterlen. Tel: (41-32) 3761717 - fax: 3761727 - Email: info@peterlang.com - Internet: http://www.peterlang.com ). 2014, 224 pp. €49.95. ISBN 978-3-631-
This book recounts the situation that previously existed and which those aged under 25 would not have had much direct knowledge about. As a researcher at the Aleksanteri Institute at the University of Helsinki, where she focused her studies on the way in which Russia is modernising itself, Suvi Kansikas draws from her Ph.D. thesis to paint a picture of what previously existed before the Berlin Wall and Iron Curtain fell and when the Council for Mutual Assistance (better known in French-speaking western European countries as “Comecon” operated). The way in which it functions internally is described, as well as it is stormy relationship with the Common Market that arose from the treaties of Rome in 1958. Is there any point in returning to a past to which there is no going back? The answer is unquestionably in the affirmative because we always need to know where we have come from in order to go forward. This is all the more true given that a certain number of political concepts and positions in that era appear to resonate with positions that are quite contemporary. Since 1957, Russia had refused, for obvious ideological, to recognise Europe and its Common Market and also imposed its own rejection on the countries under its influence, as well as Comecon. It did so because this capitalist undertaking possessed a number of benefits that could exercise a certain power of persuasion and subsequently threaten Soviet hegemony in this region. The countries under the vigilant tutelage of the Kremlin in the 1960s had, nonetheless, the possibility of pursuing bilateral trade with each of the six countries in Community Europe, given the acknowledged and “formal sovereignty over their own economies” within the framework of Comecon. In respect of this approach, beginning with the Common Market countries, they were not at any disadvantage at all, particularly Hungary and Poland! Although the planned economies sealed themselves up in a spiral of stagnation in the beginning of the 1970s, Central and Eastern European countries, excluding the Soviet union… were forced to, “deal with the devil” in the shape of the West as never before and east-west trade would soon experience, “Unprecedented growth (…) largely financed on Western credits and loans”.
In reality, the Iron Curtain was much more porous at an economic level than it was during the time of the Cold War. The problem began when the European Economic Community started to take shape on 1 January 1970 with its common trade policy, which threatened to forbid continued bilateral trade relations between the two zones. Insofar as Community Europe managed to assert itself in this way, as a genuine international political actor, the other “camp” had to find a way of countering this.
In an effort to counterbalance the rising power of the Club of Six, Russia proposed to its allies that it set up Comecon as a trading agency that was as coherent as the latter and which also had an economic integration programme. This book reveals the mechanisms underpinning these negotiations which sought to mutually improve, “The economic prosperity of their members” despite the fact that the European Economic Community and Comecon were quite different things, “The single most important difference was that the EC had agreed on strengthening its supranational powers, whereas CMEA decision making was based on the principle of national sovereignty”, which subsequently prevented it from acting without the unanimous consent of its member countries. Although Moscow and its satellites refuse any idea of integration and only wanted to be connected through simple ties of cooperation developed on an individual basis, the new situation involving the Community trade initiative encouraged the Soviet Union to revise its point of view and call for Comecon to develop a degree of supra-nationalism in its decision-making mechanisms. The situation that led to this proposal in the “smaller” countries of Central and Eastern Europe are at the core of this Finnish political scientist's analysis. It also illustrates how Russia often managed to impose its own point of view by overcoming the blockages inside Comecon thanks to the dominance of the Communist Party over the states. It only had to threaten legal proceedings at the highest political body in the Warsaw Pact to impose its point of view. Comparisons are obviously not reasons but it is tempting to see how the European Council could quite easily now resemble this highest echelon of the party chiefs, with the Prime Minister and foreign affairs ministers in the Warsaw Pact, where might is right was always law and always won out… it would also be useful to know whether, in the context of the Union, central and Eastern European countries continue to believe that the only way ahead is through cooperation.
Michel Theys
*** ANNA WITESKA-MLYNARCZYK: Evoking Polish Memory. State, Self and the Communist Past in Transition. Peter Lang (see address attached). “Warsaw Studies in Contemporary History” series, No 3. 2014, 254 pp. €49.95. ISBN 978-3-631-64163-7.
When history is revisited through personal testimonies and varying eyewitness accounts, ambiguity can develop, accounts of the past clash and a general understanding of the past becomes confused and unclear. In this book, a senior lecturer at the faculty of ethnology and cultural anthropology at the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan provides a very meticulous inter-disciplinary approach towards the question of political memories in post-Soviet contemporary Poland. The study undertaken describes the antagonism between two groups of individuals: former anti-Communist activists and former officials from the repressive Ancien regime. Through them we gain a number of perceptions, as well as an idea of the damages inflicted that stem from the Communist past and into a contemporary Polish village. The research particularly focuses on the process of reconstructing memories and the overlapping individual subjectivities within civil society and the political and state bureaucracy. The author's investigation is based on archives, documents, court and personal testimonies, as well as documents covering popular history. In the preface, Francis Pine, describes this book, as a “remarkable success” insofar as its author overcomes one of the most difficult tasks an ethnographer ever has to tackle, that of developing a relationship with the interlocutors with whom it is difficult to feel sympathy or empathy. Professor Pine concludes that this study appears to form part of the continued reflections of “Hanna Arendt on the banality of evil”.
(SLa)
*** MACIEJ GÓRNY: The Nation should Come First. Marxism and Historiography in East Central Europe. Peter Lang (see address attached).” Warsaw Studies in Contemporary History” series, No. 1. 2013, 302 pp. €57.95. ISBN 978-3-631-64512-3.
Maciej Górny is a lecturer at the Tadeusz Manteuffel History Institute at the Polish Academy of Science in Warsaw. In this book she examines how the Soviet Union attempted to impose Marxism-Leninism and historical materialism as the only way of exploring history in countries that fell under its ideological command, following the Second World War. This comparative study also reveals how East German, Polish, Czech and Slovak historians, as well as those from the Marxist school of thought put this imperative into practice often by supplementing their own visions to the traditional pathos of their respective country.
(PBo)
*** Cahiers di Scienze Sociali. Fondazione Università Popolare di Torino (12 via Principe Amedeo, I-10123 Torino. Tel./fax: (39-11) 8127879 - Email: cahiers8@unipoptorino.it - Internet: http://www.unipoptorino.it ). 2014, No. 1, 202 pp.
This is the first edition of a new journal launched by the Popular University Foundation of Turin, following « Storia Politica Società. The former and latter both seek to provide a vector for a “culture free and exempt from any kind of prejudice”. With the approach of the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall and Iron Curtain, this first issue exclusively focuses on this anniversary, as well as new challenges arising. The first part includes personal testimonies from people such as Lech Walesa, who talks about his experiences on 9 November 1989, while the former Polish Prime Minister, Tadeusz Mazowiecki, explains why East Germany constitutes the “terminus”. The journal also provides an interview from the archives that François Fejtö gave at the beginning of the millennium to Almerico Di Meglio. In it he talks about the fall of the Soviet Union and the increasing power of globalisation. There are then four contributions on the question of Germany, which are followed by interviews with academics discussing the legacy of the Berlin Wall and the “lost years” of the 1990s and the subsequent forward march to a multipolar world. There are two contributions that focus on the European Union and eight on Russia. The final part looks at new challenges, such as the militarisation of the Arctic and the dangers of nuclear proliferation.
(PBo)
*** OLGA ALEKSEEVA, HANS-GEORG HEINRICH: Ethnic Minorities of Central and Eastern Europe in the Internet Space. A computer assisted Content Analysis. Presses Interuniversitaires Européennes / Peter Lang (1 av. Maurice, B-1050 Brussels. Tel: (41-32) 3761717 - fax: 3761727 - Email: info@peterlang.com - http://www.peterlang.com ). 2013, 165 pp. €34.95. ISBN 978-3-631-62847-8.
Since the enlargement that incorporated the last wave of new European Union member states, the identity of ethnic minorities in Central and Eastern Europe has had to confront a number of cultural, social and political challenges. The Union is, in effect, helping to redefine national identities in a relationship that includes supranational structures. Identification and political organisation of these minorities was forged in a context of collapsing European empires, the last of which was embodied by the Moscow imposed communist regime. These identities were strongly affected by the struggles for independence throughout the process for creating a nation state. This book is written by two political scientists at the University of Vienna, who specialise in Eastern Europe. It looks at the evolution of 12 ethnic minority identities in seven countries having joined or that neighbour the European Union: Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Slovakia, as well as Belarus and Ukraine. Their research stems from a study carried out between 2008-2011, funded by the European Union, which seeks to define a new methodological approach towards the study of ethnic identities. The book is underpinned by both a quantitative and qualitative analysis of available content relating to ethnic minorities in Internet resources.
(SLa)
*** JEAN-DOMINIQUE DURAND (Editor): Christian Democrat Internationalism. Its Action in Europe and Worldwide from post World War II until the 1990s / Volume II: The Development (1945-1979) The Role of Parties, Movements, People. Presses Interuniversitaires Européennes / Peter Lang (see address details attached). « Euroclio » series, No. 80. 2013, 295 pp. €58.90. ISBN 978-2-87574-122-6.
In this book 20 university researchers, most of whom are historians, join forces to illustrate the commitment made by Christian democrats to world affairs and the influence that they had between the Second World War and the year that the European Parliament was elected for the very first time by direct universal suffrage. The first field of study involves the International Labour Organization and its quest for social justice. This organisation partly owes its existence to the Christian movement, Vatican and Christian trade unions and this area of study is also examined. The practical experience of this internationalism is then illustrated, such as the positive role played by Christian Democrat women and the negative impact of the Iron Curtain. The third part of the book looks at a number of national political parties in Italy, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and France, which have helped get Christian Democrat voices heard in the world, particularly in Europe. The final contribution is made by Steven van Hecke and tackles the difficult task involved in setting up the European People's Party in 1976. A number of other authors look at some of the individuals that have brought Christian Democrat ideas to the fore and beyond their own borders. These important figures include a depiction of Chancellor Adenauer, for example.
(PBo)
*** CLAIRE SANDERSON, MELANIE TORRENT (Editors): La puissance britannique en question / Challenges to British Power Status. Diplomatie et politique étrangère au 20e siècle / Foreign Policy and Diplomacy in the 20th Century. Presses Interuniversitaires Européennes / Peter Lang (see address attached). "Enjeux internationaux / International Issues" series, No. 25. 2012, 276 pp. ISBN 978-90-5201-892-8.
Through a variety of different perspectives, this book analyses a number of different transformations in the United Kingdom's foreign policy. Changes in this area proved necessary due to the progressive decline of this great power throughout the 20th century. In the first part of the book, the first stages of this evolution are tackled, such as the “three circles” Winston Churchill defined in 1948 as a means of guaranteeing the United Kingdom's permanent role in the world. These include: Europe, Empire-Commonwealth, North America and the English-speaking world. Richard Davis demonstrates, however, the limitations to this policy, which was restricted by the effects of a great power's mindset as displayed by its leaders and diplomats. Christophe Le Dréau focuses on pro-European groups active in United Kingdom during the period 1938-48. These groups were both victims of the position adopted by Churchill and the consequent evolution and metamorphosis into the think tanks we currently know today. Although the United Kingdom ultimately accepted the “European circle” it was only because of reasons to do with economic and political self-interest and not by any conviction regarding the European idea. The second part of the book focuses on the challenges of independence and the Commonwealth's profound transformation, with the latter constantly being renewed and renewing itself in the areas of diplomacy and defence. Niklas Rossbach looks at this subject in the perspective of the “great European strategy” of Edward Heath, which, as opposed to the position adopted by Thatcher, would have enabled Great Britain to play an important role in Europe, go beyond its nation state status and subsequently have more opportunities for maintaining its influence as a great power.
(PBo)