The history of Eastern Europe during the Cold War is one punctuated by protest and rebellion. Revolution and Resistance in Eastern Europe covers these flashpoints from the Stalin-Tito split of 1948 to the dramatic collapse of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Covering East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Poland and Romania, the authors provide comprehensive critical analysis of the varying forms of dissent in the East European socialist states. They take a comparative approach and show how the different movements affected one another. Incorporating archival material only accessible since 1989, they discuss issues such as the diverse manifestations of non-conformity among different strata of the population, the complex relationship between Moscow and the national Communist Parties, the loosening of Soviet control after 1985, and everyday resistance to state authority. This book offers a firm grounding in the tumultuous decades of communist rule, which is essential to understanding the contemporary politics of Eastern Europe.

This book, first published in 1989, is the first general study of Communism in Mediterranean Europe during and immediately after the war. It sheds light on the origins of Europe’s Cold War East-West divide and probes the common and conflicting interests of the Soviet Union with the separate national and Communist resistance movements. It explores controversial issues including Stalin’s intentions in post-war diplomacy, Communist attitudes to Nazi collaboration in France, and the origins of the Cold War. The decade following the outbreak of the war saw the transformation of society through armed conflict, national resistance and political revolution. The relationship between resistance to Fascism and occupation, on the one hand, and profound social and political changes on the other, was especially marked in southern Europe. In France and Italy, Communist parties emerged as prominent participants in post-war governments; in Yugoslavia the Communist partisans seized full power and effected a social revolution; while a similar attempt in Greece led to a long and bitter civil war.

"The Hungarian Cultural Centre in London is proud to be associated with this, the third volume on the history of Hungary which the Centre has supported and co-published. Like its predecessors on Lajos Kossuth and on British-Hungarian relations, the present work demonstrates the sustained interest in Great Britain in the field of Hungarian history. The collection draws together British, Hungarian and North American historians and thus illuminates the continued scholarly exchange between both countries and continents. ... The Hungarian Cultural Centre in London was opened in Covent Garden in 1999. From the very start its mission has been to familiarize the British people and the rest of the world with all the treasures that were spread to Europe by the Hungarians, as well as to highlight the values that Hungary owes to foreign cultures, in this way emphasizing Hungary's role as a bridge for inter-cultural communication. The present work comports entirely with this aim, as well as having its focus on one of the most important events in post-war Hungarian and European history - the Revolution of 1956." -- preface, p. ix.

Resistance and Rebellion: Lessons from Eastern Europe explains how ordinary people become involved in resistance and rebellion against powerful regimes. The book shows how a sequence of casual forces - social norms, focal points, rational calculation - operate to drive individuals into roles of passive resistance and, at a second stage, into participation in community-based rebellion organization. By linking the operation of these mechanisms to observable social structures, the work generates predictions about which types of community and society are most likely to form and sustain resistance and rebellion. The empirical material centres around Lithuanian anti-Soviet resistance in both the 1940s and the 1987–91 period. Using the Lithuanian experience as a baseline, comparisons with several other Eastern European countries demonstrate the breadth and depth of the theory. The book contributes to both the general literature on political violence and protest, as well as the theoretical literature on collective action.

In The Final Revolution, George Weigel provides an in-depth exploration of how the Catholic Church shaped the moral revolution inside the political revolution of 1989. Drawing on extensive interviews with key leaders of the human rights and resistance movements, he opens a unique window into the soul of the Revolution and into the hearts and minds of those who shaped this stirring vindication of the human spirit. He also examines the central role played by Pope John Paul II, and he suggests what the future role of the Church might be in consolidating democracy in the countries of the old Warsaw Pact. The "final revolution" is not the end of history, Weigel concludes. It is the human quest for a freedom that truly satisfies the deepest yearnings of the human heart. The Final Revolution illustrates how that quest changed the face of the twentieth century and redefined world politics in the year of miracles, 1989. Book jacket.