HIST 4/576
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS, OKEY CHAPS. 7-9
OKEY, CHAP. 7
1.
Why was the period between 1918 and 1939 unique in the modern history of EE? (157)
2.
What were the “succession states”? (157)
3.
How were the borders of EE decided before Versailles concluded? (158)
4.
Who were the “revisionist powers”? What did this term mean? (161)
5.
What spurred the growth of communism and socialism (social democratic) after the war? (161)
6.
What sort of regime did Bela Kun set up in Hungary? Why did it fail? What replaced it? (161-2,
169)
7.
What does Okey mean by “EE democracy was no mirage, but it took a distinctive form”? (163)
8.
How does Okey define peasantism and liberal democracy? (164-5)
9.
Who was left out of the drafting of constitutions? Why? (165)
10. Describe the economic situation in the postwar period. How did politicians respond? (165-7)
11. “Parliamentary democracy requires the representation of interests and construction of majorities,”
Okey writes. Why was much of EE unable to do this? What other factors came into play? (171)
12. Why was Czechoslovakian democracy successful? (172-3)
13. What did peasantism achieve in the interwar period? Why wasn’t it ultimately successful? (1756)
14. Why were communists “their own worst enemy” in the interwar period? What did they achieve?
(176-7)
15. What, to Okey, are the classic features of fascism? (178)
16. To what degree were Germany and the Depression responsible for independent EE’s collapse?
What other factors played a role? (179-80)
OKEY, CHAP. 8
1.
Does Okey support the idea that WW2 was the “great struggle of Slav and Teuton”? (181)
2.
How did Hitler invert the 1919 solution? (182)
3.
What was the immediate purpose of EE native leaders in Hitler’s plan? Why did they go along
with the plan? What was the “dualism” in German policy? (182-4)
4.
Where were resistance movements strongest? Why? What sort of goals did they profess? (184-5)
5.
Who were the partisans, and where were they strongest? (185-6)
6.
When and why did leaders of the communist and non-communist resistance submit to Soviet
domination? (186-7)
7.
Why did Churchill agree to allow Soviet domination of EE? (187-8)
8.
What were the two opposing schools of historical thought on the communization of EE? Why is
neither appropriate for understanding EE’s experience? (188)
9.
What German structural changes ruled out a return to pre-war economic and political patterns?
(191-2)
10. Why were communists appealing (if they were) in the post-war situation? (192-3)
11. What does “popular front” mean? Was there genuine support for a government of this kind in EE?
Why did Stalin allow it? (193-4)
12. How did the Cold War influence Soviet strategy in EE? Did EE’s situation influence the Cold
War? (194-5)
13. How did communists justify purging governments of non-communists? (195)
14. What precipitated Czechoslovakian communization? How was its experience different than
elsewhere in EE? What, overall, explains the communization of EE? (196-7)
15. Was there a “specific road to socialism” that did not involve Stalinization? What happened?
(198-9)
16. What was a “show trial”? What sorts of people were subjected to these trials? (199-200)
17. What does Okey mean by the “Sovietization” of EE? (200)
18. What was a “command economy,” Soviet-style? What was “collectivization of agriculture”?
Why was the latter a particular problem in EE? How did the communists overcome this
difficulty? (201-2)
19. How was culture affected by Stalinization? Why was this cultural vision attractive? (203-4)
OKEY, CHAP. 9
1.
Since Stalin’s death in 1953, what has the central problem for EE been? What key political crises
took place between 1953 and 1986? (205)
2.
What was a command economy? What economic sector was neglected under Stalinism? (206)
3.
What key event took place in Moscow in spring 1956? How did EE respond? Why was Nagy’s
message ambiguous? (207-8)
4.
What was “national communism,” and why wasn’t it a stable basis for a broader movement? (208)
5.
What did change in the decade after 1956? Why wasn’t this enough to justify the command
economy? Why were these problems more severe in EE than in the USSR? (208-9)
6.
To what principles of economic reform did most EE economic reforms adhere? (211)
7.
What was the Prague Spring? Why was the invasion of 1968 so shocking? What led to the
USSR’s decision to invade? (212-13)
8.
Which EE country offered a different model of economic development? What was the model?
(213-15)
9.
How did younger EE politicians of the 1970s differ from their immediate predecessors? Why?
What economic and cultural gains were made? (215-19)
10. In what sense was EE “coming to resemble the West” in the 70s? (220-2)
11. What was EE’s international position in the 70s? (223-4)
12. What were the “crises of legitimacy” facing EE that Okey describes? How did EE theorists and
officials respond to these attacks? (225-7)
13. How did membership in the Communist Party affect status in EE? Why did the D I P report find
the Party a force for mediocrity? In what way has the CP’s inflexibility “rooted in the legitimizing
ideology itself”? (230-1)
14. What was the EE strategy for economic reform in the 80s? What was the problem with this
strategy? (233-4)
15. What was Solidarity, and what were its goals? (236-7)
16. What are the successes and failures of communist rule, in Okey’s view? On what does EE
security rest? (239-40)
17. What is the “leading theme” of EE history? In response to what conditions, and with what goals?
How does communism fit with this theme? Was this theme finally conquered, to Okey? (243-4)
18. Why doesn’t the writer Djilas like Scandinavia? What is the meaning of his quote? (244)