Bibliographical essay
9. The Sovietization of Eastern Europe, 1944-1953
New documentary collections continue to shed light on Soviet policy in Eastern Europe.
Two vital sets of documents on the Soviets' deep involvement in the establishment of
Communist regimes are G. P. Murashko et aL (eds.), Vostochnaia Evropa v dokumentakh
rossiiskikh arkhivov, 1944-1953 [Eastern Europe in Documents from the Russian Archives,
1944-1953J, 2 vols. (Moscow and Novosibirsk: Sibirskii khronograf, 1997); and T. V. Volokitina
et aL (eds.), Sovetskii faktor v vostochnoi Evrope, 1944-1953 [The Soviet Factor in Eastern EuropeJ,
2 vols. (Moscow: ROSSPEN, 1999, 2002). An Italian-sponsored publication contains the
transcripts of the first three Cominform meetings and very useful articles on aspects of
Cominform history: The Cominfonn: Minutes of the Three Conferences 19471194811949 (Milan:
Feltrinelli, 1994).
Country-specific collections include an updated edition of essential documents on the
Soviet Zone of Occupation in Germany, Gennadii Bordiugov et aL (eds.), Sovetskaia
voennaia administratsiia v Gennanii (SVAG): upravlenie propagandy (informatsii) i S. I.
Tiul'panov 1945-1949 [The Soviet Military Administration in Germany (SVAG): The
Propaganda (Information) Administration and S. 1. Tiul'panov, 1945-1949J (Moscow:
AIRO-XX, 2006). For the establishment of Communist hegemony in Poland, see
Gennadii Bordiugov et aL (eds.), SSSR-Pol'sha: mekhanizmy podchineniia 1944-1949 gg.
[The USSR-Poland: Mechanisms of Subordination 1944-1949J (Moscow: AIRO-XX, 1995).
For the Soviet takeover of Romania, see T. A. Pokivailova et aL (eds.), Tri vizita A. Ia.
Vyshinskogo v Bukharest 1944-1946 gg. [Three Visits by A. Ia. Vyshinskii to Bucharest
1944-1946J (Moscow: ROSSPEN, 1998).
Two highly influential early monographs are Hugh Seton-Watson, The East European
Revolution (New York: F. A. Praeger, 1965), which sets the framework for three generations
of writing about the Sovietization of Eastern Europe, and Zbigniew K. Brzezinski, The
Soviet Bloc: Unity and Conflict (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1964), a founda­
tional political science treatment of the subject. One of the best-documented and most
reliable accounts ofthe origins ofthe Cold War in Eastern Europe from the pre-1989 period
is Vojtech Mastny, Russia's Road to the Cold War (New York: Columbia University Press,
1979). See 2.lso Mastny's study of Stalin's policies abroad, The Cold War and Soviet Insecurity:
The Stalin Years (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996).
Important recent studies of Stalin's foreign policy include DonalO'Sullivan, Stalins
"Cordon Sanitaire": die sowjetische Osteuropapolitik und die Reaktionen des Westens 1939-1949
(Paderborn: Schbningh, 2003); T. V. Volokitina et aI., Moskva i vostochnaia Evropa: stanovlenie
politicheskikh rezhimov sovetskogo tipa, 1949-1953 [Moscow and Eastern Europe: The
Emergence of Political Regimes of the Soviet Type, 1949-1953J (Moscow: ROSSPEN,
2002), an archive-based study of the Stalinization of Eastern Europe by leading Russian
specialists; and Vladislav Zubok and Constantine Pleshakov, Inside the Kremlin's Cold War:
From Stalin to Khrushchev (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1996).
There are also several vital new collections of articles, including A. O. Chubar'ian et aL
(eds.), Stalinskoe desiatiletie kholodnoi voiny: fakty i gipotezy [The Stalin Decade of the Cold
War: Facts and HypothesesJ (Moscow: Nauka, 1999), including leading Russian specialists
on the Stalin period; Stefan Creuzberger and Manfred Gortemaker (eds.), Gleichschaltung
unter Stalin? Die Entwicklung der Parteien im ostlichen Europa, 1944-1949 (Paderborn:
524
Bibliographical essay
Schbningh, 2002), which comprises recent articles on Sovietization by German and East
European scholars; N. I. Egorova et aL (eds.), Kholodnaia voina, 1945-1963: fakty, sobytiia [The
Cold War, 1953-1963: Facts, EventsJ (Moscow: OLMA-PRESS, 2003), a reevaluation of the
Cold War by Russian archival scholars. See also papers based on new research presented at
a Moscow Academy of Sciences conference, collected in Norman Naimark and Leonid
Gibianskii (eds.), The Establishment of Communist Regimes in Eastern Europe, 1944-1949
(Boulder, CO: Westview, 1997).
Interesting new interpretations are offered by John Connelly, Captive University: The
Sovietization ofEast Gennan, Czech, and Polish Higher Education, 1945-1956 (Chapel Hill, NC:
University of North Carolina Press, 2000), on the ways in which East Europeans were able
to preserve their own traditions and institutional cultures during the process of
Sovietization; and T. V. Volokitina et aI., Narodnaia demokratiia: mif ili real'nost' [People's
Democracy: Myth or RealityJ (Moscow: Nauka, 1993), an argument by leading archival
scholars of Eastern Europe that "people's democracy" had serious democratic content and
intent in the immediate postwar period.
Studies on specific countries include Krystyna Kersten, The Establishment of Communist
Rule in Poland, 1943-1948, trans. and annotated by John Micgiel and Michael H. Bernhard
(Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1991), the English translation of the first
archive-based Polish study of the period of Communist takeover; Ivo Banac's pioneering
analysis of Yugoslav politics during the Tito-Stalin split, With Stalin against Tito:
Cominfonnist Splits in Yugoslav Communism (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1988);
and Norman M. Naimark, The Russians in Germany: A History ofthe Soviet Zone ofOccupation,
1945-1949 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1995), an archive-based examination
of Soviet policy in Germany and the origins of the German Democratic Republic.
Robert Levy's Ana Pauker: The Rise and Fall of a Jewish Communist (Berkeley, CA:
University of California Press, 2001) is an important reevaluation of the Romanian
Stalinist based on extensive interviews and archives. The premier Czech historian of
Communism in that country, Karel Kaplan, studies the origins and course of the 1948
coup in The Short March: The Communist Takeover in Czechoslovakia (New York: St. Martin's,
1987). See also his Report on the Murder ofthe General Secretary (Columbus, OH: Ohio State
University Press, 1990), which, in addition to an account of the Slansky trial, includes a
general history of the East European purges. On Hungary, see Charles Gati's excellent
series ofextended essays, Hungary and the Soviet Bloc (Durham, NC: Duke University Press,
1986), and George H. Hodos, Show Trials: Stalinist Purges in Eastern Europe (New York:
Praeger, 1987), the best available work on the East European purges by a former victim of
Hungarian Stalinists.
Finally, there are several key published memoirs and diaries. The memoirs of the
Yugoslav Communist Milovan Djilas remain one of the fundamental sources for under­
standing Stalin's wartime and postwar thinkii1g, Conversations with Stalin, trans. Michael
B. Petrovich (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1962). Likewise, many insights can be
gleaned from the splendidly edited notes of the famous Bulgarian Communist Georgii
Dimitrov, Stalin's most trusted East European deputy during the war and after, The Diary of
Georgi Dimitrov, 1933-1949, ed. Ivo Banac (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2003).
Essential insights into the Sovietization of East European intellectuals are found in Czeslaw
Milosz, The Captive Mind, 3rd ed. (New York: Random House, 1981). Lastly, Teresa
Toranska, "Them": Stalin's Polish Puppets, trans. Agnieszka Kolakowska (New York:
52 5
essay
Rihliouravhical essay
interviews 'With Polish Stalinists bv an
Harper and Row, I987), contains
aP"l;!reSSi~le journalist.
See also sections 5. 7, and 1O in this bibliographical essay.
10.
BaUkans, I945-1956
Cold War in
The body of literature on the Balkans
far from
in
of the explosion in the availability ot documentary sources
archives after I989. By far the most comprehensive survey of the
Crampton, The Balkaru since the
Second World War (New York: Longman, 2002). Although mainly focused on the first half of
the century and the Second World War, an overview by Barbara JcIavich, History of the
Balkans, vol. II
Cambridge University Press, I983), is a valuable contribution.
A more elaborate review of the literature on the Soviet policies toward Eastern Europe in
is already given in the entries in this bibliographical essay, sections 5 and 9·
However, works such as The Diary o{'Gcorgi Dimitrov, 1933-1949, ed. Ivo Banae (New Haven,
CT: Yale University Press, 2003), Milovan Djilas, Conversations with Stalin (Harn10ndsworth:
Penguin Books, 1963), and the most recent book by Vesselin Dimitrov, Stalin's Cold War:
Soviet Foreign Policy, Democracy, and Communism in Bulgaria, 1941-1948 (New York: Palgrave
Macmillan, 2007), provide invaluable insight into Stalin's attitudes toward the Balkans. See
also Artiom Ulunian, Balkany: gorlachii mir kholodnoi voiny. Gretsiia i Turtsiia mezhdu 7,apadom i
Vostokom, 1945-1960 gg, [The Balkans: Hot Peace, Cold War. Greece and Turkey between
West and East, 1945-1960J (Moscow: Rossiiskie vesti, 2001),
Among the country-specific literature, Dimitrov, as well as R.j. Crampton's Bulgaru/
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007), offer exceptional insight into developments in
Bulgaria, For US policy, Michael M, Boll. Cold War in the Balkaru: American Foreign Policy ana
the Emergence of Communist Bulgaria, 19431947 (Lexington, KY: University Press of
Kentucky, 1984), is still useful.
For an overview of the history of Turkey during this period, one should consult Erik
J. Zurcher, Turkey: A Modern History, 3rd cd, (London and New York: L B, Tauris, 2005), and
William Hale, Turkish Foreign Policy, 1774 2000 (London: Frank Cass, 2000). For relations
between London and Ankara, see Mustafa Bilgin, Britain and Turkey in the Middle East:
Politics and Influence in the Early Cold War Era (London: Tauris Academic, 2008), and
between Moscow and Ankara, Bulent Gokay, Soviet F,astern Policy and Turkey, 1920-1991:
Soviet Foreign Policy, Turkey and Communism (London: Routledge, 2006), A useful overview
of domestic politics in
is John M, VanderLippe, The Politics of Turkish Democracy:
Ismet Inonu and the Formation of the Multi-Party System, 1938-1950 (Albanv. NY: State
University of New York Press, 2005).
From a relatively
body of literature on the Greek Civil War, two edited volumes
deserve special mention, as
prOvide a comprehensive general overview of the conflict
John O. Iatrides (cd.), Greece in the 1940s: A Nation in Crisis
with its many
(Hanover, NH:
Press of New England, I981), and John O. Iatrides and Linda
Wrigley (eds.), Greece at the Crossroads: The Civil War and Its Legacy (University Park:, PA:
Penn State University Press, 1995), On the American role in the conflict, one should consult
Lawrence S. Winner, American Intervention in Greece, 1943-1949 (New York: Columbia
526
Unive:rsiltv Press, 1982). On the subject of the Greek Communists' goals and tactics in the
Greek Civil War and Soviet policies, a very good overview can be found in Peter J. Stavrakis,
Moscow and Greek Communism, 1944-1949 (Ithaca. NY: Comell University Press, 1989),
Additional
can be gleaned from more recent articles that have benefited from the
of the Soviet archives, such as John O. Iatrides, "Revolution or Self-Defense?
Conununist Goals, Strategy, and Tactics in the Greek Civil War," Jou.rnal of Cold War
Studies, 7, 3 (Summer 2005), Y33, and Thanasis D, Sfikas, "War and Peace in the Strategy of
the Communist Party of Greece, 1945-1949," Journal ofCold War Studies, 3, 3 (Fall 2001). 5-30, A
rare and thus valuable comparative analysis of Soviet and British attitudes in the conflict is
provided in the article by Thanasis D, Sfikas, "Toward a Regional Study of the Origins of the
Cold War in Southeastem Europe: British and Soviet Policies in the Balkans, 1945--1949,"
Journal o{'Modern Greek Studies, 17 (1999), 209-27, For Greece after the civil war, see Euanthes
Chatzevasileiou, Greece and the Cold War: Frontline State, 1952-1967 (London: Routledge, 2006),
The scarcity ofpublished Greek documents on the Greek Civil War is somewhat compensated
for by the inclusion of relevant documents in series from the US and British governments,
Among English-language books on Yugoslavia during this period that focus on the
Tito--Stalin split and its aftermath, see the excellent analysiS of Western polides and the
dilemmas of policymaking in Lorraine M. Lees, Keeping Tito Afloat: The United States,
Yugoslavia, and the Cold War (University Park, PA: Penn State University Press, 1997), and
Beatrice Heuser. Western "Containment" Polides in the Cold War: The Yugoslav Case, 1948-1953
(London and New York: Routledge, 1989), A still unsurpassed insight into the YUlloslav side
of the conflict and an accurate reading of Stalin's mindset is provided
The Battle Stalin Lost: Memoirs ofYugoslavia 1948-1953 (NottinghaII1: Spokesman, 1978), and in
the documentary collections he edited in Serbo-Croatian, the three-volume Dokumenti 1948
[Documents on 1948J, (Belgrade: Rad, 1979). Interesting aspects of the Tito Stalin split and
its ramifications are discussed in Ivo Banae, With Stalin agairut Tito: Cominformist Svlits in
Communism (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1988).
Several memoirs and biographies are
O'Mh"_"",,iPl' conflict and the process ofnormalization afrer Stalin's death, most notably
biography of Tito, Novi prilozi za bwgrafiju Josipa Broza
Broz TitoJ, vol. III (Belgrade: Izdavacka
UlgaIll"<l.UJ" Rad, I984), as well as Nikita Khrushchev, Vremia, liudi, vtast' [Times,
PowerJ, vols. III and IV (Moscow: Moskovskie novosti, 1999), Veljko Micunovic,
Moskovske
195&1958 [Moscow Years, I956--I958J (Zagreb: SveuCilisna naklada Liber,
I977), and Sveto7.ar Vukmanovic-Tempo, Revoludja koja teee: memoari [The Continuous
Revolution: Memoirs] (Belgrade: Komunist, I97I), For the process of Soviet Yugoslav
reconciliation, see Svetozar Rajak, Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union in the Early Cold War,
1953-1957 (London: Routledge, 20ro).
See also entries in section 9 of this bibliographical essay,
II.
The birth of the People's Republic of China
and the road to the Korean War
The documents pertaining to the Guomindang government's policies were published after
the I9705, such as Qin Xiaoyi (cd,), Zhonghua minguo zhongyao shiliao chubian duiI{i
527