What has been happening in the last ten years in former communist Eastern Europe? Has the process of transition been completed successfully? What are the prospects for the future? In trying to give some of the answers to these questions the author has naturally given political developments a large place, in view of the post-1989 freedom to engage in political activity. But the economies, societies and cultures of the new Eastern Europe are by no means ignored. Indeed, one of the major features of this period in history has been the predominant role of economic issues in political debate. The comparative approach is combined with a detailed treatment of individual countries in alternating chapters.

Ethnic and national conflicts have been an unexpected and major source of problems in many parts of the world in recent times. Nowhere more so than in the formerly communist countries. This book provides a readable introduction to, and brief analytical coverage of, all the ethnic disputes of the 1990s. Full justice is done both to complex present-day situations and the deeper roots of ethnic conflict. This is followed by a review and evaluation of the main available explanations.

This book tells the dramatic story of the unexpected disintegration of the Soviet Union. The author draws on a wide range of sources to illustrate the growth of national awareness among the many subject peoples, partly promoted by the actions of the communists themselves. He concludes that, the efforts of Mikhail Gorbachev to reform the state he initially controlled, undermined and eventually destroyed the mechanisms that held the non-Russians in check.

History did not come to an end with the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe. This book tells the story of what followed during the 1990s. Political and national conflict, social and cultural change and the economic challenge of the transition to the market are all given their due weight. The comparative approach is combined with a detailed treatment of individual countries in alternating chapters. The distinction is made here between East Central Europe, where the author's conclusions are largely optimistic, and the Balkans, where uncertainty still prevails.

Part of a definitive English-language edition, prepared in collaboration with the Institute of Marxism-Leninism in Moscow, which contains all the works of Marx and Engels, whether published in their lifetimes or since. The series includes their complete correspondence and newly discovered works.

History did not come to an end with the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe. This book tells the story of what followed during the 1990s. Political and national conflict, social and cultural change and the economic challenge of the transition to the market are all given their due weight. The comparative approach is combined with a detailed treatment of individual countries in alternating chapters. The distinction is made here between East Central Europe, where the author's conclusions are largely optimistic, and the Balkans, where uncertainty still prevails.