Hungary's Cold War: International Relations from the End of World War II to the Fall of the Soviet Union

Description

In this magisterial and pathbreaking work, Csaba Bekes shares decades of his research to provide a sweeping examination of Hungary's international relations with both the Soviet Bloc and the West from the end of World War II to the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. Unlike many studies of the global Cold War that focus on East-West relationships—often from the vantage point of the West—Bekes grounds his work in the East, drawing on little-used, non-English sources. As such, he offers a new and sweeping Cold War narrative using Hungary as a case study, demonstrating that the East-Central European states have played a much more important role in shaping both the Soviet bloc's overall policy and the East-West relationship than previously assumed. Similarly, he shows how the relationship between Moscow and its allies, as well as among the bloc countries, was much more complex than it appeared to most observers in the East and the West alike. Cover Half Title Page Series Page Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Contents List of Abbreviations Introduction Chapter 1. The Emerging Cold War Chapter 2. Hungary’s Road to the Soviet Bloc Chapter 3. East Central Europe and the First Phase of Long Détente, 1953–1956 Chapter 4. Crisis Year, 1956: Poland, Hungary, Suez Chapter 5. The International Impact of the Polish and Hungarian Revolts Chapter 6. Hungary and the Soviet Bloc in the Khrushchevian Experimental Era, 1956–1964 Chapter 7. The Main Features of Kádárist Foreign Policy Chapter 8. The German Question and the CSCE Process: Foreign Policy Coordination and Lobby Fights in the Soviet Bloc, 1964–1975 Chapter 9. Standby Détente: Hungary as the Promoter of East–West Relations Chapter 10. The Soviet Union and East Central Europe, 1985–1990 Chapter 11. The International Context of the Political Transition in Hungary Epilogue. The End of the Soviet Bloc Notes Bibliography Index A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W Y Z