The New Eastern Europe [antikvár]

Preface T -JLhAT eastern europe is a more important factor in world politics today than it was for more than half a century is a truth fast becoming a truism. The great interest in this region shown over the last few years by scholars and journalists has not been "purely accidental," to use a favorite Communist term. It has reflected the growing awareness that Eastern Europe plays a crucial role in the Communist world and is a critical factor in the whole balance of world power. Eastern Europe's importance has increased in recent years because of changes within individual countries themselves and changes in their relations with the Soviet Union. In this book, I describe how and why these changes came about and discuss their significance. In Stalin's time, it was possible to generalize about Eastern Europe (although even then this was not always justified). Today, it is very dangerous indeed, for Eastern Europe has reverted to the diversity that had previously always characterized it. Two generalizations of the broadest kind are still, however, permissible: the character of Communist rule in the different countries has radically changed since Stalin, and the changes have rapidly acceler-