The Soviet Bloc: Unity and Conflict: Unity and Conflict, Revised and Enlarged Edition: 37 (Russian Research Center Studies) - Softcover

Brzezinski, Zbigniew K.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0674825489 ISBN 13: 9780674825482

Publisher: Harvard University Press, 1967

Synopsis

This is the first full-length study of relations among the communist states. The study explores the implications of the status of Yugoslavia and China, the significance of the Hungarian revolution and the position of Poland in the Soviet bloc, and clarifies the Khrushchev–Gomulka clash of 1956 and the complex role of Tito. Zbigniew Brzezinski emphasizes the role of ideology and power in the relations among the communist states, contrasting bloc relations and the unifying role of Soviet power under Stalin with the present situation. He suggests that conflicts of interest among the ruling elites will result either in ideological disputes or in weakening the central core of the ideology, leading to a gradual decline of unity among the Communist states.

The author, while on leave from his post as Professor and Director of the Research Institute on Communist Affairs, Columbia University, and serving on the U.S. State Department’s Policy Planning Council, has revised and updated his important study and added three new chapters on more recent developments. He gives particular attention to the Sino–Soviet dispute.

About this title

Product Description

Unity and Conflict, Revised and Enlarged Edition

Review

Brzezinski's definitive work on the rise and dissolution of the Soviet Empire in Eastern Europe...is compellingly lucid, unfolds effortlessly, and remains happily unencumbered by jargon. The first edition...was one of the significant pioneering efforts in systematizing the analysis of Communism in Eastern Europe, yet it had all the hallmarks of authorship by a profoundly political thinker. The present Revised and Enlarged Edition, more than ever, uses a political approach toward essentially political phenomena in a part of the world which traditionally thinks in political terms...[and] reveals an encyclopaedic grasp of contemporary developments.--The New Leader

This distinguished book analyzes the origins, evolution, and fragmentation of the once unified Communist world. Though the focus is still on relations between the Soviet Union and the East European countries, there is an expanded treatment of the Sino-Soviet dispute. With skill and insight, Brzezinski traces the transformation of the Soviet bloc into a more complicated alliance system, in which Moscow plays a leading, but no longer unchallenged, role. This is a masterful account of the interaction between ideology and power among the Communist states.--Current History

Brzezinski...is uniquely qualified to sift the scattered and often seemingly contradictory data on this subject... [T]he volume is marked by unusual insight, richness of information, and stimulating thought.--The New York Times

An original and incisive analysis of the dynamics of leadership in the Communist camp and of the national factors that condition this leadership.--American Historical Review

Edition details

• Publisher: Harvard University Press
• Publication date: 1967
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0674825489
• ISBN 13: 9780674825482
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 624