This module begins with a lecture on the pre-C20th history of the region (the experience of empire and the rise of nationalism), then proceeds to comparative studies of the new states of CEE in the inter-war period, followed by one session on World War II. The remainder of the semester focuses on the subordination of the region to Soviet domination, and compares the diverse national responses to communist rule 1945-1989. The main countries covered are: Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia, Romania and Yugoslavia may be included according to student demand. The main themes are: national identity versus external domination; the linkage between internal (national) and external (international) dimensions of politics in CEE; the relationship between economic backwardness, ethnic conflict, weak statehood and the problems of building democracy in CEE.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of the module the student will be able to:
gain a basic understanding of the historical reasons for weak statehood, inter-ethnic tension, and problems of democratic self-government in CEE; will understand the inextricable linkage on internal and external dimensions of politics in CEE, a region chronically vulnerable to imperialist domination by larger powers (Germany and Russia) to the west and east.
G Schopflin, Politics in Eastern Europe, Blackwell, London, 1993
J Rothschild, East-Central Europe between the Two World Wars, 1974
J Rothschild, Return to Diversity (2nd edn), 1993
R Crampton, Eastern Europe in the Twentieth Century, 1994
