Bureaucracy and Revolution in East Europe

Harman, Chris
Publisher:  Pluto Press, London, United Kingdom
Year Published:  1974  
Pages:  296pp   ISBN:  0-902818-50-3
Resource Type:  Book
Cx Number:  CX7336

For twenty years the workers in Eastern Europe have fought, fallen back, and fought again -- for food and workers' power. Their victory would shatter the oppressive regimes they live under and ignite revolution in Russia itself.

Abstract: 
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Table of Contents

Introduction

Part One: Repression

1. Eastern Europe after World War 11
The Pre-War Regimes
The Communist Parties the Close of the War
The Revolutionary Wave and the 'People's Governments'
The War saw Uprising
Revolution from Above
The Fate of Peasant and Socialist Parties
The Growth of the Communist Parties
Slav against Teuton
Nationalization
The Prague Coup - Workers' Uprising?

2. The Russian Interest
Reparations
Mixed Companies
Trade
Conclusion

3. From Control to Subjection
The Purges
Economic Changes
The Pattern of Economic Development
1952-1984?


Part Two: Revolt Revolution

4. 1953: The German Workers' Revolt
The Uprising
The Real Causes
The Bureaucracy Split

5. 1953-56 Prelude to Revolution
The Hungarian 'New Course"
The Twentieth Congress

6. 1956: Poland - Aborted Revolution
Intellectuals in Revolt
Insurrection Below
Reforms
Gomulka versus the Left
The October Left
The Fight for Control Workers' Councils
Strike and Repression

7. 1956: The Hungarian Revolution
The Revolution Breaks
The New Government
The Emergence of Workers' Councils
Revolution of Counter Revolution
Class Forces in the Hungarian Revolution
Mass Insurgency
Dual Power Concessions
Betrayal
The Counter-Revolution
The Second Period of Dual Power
The Destruction of the Workers' Councils
Conclusion

8. 1968: Czechoslovakia - Arrested Reform
Origins of the Crisis
Novotny's Fall
The New Leadership
The Reformers and the Invasion
'Normalization'
Slovakia
The Intellectuals
Ideological Confusion
The Workers
Democratization within the Unions
Resistance to 'Normalization'
The Workers' Councils
Conclusion

9. 1970: Poland
The Economy
Gdansk

Conclusion: Reform or Revolution
Economic Malaise
Waste and Competition
A Vicious Circle
The Crisis
The Failure of Reform
Revolution

Notes
Index