CYAN MAGENTA YELLOW BLACK Stalinism Revisited Stalinism Revisited Stalinism Revisited brings together representatives of multiple generations to create a rich examination The Establishment of Communist Regimes in East-Central Europe of the study and practice of Stalinism. While the articles are uniformly excellent, the book’s signal contribution is to bring recent research from Eastern European scholars to an English-speaking audience. Thus the volume is not just a “state of the discipline” collection, in which articles are collected to reflect that current situation of scholarship in a given field; instead, this one includes cutting edge scholarship that will prompt more of the same from other scholars in other fields/subfields. I would recommend this book highly to anyone interested in understanding the technology of Stalinism in both StalinismStalinism thought and practice. Nick Miller Boise State University The Sovietization of post-1945 East-Central Europe—marked by the forceful imposition of the Soviet- type society in the region—was a process of massive socio-political and cultural transformation. Despite its paramount importance for understanding the nature of the communist regime and its RevisitedRevisited legacy, the communist take-over in East Central European countries has remained largely under- researched. Two decades after the collapse of the communist system,Stalinism Revisited brings together a remarkable international team of established and younger scholars, engaging them in a critical re-evaluation of the institutionalization of communist regimes in East-Central Europe and of the period of “high Stalinism.” Sovietization is approached not as a fully pre-determined, homogeneous, and monolithic transformation, but as a set of trans-national, multifaceted, and inter-related processes of large-scale institutional and ideological transfers, made up of multiple “takeovers” in various fields. Theoretically minded and empirically sound, the collection adds key elements to our comparative Edited by understanding of Stalinist regimes in their various historical permutations. The richness of the Vladimir Tismaneanu source material employed and its comparative scope recommendStalinism Revisited as a major, synthetic contribution to the study of East-Central Europe’s Sovietization. Constantin Iordachi Central European University, Budapest Edited by About the Editor Vladimir Tismaneanu Vladimir Tismaneanu is professor of politics and director of the Center for the Study of Post-communist Societies at University of Maryland (College Park) and President of the Presidential Commission for the Analysis of the Communist Dictatorship in Romania. The Establishment of Communist Central European University Press ISBN 978-963-9776-63-0 Regimes in Budapest–New York East-Central Sales and information: [email protected] 9 789639 776630 Europe Website: http://www.ceupress.com STALINISM REVISITED i3 Stalin book.indb 1 10/15/09 9:47:14 AM i3 Stalin book.indb 2 10/15/09 9:47:15 AM STALINISM REVISITED The Establishment of Communist Regimes in East-Central Europe Edited by VLADIMIR TISMANEANU Central European University Press Budapest–New York i3 Stalin book.indb 3 10/15/09 9:47:15 AM © 2009 by Vladimir Tismaneanu Published in 2009 by Central European University Press An imprint of the Central European University Share Company Nádor utca 11, H-1051 Budapest, Hungary Tel: +36-1-327-3138 or 327-3000 Fax: +36-1-327-3183 E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.ceupress.com 400 West 59th Street, New York NY 10019, USA Tel: +1-212-547-6932 Fax: +1-646-557-2416 E-mail: [email protected] All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the permission of the Publisher. ISBN 978-963-9776-55-5 Cloth LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATA L OGING -IN -PUB L I C ATION DATA Stalinism revisited : the establishment of communist regimes in East-Central Eu- rope / edited by Vladimir Tismaneanu. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-9639776555 (hardcover) 1. Europe, Eastern—Politics and government—1945-1989. 2. Communism— Europe, Eastern—History—20th century. 3. Europe, Eastern—Foreign relations— Soviet Union. 4. Soviet Union—Foreign relations—Europe, Eastern. 5. Europe, Eastern—History—20th century. 6. Stalin, Joseph, 1879-1953. I. Tismaneanu, Vladimir. II. Title. DJK50.S72 2009 947.0009’045—dc22 2009042289 Printed in Hungary by Akaprint Kft., Budapest i3 Stalin book.indb 4 10/15/09 9:47:15 AM Table of Contents VLADIMIR TISMANEANU Introduction . 1 Part One STALINISM REVISITED AND THE TAKEOVER MODEL KEN JOWI tt Stalinist Revolutionary Breakthroughs in Eastern Europe ....... 17 VLADIMIR TISMANEANU Diabolical Pedagogy and the (Il)logic of Stalinism in Eastern Europe . 25 MAR K KRAMER Stalin, Soviet Policy, and the Consolidation of a Communist Bloc in Eastern Europe, 1944–53 . 51 ALFRED J. RIEBER Popular Democracy: An Illusion? . 103 Part Two THE ESTABLISHMENT OF COMMUNIST REGIMES IN CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE THOMAS W. SIMONS , JR Eastern Europe between the USSR and the West: Reflections on the Origins and Dynamics of the Cold War .................. 131 i3 Stalin book.indb 5 10/15/09 9:47:15 AM V I Table of Contents AGNES HELLER Legitimation Deficit and Legitimation Crisis in East European Societies ....................................................... 143 JOHN CONNELLY The Paradox of East German Communism: From Non-Stalinism to Neo-Stalinism? . 161 AN T ONI Z. KAMINS K I , BAR T ł O M I E J KAMINS K I Road to “People’s Poland”: Stalin’s Conquest Revisited ........ 195 Part Three STALINISM AND HISTORIOGRAPHY JÁNOS RAINER Revisiting Hungarian Stalinism . 231 BOGDAN CRIS T IAN IA C OB Avatars of the Romanian Academy and the Historical Front: 1948 versus 1955 . 255 EK A T ERINA NI K O V A Bulgarian Stalinism Revisited . 283 DORIN DOBRIN C U Historicizing a Disputed Theme: Anti-Communist Armed Resistance in Romania ......................................... 305 Part Four NATIONAL OR REVOLUTIONARY BREAKTHROUGHS? BRADLEY ABRAMS Hope Died Last: The Czechoslovak Road to Stalinism . 345 CRIS T IAN VASILE Propaganda and Culture in Romania at the Beginning of the Communist Regime ............................................ 367 i3 Stalin book.indb 6 10/15/09 9:47:15 AM Table of Contents V II SV E T O Z AR ST O J ANO V I C Varieties of Stalinism in Light of the Yugoslav Case . 387 DR A G O ş PE T RES C U Community Building and Identity Politics in Gheorghiu-Dej’s Romania (1956–64) . 401 List of Contributors ........................................... 425 Index .......................................................... 431 i3 Stalin book.indb 7 10/15/09 9:47:15 AM i3 Stalin book.indb 8 10/15/09 9:47:15 AM VL A D IMIR TISMANEANU Introduction Understanding the nature, dynamics, and consequences of Stalinism in Eastern and Central Europe remains an urgent scholarly and moral task. The present volume compiles the proceedings of the conference “Stalinism Revisited: The Establishment of Communist Regimes in the former Soviet Bloc” (29–30 November 2007, Washington, D.C., USA). The event was envisaged as an opportunity for synthesis and comparison under the favorable circumstances of temporal distance and new available sources. The two decades that have passed since the 1989 watershed brought about an archival upheaval1 and, consequent- ly, a scholarly explosion within the field of communist studies. The re- sult was an opportunity for reinforcing and/or retesting many of the as- sertions produced in academia throughout the years of both the Cold War and the immediate post-communist euphoria. Equally significant, a certain sense of closure and atonement at the local level, created new motivations for coming to terms with the first decade of communism’s existence in the area, one fundamentally defined by trauma and re- pression. The year 2007 symbolized a historical threshold that marked six decades since the establishment of communist regimes in Eastern Europe (though it can be argued that this process took place earlier in some countries, such as Bulgaria, and later in other, e.g., Czechoslova- kia). The experience of recent years shows that the 21st century is still following upon the footsteps of the previous one. In many respects, it is only a formal convention to speak of a new century. Once Daniel Chirot stated that in the 21st century “the fundamental causes of revo- 1 What Sheila Fitzpatrick defined as “an abrupt and radical transformation of the universe of sources and the conditions of access to information” in her “Introduction” to Stalinism: New Directions (London: Routledge, 2000), p. 3. i3 Stalin book.indb 1 10/15/09 9:47:15 AM 2 STALINISM REVISITED lutionary instability will be moral.”2 If one concurs, then the study of Eastern Europe’s Stalinization remains an important source of peda- gogically and cathartically rich examples for the present. The initial premise behind the above-mentioned event was that we are now better equipped for understanding and interpreting the com- plex circumstances behind the Stalinist expansion in Eastern Europe. We had in mind such dynamics as the early history of the Cold War, the Stalinist revolutionary project in the region, the participation of lo- cal communist elites, the impact of Titoism on these elites, the rivalries between “Muscovites” and “home communists,” and the first attempts at constructing, via the Cominform (the Information Bureau of the Communist and Workers’ Parties, founded in 1947), a Moscow-cen-