Communist parties came to power in a variety of ways, usually by force, often with the acquiescence of people who hoped for a better future. Then came the imposition of Stalinism. The book examines this, and subsequent crises in Hungary, Poland and Czechoslovakia.
Ben Fowkes was for twenty-five years Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Humanities at the University of North London. He has carried out archival research in Vienna, Munich, Bonn, Prague and Moscow. He is the author of several works on communist and post-communist history and politics, including The Rise and Fall of Communism in Eastern Europe, The Disintegration of the Soviet Union, Eastern Europe from Stalinism to Stagnation and The Post-Communist Era.