This book draws on public opinion surveys conducted in Poland during the Solidarity era to examine popular attitudes on fundamental issues of political power and on the dramatic political events of 1980 1982. These surveys, unprecedented for a communist regime, offer a unique portrait of the values and attitudes of a population in a society undergoing profound social, economic and political change. The study focuses on the citizens, who are often overlooked in studies of communist systems. As such, it provides a fresh look at the Solidarity experience from the public's point of view. It...

This book, first published in 1981, represents a systematic attempt to describe and analyse the evolution of Soviet trade union organisations. It examines union activities both at the national level and on the shop floor. The main focus is on the development and workings of the Soviet trade unions, but their history throughout the Soviet period is also covered. Soviet trade unions were an important component in Stalin's system of rigid control over workers. Beginning with Khrushchev, party leaders sought to dismantle a system rooted in terror while seeking alternative ways to ensure...

Alberto Melucci brings an original perspective to research on collective action, emphasizing the role of culture and making telling connections with the experience of the individual in postmodern society. The focus is on the role of information in a world both fragmented and globalized, and topics addressed include political conflict, feminism, ecology, identity politics, power and inequality. The book builds on the author's Nomads of the Present (1989), and is a companion volume to The Playing Self (CUP, 1996).

Originally published in 1973, this book deals with the development of financial institutions, changes in methods of finance and the role of monetary control in socialist economic management. The structure and activity of financial institutions were deliberately adapted to changes in policy planning techniques used in socialist economies. Dr Podolski provides a systematic description of this process of adaptation, based mainly on the example of the Polish economy, on which he has gathered a large amount of statistical data. Throughout the book international comparisons are made. Soviet...

Originally published in 1977, this book filled a major gap in the studies of Eastern European history. It analyses the Neo-Slav movement using an exceptionally wide range of Czech primary sources. The subject is of considerable significance in connection with international relations in the period leading up to the First World War, with Czech intellectual history, and with the history of Czech-Russian relations. Neo-Slavism was essentially a Czech-inspired attempt to improve inter-Slav relations, and thus make possible more effective political, economic and cultural co-operation between the...

The world was surprised in August 1971 when India and the Soviet Union signed a treaty of mutual military protection. The author traces the history of economic relations between the two powers which preceded the political move signalling the end of India's non-alignment. During the period covered by this book, India was the principal recipient of Soviet development assistance: it absorbed 18 per cent of total Soviet aid while only four other countries received more than 4 per cent apiece. The very entry of the USSR as a donor influenced the West, chiefly the Untied States, to increase its...

In this book, Iliana Zloch-Christy analyzes the causes and consequences of the massive East European debt that began in the 1970s. In assessing the region's convertible currency debt problem, the author addresses five main issues: the origins of the debt; the possibility that such a debt was essential to Eastern Europe's economic development; the effects of the countries' own adjustments to the problem; the value of the aid provided by the West; and the outlook for the debt during the rest of the decade. The book analyzes the flaws of the centrally-planned economies that led to the crisis as...

This book was published in 1989 and was written in the context of a strong impetus for internal reform in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. As Dr Myant shows, economic and political developments have been as entwined in Czechoslovakia as elsewhere in the COMECON network. He presents a detailed account of the development and performance of the Czech economy over a period of forty years, and reveals the problems and tensions created by the chosen system of centralised planning. The study shows clearly that economic change can only be understood in a broader international and political...

This 1983 book presents a comprehensive account of the cycle of fixed capital investment in the Soviet Union, from strategic decision-taking in the Kremlin down to the level of individual building sites. Dr Dyker places the subject in the context of welfare economics and decision-taking theory, but the book's emphasis is on the detailed empirical analysis of Soviet material. It includes analysis of the Soviet design and construction sectors and the developments in Soviet procedures for assessing investment effectiveness, as well as a unique series of case studies of individual investment...

This 1977 book was undertaken with the purpose of determining the degree of Soviet involvement in the Middle East crisis, from the expulsion of the Soviet advisers from Egypt in 1972, through the planning stage of the war and the war itself, up to the disengagement agreements which in fact finally brought the war to a close. Dr Golan first investigates Soviet interests in the region, particularly in connection with the Arab Israeli conflict, and the relationships of these regional interests - be they strategic, political, economic or ideological - to Soviet global interests. There follows a...