Home About IUP Magazines Journals Books Amicus Archives
     
A Guided Tour | Recommend | Links | Subscriber Services | Feedback | Subscribe Online
 
The IUP Journal of History and Culture :
The Transition of the East and Central European Countries to Market Economy: An Evolution at Dramatic Rates
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

The study aims to outline the causes that led to the victory and the subsequent influence of Soviet communism over the Central and Eastern European countries after the World War II, the way the economies of those countries developed, and the respective revolutions against the system as such. With these coordinates established, the largest part of the efforts made by the author is dedicated to the transition of the economies in Central and Eastern Europe from the strictly centralized and bureaucratized socialist model to the open market one. The stages of the transition are examined, and the shortcomings are pointed out. The paper concludes saying that these changes will lead to their logical fruition under the aegis of the European Union.

The end of the Second World War marked a great victory of democracy over a violent, fierce and bloody dictatorship - the Nazi Germany. The end of the great conflagration also marked a particular concession made by two Western victorious powers, the Great Britain and the United States, to a great Eastern power but an an acute and primitive dictatorship - the USSR. This terrible concession consisted, in fact, of absolute control credited to the USSR over the Central and East European Countries such as Poland, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Albania, and Yugoslavia - a control which represented, theoretically and practically, the evolution of these countries on the model of the Soviet colossus. Iosif Visarionovici Stalin, the generalissimo of Kremlin, obtained an even greater victory than the diplomatic one obtained after the war.

According to some recent historical perspectives, we must take into account both the quality and the health of the leaders of the three important countries involved in negotiations then. On one part of the stage, there was Winston Churchill, Great Britain's prime minister - a remarkable statesman, very experienced and determined in the crucial moments of some dramatic evolutions, wise and appreciated all over the world. Although he was almost 70 years old (his negotiations with Stalin started around the year 1934, or even before), yet he was a "charming" man, a heavy whiskey drinker - according to some testimonies, he was in the habit of drinking a bottle and a half every day. He was not in a very good state of health, which, combined with his propensity for strong alcohol and his advanced age, accounted for a "negative result". On the same part of the stage, there was also a great president of the United States, the father of the 1934 New Deal, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who was the elected president for the third mandate in an exceptional way, for reasons that are related to war. But by then, he was in a wheelchair and had been suffering for years from hemiphlegy, far from good physical health - some doctors doubted his mental health toototally exhausted, which perhaps prevented him from negotiating on normal, strictly realistic grounds.

 
 
 

Transition of the East and Central European Countries, Market Economy, Soviet communism, centralized and bureaucratized socialist model, historical perspectives, socialist camp, exceptional performances, subordinated territories, political battles.