Drawing on his first-hand experience, Ivan Berend distils a huge array of material on the economies of the 'Eastern Bloc' countries during a period of revolutionary change. This is a major contribution to the economic history of the twentieth century.

Preface; Acknowledgements; Part I. Out from Europe: The Introduction of State Socialism, its Stalinist Decade and Revolts Against them: 1. Communist seizure of power, 1944–8; 2. The closed society in Stalinist state socialism after 1948; 3. Reforms, revolutions and the loosening bloc, the 1950s and 1960s; Part II. Temporary Success and Terminal Failure: The Post-Stalinist Decades - Modernization, Erosion and Collapse: 4. Post-Stalinist state socialism and its legitimization; 5. Economic and social performance of state socialism, 1950–89; 6. Crisis and erosion of state socialism, 1973–88; 7. The collapse: a revolutionary symphony in four movements, 1989; Part III. Back to Europe? Post-1989 Transformation and Pathways to the Future: 8. Building a parliamentary market system; 9. Economic decline - political change - rising nationalism; References; Names index; Subject index.