Assignments

Milovan Djilas (1911-95), the son of a locally prominent farmer and military man, was raised in the remote and impoverished world of Montenegro that you will read about. He was educated locally and in the regional capital, and went off to Belgrade to university in 1929. All his brothers followed this same route, and all became members of the (illegal) Communist Party out of their intense reactions to injustice and neglect of the poor. Milovan himself was in the inner circle of the underground party's leader, Josip Broz (Tito), from the early days of the Second World War. After the war he was one of the top strategists and administrators of Yugoslavia's Communist state until, about 1950, he began to put forward ideas that were at odds with the official party line. In 1954 he was stripped of his positions, and from 1956 on he was in and out of prison because of the works he wrote and published abroad, such as The New Class (1957). His four volumes of memoirs (this is the third) were mostly written in prison.

1. The experience of the Second World War was quite different from one country to the next:  Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union all had different wars. How far do these differences correlate with the pre-war experience of each country, and how far were they the result of developments in the war itself?

2. To what extent and in what ways would you say that the experience of the Holocaust is a significant part of the general history of Eastern Europe, as contrasted with being just a part of the history of the Jewish people?

3. Does Marrus's book affect your views on the "structuralist-intentionalist" debate about the Holocaust that we looked at last year?

4. Djilas's book is a memoir, unlike the books we read in Sophomore tutorial or the other books we are reading this week. Why do you think he wrote it, and why did he choose this form and style? How does he mean us to read his account? How much do you trust it?

5. One of the fascinations of Djilas's book is how it helps us better understand various unfamiliar things. What do we learn, for example, about a) Communism? b) the mountain people of Yugoslavia (specifically Montenegro)? c) guerrilla warfare? d) leadership?

The readings show us that the experience of the Second World War was vastly different in Eastern Europe than in the United States, or even in Britain. What are some of the striking features of the experience of the war years in Eastern Europe, and what implications do they have? In thinking about this, keep in mind the readings in Marrus and Djilas.

1. How much do the interview with Jakub Berman (in Stokes) and the article by Eugene Varga (in Legters) help us understand what the Stalinist leaders of Eastern Europe thought they were doing during the period 1945-53? .

2. What on earth was going on in the East European purge trials?

3. Miłosz's argument in The Captive Mind is that intellectuals and writers in Communist countries at the end of the 1940s were not just terrorized into submission and collaboration; they also had reasons of their own for accepting Communism, coming from their character and situation as intellectuals and writers. Could you put the substance of Miłosz's highly stylized argument into your own words?

4. Miłosz refers to "the Being which has taken the place of God in this century, i.e. History." What does he mean?

5. Djilas finds tendencies among the leaders of the Communist party and state that undermine the declared intentions of the new order. How could Djilas, enjoying a position of great influence and privilege, come to reject the party after a whole life of service to the Communist revolution? (Consider also what you have read elsewhere by and about Djilas.)

People used to believe that the Communist regimes of Eastern Europe in Stalin’s lifetime (i.e., up to 1953) were all stamped from the same mold. In retrospect it looks more complicated than that. What differences do you find between the Communist regimes established in Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary in the years between 1945 and 1953? How would you account for these differences?

1. What caused the existing system to lose control in Hungary in October 1956? How is it possible for a "totalitarian" system to lose control? Who stepped forward to contest the authority of the existing system, to press for change? How did they go about their challenge, and why did they succeed in knocking over the previous regime?

2. Rothschild declares that what happened in Hungary in October/November 1956 must be called a revolution. How would you go about deciding whether it was or was not a revolution?

3. Address question 1. for Czechoslovakia in 1968. And how would you go about deciding whether these events constituted a revolution?

4. Does knowledge of these events shed new light on any of the ideas put forward by Miłosz and Djilas in last week's readings?

The Hungarian events of the fall of 1956 and the Czechoslovakian events of the spring and summer of 1968 both amounted to revolts against old-line Stalinist leaders, spearheaded by intellectuals but widely supported by people of all kinds. Given the similarities, can you explain why the course of events was so different in the two countries?

Also:  Be thinking about what country to you want to be specially responsible for over the next three weeks. In class we will assign the countries.  (Better have a second choice in mind!)

1. How would you distribute blame for the relative decline of the Soviet-bloc economies in the years up through the 1970s between:  a) mistakes, made then or earlier; b) structural problems in the Communist system of government and control; and c) weaknesses in the basic economic model of Leninist-Stalinist Communism?

2. What kinds of "legitimacy" did the Soviet-bloc ruling systems have with their peoples, if any?  What achievements?

a) Analyze the phenomenon of "dissidents" in Communist Eastern Europe -- that is, intellectuals and professionals openly showing dissent or opposition. Can you make general statements about what drove them into the risky behavior of open opposition? about what they hoped to accomplish in the face of these powerful, oppressive regimes? about why they were more numerous and fared better in some countries than in others? In your paper deal with at least three countries.  

b) The expanding culture of consumerism in the West clearly had effects in the Communist world. How did Soviet and East European leaders deal with it? With what success?

c) How important was nationalism in shaping the Communist regimes and their relations with each other? How important was it in determining the relations of the governments with their peoples?

NB:  For this week you are expected to do extra reading on the country for which you are responsible, and incorporate it into your paper. This paper requires formal Footnotes and Bibliography, and remember to put accent marks on the names where appropriate.

Type up five study questions on this week's material, and bring to class enough copies of your sheet of questions for everyone to have one.

In preparation for class, keep your reading about your particular country moving forward. For the purposes of class, be ready to comment about how your country reacted (or failed to react) to the Solidarity phenomenon, and why. If your country is Poland, be ready to talk about the background and the aftermath of Solidarity -- that is, its Polish context.

NB:  If we haven't yet had a conversation about the topic for your research paper, this is the week we should do it.

1. Consider the end of the Communist regimes in Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary: the timing, the initiating groups and forces, the course of events, the leadership, the outcome by early 1990, and so on. Can you explain the similarities and differences in the 1989 events by reference to earlier decades of the history of each country?

2. Keep an eye also on the other countries on which Stokes reports. Do you see any general trends in the East European "revolutions" (if that's what they were) that can make a general story out of the several distinct sets of events?

3. Would you describe these events as a revolt for liberty? or for a better standard of living? or for national independence? or what?

Towards the Research paper:  Submit a prospectus, consisting of a paragraph-length statement of your topic together with a preliminary bibliography. (Here's another opportunity to practice proper bibliographic form!) Before you get too far into your work on something please consult with me about the topic and the materials you intend to use. I may be able to help, and a conversation at this point can keep us from getting at cross-purposes later on.

A second (very small) assignment:  What, in your judgment, are the three principal reasons why East European Communist regimes in the 1980s were having increasing difficulty ruling by the methods that seemed almost unchallengeable in the 1970s? Write them down before class (to be handed in); a sentence is enough for each point, no argument necessary, and they don't have to be typed. We'll compare notes in class.

1. Why did Yugoslavia have a civil war soon after the end of Communist rule, when none of the other East European countries went through this?

2. What party or parties would you blame for the outbreak of genocidal violence?  Or is blame perhaps an inappropriate category here?

3. How far can you understand the atrocities of the Bosnian war?

4. If you had been a leading policy-maker in the American government, what would you have done differently with respect to Bosnia?

Many people believe that the bloodshed of the 1990s in Bosnia (and later in Kosovo) -- "ethnic cleansing", mass rape and killings -- should be understood as an expression of "ancient hatreds".  What's your view on this point?

Research paper

The final written exercise is a 15-page research paper.  The topic is yours to choose, though you and I need to consult before the topic becomes definite. We should talk about it no later than Week 5, at least in a preliminary way: I can often help you avoid subjects where there might be trouble finding sources, or subjects that are too large and ill-defined. A prospectus, consisting of a paragraph-length topic statement and a provisional bibliography, is due at class-time in Week 6. The bibliography should list about ten titles that you think might be useful to you as you prepare the paper. I’ll return it to you quickly with any comments I may have.

If you want to use web-based resources in your paper, check out the Links to useful websites accessible through the course's Materials page.

The paper itself should follow the course's general style pointers on Writing papers as well as the guidelines on Footnoting and Bibliographies, all of them on the course website. Remember that in a research paper the notes must be at the foot of the page or at the end of the paper – either will do – and not in the text. Also, a research paper always has a separate page with a bibliography of all sources consulted.

The research paper is due no later than 4:00 p.m. on Friday, May 16, the last day of exams. You are more than welcome to hand it in earlier!