The Cold War's Underbelly: Behind-the-Scenes Wars and Secret Coalitions in Eastern Europe – Bekes Csaba – CoLibri – 2026 – ISBN 978-5-389-29475-2
The Cold War's Underbelly: Behind-the-Scenes Wars and Secret Coalitions in Eastern Europe
39.99 €
In stock
The Cold War's Underbelly: Behind-the-Scenes Wars and Secret Coalitions in Eastern Europe
39.99 €
It is commonly believed that for half a century, the Eastern Bloc countries remained mere submissive satellites of Moscow, meek pawns on the chessboard of the two superpowers. Hungarian historian Csaba Bekes's seminal study completely shatters this stereotype, proving that small states played their own masterful diplomatic game in the shadow of the Iron Curtain.
Drawing on previously classified archives on both sides of the Atlantic, the author offers a radically new perspective on the history of the Cold War—from the secret agreements between Stalin and Churchill to the fall of the Berlin Wall. The paradoxical role of Hungary takes center stage. The book reveals how the regime of János Kádár, born from the crushed uprising of 1956, managed to negotiate unprecedented autonomy from the Kremlin through a policy of "constructive loyalty." You'll peer behind the scenes of the Warsaw Pact, where brutal lobbying wars for Western loans raged, learn about the secret contacts between socialist elites and the capitalist world, and see how economic dependence inevitably forced the communist parties to dismantle their own empires. This book is a large-scale historical reconstruction that reads like a gripping geopolitical detective story.
Drawing on previously classified archives on both sides of the Atlantic, the author offers a radically new perspective on the history of the Cold War—from the secret agreements between Stalin and Churchill to the fall of the Berlin Wall. The paradoxical role of Hungary takes center stage. The book reveals how the regime of János Kádár, born from the crushed uprising of 1956, managed to negotiate unprecedented autonomy from the Kremlin through a policy of "constructive loyalty." You'll peer behind the scenes of the Warsaw Pact, where brutal lobbying wars for Western loans raged, learn about the secret contacts between socialist elites and the capitalist world, and see how economic dependence inevitably forced the communist parties to dismantle their own empires. This book is a large-scale historical reconstruction that reads like a gripping geopolitical detective story.
See also:
- All books by the publisher
- All books by the author
- All books in the series Historical interest