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The end of the Cold War and of Eastern European communism in 1989-1991 did not mean the loss of Eastern Europe’s global importance. On the contrary, the recent history of Eastern European countries, the period of their post-communist transition to political democracy and a market economy, has been marked with new instabilities, crises and wars, which have had serious implications for global trends as well. This course is designed to provide a broad background to an understanding of the political, socio-economic, and cultural developments in the countries of former communist Eastern Europe as an essential prerequisite to understanding the modern world.
In addition to the primary focus on the internal evolution of the countries of former communist Eastern Europe from the end of the Second World War to the early 1990s, significant attention will be paid to the most important events and themes of the pre-war history of this part of the world.
This course will enable students to become familiar with the major issues of the history of communism in East-Central and Eastern Europe as well as the reasons for both the Soviet conquest of the related countries and for the collapse of Soviet domination and communist rule in these countries. The course also examines the reasons for success or failure in post-communist political and economic transitions in particular groups of post-communist states and encourages students to make an original and independent investigation on related topics. In particular, through their work in this course, students are expected to be able to:understand and describe the geopolitical conditions in which the countries of East-Central and Eastern Europe fell under Soviet domination and communist rule after the Second World War,understand, describe and critically analyse the nature and main characteristics of communist rule in the countries of East-Central and Eastern Europe during the period 1945-1989/91develop an awareness of theoretical debates relating to the themes and topics examined,define and analyse the main socio-economic and political causes of the collapse of communist rule in East-Central and Eastern Europe during the period 1989-1991design and carry out an original independent investigation of the specific conditions which led to the overthrow of communist rule and the beginnings of post-communist political and economic transition in one or more countries of former Eastern Europecritically analyse and present the results of their original investigation in writing and orally in student-led seminars.
Any 15 points of EURA or EURO at 200-level OR any 45 points with B average at 200-level in Arts, Commerce, Law OR any 45 points with B average at 200-level with approval of the Course Coordinator.
EURA226, EURO 226, EURO 326, HIST269, HIST329
HIST329
Milenko Petrovic
Crampton, R. J; Eastern Europe in the twentieth century ; Routledge, 1994.
Bideleux, Robert. , Jeffries, Ian; A history of Eastern Europe : crisis and change ; 2nd ed; Routledge, 2007.
Additional and optional readings are listed in the Course Outline (available for enrolled students on LEARN).
Library portalLEARN The full Course Outline is available on LEARN (only for students enrolled in this course).
Domestic fee $1,464.00
International fee $5,950.00
* All fees are inclusive of NZ GST or any equivalent overseas tax, and do not include any programme level discount or additional course-related expenses.
For further information see Language, Social and Political Sciences .