Hungary from the Nazis to the Soviets: The Establishment of the Communist Regime in Hungary, 1944–1948

This 2006 book describes in detail the establishment of a Communist regime in Hungary. Hungary was the last ally of Nazi Germany, and as such suffered dreadful destruction in the course of the fighting during the last year of the war. The war discredited the political and social elite and gave opportunity for a new beginning. Early optimism in democratic circles, however, quickly dissipated. With the help of the Soviet Army, the Communists, who had negligible indigenous support, in a short time managed to destroy any organized opposition to their taking power. In this concise book, which is based on archival and other primary sources, Peter Kenez describes the methods of Communist conquest of power in one country in Eastern Europe and therefore allows us to better understand the origin of the Cold War.

Table of Contents:
1. Introduction; 2. The revolution, 1917–21; 3. New economic policies, 1921–9; 4. The first five-year plan; 5. High Stalinism; 6. A great and patriotic war; 7. The Nadir: 1945–53; 8. The age of Khrushchev; 9. Real, existing socialism; 10. Failed reforms; 11. Leap into the unknown; 12. Afterthoughts; Chronology.

About the Author :
Peter Kenez is Professor of History at the University of California, Santa Cruz. He is the author of A History of the Soviet Union from the Beginning to the End (1999); Varieties of Fear(1995); Cinema and Soviet Society (1992); The Birth of the Propaganda State (1985); Civil War in South Russia, 1918 (1971); and Civil War in South Russia, 1919-1920 (1976). He is the editor, with Abbott Gleason and Richard Stites, of Bolshevik Culture: Experiment and Order in the Russian Revolution (1989).

Review :
"The study under review here is a fine account of the struggle for Hungary's future after World War II, a transitional period when noncommunists believed they could overcome overwhelming odds and obtain a modicum of independence and political pluralism for their country. While more information might well surface one day from Soviet archives and modify what we now know, and other scholars might and indeed should scrutinize the motives and activities of the United States in greater detail, Hungary from the Nazis to the Soviets is going to the be the standard work on the subject for years to come." - Charles Gati, Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, Washington, D.C. "Kenez deserves praise for judicious and clearly written account of Hungary's traumatic absorption into the Soviet-Communist sphere" Bennet Kovrig, The International History Review "Illuminating book...a valuable contribution to the ongoing debate." -Mark Kramer, American Historical Review