Which socialism, whose détente? : West European communism and the Czechoslovak crisis, 1968 / Maud Bracke.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Bracke, Maud.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Communism--Europe.

Communism.

Europe.

Partito comunista d'Italia.

Parti communiste français.

Czechoslovakia--History--Intervention, 1968.

Czechoslovakia.

History.

Physical Description:

414 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Budapest ; New York : CEU Press/Central European University Press, 2007.

Summary:

"The 1968-1969 Czechoslovak crisis was first and foremost a major crisis of European detente. While the Prague Spring was made possible by the immediate and unchecked consequences of early detente in Europe, its crushing sharply brought out the contradictions of detente as understood by the global Cold War protagonists. In a similar way as the Czecho-slovak crisis reflected the ambivalence at the heart of detente, the West European Communist Parties' responses to it revealed the ambivalence of detente as a context for radical social change, either in the East of the West. The scholarly literature on the PCI and PCF has, often in an unproblematic way, understood the shift from Cold War to detente on the European continent in the mid-1960s as a development essentially positive to these parties. The present study argues against this and demonstrates how the shift from the Cold War of the 1950s to detente in Europe reformulated the impasse of revolution or radical change in the West, rather than putting an end to it." Book jacket.

Contents:

Chapter 1 West European Communism and Internationalism Theoretical and Analytical Framework 05

1 Internationalism and West European communism in the literature 05

2 The concepts and the method 13

3 The Czechoslovak crisis in the longer term 25

4 Introducing the contexts 31

Part I West European Communism and Internationalism, 1956-1967 47

Chapter 2 West European Communism and the Changes of 1956 49

1 1956 49

2 The PCI and PCF in the post-1956 communist world 57

3 The PCI, the PCF and changes in internationalism, 1956-1962 62

Chapter 3 West European Communism and Internationalism 1962-1967 83

1 The communist world: the Sino-Soviet dispute and diversification 84

2 East-West relations and the rise of European detente 92

3 The PCI: the symmetry of domestic and international developments 101

4 The PCF: the asymmetry of domestic and international developments 110

Part II The Prague Spring, the Invasion, the Dissent 131

Chapter 4 West European communism and the Prague Spring: reform and detente 133

1 The Prague Spring: which socialism? 133

2 Responses in the communist world 142

3 The PCF: saving "communist unity" 148

4 The PCI: supporting reform 167

Chapter 5 Invasion, Dissent, Crisis 197

1 The invasion of Czechoslovakia 198

2 The aftermath and the "normalization" 203

3 The dissent 209

4 The politics of identity: party crisis and domestic tension 223

Chapter 6 Normalization and Realignment 241

1 Individual realignment 242

2 The realignment of the communist world after Czechoslovakia 254

Part III Internationalism After Czechoslovakia 273

Chapter 7 Resetting Internationalism 1969-1970 275

1 The PCI 276

2 The PCF 294

Chapter 8 Internationalism and Eurocommunism in the 1970s 323

1 The enduring problem of European strategy 325

2 The coming about and break-up of Eurocommunism 341

General Conclusions: Internationalism, Detente, Revolution 365

Annex 1 Membership figures for the PCI and PCF, 1956-1979 375

Annex 2 Electoral results for the PCI and PCF (per cent), 1956-1979 376.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [379]-404) and index.

ISBN:

9789637326943

9637326944

OCLC:

86038360