This is a handbook of statistical data covering production and distribution, foreign trade, foreign indebtedness, domestic finance, energy and standards of living in Eastern Europe (including Yugoslavia) and the Soviet Union.

This is a comprehensive handbook of statistical data on the economies of Eastern Europe (including Yugoslavia) and the Soviet Union in regard to production and distribution, foreign trade and indebtedness, domestic finance, energy, households, and standards of living. It is the only compendium in English of facts and figures widely scattered in the statistical yearbooks published in the respective European countries, supplemented by international organizations' compilations. The handbook can also be used as a tool for gaining access to the on-line database maintained by WIIW via Reuters. The reference commences with comprehensive indicators of CMEA (Council for Mutual Economic Assistance) countries' foreign trade--then presents data from official publications of the CMEA countries and Yugoslavia. Based on Western and United Nations' statistical sources, the handbook then details East-West trade, trade of the industrialized West, and trade of eight individual industrialized countries with the individual COMECON countries, all broken down by SITC commodity groups. The final part of the handbook is devoted to currency, balance of payments, and indebtedness. Much of the information presented here is not readily available, as many of the sources are published only in the languages of the COMECON countries. Combined with the data published by Western countries, this results in a well-rounded and up-to-date picture of current affairs. This guide will be an important reference for individuals in corporations and academia who are involved with international trade, particularly in the area of Eastern Europe.

This handbook of statistical data on the economies of Eastern Europe, including Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union covers such topics as distribution and production, foreign trade and indebtedness, domestic finance, energy households and standards of living.

Description

Against the backdrop of one of the great transformations of our century, the sudden and unexpected fall of communism as a ruling system, Charles Maier recounts the history and demise of East Germany. Dissolution is his poignant, analytically provocative account of the decline and fall of the late German Democratic Republic. This book explains the powerful causes for the disintegration of German communism as it constructs the complex history of the GDR. Maier looks at the turning points in East Germany's forty-year history and at the mix of coercion and consent by which the regime functioned. He analyzes the GDR as it evolved from the purges of the 1950s to the peace movements and emerging youth culture of the 1980s, and then turns his attention to charges of Stasi collaboration that surfaced after 1989. In the context of describing the larger collapse of communism, Maier analyzes German elements that had counterparts throughout the Soviet bloc, including its systemic and eventually terminal economic crisis, corruption and privilege in the SED, the influence of the Stasi and the plight of intellectuals and writers, and the slow loss of confidence on the part of the ruling elite. He then discusses the mass protests and proliferation of dissident groups in 1989, the collapse of the ruling party, and the troubled aftermath of unification. Dissolution is the first book that spans the communist collapse and the ensuing process of unification, and that draws on newly available archival documents from the last phases of the GDR, including Stasi reports, transcripts of Politburo and Central Committee debates, and papers from the Economic Planning Commission, the Council of Ministers, and the office files of key party officials. This book is further bolstered by Maier's extensive knowledge of European history and the Cold War, his personal observations and conversations with East Germans during the country's dramatic transition, and memoirs and other eyewitness accounts published during the four-decade history of the GDR.