ABSTRACT
As defined for the purposes of this book, East Central Europe (ECE) has an area of 1.27 million sq.km and a population of 137.8 million (1985) with an overall density of 102 persons/sq.km (Figure 0.1). The maximum longitudinal spread is some 26 degrees (about 1,300km) between the Italian-Slovenian frontier and the Danube Delta but is reduced to only 400km between Hungary’s Austrian and Ukrainian frontiers before widening again to some 1,200km at 51 degrees north in the territory of East Germany and Poland. Northsouth distance reaches its maximum between 40 degrees north in southern Albania to 55 degrees north in northern Poland, a distance of some 1,650km. The region’s coherence arises from the adoption, by monopoly communist parties, of elements of the former Soviet system of government, including socio-economic development through a command economy guided by central planning. There was some relaxation after Stalin’s death in 1953 underpinned by Red Army withdrawals from the Balkans-though not from East Germany and other countries of particular importance for transit-but maintenance of communist power was guaranteed by the Brezhnev Doctrine which legitimised Warsaw Pact intervention in Czechoslovakia in 1968 on the grounds that a threat to the system in one country was a challenge to the alliance as a whole. Now there is unity through transition policies; these are also characteristic of the former Soviet republics, although the latter no longer comprise a superpower centre. However, it is usual to divide the region into two halves: a northern tier comprising the relatively welldeveloped states of Czechoslovakia, East Germany (GDR), Hungary and Poland; and a southern, Southeastern European (SEE) group taking in Albania, Bulgaria, Romania and Yugoslavia. The latter area found the Soviet system particularly relevant to economic development in the second half of the twentieth century, along with Soviet technology and raw materials, while the more sophisticated northern economies with considerable democratic experience were arguably constrained by the Soviets’ extensive approach.
