ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on political violence and violent politics. My discussion proceeds from Hannah Arendt’s distinctions of power and violence, and I use Ann Applebaum’s historical account of the situation in Eastern Central Europe after World War II as a principal example. I discuss Anne Applebaum’s depiction of the Soviet remoulding of East Germany, Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia, but I also refer to examples from Nazi Germany. On the basis of the work of Frantz Fanon and Hannah Arendt, I discuss so-called liberating violence, primarily in relation to the struggle against colonialism.
