There Is No Freedom Without Bread!: 1989 and the Civil War That Brought Down Communism

by Constantine Pleshakov

The conventional story of the end of the Cold War is Ronald Reagan waged an aggressive campaign against communism, outspent his opponent, and forced Mikhail Gorbachev to "tear down this wall."

In There Is No Freedom Without Bread! , Russian-born historian Constantine Pleshakov proposes a different interpretation. The revolutions that took place in 1989 were the result of politicking, tensions between Moscow and local governments, compromise between revolutionary leaders and communist old-timers, and the will and anger of the people. In a dramatic narrative culminating in that whirlwind year, Pleshakov challenges the received wisdom and argues that 1989 was as much about national civil wars and internal struggles for power as it was about the Eastern Europeans throwing off the yoke of Moscow.

Genres: History, Russia

304 pages, Paperback

First published October 27, 2009

About the author

Constantine Pleshakov emigrated to America in 1998 and is a former foreign policy analyst at the Institute of U.S. and Canada Studies in Moscow. In 2012, The Princeton Review named him one of the 300 best college professors in the U.S. He lives in Amherst, MA.

Reviews

[Lauren Albert · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this a surprising look at the events leading up to and including the 1989 overthrow of communism. Pleshakov disagrees with the usual interpretation of events--that the communist countries were entirely under the thumb of the Soviet Union and overturned its power in 1989. "There is nothing in the story," he writes, "to support the conventional image of the good masses throwing off Moscow. Rebellion was a domestic matter. Eastern Europeans were, naturally, very happy to see the Soviets go, but they were fighting not the empire, as in 1989 it was at its nadir, but their own rulers. What happened in Eastern Europe was a clash of classes revealed as a civil war in Poland and Romania, nonviolent revolution in Czechoslovakia, and peaceful transfer of power in Hungary and Bulgaria." (236)

Pleshakov believes that there was a good amount of "buying in" to the system by its citizens--certainly more than most of us have been taught--and that their revolts came from their belief that the government(s) had failed to fulfill its obligations under this system. Food shortages and food price increases being a primary example of this failure. Interesting revisionist look.

[Sharon Zink · Rating 5 out of 5]

The sub title says it all. The book dealt with the downfall of Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia. Excellently written.

[Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting to read that Communism in Eastern Europe was not instituted by the Red Army or the Soviets, but as a popular response to the failures of the immediately-postwar governments?

Aside from some political quibbles like that, it read very well, and flowed nicely through the events of the 1980s, when the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact were fading faster than anyone knew.

[Patricrk patrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very readable account of the end of communism in Eastern Europe. A revisionist explanation of why what happened from a leading proffesor/history writer of Russian history.

[Nick Wallace · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great revisionist account of the origins and dissolution of the communist governments in Eastern Europe.