Course for international guest/part time students
- Faculty
- Faculty of Humanities
- Organization
- BTK Department of Eastern and Central European History and Historical Russistics
- Code
- BMI-KET21-300
- Title
- Dictatorships in Central Europe
- Usual semester
- Spring
- Published semester
- 2025/26/2
- ECTS
- 3
- Language
- en
- Learning outcomes
- Knowledge: Students get acquainted with the processes and transformations which shaped the 20th century history of the Central European region: the birth of the new nation states after the First World War, the political, economic and social changes of the interwar era, the rise of Fascism, the circumstances and conditions of the entry into the Second World War, the Nazi rule and the Holocaust, the victory of the Allies and the subsequent Soviet domination of the region, the establishment of state socialism and its most important characteristics as well as historical stages (Stalinism, thaw, reform processes, the end of “socialism with a human face”, the consolidation of the system), the reasons for the fall of state socialism and the change of regimes. During the course, students acquire factual knowledge and analytical skills which enable them to interpret the Central European social and political developments in a differentiated way, and to identify the historical reasons that to a large extent determine present policies. Skills: The acquired skills will help students to better understand the political, social and economic development of the current nation states and EU member states of the Central European region; students will be able to understand the role of historical constraints as well as social and political choices. The complex study of the common traumas (Second World War, Holocaust, the establishment of Soviet-style dictatorships) facilitates the formulation of new, current questions, and it provides a link between the peoples and their histories. Attitudes: Thanks to the acquired knowledge, skills and increased social responsibility, the students will be more open to the common questions of the region, they will have a more complex, nuanced and tolerant understanding of the common traumas and they will explore, what historical heritage connects the Central-European countries. Autonomy, responsibility: Students will have an increased sense of social responsibility, they will be more open to the history of the neighboring peoples, more ready to act collectively in social-political issues, and they will be more respectful of the neighboring peoples and their history.
- Course content
- kurzus oktatója: Balázs István Miklós Language of instruction: English Content of the course 1. The conceptual history of dictatorship 2. The influence of the Italian fascist system on authoritarian regimes in Central Europe 3. Nazism and Central Europe 4. Dictatorship against Nazism? The Austrofascist regime 5. Variations of Soviet-type dictatorship in Central Europe 6. Monarchical dictatorships in the Balkans 7. Visit to the Malenkij Robot Memorial (6 Fék utca, 1097 Budapest) 8. Participation, collaboration, resistance 9. The symbolism of Central European dictatorships 10. Language and censorship 11. The roles assigned to women in Central European dictatorships 12. Central European dictatorships and the nationality question 13. Churches and dictatorships
- Assessment method
- Completion requirement: Oral exam based on the lecture content and required reading.
- Bibliography
- Literature: Applebaum, Anne: Iron Curtain. The Crushing of Eastern Europe, 1944-1956. New York, Doubleday, 2012 Berend, T. Iván: Central and Eastern Europe 1944-1993: Detour from the Periphery to the Periphery. Cambridge University Press, 1996. Berend, T. Iván: Decades of Crisis: Central and Eastern Europe before World War II. University of California Press, 1998. Bottoni, Stefano: Long Awaited West. Eastern Europe since 1944. Indiana University Press, 2017. Braham, J. Randolph: The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary. New York, University of Columbia Press, 1981. Hobsbawm, Eric: Age of Extremes: The Short Twentieth Century, 1914-1991. Abacus, 1995.