This book examines the history of postwar Eastern Europe from 1944 to 1949—the establishment of Communist regimes in the region, incorporating information gleaned from newly opened archives in Eastern Europe, with the collaborative effort of scholars from Russia and the United States.

Introduction -- War as Revolution -- The CPSU, the Comintern, and the Bulgarians -- The Soviet Leadership and Southeastern Europe -- Postwar Hungary, 1944-1946 -- "Bandits and Reactionaries": The Suppression of the Opposition in Poland, 1944-1946 -- The Soviet Administrators and Their German "Friends" -- The Gomulka Alternative: The Untravelled Road -- Polish Workers and the Stalinist Transformation -- Peasants and Partisans: A Dubious Alliance -- Communist Higher Education Policies in Czechoslovakia, Poland, and East Germany -- Censorship in Soviet-Occupied Germany -- The Czech Road to Communism -- The Marshall Plan, Soviet-American Relations, and the Division of Europe -- The Soviet-Yugoslav Split and the Cominform