Ideology, Reality, and Competing Models of Development in Eastern Europe Between the Two World Wars
It is commonplace to say that East European countries did not experience successful economic development during the 1920s and 1930s. It took most of the 1920s to repair the damage done by the war. In some cases , notably in Poland and Hungary , continued fighting after 1918 only made the situation worse. Trade patterns were badly disrupted by the collapse of the great empires in Central Europe. The industrial heartland of Poland lost its Russian market. Czech industry was cut off from Austro-Hungarian markets. Northern Yugoslavia and Transylvania were separated from the Habsburg Empire , too , and were joined to countries dominated by relatively more backward areas. Then, when the situation seemed to be improving , there came the Great Depression. The decline of agricultural prices and of industrial production during the early 1930s caused severe hardship. [...]
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