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CEU Press launched Masterpieces of History - The Peaceful End of the Cold War in Europe, 1989, the sixth book in the Cold War Reader Series, on May 31 at the Open Society Archives. The volume, based on the ground-breaking research and documentation of the National Security Archive in Washington DC, contains crucial historical documents and is absolutely indispensable for understanding the end of the Cold War.

Prague Tales leads top ten of CEU Press sales after 2000. 2. Memoir of Hungary, 3. The 1956 Hungarian Revolution, 4. A Cardboard Castle, 5. Jewish Budapest, 6. A Biographical Dictionary, 7. Stalin – an Unknown Portrait , 8. Uprising in East Germany, 9. A Life under Russian Serfdom, 10. Russian Foreign Policy in Transition





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The Demise of Yugoslavia
A Political Memoir

Stipe Mesic, President of the Republic of Croatia

"Mesic's memoirs provide a valuable insider's story of the collapse of the SFRY. The amount of detail, the first-hand account of events and the portrayal of the key personalities involved in the political struggles of the time make this an essential contribution to understanding how and why the SFRY disintegrated in 1991." - International Affairs

A political memoir by Stipe Mesic, the last president of the former Yugoslav Federation, and key witness to the chain of events that would send the Balkan empire toppling, aided by notable figures like Slobodan Miloševic.

Formed in the aftermath of WWI, Yugoslavia was founded as the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes ("three tribes of the same people"). But in the early 1990s, following a series of violent conflicts on Slovenian and Croatian soil, the two republics successfully succeeded from Yugoslavia, which would later be followed by Bosnia-Herzegovina and Macedonia.

Mesic was member, later head of the Presidency of the Yugoslav Federation from August 1990. His memoir details an intricately woven storyline, which analyzes events, personalities and motivations inside Yugoslavia and its former nations, as well as in the international arena. The narrative is rich with excerpts from Mesic's personal diaries during times of heated conflict and bloodshed. Extensive notes and a short chronology assist the interested reader and scholar in disentangling the complicated plot.

After years of relative political passivity, Mesic was elected independent Croatia's second president in 2000, following the death of former President Franjo Tudman.

Contents

Prologue; The Headless State; Sovereign, Independent Croatia; The Belated Election of the Constitutional President; The Joint Brijuni Declaration; Futile Cries for Peace; Serbia Angry at the World; EC Declaration: Serbia and Yugo-Army as Agressors; Peace Conference at the Hague; Army Out of All Control; The Army of Crime Loses State; Dubrovnik as the Estuary of Conscience; Chronology of Events, Index

2004
422 pages
ISBN 978-963-9241-71-8 cloth $49.95 / €42.95 / £33.00
ISBN 978-963-9241-81-7 paperback $24.95 / €19.95 / £15.95

 

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