«За нацию и порядок!» Центральная Европа и Балканы между мировыми войнами.

The new joint work of the co-authors of the popular country research “Austria-Hungary: The Fate of the Empire” talks about the interwar history of Central and Southeast Europe, from the Baltic to the Mediterranean, covering the era from the 1914 to the end of the 1940s. The period known as Interbellum is not accidentally called the “golden age” of European dictatorships, the appearance of which is associated with the collapse of traditional monarchical systems, the advent of the masses in the politics and the crisis of immature democracies that arose after the First World War, not one of which lasted longer than two decades. The dozen states located in the geopolitical corridor between Nazi Germany, fascist Italy and the Stalinist USSR were chosen by a common fate: by the end of the 1930s, attempts at democratic construction were exhausted, and the authoritarian regimes strengthened in power were drawn into a new world war. The contradictory social processes of that time, the classification and characterization of political systems of different countries, the identification of the laws and the features of their crisis development are devoted to the book “For a nation and order!”. Ya. Shimov and A. Sharry confidently work in the inter -haired creative space, skillfully combining a deep analysis of political events and social phenomena with a fascinating narrative of statesmen, military, intellectuals – people who determined the “expression of the face” of the complex interwater era, and colorful notes on the everyday life of the Central Europe and the Balkans. The thorough knowledge of the region “between the East and the West” of the continent, a subtle understanding of the logic and relationships of historical processes, strict impartiality and support for various sources allowed the authors of the study to restore the picture of dramatic changes, many of which echoing today – after all, the theme of genesis, decline and collapse of authoritarian regimes has not lost relevance. Algorithms of cyclical policy are: a variety of civilizational circumstances in the countries of the motley region with a population of 125 million people did not prevent them from performing a democratic breakthrough by the end of the 20th century. Let the mechanisms of public administration are not perfect everywhere, and moving forward is not easy, but the general development vector indicates the irreversibility of change. And this means: even difficult historical lessons can be learned.