Communism in Eastern Europe

[blessedkarl]

Greetings to all of this fine forum! Over the past few years I have been getting more interested and reading up more on the Catholic intellectual tradition and medieval history and thus am pleased to have found such an excellent historical forum. Reading through the threads here has been most beneficial for me. I would like to ask the following, however:

Does anyone know of any good books or articles that details the plight of the Catholic Church in Poland, Hungary or Czechoslovakia during the Cold War era? My senior thesis I am presently researching is based around this topic and, alas, I must admit that I know very little about it. Having a proclivity for medieval history I really have not read too much on the modern era I am saddened to admit.

Thank you.

-Blessed Karl

[Gigalith]

There's a guy who hangs around on the blog, also named Karl, who was raised in East Germany. Not exactly what you are looking for, but you may be interested in talking with him.

[ignorantianescia]

Welcome, Blessed Karl,

I think most that is linked here is not very useful to you, but there may be something of use among it.

This is not sourced, but the institute is a federal research division for country studies. Check here for the Czech Republic and here for Hungary. There was not a Slowakia specific article.

The History Bookshop is convenient for books:
The Catholic Church in Communist Poland 1945-1985 - Ronald C. Monticone
Catholicism and Politics in Communist Societies - Pedro Ramet

These seem to be the relevant titles for you, but the keywords I used were "Catholic" and "Communist".

[acornuser]

There was something in First Things recently about the Catholic Church in the Ukraine. Can't recall the title though, sorry!

[blessedkarl]

Hello there everyone. Thank you very much for the books you have listed and I will be sure to check them out. In regards to the Ukraine...alas, I cannot use the Ukraine but only examine the Church in Poland, Czeckoslovakia, and Hungary.