Università Roma Tre

The program of the course deals with the history of a wide geographical area between the German and Russian ethnic-cultural space, corresponding to the States of Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia and neighboring areas, due to the ancient connections of those regions with the German, Russian and Balkan areas in the framework of the great multinational empires collapsed at the end of the First World War. Although the discussion about the idea of Central Europe is not yet exhausted, it is possible to identify in this region some common historical features: the legacy of the imperial past (Habsburg, German and Russian), the contradictory and fragile interwar political experience, the communist regime with the heavy Soviet influence during the years of the Cold War, the European integration and the Atlantic Alliance.
The existence of a political union, such as the Visegrád Group, is a proof of common political and strategic interests among the four aforementioned States. Their role appears increasingly important in the continental and global scenario due to the strategic position between Russia and the European Union, facing the new challenges posed by global security, energy problems, migratory flows.

Francesco Caccamo, La Cecoslovacchia al tempo del socialismo reale. Regime, dissenso, esilio, Società editrice Dante Alighieri, Roma, 2017 (to be purchased on the publisher's website)
Jacques Rupnik, Senza il muro. Le due Europe dopo il crollo del comunismo, Donzelli, Roma, 2019