Skip to main content

Distributed for Karolinum Press, Charles University

The Fates of Central Europe Between Hitler and Stalin

Selected Writings of Josef Guttmann

Two lives, two names, two perspectives on Soviet communism and its postwar expansion into Eastern Europe.

In the 1930s, Guttmann was a leader of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia before he broke with the party over the Comintern's strategy of helping Hitler to power. A harsh critic of Stalin's dictatorship and foreign policy, Guttmann became a prominent leftist opponent, outcast by the Party. To escape nacism, he exiled and settled in New York, where he worked under a pseudonym as a leading expert on events in the Soviet bloc and a critic of totalitarianism. Featured in this book are his Czech texts from the 1930s as well as studies and essays he later wrote on the nature of communist regimes, genocide, and anti-Semitism.

650 pages | 19 halftones | 6.57 x 9.25 | © 2026

History: European History

Jewish Studies


Be the first to know

Get the latest updates on new releases, special offers, and media highlights when you subscribe to our email lists!

Sign up here for updates about the Press