How secure was the USSR's control over Eastern Europe, 1948 - 1989? Flashcards
What did the communists do after the Second World War?
The communists quickly gained control of Eastern Europe with the help of the Soviet Union and the Red Army.
Who was the Soviet leader?
Stalin.
What was Stalin determined about in Eastern Europe?
He was determined that Eastern Europe would be a Soviet Sphere of influence.
What does Soviet Sphere of Influence mean?
Terms agreed at Yalta conference 1945 - Western powers agreed that Poland and other parts of Eastern Europe would be under Soviet influence.
What did this Soviet Sphere of Influence mean for Eastern Europe?
This meant that Eastern Europe would be dominated politically and economically by the USSR.
How were the Eastern European countries governed?
The Eastern European countries were controlled by their communist governments, but Stalin kept tight control of them, particularly through the Cominform.
What would Eastern Europe serve as for Stalin?
- It would serve as a buffer against a future attack on the USSR.
- He also wanted the resources of eastern Europe to help rebuild the USSR’s industries and economy after the terrible damage caused by the war against Germany. He used Comecon to ensure this.
What was the role of Cominform?
It was an organisation to spread communist ideas and also make sure communist states followed ideas of communism practised in USSR.
What did Cominform stand for?
Cominform stands for the Communist Information Bureau.
What was Cominform set up as?
Stalin set up the Cominform in 1947 as an organisation to co-ordinate the various communist governments in eastern Europe.
Where was Cominform based?
The office was originally based in Belgrade in Yugoslavia but moved to Bucharest in Romania in 1948 after Yugoslavia was expelled by Stalin because it would not do what the Soviet Union told it to do.
In effect, why was cominform used?
Cominform ran meetings and sent out instructions to communist governments about what the Soviet Union wanted them to do.
What was the role of Comecon?
It was an organisation to control economic planning in communist countries of Eastern Europe.
What did Comecon stand for?
Comecon stands for the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance.
What was Comecon set up as?
It was set up in 1949 to co-ordinate the industries and trade of the eastern European countries.
What was the main aim of Comecon?
The idea was that members of Comecon traded mostly with one another rather than trading with the West.
Was Comecon fair?
No
Why wasn’t Comecon fair?
Comecon favoured the USSR far more than any of its other members. It provided the USSR with a market to sell its goods. It also guaranteed it a cheap supply of raw materials. For example, Poland was forced to sell its coal to the USSR at one-tenth of the price that it could have got selling it on the open market.
What did Comecon do in 1964?
It set up a bank for socialist countries.
How was communism welcomed in Eastern Europe?
For some people in Eastern Europe the communists initially brought hope.
What were the people of Eastern Europe’s hopes?
The Soviet Union had achieved amazing industrial growth before the Second World War. Maybe, by following Soviet methods, they could do the same.
Did the Eastern European’s get what they hoped for?
However, the reality of Soviet control of eastern Europe was very different from what people had hoped for.
What did they hope for?
- Freedom.
- Wealth.
- Consumer goods.
What was the reality of their freedom?
Countries that had a long tradition of free speech and democratic government suddenly lost the right to criticise the government. Newspapers were censored. Non-communists were put in prison for criticising the government. People were forbidden to travel to countries in western Europe. Protests, such as those in East Germany in 1953, were crushed by security forces.
What was the reality of their wealth?
Between 1945 and 1955 eastern European economies did recover, but soon wages in eastern Europe fell behind the wages in other countries. People in eastern Europe were short of coal to heat their houses. Clothing and shoes were very expensive.
What was the reality of consumer goods?
People could not get consumer goods like radios, electric kettles or televisions, which were becoming common in the Nest, The economies of Eastern Europe were geared towards helping the Soviet Union. Factories produced items such as machinery or electric cables, not what ordinary people wanted.
When did Stalin die?
In 1953.
What did the Easter Europeans hope for after the death of Stalin?
A more relaxed form of rule.
Who was the new leader, appointed in 1955?
Nikita Khrushchev.
Were Stalin and Khrushchev similar?
No.
How do we know that Stalin and Khrushchev were different?
- He appeared to be very different from Stalin.
- He talked of peaceful co-existence with the West.
- He talked of improving the lives of ordinary citizens.
- He closed down Cominform and released thousands of political prisoners.
- In an astonishing speech in 1956 he openly denounced Stalin for his harsh rule.
Did people like Khrushchevs new rule?
This new approach from the Soviet leader encouraged some critics of communist rule. In the summer of 1956 large demonstrations broke out in Poland.
What did the protestors demand in Poland?
Protestors demanded reforms and the appointment of the Polish war-time resistance leader Wladyslaw Gomulka as the new Polish leader. There were violent clashes between protesters and Polish police.
Did Khrushchev like Gomulka?
Gomulka was not the loyal ally Khrushchev would have wanted, but he compromised and accepted Gomulka as the new Polish leader.
How did Khrushchev make it clear that he would only compromise so far with Poland?
At the same time he moved Soviet tanks and troops to the Polish border just to make it clear that he would only compromise so far.
What were people wondering?
Who was the real Khrushchev - the compromiser with new ideas or the Soviet leader who moved tanks to the Polish border?
How did people find out who the real Khruschev was?
In Hungary, October 1956.
Case study 1:
Hungary, 1956.
Who was Hungary ruled by from 1949 to 1956?
From 1949 to 1956 Hungary was led by a hardline communist called Mátyás Rákosi.
Did Hungarians like Matyas Rakosi?
Hungarians hated the restrictions imposed on them.
What did they hate about Matyas Rakosi and his rule?
- Most Hungarians felt bitter about losing their freedom of speech.
- They lived in fear of the secret police.
- They resented the presence of thousands of Soviet troops and officials in their country.
- Some areas of Hungary even had Russian street signs, Russian schools and shops.
- Worst of all, Hungarians had to pay for Soviet forces to be in Hungary.
What is an outline of what happened in Hungary?
- Opposition.
- Protest.
- Reform.
- Plans.
What was the opposition in Hungary?
In June 1956 a group within the Communist Party in Hungary opposed Rákosi. He appealed to Khrushchev for help. He wanted to arrest 400 leading opponents. Moscow would not back him. Khrushchev ordered Rákosi to be retired ‘for health reasons’.
What was the protest in Hungary?
The new leader, Ernö Gerö, was no more acceptable to the Hungarian people. Discontent came to a head with a huge student demonstration on 23 October, when the giant statue of Stalin in Budapest was pulled down.
What was the reform in Hungary?
The USSR allowed a new government to be formed under the well-respected Imre Nagy. In October Soviet troops and tanks that had been stationed in Hungary since the Second World War began to withdraw. Hungarians created thousands of local councils to replace Soviet power. Several thousand Hungarian soldiers defected from the army to the rebel cause, taking their weapons with them.
What were the plans made by Nagy in Hungary?
Nagy’s Government began to make plans.
- It would hold free elections, create impartial courts and restore farmland to private ownership.
- It wanted the total withdrawal of the Soviet army from Hungary.
- It also planned to leave the Warsaw Pact and declare Hungary neutral in the Cold War struggle between East and West.
- There was widespread optimism that the new American President Eisenhower, who had been the wartime supreme commander of all Allied Forces in western Europe, would support the new independent Hungary with armed troops if necessary.
How did the Soviet union respond to all these changes in Hungary?
Khrushchev at first seemed ready to accept some of the reforms.
What was the one change that Khrushchev didn’t accept?
He could not accept Hungary leaving the Warsaw Pact.
What happened because Khrushchev could not accept Hungary leaving the Warsaw pact?
In November 1956 thousands of Soviet troops and tanks moved into Budapest.
How did Hungary react?
The Hungarians did not give in. Two weeks of bitter fighting followed.
How many casualties were there in the two weeks of bitter fighting?
Some estimates put the number of Hungarians killed at 30,000. However, the latest research suggests about 3000 Hungarians and up to 1000 Russians were killed. Another 200,000 Hungarians fled across the border into Austria to escape the communist forces.
What did the Western powers do?
They protested to the USSR but sent no help; they were too preoccupied with a crisis of their own (the Suez crisis in the Middle East).
Who were the Western powers?
Term generally used to refer to USA and its allies in the Cold War.
What was the outcome of this battle?
Khrushchev put Janos Kadar in place as leader. Kadar took several months to crush all resistance.
What kind of resistance did Kadar need to crush?
Around 35,000 anticommunist activists were arrested and 300 were executed.
Did Kadar introduce the reforms demanded by the Hungarian people?
Kadar cautiously introduced some of the reforms demanded by the Hungarian people. However, he did not waver on the central issue - membership of the Warsaw pact.
Case study 2:
Czechoslovakia and the Prague spring, 1968.
What happened twelve years after the brutal suppression of the Hungarians?
Czechoslovakia posed a similar challenge to Soviet domination of Eastern Europe.
Was Khrushchev still leader?
No, Leonid Brezhnev had replaced him.
What happened in the 1960’s in Czechoslovakia?
A new mood developed and this is due to:
- A new leader.
- New ideas.
How did a new leader change the mood in Czechoslovakia?
In 1967 the old Stalinist leader was replaced by Alexander Dubcek. He proposed a policy of ‘socialism with a human face. He had learned the lessons of the Hungarian uprising and reassured Brezhnev that Czechoslovakia had no plans to pull out of the Warsaw Pact or Comecon.
What did Dubcek mean by socialism with a human face?
- Less censorship.
- More freedom of speech and a reduction in the activities of the secret police.
- Dubcek was a committed communist, but he believed that communism did not have to be as restrictive as it had been before he came to power.
What were the new ideas in Czechoslovakia?
As censorship eased, opponents were able to criticise the failings of communist rule, expose corruption and ask awkward questions about events in the country’s recent past.
What did this period become known as?
Prague Spring.
What was Prague spring?
Reform movement in Czechoslovakia to change communist rule in Czechoslovakia, eventually crushed by Soviet forces.
What happened by the summer of Prague Spring?
By the summer even more radical ideas were emerging. There was even talk of allowing another political party, the Social Democratic Party, to be set up as a rival to the Communist Party.
What does radical mean?
Term used to describe extreme political views.
How did the Soviet Union respond to these changes?
The Soviet Union was very suspicious of the changes taking place in Czechoslovakia. So were the other communist leaders in eastern Europe.
What were they worried about?
They worried that the new ideas might spread.
What did the East German and Polish leaders do?
Brezhnev came under pressure from the East German and Polish leaders to clamp down on reform in Czechoslovakia.
How did the USSR try to slow Dubcek down?
- To intimidate the Czechs, Soviet, Polish and East German troops performed public training exercises right on the Czech border.
- It thought about imposing economic sanctions - for example, cancelling wheat exports to Czechoslovakia - but didn’t because it thought that the Czechs would ask for help from the West. - In July the USSR held a summit conference with the Czechs. Dubcek agreed not to allow a new Social Democratic Party. However, he insisted on keeping most of his reforms. The tension seemed to ease.
What happened on 20 August 1968?
Then on 20 August 1968, to the stunned amazement of the Czechs and the outside world, Soviet tanks moved into Czechoslovakia.
How did Czechoslovakia react to this hostility?
There was little violent resistance. Dubiek was removed from power.
Did Dubcek’s experiment in socialism with a human face fail?
It had not failed; it had simply proved unacceptable to the other communist countries.
What were the outcomes of this response from the Soviet union in Czechoslovakia?
Unlike Nagy in Hungary, Dubiek was not executed. But he was gradually downgraded.
How was he gradually downgraded?
First he was sent to be ambassador to Turkey, then expelled from the Communist Party altogether. Photographs showing him as leader were ‘censored’
What was clear about how reforming ideas was regarded to the communist party?
It was clear that reforming ideas were regarded as a threat to communist rule by all of the communist leaders. We now know from a release of documents from the Soviet archives that the suppression of Czechoslovakia was driven just as much by other eastern European leaders (particularly Walter Ulbricht of East Germany) as it was by Brezhnev.
Where did this feeling of threat come from?
These leaders feared that their own people would demand the same freedom that Dubiek had allowed in Czechoslovakia.
What did the Czechoslovakia episode give rise to?
The Brezhnev Doctrine.
What was the Brezhnev doctrine?
Policy of USSR from 1968 which effectively meant no Eastern European states would be allowed to have a non-communist government.
How were the essentials of communism defined?
- A one party system.
- To remain a member of the Warsaw pact.
Case study 3:
The Berlin Wall.
How was Berlin used in the cold war?
It was a battleground of the Cold War.
What happened to Berlin in 1961?
In 1961 it also became the focus of the Soviet Union’s latest attempt to maintain control of its east European satellites.
Why was there trouble concerning control of East European satellites?
The crushing of the Hungarian uprising had confirmed for many people in eastern Europe that it was impossible to fight the communists. For many, it seemed that the only way of escaping the repression was to leave altogether.
Why did they want to leave?
Some wished to leave eastern Europe for political reasons - they hated the communists - while many more wished to leave for economic reasons.
What happened as standards of living in Eastern Europe fell further and further behind the West?
The attraction of going to live in a capitalist state was very great.
What was capitalism?
Political, social and economic system centered on democracy and individual freedoms such as free speech, political beliefs and freedom to do business.
Where was the contrast between capitalism and communism very great?
The contrast was particularly great in the divided city of Berlin.
How could you explain this contrast?
Living standards were tolerable in the East, but just a few hundred metres away in West Berlin, East Germans could see some of the prize exhibits of capitalist West Germany - shops full of goods, great freedom, great wealth and great variety.
Was it an accident that Western Berlin looked so desirable?
This had been done deliberately by the Western powers. They had poured massive investment into Berlin. East Germans could also watch West German television.
What was travel like between East and West Berlin in the 1950s?
In the 1950s East Germans were still able to travel freely into West Berlin.
What is a diagram of a bar chart which shows the rate at which people were crossing from East to West Germany?
