Liberation in the USSR🌺 Flashcards

1
Q

What campaign speech was made in February 1946? When did George Kennan make his Long Telegram, and what was issued by the USSR?

A

In February 1946, Stalin made a campaign speech calling to prepare for war, but allowing rebuilding first. He reflected on Soviet achievements, but an American politburo referred to it as calling for ‘World War Three.’ American Diplomat George Frost Kennan made his Long Telegram on 22 February. N K Novikov made his response telegram in September 1946, as Soviet ambassador in Moscow, arguing that America seeked to achieve world domination and as the USSR acted as a barrier to this, the US wanted to reduce their influence.

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2
Q

What strategy did Stalin use to gain control? What did he tell Georgi Dimitrov? What did he advise Communists to do, but why was this difficult? What were methods of controlling Germany? What did Stalin tell Yugoslav communist Djilas?

A

Stalin had a popular front strategy in Europe. It is debated as to whether the gradual Sovietization was a cover to achieve domination or if Stalin genuinely wanted a national road to socialism. In Germany, he told Georgi Dimitrov, ‘ All of Germany must be ours, Soviet,’ and directed Communists to merge with the Social Democrats to form the Socialist Unity Party, but Allies had control over the richer, larger part, so they could not enforce full control. A middle ground would be a demilitarised and neutral Germany, or a minimum program to set up a client state in the Eastern dominated zone. Stalin famously told the Yugoslav communist Milovan Djilas, in April 1945, ‘this war is not like those of the past…. Whoever occupies a territory imposes their own social system upon it.’

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3
Q

What did John Lewis Gaddis argue?
What did countries show to counter this?
What showed his intentions of world revolution?
What did Eduard Mark consider as evidence of this?
What countries did Stalin have relaxed attitude towards, and what changed this?

A

John Lewis Gaddis argues that, ‘ as long as Stalin was running the USSR, the Cold War was inevitable.’ A traditionalist view which can be backed up by archives which showed Stalin had influence over foreign policy. However, the countries, at the time, showed potential for diverse futures. Some argue that the building of National Fronts to remove non-communists from government shows his intentions of taking over the European area occupied by the Red Army. Eduard Mark cites Stalin’s advice to Eastern Germans, as he told them to advance to socialism with zig-zags as to not alienate the West. While Stalin wanted friendly government in Poland to accept the border move, he appeared fine with Hungary and Czechoslovakia being more relaxed. Finlandization would have relaxed the West. Only in 1947 with the failure of the Conference of Foreign Ministers to come up with a peace treaty, the ERP being set up, the Truman Doctrine, and the exclusion of French and Italian communists from government, did Stalin set up Cominform in September 1947 and permit the February 1948 coup in Czechoslovakia.

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4
Q

What were the USSR’s actions in Germany, and how did they mistreat citizens?

A

It was hoped Germany could be reunified, but this could vary from a neutral country to one sharing the ideology of the US or USSR. At Yalta it was agreed that Germany and Berlin would be split into four. Soviet reparations denuded their zone; East of Elbe, trains sent factories Eastwards, destroying this agricultural zone, while families were raped and attacked by drunken Soviets on anti-German propaganda. German communists, raising this issue, were told by Stalin not to ruin the Red Army’s name.

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5
Q

What did Stalin reject from Potsdam, and what narrative gave Communists power in the East?

A

In 1946 Stalin rejected economic reform agreed to at Potsdam while the West attempted to integrate economies. In the East, after the war, the Communists had a good reputation for fighting Nazism. While the authoritarian right had been purged out, and parties were scared to take an anti-communist ‘fascist’ line, the Communists were able to stop free expression and grow in popularity, as the PCI did, increasing from 6000 to 2,000,000 by 1948. Meanwhile, national fronts allowed them to maximise political power. Communists had originally just wanted friendly governments, demanding agrarian reform and limited expansion of public sector.

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6
Q

How did the USSR gain control in Romania?

A

Gheorghe Gheorgiu-Dej was a moderate communist, allowing the monarchy to survive until 1947, the non-Communist Petru Groza, and advocated for coalition with the National Peasant Party and liberal representatives. He had moderate agrarian reform and didn’t touch Church lands until later. However, by March 1948, the People’s Democratic Front won rigged elections after the NPP was banned in 1947 and the social democrats had to merge with the Communists while King Michael abdicated.

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7
Q

How did the USSR gain control in Bulgaria?

A

Coalitions didn’t last much longer, purges wiped out opposition, and the rest had to join the Fatherland Front. By 1948 the Social Democrats were forcibly absorbed.

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8
Q

How did Communists gain control in Hungary?

A

In 1945 the Communists made 17%, but the KGP, Smallholders Party, won a majority with their leader Ferenc Nagy becoming Prime Minister. Purges of former fascists wiped out opposition, and in 1947 the Communists made 22%, or 60% including the KGP. By 1949 the Communists had turned themselves into the Hungarian Workers’ Party, and no group dared to oppose it.

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9
Q

How did takeover evolve from peaceful reform to nationalisation, and how was liberation defined?

A

The idea of a grand plan was spread across the Cold War, considering communists to be conspirators. The West had to be vigilant. The East were moderate at first, with agrarian reform, extended public sector through nationalisations.. Only later turning to eliminating private property. By 1947-48 Communist rule was in place and this is believed to be defined by agreements at Yalta and Potsdam, and the October 1944 Percentages Agreement. The battlefield defined the borders. Albania would liberate itself by 1960, and Yugoslavia by 1950. The worsening of relations between the US and USSR only made things worse.

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10
Q

How did the USSR take advantage of takeover? (i.e. - ethnic cleansing and stealing).

A

Russians took advantage of their takeover. Zhukov filled his home with paintings and treasures from Germany, while in Baltic and West Ukraine there was ethnic cleansing and mass deporations to make space for Russian and East Ukraine immigrants.

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11
Q

What did Truman announce and Potsdam? How had the USSR been cautious so far with their occupation?

A

In July 1946, Stalin expected reparations for making protracted war against Japan, and a Polish-German border, but Truman announced he had the atom bomb. So far, Stalin had been cautious in his policy, not intervening with the Communists attempting to have a coup in Greece, and having the minimal program in East Germany of agrarian reform to appeal to West Germany. He wanted to have a bourgeoise-democratic revolution, a February 1917 as opposed to October.

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12
Q

What changed after Hiroshima, and what new toughness was established in Hungary?

A

With Hiroshima, Andrei Gromyko recalled that Stalin felt the need for East Europe as defence, and established new toughness in Hungary. Marshall Voroshilov, Stalin’s ‘pro-consul,’ established a coalition government and obtained control of the Ministry of Interior to push out the fascist opponents, investigating and arresting them. These were salami tactics, yet Communists believed they were on the right side of history.

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13
Q

What coup d’etat was held in Romania?

A

Coup d’etat was held with the RCP growing in size from 1000 members according to Ana Pauker, the leader of the Communist Party, and 80 members in Bucharest. They believed they had history on their side, and had a coup on the 23 August 1944.

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14
Q

What did the Polish lose, and what did Romanians lose? What elections were rigged in Romania? Which party won in 1947 Poland elections?

A

The Polish lost the kresi, land in the East, and the Romanians lost Bessarabia and Transnistria, a part of Ukraine it had occupied. After gaining power in February 1945, the November 1946 elections were rigged, helping them to hold onto their power. In People’s Poland, 1947, in the Stanislaw election, Mikolajckzyk’s Polish Party won more support than Stalin’s place-men, but Gomulka won.

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15
Q

What city in Poland was inhabited by refugees? Why was Sovietisation less effective?

A

Former German territory, western Poland, with the city Breslau/Wroclaw, was inhabited by millions of refugees from the kresi, and the Sovietization was less effective here due to the Catholic Church’s power, alongside the failure to collectivise peasantry. Between 1946-53, Gomulka established full control, with Mikolajckzyk running for his life by October 1947.

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16
Q

In the GDR, what were Soviet intentions?

Which communists were replaced, and what regime was seen as necessary in Eastern Europe? How was antifascism redefined?

A

In the Soviet Occupied Zone of Germany, the GDR was to be neutralised due to the Soviets losing 27m in the Great Patriotic War.
‘Mexican’ communists Paul Merker and Leo Zuckermann were replaced with Moscow Communists such as Walter Ulbricht. Stalin saw a subordinate regime as necessary. Informers navigated security apparatus, and the standard of living dropped, with purges and the removal of industrial plants to Russia. By 1950 it was the most orthodox regime. By 1950 antifascism was redefined as opposing the FRG and NATO, as anti-westernism, as justified by Ulbricht.

17
Q

What did Russia want after the war to ensure security?
How did Matyas Rakosi gain power?
What was Stalin’s goal, and why did communists regain control?
Who was eliminated, and what was Nagy considered to be?

A

Russia wanted friendly communist countries after the war. While to America, this was considered to be like Mexico, to the USSR, this was considered domination.
In Hungary, Stalin was more relaxed. The Communist Party, with 4000 members in February 1645, increased its power through Matyas Rakosi’s salami tactics by cutting out opposition in the Smallholders’ Party. Stalin stated the goal was to pave the way for a ‘decisive struggle against the reactionaries.’ The Smallholders won the election of November 1946, and forced the communists onto the backfoot, but the communists regained control as the Italian and French communists were expelled from government in May 1947, and Rakosi was able to move against the ministers in the coalition from the Smallholders Party. Peaceful transition was over and by 1948 all representatives of the national road to socialism were eliminated, such as Imre Nagy, considered a right wing deviation. He attacked the Catholic Church and attacked farmers as kulaks, ending gradualism.

18
Q

What pattern was there for gaining power?
What percentages did communists gain in Polish, Romanian, and Bulgarian elections, and when were socialist and agrarian parties crushed?

A

The pattern followed: government by coalition, in which the Communists played an influential part; marginalisation and repression; elections where the Government Front gained 89% in Poland, 98% in Romania, 1948, and 79% in Bulgaria. By 1947-8 socialist and agrarian parties were crushed, with leaders executed or forced to flee, while others led splinter groups into government.

19
Q

What did Hugh Seton-Watson observe in takeover?

What showed a more hesitant USSR in Hungary and Czechoslovakia compared to Poland?

A

Contemporary historians such as Hugh Seton-Watson discerned a pattern of three stages: genuine coalition, bogus coalition, and the ‘monolithic’ regime mirroring the Soviet view of a gradual road to communism. However, before 1947, the USSR seemed much more hesitant, with the 1945 Hungary elections giving a 57% triumph for the Smallholders. Coalitions in Hungary and Czechoslovakia were genuine for years, while others such as Poland and Yugoslavia in early 1945 were mere showpieces.

20
Q

What reform did Communists commit to in Czechoslovakia?
What did Benes consider?
By November 1945 what happened?
What did Gottwald assure supporters of?
How did Communists do in May 1946 elections?
What happened when Cominform was established?

A

The Communist Party had a role to play in the new coalition, overseeing land reform, nationalisation of banks and enterprises etc. Czechs supported this, and President Benes talked of creating a socialising democracy. By November 1945 the Red Army had withdrawn, and communist leader Prime Minister Klement Gottwald assured supporters communism would triumph in a ‘Czechoslovak’ road to socialism. In the May 1946 elections, the Czechoslovak Communist Party with 1,000,000+ members, won 38%, (40.2 in Bohemia and Moravia), a victory, with the SDP as a coalition. Gottwald was content with a gradualist approach to Sovietization, not resolving the Czech-Slovak national question. When Cominform was established in September 1947, it was clear there would no longer be a national road to socialism. The Communists had to act decisively. The coalition partners resigned and by February 1948 came the coup. It took another year to create Czecho-slovak Stalinism.

21
Q

In June 1948 what did Czechoslovakia condemn, and what did it commit to?
When was Stalinism full fledged?
What purges took place?
What was Finland spared of?

A

In June 1948, it condemned Yugoslavia, and committed itself to Stalinism. By May 1949, the CPCz’s Ninth Congress, Stalinism was full-fledged. Purges in 1951-3 of Foreign Minister Vladimir Clementis and General Secretary Rudolf Slansky rid the regime of Titoists and Zionists.
Finland was spared the Finnish People’s Defence League with the signing of the Friendship Treaty of April 1948. Finlandization of Eastern Europe would have shocked less people.