Soviet expansion in Eastern Europe Flashcards
(8 cards)
What did Stalin achieve by 1948 for defence?
Buffer Zone to the west of the USSR based on satellite states
What two methods did Stalin use to grow and consolidate communism in Eastern Europe?
-Manipulated election results
-Stalinist puppet leaders
How did Communists take control in Poland?
-Pluralist approach appearing to allow for multiple political groups
-Weakened the Peasant Party by strengthening their own links with Polish socialists
-January 1947 these two groups merged and Communists became dominant group
-Replaced Gomulka, who opposed Soviet policies, with pro-Stalinist Bierut
How did Communists take control in Romania?
Communists were popular making opposition minimal:
-Offered an alternative to the pre-war regime
-Red Army occupied Romania
How did Communists take control in Bulgaria?
Manipulated elections and forced removal of opponents:
-Executed leader of Agrarian Party leader Petkov
-Agrarian Party forcibly absorbed into Bulgarian communist movement
-By April 1947, all other political parties had been banned
How did Communists take control in Hungary?
Allied with other political groups to challenge the Smallholders Party
-In 1949, Hungarian communist leader Rajk executed for ‘anti-Soviet’ activities
-By 1949, all political opposition to Moscow-backed Hungarian communists had disappeared
How did Communists take control in Czechoslovakia?
-Czech communists popular among rural peasants
-PM Gottwald’s fatal error in show willingness to US aid 1947
-President Beneš resigned June 1948 and left pro-Moscow communists in complete control
How did Communists take control in Yugoslavia?
-Initially embedded in Soviet camp and Tito committed Stalinist
-Conflict between Stalin and Tito about determination for Soviet control
-June 1948 expelled from Cominform and accused of abandoning communism
-Yugoslavia survived through US economic aid
