SOVIET CONTROL OF EASTERN EUROPE IN 1948- 89 WAS ALWAYS FRAGILE….

YES OR NO

DHEERAJ JAYAKUMAR

HOW AND WHY DID STALIN CONTROL EASTERN EUROPE AT

THAT TIME

Basically Stalin wanted to do what France did

after world war won

Revenge

Compensation - taking some part of Germany and

some countries near it

Reparation- money

Spreading communism

LIFE IN EASTERN EUROPE

Czechoslovakia East Berlin

Poland Hungary

Russia

West Berlin

Answer

ANSWER

SOURCES

The videos were not really reliable except for the

reviews.

Ben Walsh pages – good

Mr Roswell – kind of reliable

REASONS(PART 1)

Under Stalin any opposition was swiftly and brutally crushed

His methods to expand his territory was very harsh which had no support

from people

Stalin engineered a communist coup in May 1948 in Czechoslovakia in

which a government minister Masaryk was killed and the president was

forced to resign.

After 1956, with Khrushchev's new approach to Socialism and his

denunciation of Stalin, there were increasing calls for independence among

the communist bloc

countries who had never been truly supportive of the communist regime. 

REASONS(PART 2)

In East Germany in 1953 there were a series of strikes and

protests

Poland was the first to revolt against the communist regime. Polish

workers rioted and went on strike in 1956 and the Polish communist party

also revolted by refusing to accept the Russian general Rokossovsky as the

Polish Minister for Defence.

The fact that Khrushchev was willing to compromise illustrates again the

precarious position of communist rule.

relations began to break down again due to the building of the Berlin Wall

in 1961 and the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962

REASONS( PART 3)

 In 1964 Khrushchev was ousted from power and

Brezhnev with Kosygin took over from him.

In 1966 the US and USSR agreed to a direct air service

between Moscow and New York. In 1967 they, along with

60 other countries, signed the first international

treaty providing for the peaceful exploration of outer

space.

Therefore communism rule was fragile over these years

CZECHOSLOVAKIA

Czechoslovakians had a happy life until the communist

responded

This period was called “Prague Spring” because Alexander

Dubcek introduce a policy called “Socialism with a human face”

He Gave people the Freedom of Speech and also gave the

chance introduce New Political Parties. People enjoyed life

in Prague, only some were killed outside Prague. This

policy lasted only for four months !!.

RESPONSE

Russia was not happy about introducing new

political parties which is not particularly supporting

communism. Early august, The eastern countries had

a meeting in Prague about the issue in

Czechoslovakia .

Czechoslovakia was just invaded by all of eastern

European troops. Only some People were killed.

THE BREZHNEV DOCTRINE

The essentials of the communists were defined as

A one party system

To remain a member of the Warsaw pact

Dubcek was not executed like Nagy but gradually

down graded and then expelled from the communist

party.

HUNGARY(1956)

It was led by a hard line communist called Matyas Rakosi .

People hated the restrictions, felt bitter. Communist party

opposed Rakosi. They pleaded help from Moscow for help. The

Kremlin replaced Rakosi with Erno Gero who was no more good

than Rakosi .

People became even more angry which led them to the act of

pulling down the Statue of Stalin.

Troops got afraid about the situation, the Nagy’s government

also planned to declare to withdraw from the Warsaw pact.

RESPONSE

Khrushchev accepted some of the reforms. Such as changing the

president

However he did not leave them out of the Warsaw pact

In November 1956 thousands of soviet troops entered Hungary

Unlike Poland, Hungarians did not give in

The causalities of the war resulted in 3000 Hungarians dead and

7000-8000 Russians were killed. Nagy’s government and the followers

were arrested and executed.

Hungary gave up and was fully under the control Khrushchev .

POLAND(1980)

Throughout the years of communist rule Poland there were normal protests unlike the one in 1980, due to the fact

meat prices were raised by the government.

This was called the solidarity demands

by October solidarity membership was 7 million. And to 9.4 by January 1981

Polish government agreed to this

REASONS FOR AGREEING WITH THE SOLIDARITY DEMANDS

Poland was the strongest in industries

The union was immensely popular

Solidarity had the support of religion(Catholic

church)

Some of the army had supported the solidarity

Had some support from the west( published on

media and posters)

RESPONSE

Soviet union brought in troops to Poland and threatened them

Walesa and almost 10,000 other solidarity leaders were

imprisoned.

A number of priests were murdered.

Military dictators had a reason for imprisoning them such as

Solidarity was acting as a political party

this made chaos in Poland

Finally Soviet had seen enough so they acted immediately to

supress this protest from Poland.

EAST BERLIN (1961)

The people were not given quality and good supplements for living than

the West. People could see what was going on in the west which made them

have a feeling to some how get to that place.

People could still travel freely to Best Berlin and come back until 13th

august 1961 when the east berlin troops erected a barbed wire and was

soon replaced by a concrete wall. This meant all the free movement was

over. This point was also called checkpoint Charlie

Families were divided and work chaos was developed

People were killed if they tried to cross the wall without any given access.

WEST BERLIN(1961)

Life in west berlin was calm they did not have real troubles

USA troops went into east Berlin to check what their reaction

was

USSR troops and USA troops stood at their border defending

each other

after eighteen hours they slowly dispersed into their sides.

Kennedy said “its not a very nice solution , but a wall is a hell

of a lot better than a war”

EAST AND WEST

Over the following years the wall became a symbol

of division of Germany, Europe and the division of

Communist east and Democratic west.

Communist showed the wall as a defence

West showed it as a prison wall which will lead

onto the east.

LIFE IN RUSSIA

Khrushchev attempted to carry out reform in a range of fields. The

problems of Soviet agriculture, a major concern of Khrushchev's

Later innovations by Khrushchev, however, proved counterproductive.

Khrushchev's attempts at reform in industry and administrative

organization created even greater problems.

By 1964 Khrushchev's prestige had been damaged in a number of areas.

Industrial growth had slowed, while agriculture showed no new progress.

Abroad, the split with China, the Berlin crisis, and the Cuban fiasco hurt the

Soviet Union's international stature, and Khrushchev's efforts to improve

relations with the West antagonized many in the military.