How Did The Soviet Union Affect Poland

The cold war made a significant change to Eastern Europe. After WWII the Soviet Union wanted to spread their ideologies of communism and in order for them to do that, they

Communism not only had a large impact in Russia and the United States, it interrupted the lifestyles of many other countries, such as Europe. During this time frame, Europe was still very weak from the effects of World War II. The Soviet Union saw this as an opportunity to take control of Europe. “The Soviet Union wanted to

Before World War II, Soviet troops occupied most of Eastern Europe. Stalin promised to hold “free elections” in these Eastern European nations. Later he broke that promise. By 1948, Communists controlled the governments of every Eastern country except Yugoslavia. In each country the Soviets placed dictators.

In 1989, the world saw the fall of the United Soviet Socialist Republic (U.S.S.R.), which was also known as the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union was a block of 15 Communist Eastern European states that was ruled by one government with various puppet governments located throughout the states. Its collapse brought about new issues that the world had never had to deal with before. The fall of such a large block of Soviet states created many problems and some of the solutions that were used to solve these problems, as well as many of the tensions that were created during this time, still affect the world today. Some of the ramifications resulting from the Soviet Union’s collapse are still being felt; however, many problems have been solved

The Iron Curtain was a metaphor for the secrecy of the soviet government, and its resistance to outside influence. The fall of the iron curtain allowed soviet citizens to experience outside culture. This is the biggest benefit former republics have encountered. It increased the quality of life for everyone, although some counties, like Poland and the Czech Republic, have prospered more than other countries, like Kazakhstan and Yugoslavia, which are experiencing civil wars.

World War II shocked and dismantled many Eastern European countries leaving Europe in a state of shock, with many unanswered, open ended questions. Buildings were blown up, streets cracked, people slaughtered, and governments destroyed. As turmoil struck Eastern Europe, an opportunity arose for a new political system to come into power. However, this process is never a simple one; two common political ideologies fought to control the heart of Europe. Capitalism led by the Western Allies, funded by the United States Marshall Plan, spread providing a short time of economic prosperity. The American’s plan however could not venture as far east as West Germany with Moscow’s direction of Communism led by Joseph Stalin and he took over a large portion of Eastern Europe with many open statements and empty promises. These two ideologies caused an enlarged time of tension stemming from the drastically different values they were known to embrace, leading to a horrific time known as the cold war.

A main long term factor was the fear of spreading communism. Soviet Russia aimed to

Throughout all of the valiant efforts of Hungarian Students and workers the Hungarian revolution had begun only to see hundreds die and thousands more leave with fatal casualties. The only way the Hungarians could fight back was to take up arms and fight back with as much force as possible and eventually they did succeed only to watch all of their hopes a dreams crushed when the soviets returned to decimate the Hungarian Freedom Fighters within a matter of a few short days. The Soviet Union’s Reign had only ended when the Berlin wall was demolished in 1989 when other countries finally realized that the Communist were also a very large threat to the rest of the world, which bring me to yet another point in history when the same efforts concluded to very fruitful rewards.

The Soviet Union post World War II intended on expanding their political power via communism under a guise of spreading Marxist thought; thus transforming Marxist ideology into “a tool of Soviet domination in Poland” (Aleksandrowicz, 101). They did this through the Polish United Workers’ Party (PZPR) a

In 1956, thousands of Hungarians, aggrieved by the lack of freedom in their nation, crowded into the streets in revolt to protest against the injustice done towards them. Nikita Khrushchev responds quickly and violently to this unruly show of disloyalty. He sends in his troops and tanks to put a swift, crushing end to the spontaneous uprising. This led to the death of more than 2,500 Hungarians at the hands of Khrushchev. The West made no attempts of intervention, due to their desire to not spark conflict with the Soviet Union, and risk war in the process. This event does not reflect the containment policy due to the West’s passivity in the matter; on the grounds that it did not represent the spread of communism, as Hungary was already a

Warfare and famine killed at least 25 million Soviet citizens, while the country’s agricultural and industrial infrastructure were destroyed. This suffrage left the Soviet people with a deeper determination to never allow this form of invasion to fall on their nation again. The rest of Europe looked much like the Soviet Union. Civilians throughout Western Europe witnessed the horrors of war on a regular basis. By the end of the Second World War much of Europe laid in ruins and the experience of total war left long term effects on their western political

The revolt spread quickly across Hungary and the government collapsed. Thousands organised into militias, battling the ÁVH and Soviet troops. Pro-Soviet communists and ÁVH members were often executed or imprisoned and former political prisoners were released and armed. Radical impromptu workers' councils wrested municipal control from the ruling Hungarian Working People's Party and demanded political changes. A new government formally disbanded the ÁVH, declared its intention to withdraw from the Warsaw Pact, and pledged to re-establish free elections. By the end of October, fighting had almost stopped and a sense of normality began to

The Soviet Union played an important role in the events of the 20th century in both direct and indirect ways. The rise of the Soviet Union by the end of the Russian Revolution played a significant role in the way that World War I played out; it played a crucial role in the defeat of Nazi Germany during World War II. It was the formidable rival of the United States during the Cold War, during which every action it took was viewed with angst by the West. With the level of influence the Soviet Union possessed in the 20th century, the question is: what other more pressing influence caused its demise? The primary cause of the crumbling of the Soviet Union can be summarized by: the inability for the Soviet Union to maintain the support of the Soviet people, and this created the ultimate inability of the Soviet Union to create the socialist utopia that Marx envisioned.

The Soviet Union’s methods and intentions differed from that of Germany’s to the extent that they wanted to manipulate the Poles to go against one another in order to unify Poland and the Soviet Union instead of eradicate the Polish population. When the Red Army invaded from the east, they: “scattered leaflets designed to arouse class hatred towards the owners of the larger estates and factories, officers, judges, magistrates, priests, and politicians” (Garlinski 34). The country still included multiple ethnic minorities which did not yet learn to live harmoniously with each other. The Red Army used this lack of unity to their advantage and aimed disassembling the Polish underground movements. The Soviets subtly proclaimed misleading slogans

After World War Two, Stalin's Iron Curtain descended across Europe. This was an attempt by him to isolate and shield the Soviet Union from Western and non-Soviet controlled areas. Above all, Stalin and other Soviet leaders feared influence from The United States. Their fear was quite justified, as Soviet people became incredibly curious and eager to borrow and emulate American culture. Similar fears were present in other communist Eastern European countries in the Eastern Bloc.