Sovietisation of Eastern Europe 1945-1968
World war two saw a grand alliance of Britain, America and Russia created in order to defeat their common enemy, Adolf Hitler. In pursuit of this goal they attended a number of conferences to plan their attacks and to decide on the future of post war Europe. At Teheran in 1943 Churchill voiced concerns about the post-war situation in Eastern Europe, he was afraid that victory over the Nazis would leave the USSR in control of Eastern Europe. To prevent this from happening he proposed that the Anglo-American’s open up a second front in the Balkans. Stalin rejected this proposal as he knew it would thwart his plan to extend his ‘sphere of influence’ in Eastern Europe after the war, and insisted the
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While Stalin had promised that the elections would be free and fair, they were anything but. In the 1947 election the communists won 80% of the vote and a one-party communist state was created. The Catholic Church became the main opposition voice in Poland with Cardinal Wyszynski imprisoned for his support of resistance groups. Despite this, the sovietisation of Poland lasted 40 years.
In Hungary the communists initially formed only a small part of a national government after the war. In the 1945 election the communists only won 17% of the vote while the Smallholders Party won 60%. However, under pressure from the Soviet Union the PM Tidly was forced to appoint a communist Rákosi as his deputy and Rajk as minister of the interior, latter position meant that the communists controlled the police and the legal system and they used this to terrorise members of the opposition parties. In the 1947 election the communists won 24% of the vote but by merging with the social Democrats they were able to get the Parliament to pass a new constitution in 1949.
The coalition government in Czechoslovakia lasted longer than in other eastern bloc countries. The democratic parties held the majority in this government with Benes as president and Jan Masaryk as Foreign Minister. However as had happened in other eastern bloc countries a communist, Gottwald, was appointed PM and they
Despite how hard the communists tried to rebuild the economy, they failed and were distrusted by the citizens. People became Anti-communism as the Reichstag Fire happened with the rise of
In October 1917, there was enough opposition for Lenin to take power as leader of the Bolsheviks. The Provisional Government provided him with no majority support, with the Bolsheviks winning 24% and the SRs gaining 54% of votes. The Liberal period consisting of keeping workers and peasants happy left them with little power. Decree on land gives noble land to peasantry so that they have legal title to it, did it to stop rebellion and get peasant support in the civil war. 2. War Communism- Summer 1918 (civil war)- more authoritarian. 3. 1921- New Economic freedom for peasantry Economic policy- less authoritarian.
Communism is a system of social organisation which formerly consumed almost a third of countries in the entire world, having originated in Russia. The first official communist state was founded during the Russian revolutions in 1917, due to the inaugural communist political party ‘Bolsheviks’ gaining primal power. Afterwards, the influence of communism spread to other countries with the likes of Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia and East Germany to name a few. These countries that were governed on communist principles were known as the ‘Eastern Bloc’. Even countries in Asia were persuaded into the theoretically human equality system such as China, Laos and Vietnam. Communism was gathering strength to strength every year in the mid 20th century, but eventually its impact was wiped off in the late 20th century when the Berlin War was knocked down in 1989, ending the barrier between the Eastern and Western blocs. Communism arguably was the most influential social experiment in history, but also the most flawed and its failure to change the world permanently will always remain significant in history.
First, before the Second World War, the nation of Czechoslovakia had been a strong democracy in Central Europe, but beginning in the mid 1930s it faced challenges from both the West and the East. Until the Soviet’s invasion where they installed a whole new communist government in Prague. For the next twenty
Following World War II, Soviet leader Stalin initially agreed to a democratic government in Poland and to free elections in other Soviet-occupied countries, but he ignored his own promises. This caused the United States and Britain to ignore Stalin’s wish of taking a hard line with Germany in settlement talks. The Soviets formed the Socialist Unity party in East
From 1932-1933 the Communist Party thought they were doing good by stealing privately owned farms from families, stripping peasants in the winter, and starving them because they thought Russia should own all property and if it was not given to you by the state you do not get to have it. During Stalin’s time of ruling, he established fear into the Russians, so that they could not think any other way than him, and that they could not have anything of their own. He would execute those who broke his laws or disobeyed him. Lev Kopelev took part in taking from families during this time. He would ignore the screaming children and women because of what he thought he was accomplishing.
Emerging victoriously from World War II, America became the leader of the free-market capitalist world, and proved to be a military, economic, and political powerhouse. However, as one major war came to a close, another battle was brewing between the democratic United States and the communist Soviet Union. As the Soviet Union expanded farther West into Europe, America as well as its NATO allies worked together in an effort to contain the USSR’s expanding communist party. The Cold War went far beyond a battle between different ideologies. Rather, it developed into a global conflict where espionage, treason, and massive propaganda campaigns were inflicted on all aspects of individuals’ lives internationally. The plausibility of communism seeping into the confinements of the United States caused nation-wide fear to erupt. American businesses feared the idea of a communistic revolution on the basis that it would disturb the very groundwork that holds capitalism together. As a result, the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) was formed to investigate communist and fascist organizations within America. Unfortunately, the controversial tactics used during the HUAC hearings contributed to the fear, blacklisting, and repression that existed from 1940 through the 1950s. In the midst of the Cold War, several American opinions materialized concerning the role of the HUAC, in which Americans either praised the committee for its patriotic ideals, applauded but recognized the
verthrow of Antonescu, a struggle for power took place between the democratic parties, which held fast to the Western political tradition, and the Communist Party, which was committed to the Soviet model. The communists, though they had few supporters, came to power in the spring of 1945 because the Soviet Union had intervened forcefully on their behalf. The decisive factor was the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin’s approval of a seizure of power, which he gave during a visit to Moscow in January 1945 by Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej, the leader of the so-called “native” faction of the party (composed mainly of ethnic Romanians)
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.
Upon the creation of the USSR, Lenin introduced new rule that would ensure greater totalitarian control. Only communists would be able to stand for the soviets, and so this meant that the communist party had the true control over the
relations with the West in the form of the Marshall plan nor the lack of
Many political beliefs exist. Everyone has the right to chose what to believe in, what ideas to have, what to seek and how to achieve his goals. Political science is not very defined and strict. Specific rules saying that if one believes in a certain idea he should join a certain party do not exist. Certain things match certain group of people and other things this group of people would not accept. The same principle can be applied for countries. Communism appears to be successful for China, but it failed for Eastern European countries. It is very important the proper way of government to be found and used by the government of a country. The failure of the government can lead to failure in
Communism in the USSR was doomed from the onset. Communism was condemned due to lack of support from other nations, condemned due to corruption within its leadership, condemned due to the moral weakness of humanity, making what is perfect on paper, ineffective in the real world. The end of this system was very violent. It left one of the two most powerful nations in the world fearful of what was to come. <br><br>Communism can either be called a concept or system of society. In a society that follows the communist beliefs groups own the major resources and means of production, rather than a certain individual. In theory, Communism is to provide equal work, and benefits to all in a specific society. Communism is derived from many ancient
Communism was a pretty brutal party first introduced in Russia. Since people in Russia were not satisfied with their position in society and Tsar’s work, they began to lose trust in the power of usual government to solve their problems, they wanted a quicker change and they thought that that would maybe be the easiest to achieve if they would have a brutal leader. Communist party took control and their
The events that eventually led to the successful revolution in 1989 got their start in the “Prague Spring” in 1968. There was a brief period of political reform in Czechoslovakia in 1968, when Alexander Dubcek was elected to be the First Secretary of Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. Many of Dubcek’s reforms were trying to give more rights to the citizens as well as relaxing government censorship.