Forming of the Eastern Bloc Eastern Europe was more important to the Soviet Union than to the United States and United Kingdom Bloc of Communist countries.

Communism in Eastern Europe

Forming of the Eastern Bloc Eastern Europe was more important to the

Soviet Union than to the United States and United Kingdom

Bloc of Communist countries = new important element in the international relations

Exiles returning from Moscow played a crucial role

Communization = the process of the abolition of the private ownership.

Sovietization = adoption of Soviet-like institutions, laws, customs, traditions and the Soviet way of life.

Forming of the Eastern Bloc in September 1947 was established the

Communist Information Bureau (Cominform) - responsible for binding together the East European Communist parties

Politically, the countries in the region were governed at first by coalition governments under varying degrees of Communist/Soviet influence

The Eastern European economies were subjugated to the Soviet economy

Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (COMECON) was established in 1949

Polandmost important Eastern European country for

the Soviet UnionLublin group x exile government in LondonIn the elections of January 1947 the

Communists and their allies won 384 out of 444 seats

The Peasant Party leader Mikołajczyk resigned and fled into exile in London

After elections Communist government banned other political parties and established a one-party state

Hungary

1945 elections - Stalinists were trounced, receiving only 17 % of the vote - coalition government under Prime Minister Zoltán Tildy

“salami tactics” - Mátyás Rákosi invented the term, which described his tactic slicing up enemies like pieces of salami

Repression was harsher in Hungary than in the other satellite countries

Approximately 350,000 Hungarian officials and intellectuals were purged from 1948 to 1956

YugoslaviaYugoslavia was only

aligned with the Soviet Union for 3 post-war years

Tito–Stalin split of 1948 – Yugoslavia was expelled from Cominform in 1948 and publicly denounced

The split revealed the limits of Soviet military, political, and economic power

CzechoslovakiaMunich Agreement in 1938 - sense

of scepticism toward the West Elections 1946 – Communist Party

of Czechoslovakia (KSČ) emerged as the largest single party (38 %) – new coalition cabinet leaded by Klement Gottwald

Czechoslovakia refused Marshall plan in 1947 (forced by Soviets)

By February 1948 the communists had forced the other coalition parties out of the government

On February 25, President Benes  accepted the resignations of the non-Communist ministers and appointed a new government in accordance with KSČ demands

Communist propaganda in Eastern Bloc

the overpopulation of the potato beetle in Czechoslovakia during the summer of 1950 meant a real economic threat

Czechoslovak Government launched in 1950 the propaganda campaign against the “American Bug”

Government claimed this to be an artificially-induced situation, caused by the United States of America that intentionally disseminating the potato bug from airplanes in order to harm Czechoslovak economy

Outbreak of the Korean War was used for this propaganda campaign and began to compare the fight with the potato beetle to the war conflict in the Korean peninsula

Eastern Bloc in 1950sOn 5th March 1953 Stalin

diedFor a quarter century the

Soviet Union had been dominated by him

Although Nikita Khrushchev gradually emerged as the new leader of the Soviet Union, he never attained the authority Stalin had had

The role of the security police was reduced, and thousands of the political prisoners were released

De-StalinizationAt the 20th Congress of

Communistic Party of Soviet Union (25 February 1956) he pursued a course of reform

Shocked delegates with famous speech denouncing the “cult of personality”

Krushchev proceeded to make a full-scale denunciation of Stalinism, detailing in long procession the crimes of the dead tyrant

Khrushchev made Stalin responsible for a great list of tragedies – from the horrors of the 1930’s to the split with Yugoslavia

These changes did not mean that the Soviet Union was about to become a liberal democracy – it was just to avoid the bloody caprice of autocracy, avoid the repetition of mass executions etc.

Influence of De-Stalinization in Satellites

News of De-Stalinization soon spread throughout the Communist world

Some of the satellite countries began to see a glimpse of freedom for the first time in a decade

Especially in Poland and Hungary members of the Communist Party were thrown into great dispute over the course which the new line should take

Tito was rehabilitated and declared a “good communist”

The new tensions were first expressed in the June 1953 demonstration in Czechoslovakia and East Germany

Situation in Poland 1956

Workers rebellion in June 1956 at the industrial city of Poznan against the communistic government

Demonstrates demanded better social condition in Poland

Tens of people were died and hundreds injured and arrested

After the protests, many Polish communists tended to a more moderate program

The new First Secretary of the Polish Communist Party was proposed Wladyslaw Gomulka

The minority of old-line Polish Stalinist leaders were gravely alarmed and appealed to the Russian government to intervene

Khrushchev flew to Warsaw to investigate the matter and then ordered the Soviet forces to retire

Hungarian Revolt of 1956

There was the opposition among students, workers and even the Party intellectuals against Hungarian Stalinists who controlled the government

A popular demonstrations against the Hungarian government broke out in Budapest on 23 October and soon turned into an armed rebellion

Leader of the moderate faction in the Hungarian Communist party Imre Nagy was made premier and negotiated the withdrawal of the Russian troops stationed in the country

The power of the Hungarian Communist party had been completely broken by popular rebellion and the revolutionaries were planning to establish a new regime which would break the old ties with the Soviet block

Russians couldn’t tolerate it and on 4 November reentered Hungary in massive strength to crush the rebellion

The Hungarian rebels were completely crushed and the Communist regime reestablished

4000 people died, thousands were injured, arrested or deported to the Soviet Union. 200 000 fled the Hungary

Imre Nagy was with another leaders of the rebellion executed in June 1958

Berlin Crisis 1958–1961Within fifteen years over

two million people had fled from East Germany to the West

The main point of exit for escapees was the western-held section of the city of Berlin

When exodus reached a high point in the summer of 1961, the Communist authorities in East Germany took matters into their own hands.

On 13th August 1961 the border to West Berlin had been shut and started construction of Berlin Wall

Check Point Charlie in Berlin