Topic 6: How secure was the USSR’s control over Eastern Europe 1948-89?

1. Why was the Berlin Wall built 1961?

The Wall was built in 1961 due to an increasing number of people migrating from the East to
the West.
As the Hungarian uprising was crushed in 1956 the people in Eastern Europe noticed that it
was impossible to rebel against a Communist rule, and so it appeared that the only way to
escape from a Communist rule was leave their roots behind them and move on to the West.
But the hate of a Communist rule was no the only reason, even the pro-Communists were
leaving due to low living conditions.

Among these thousands of people fleeing to the West there were many of the USSR’s most
skilled workers and highly qualified managers. The soviet government just couldn’t afford
their loss. Khrushchev thought that thousands of people fleeing from a Communist rule for a
better life under Capitalism undermined Communism in East Germany and Communism
generally.

Which photograph shows East Berlin and which shows West Berlin?
1

Photograph 1 shows West Berlin.

I think so because it shows a shop full of goods-something rare in the east.

Photograph 2 shows East Berlin.

2.

Why did the Cold War ‘’thaw’’ in the 1970’s?

3. Why was Solidarity a threat to Soviet control?

a) Differences between protest in Poland and Hungary / Czechoslovakia.

Hungary / Czechoslovakia

Poland

Reason for

protests

Protests were against the Communist rule, Soviet control and restrictions of freedom.

Protests were against low wages and high prices.

Attitude to

Communism

Both Hungarians and Czechoslovakians hated the communist restriction and Soviet rule.
Poland appeared to be happy with the type of Communist that Poland evolved to.

Attitude

to West

Hungarians wanted to have the same rights and goods available in the West.

The polish workers were keenly aware that they lagged behind workers in the West.

Result of

Protests

Soviet interventions, resulting in many deaths.

Increased wages and reduced prices.

Life in Poland in the 1970’s was not the easiest. Many people didn’t have jobs, but those
who had one earned extremely low wages. Except food prices being very high, another
problem would be to be lucky enough to find it in any shop, therefore protests against high
food prices and low wages were a common thing.
Thousands of civilians were put into prison for no reason. Jaruzelski declared a state of war
and so tanks and storm troopers were patrolling the streets. Communications were cut too.

Although the Poles were quite happy and optimistic about the state that communism evolved
to in Poland in the 1970’s, in the middle of that decade the Polish economy was hit by a
crisis 1976 was a bad year, but 1979 was the worst year since the introduction of
communism. That resulted in a large propaganda from the government, it was saying the
situation was good while everybody knew it wasn’t.

c) Events July 1980 – December 1981

July 1980 Government announces increase in the price of meat. Strikes follow.

August 1980 Workers at the Gdańsk shipyard, le by Lech Wałęsa, put forward 21
demands to the government including free trade unions and the right to strike. They also
start a free trade union called Solidarity.

August (30th) 1980 The government agrees to all 21 of Solidarity’s demands.

September 1980 Solidarity’s membership is 7 million. Solidarity is officially recognised

by the government.

January 1981 Membership of Solidarity reaches its peak at 9.4 million – more than a
third of all workers in Poland. If you exclude the farmers, 60% are members.

February 1981 General Jaruzelski, leader of the army, is made head of the Communist
Party and Prime Minister in Poland.

March 1981 After negotiations with Jaruzelski, Wałęsa calls of the strike at Bydgoszcz.
Many Solidarity members are unhappy about this. They see it as giving in to the
government.

May 1981 ‘’Rural Solidarity’’ is set up as a farmers union.

September 1981 Lech Wałęsa elected chairman of Solidarity. The Solidarity Congress
produces an ‘’open letter’’ to workers of Eastern Europe.

November 1981 Negotiations between Wałęsa and Jaruzelski to form a government of

‘’National Understanding’’ break down.

December 1981 Worried about the increasing chaos in Poland Brezhnev orders the Red
Army to carry out ‘’training manoeuvres’’ on the Polish border. Jaruzelski introduces martial
law (rule by the army). He puts Wałęsa and 10,000 other Solidarity leaders in prison. He
suspends Solidarity.

‘’Preventive and cautionary talks’’ – I think this means to talk with someone in order to
prevent something (maybe negotiate), and being cautious during these negotiations.
4. Profile of Lech Wałęsa

Born 1943
Like many of his fellow pupils at school he went to work in the shipyards in Gdańsk. He
became an electrician.
In 1970 he led shipyard workers who joined the strike against price rises.
In 1976 he was sacked from the shipyard for making malicious statements about the
organisation and working climate.
In 1978 he helped organise a union at another works. Dismissed officially because of the
recession, unofficially because of pressure from above.
In 1979 he worked for Eltromontage. He said to be the best automotive electrician in the
business. He was sacked.
Led strikes in Gdańsk shipyard in summer of 1980.
With others he set up Solidarity in August 1980 and became its leader soon after.
He was committed catholic and earned massive support among the polish people and
overseas.
He was imprisoned by the Polish government in 1982.
In prison he became a symbol of Eastern Europe’s struggle against Communist repression.
He won the Noble Peace Prize in 1983.
In 1989 he became the leader of Poland’s first non-Communist government since the
Second World War.
5. Why did the Polish government agree to solidarity’s demands in 1980?

6. Why did the Polish government clamp down on Solidarity in December 1981?

There were a number of factors which caused the government to change policy towards
Solidarity.
There were increasing signs that solidarity was acting as a political party. The government
had been sent secret tapes of a Solidarity meeting at which leaders talked of Solidarity
setting up a new provisional government – without the communist Party. This formed a direct
challenge to the Soviet plan for eastern Europe. Brezhnev was not prepared to have a
Communist Party within the Soviet bloc dictated by an independent union.
Poland was sinking in chaos. Meat and fish supply was down by 25%. Almost all Poles felt
the impact of food shortages. Rationing was introduced in April 1981. National income had
fallen by 13% in a year, industrial production by 11% and foreign trade by 20%. Wages
have increased by less than inflation. Unemployment was rising. Strikes were continuing
long after the Solidarity leadership had ordered them to stop.
Solidarity itself was also tumbling in chaos. There were different factions. Some felt that the
only way to make progress was to push the Communists harder until they cracked under the
pressure. Against the advice and better judgement of Wałęsa, they passed a motion at their
October 1981 Congress to ‘’issue a statement of sympathy and support for all the
downtrodden peoples of the Soviet bloc and to all the nations of the Soviet Union’’. It
proclaimed that the Poles were fighting ‘’For Your Freedom and for Ours’’. Wałęsa was well
aware how dangerous a course this was, but by then the different factions in Solidarity were
threatening to pull the organisation apart and Wałęsa was no longer able or willing to dictate
them.
b)

7. The Significance of Solidarity

8. The Aftermath – What happened to The Solidarity movement in the 1980’s?

In the beginning of 1983 Jaruzelski started the liberation of jailed Solidarity leaders.
However, Solidarity’s friends in the other countries were not impressed as the released
leaders were hounded from their jobs, some harassed, and some even murdered.

Although being outlawed, Solidarity started operating openly and gaining influence once
again. In 1986 it threatened to call a nationwide strike against price rises and the
government backed down. Lech Wałęsa was treated like Poland’s leader.

9. How did Gorbachev change Eastern Europe?

10. Profile Mikhail Gorbachev

Born 1931. One Grandfather was a kulak - a land owning peasant – who had been sent to a
prison camp by Stalin because he resisted Stalin’s policy of collectivisation. The other
grandfather was a loyal Communist Party member.
His elder brother was killed in the Second World War.
Studied law at the Moscow University in the 1950’s. Became a persuasive speaker.
Worked as local Communist Party official in his home area. By 1978 he was member of the
Central Committee of the Party and in charge of agriculture
In 1980 he joined the Politburo.
He was a close friend to Andropov who became Soviet leader in 1983. He shared many of
Andropov’s ideas about reforming the USSR. When Andropov was leader he was effectively
second in command.
In 1985 he became leader of the USSR.
In October 1990 he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
11. Why did Gorbachev try to change the Soviet Union?

a)

b)

What reasons does Gorbachev give in Source 46 (p. 324) for the changes in the USSR?
Gorbachev says that it is time stop handling foreign policy from an imperial point of

view. He says that both, the USA and USSR can’t force each other to do something they
don’t want to do. Although there are the options to suppress, compel, bribe, break or blast, it
would be for a short period of time. It is clear that none will give in to the other one, and that
is why one has to make the first step towards improving their relations.

12. Why did the Soviet control of Eastern Europe collapse?

a)
b)

c) The collapse of communism in Eastern Europe

-Timeline 1986/90

May

Hungarians begin dismantling the barbed wire fence between Hungary and non-Communist
Austria.

June

In Poland, free elections are held for the first time since the Second World War. Solidarity
wins almost all the seats in the contests. Eastern Europe gets its first non-Communist
leader.

The cracks in the soviet domination of Eastern Europe begin to appear and the complete
collapse of the Red Empire begins with the people of East Germany.

July

---

August

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September

Thousands of East Germans on holiday in Hungary and Czechoslovakia refuse to come

home. They escape through Austria into West Germany.

October

There are enormous demonstrations in East German cities when Gorbachev visits the
country. He tells the East German leader Erich Honecker to reform. Honecker orders troops
to fire on demonstrators but they refuse.

Gorbachev makes it clear that Soviet tanks will not move in to ‘’restore order’’.

November

East Germans march in there thousands of checkpoints at the Berlin Wall. The guards throw
down their weapons and join the crowds. The Berlin Wall is dismantled.

There are demonstrations in Czechoslovakia. The Czech Government opens their borders
with the West, and allows the formation of other parties.

December

In Romania there is a short but very bloody revolution, which ends with the execution of
Communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu.
The Communist Party in Hungary renames itself the Socialist Party and declares that free
elections will be held in 1990. In Bulgaria, there are huge demonstrations against the
Communist government.

January

---

February

---

March (1990)

Latvia leads the Baltic republics in the declaring independence from the USSR.

The Fall of Communism in Eastern Europe

The revolutions of 1989 that brought down communism in Eastern Europe seem to have
been inevitable. By that year, the corruption, economic decay and staleness of the ideology
had become apparent to all. And when the masses took to the streets, the "people's
republics" fell like a deck of cards across the continent. With hindsight, several dates and
events that preceded 1989 can be plucked from history. Whether it is Hungary's uprising in
1956 or the Prague Spring of 1968, the birth of Solidarity in 1980, or the unleashing of
glasnost by Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev - all bore the seeds of future revolution. The fall
of communism in Eastern Europe was caused by a lot of events that built up over time.
There were long term causes, medium term causes and short term causes.

I am going to discuss what exactly caused the fall of communism in Eastern Europe.

In 1953, Joseph Stalin, hard communist leader of the Soviet Union died. A man named
Nikita Khrushchev succeeded him. Khrushchev seemed very different to Stalin. He put an
end to the feuds between the USSR and China and with Yugoslavia. Khrushchev also talked
of peaceful co-existence with the West, planned to stop spending as much on weapons and
said that he wanted to improve the standard of living for Soviet citizens and those of Eastern
Europe. He seemed a more peaceful, relaxed man, and the countries of Eastern Europe
thought that with Khrushchev under control, they themselves may be allowed much greater
independence to control their own affairs.

image01.jpg

In 1956, Khrushchev made his views on Stalin known. He denounced Stalin as “A wicked
tyrant who was an enemy of the people and kept all power to himself.” Khrushchev then
announced his new “de-Stalinization” programme. This involved releasing more political
prisoners, inviting Marshall Tito to Moscow, closing down Cominform as part of his policy of
reconciliation with Yugoslavia and dismissing Stalin’s former Foreign Minister, Molotov. The
countries of Eastern Europe who wanted more independence from the Soviet Union were
hopeful.

In 1955, Khrushchev decided to set up the Warsaw Pact as an answer to NATO. This would
help him to keep up one of Stalin’s policies; creating a buffer zone around the USSR against
any Western attacks. The members of the Warsaw Pact were all the communist countries of
Eastern Europe except Yugoslavia. The pact was all about protecting each other from being
attacked.
When Khrushchev criticized Stalin, opposition groups in Eastern Europe now wanted to test
Khrushchev’s threshold. The first opposition to test this was in Poland. In summer 1956
polish demonstrators attacked police, protesting the fact that the price of food had gone up,
yet their wages had not. 53 workers were killed in Poznan by the Polish army. Shocked by
this, Khrushchev moved troops to the Polish border. By October that year, Poland had a new
leader, Wladyslaw Gomulka, he was popular with the polish for the next couple of years.

Unfortunately for Khrushchev, he was to be tested again the very same month. In October
1956, Hungary decided to rebel. Hungary was led by a hard-line Communist named Rákosi.
The people of Hungry hated the restrictions that Rákosi’s Communism imposed on them.
They were not pleased about losing their freedom of speech, and lived in fear of the secret
police. They didn’t want Soviet troops and officials in their country, yet they had to pay for
them to be there.

In June 1956 an opposing group within the communist party of Hungary opposed Rákosi.
Feeling the pressure, he asked Moscow for help. Rákosi wanted to arrest 400 leading
opponents. Moscow denied him, and the Kremlin had him retire for ‘health reasons’. A man
named Ernö Gerö succeeded Rákosi, but he was not more acceptable to the Hungarians.
This caused a mass student demonstration on the 23rd October, when the giant statue of
Stalin in Budapest was pulled down.

Khrushchev let a new Hungarian government to be formed under Imre Nagy. He withdrew
the troops and tanks from Hungary. The Hungarians created thousands of local councils to
replace soviet power.

Nagy’s new government decided it would hold free elections, create impartial courts and
restore farmland to its private owners. It wanted complete withdrawal of the Soviet army from
Hungary and wanted to leave the Warsaw Pact. The people of Hungary were optimistic that
the new US president, Eisenhower would support the new, independent Hungary.

Even though Khrushchev could at first agree with some of the reforms, he could not let
Hungary leave the Warsaw Pact. In November 1956, Soviet troops and tanks moved back
into Budapest. The Hungarians did not give in, and two weeks of bitter fighting followed. A lot
of Hungarians were killed, a lot more Hungarians fled across the border to Austria to escape
the Communist forces. Imre Nagy and his fellow leaders were imprisoned and executed. The
Hungarian resistance was crushed in two weeks. The west protested this, but did not send
help. Kádár was now in charge of Hungary as appointed by Khrushchev. Kádár did slowly
introduce some of the requested reforms, however he would not leave the Warsaw Pact.

In 1968, twelve years after the Hungarian Uprising, Czechoslovakia posed a similar threat to
the USSR. A new leader, Leonid Brezhnev, had replaced Khrushchev. The people of
Czechoslovakia had seen what had happened in 20 years of communism and they didn’t like
it. When the old, Stalinist leader was forced to resign, Alexander Dubček became the leader
of the Czech communist party. He proposed a policy of less censorship, more freedom of
speech and a reduction on the activities of the secret police. Was there opposition is
Czechoslovakia because people were scared of change? Or was it because the economy
was in a bad way and there were problems with the living conditions?

People who believed that the communists had not led the country forward led the Czech
opposition. Seeing as censorship had been eased, they were able to launch attacks on the
Communist leaders, saying that they were corrupt and useless. This period of time became
known as the Prague Spring, because of all the new ideas that were around. By the summer
there was talk of allowing another political party, the Social Democratic party to be set up as
a rival to the communist party.
The USSR was suspicious of these changes. Czechoslovakia was a very important part of
the Warsaw Pact. The soviets did not want the ideas in Czechoslovakia spreading into other
countries in Eastern Europe. The USSR tried various methods in response. They tried to
slow Dubček down, arguing with him and getting Soviet, Polish and East German troops to
perform very public training exercises on the Czech border.

In July, it was decided that there would be no Social Democratic Party, however, Dubček
insisted on keeping most of his reforms. The tension eased. It was agreed at a Warsaw Pact
meeting in early August that Czechoslovakia should maintain political stability. 17 days later,
soviet tanks moved into Czechoslovakia. There was little violent resistance to this, but many
Czech people disagreed to cooperate with the soviet troops. Dubček was removed from
power. Brezhnev was still worried about Dubček’s ideas spreading. In 1968, Albania
resigned from the Warsaw Pact because it thought that the Soviet Union had become to
liberal. Brezhnev did not consider Albania to be an important country; therefore he did
nothing to stop them.

Brezhnev decided to make rules. The essentials of communism were defined as a one party
system and they must be part of the Warsaw Pact. Before the invasion of soviet tanks in
Czechoslovakia, people were optimistic there; afterwards people that had been pro soviet
were now resentful.

The Czechoslovakian uprising resulted in the Brezhnev doctrine – expressing that the USSR
would reserve the right to intervene rule in any state within the Soviet Bloc in order to
preserve a communist political system. The fact that the Soviet Union, and more specifically
Russia, was imposing its power on the nations within its sphere of influence did not help it to
become a popular ally of these much smaller countries. The subsequent hatred of the
communist system and of those enforced its existence were enough to eventually topple the
satellite state system and eventually the Soviet Union itself. Solidarity in Poland provides
another excellent example of the Soviet satellite states’ objection to being members of the
USSR. Hatred for the Soviet system and the resentment of the fact that communism was
forced upon them was another were the reasons for the satellite states opposition to
membership in the Soviet Empire. This hatred and resentment led to the deterioration of the
satellite state system.

In 1985 Mikhail Gorbachev because leader of the Soviet Union. However, Communism and
the USSR was in crisis, it had become obvious that members of the communist governments
often lived in luxury and had goods that were inaccessible to working families, this
completely defied communisms policy of equality.

The people of the USSR no longer had faith in communism. They did not believe the
promises that their governments had made, and bitterly resented the lack of good quality
consumer goods available in their countries, when the west seemed to have more and be
richer.

Industry and agriculture were not performing efficiently. Most of the goods that came out of
factories didn’t work because their quality was so poor.

The people of the USSR were annoyed because they were living in poverty, whilst the
government was spending huge sums of money of weapons.

Gorbachev proposed that a process of ‘perestroika’ should improve the economy; he

included some of the practises that made capitalism successful in this process. To restore
faith in the government, and to end corruption, Gorbachev suggested there should be more
‘glasnost’, which meant more freedom of speech. He also decided that there should be a
cutback in the money spent on arms and defence. He wanted to drop the Brezhnev doctrine
and he didn’t want to spend as much money on other countries’ affairs. This all happened
very quickly, and by the end of 1988 it was clear that communist governments in eastern
Europe had to be responsible for their own policies and could not expect support from the
Soviet army. From that moment, the days of Communist government in Eastern Europe
were numbered. The decision to abandon the Brezhnev Doctrine and withdraw support from
other communist countries was very dangerous. If the countries in the Warsaw Pact chose to
abandon communism, who would defend the Soviet Union? This is exactly what happened,
during the summer of 1989 one by one, the communist governments in Eastern Europe
came to an end. In June 1989 Solidarity got the open elections that they had been
demanding for years. Solidarity won nearly all of the seats it contested. Tadeusz Mazowieki,
a solidarity leader, became prime minister. In 1990, the first non-communist President of
Poland, Lech Walesa was elected.

In November, 1989, East Germany, one of the last hard-line Communist countries, saw the
virtual disintegration of its Communist party in the face of economic chaos and revelations of
party corruption. The new East German government began dismantling the Berlin wall, the
very symbol of the Cold War, and less than a year later, the two Germanys were finally
reunited. By the end of 1989, not only Germany had seen a revolution, but Czechoslovakia,
Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria had also disposed of their Communist governments.

During the Brezhnev and Gorbachev years, the ideology behind Communism had a different
meaning in comparison to earlier times. Wherever the faithful looked, the traditional
prophecies had failed to come through: world revolution had not occurred, crime had not
vanished, nationalism and religion had not disappeared with the passing of capitalism, as
had been predicted. This disillusionment and belief that Communism didn’t fulfil its promises
to the people jumped to new highs when Mikhail Gorbachev came to power during the late
1980’s. His liberalised style of leadership allowed people express their views and generally
the people of the Soviet Union felt wrong done by the ideology which they had be ensured
would see the Soviet Union rise as the most powerful nation in the world. The Soviet system
was not suited to the ideology on which the regime was based. This ideology turned out to
be inappropriate to the end of the twentieth century. As technology changed and as society
was transformed, the superstructure – that is, the form of state and its ideology – became a
hindrance to further development. This hindrance became a burden on the society the
economy and the system