HTY 214: Eastern Europe in the 19th and 20th Centuries
Session #13 (Tues., Oct 14, 2014)
Session 13: Communist Takeovers
I. As a result of the Stalin-Hitler Pact of 1939 and then Soviet annexations after WW2, Soviet frontiers shifted to the west by about 200 miles (321 kilometers). A. Poland was shifted westward. New borders: Oder-Neisse Line and Curzon Line. Economically, it was a good trade. Poland received German industrial belt (coal and iron deposits). Poles have always been fearful Germany might reclaim the lost lands. Grateful for presence of Soviet troops in Poland to protect the new status quo. B. With Joseph Stalins acquisition of Ruthenia (Subcarpathian Rus, or Transcarpathia) from Czechoslovakia, the Soviet Union acquired common borders with Czechoslovakia and Hungary, in addition to Poland and Romania. That made it easier to invade militarily. C. Stalin insisted on having Eastern Europe as a secure buffer zone. He wanted protection from invasions from the West (Napoleon of France in 1812, Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany in WW1, Adolf Hitler in WW2). 1) To a certain extent, US President Franklin Roosevelt and British prime minister Winston Churchill understood this. USSR lost 20 million in WW2. More convenient to let the Soviet Red Army liberate Eastern Europe. 2) Misunderstanding between Stalin and Western allies over what free democratic elections means? II. In each of the EE countries, a command economy was installed, with detailed Five Year Plans. There were specific production goals for every sector of the economy. A. If one enterprise fell behind in its production goals, all the others usually did, too. B. Command economies bred corruption. III. There were three main patterns of communist takeovers in 1945-1948. A (1). Win the war against the fascists and take over (Yugoslavia and Albania) B (2). Implement salami tactics. Control Interior Ministry. Soviet Red army has our backs (Hungary, Poland, Czechoslovakia).
1) Salami tactics = The practice of gradually spreading communism, asserting dictatorial
control by the communist party, but in stages, to prevent widespread revolt. Phrase coined by Hungarian Muscovite communist Mtys Rkosi. 2) Two kinds of communists throughout Eastern Europe: home communists and Muscovite communists. The home communists were those who had stayed in their country during the war and fought against the fascists in the underground. Example: Tito and Hoxha. The Muscovite communists were a group of elite communists who had spent the war in exile in Moscow and spoke Russian. Stalin trusted Muscovite communists more than home communists. C (3) Impose communism from above brutally and immediately, with rigged elections from the outset (Romania, Bulgaria).