User talk:Davesteyaert

Why did the USSR engage in a policy of sovietisation after the Second World War and what methods were used to establish Communism in Eastern Europe?

The setting up of Communism in Eastern Europe began during the Second World War. The Red Army were advancing into Germany through Eastern Europe. At Teheran in 1943, Churchill voiced his concerns about a Soviet post war Eastern Europe. He proposed a combined Anglo American invasion of the Balkans which Stalin rejected. There would be no allied troops in Eastern Europe.

Stalin feared an eventual war with the West. Stalin had witnessed two German invasions of his Country and would do anything to stop another. The USSR had secured an unbroken belt of states after the Second World War, like Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria and Czechoslovakia. Stalin was setting up a buffer zone between him and the West. The sovietisation of Eastern Europe was a defence policy and vital to the future security of the USSR.

After the announcement of the Truman Doctrine and Marshall Plan, an economic aid package offered by the Western powers to any European Country, Stalin became alarmed. He feared a USA backed conspiracy against the USSR. In offering aid to Country’s fighting Communism, Stalin took this as a direct threat to future security of the USSR. To tighten communist control on Eastern Europe, Stalin set up Cominform. Its’ function was to counteract ‘American Imperialism’ and bind all Communist parties together. In 1949, Comecon was set up to integrate Eastern Europe Countries with Soviet Economy, and to provide aid to help the economy’s. This was the first attempt to bind the Eastern European Countries together.

Stalin stripped the Eastern European Countries of their raw materials and equipment. East Germany and the satellite states were to be his compensation, his reparations.

To keep the Communists in place, Soviet troops were placed in the Satellite Countries. Military occupation by the Red Army allowed the Russians free hand ensuring key people sympathetic to Moscow were put in positions of power. Broad based coalition governments and single one party states were also used to ensure the popularity of Communism.

Sovietisation eventually went far beyond politics into control of social and economic life. Churches were repressed and then land confiscated. The media became strictly censored.

Many in Czechoslovakia had hoped to join the Marshall Plan at the end of the Second World War. These hopes were dashed however, when Communists, backed by the Red Army, staged a coup in February 1948.

Five year plans were introduced in Czech Industry. Consumer goods were in short supply as emphasis was on supplying the needs of the Soviet Union. As in the rest of the Eastern Bloc,life was tightly controlled by a secret Police Force. Between 1949 and 1953 a new series of purges began in the USSR, and Stalin wiped out all those in the Satellite States who opposed him or who he saw as a threat.

The Soviets sought to tighten control on East Germany by getting rid of Allied powers in Berlin. West Berlin was isolated from all other allied sectors and Stalin tried many ways to get them out i.e., the Berlin Blockade. He was unsuccessful though, and the Western part of the city remained in Allied hands until the fall of the Iron Curtain.

A challenge to the Communists of the USSR came from Josip Tito and Yugoslavia. Tito wanted little to do with Moscow and they were kicked out of Cominform for pursuing an independent Communist programme. Stalin stopped Tito from changing the USSR’s Foreign Policies but so many domestic changes were made in Yugoslavia that it had successfully distanced itself from the Kremlin. One of the only Eastern Bloc Countries to do so.

The East German revolt happened in June 1953. A ten percent increase in work packages was brought in for all workers in May 1953. The workers were very unhappy with this, they took to the streets on strike and in protest. The Red Army ruthlessly suppressed the revolt, with 20,000 arrests and many dead.

Stalin died in 1953, before the Polish revolt, and Nikita Khrushchev came to power with new attitudes to controlling the Eastern Bloc countries. Rioting occurred in Poland in June 1956 over the workers being told to increase productivity by 25% with no corresponding increase in pay. Khrushchev eventually gave in to the Polish peoples demands.

Khrushchev set up the Warsaw Pact in May 1955. The Eastern Bloc which already had economic ties due to Cominform, was to now also be a military alliance. This was another method the Soviets used to try and bind the Eastern Bloc closer to them.

The people of Hungary greatly resented Communism. They had seen the people of Poland get their demands and in October 1956 the uprising began. Huge crowds of up to 200,000 demonstrated and when they became serious, the Red Army was called in. Hundreds of tanks rolled into Budapest and ended the uprising with force.

In conclusion, many different methods were used to bind the Eastern Bloc. Economic and military ties were used, but sheer Soviet force was the main binding factor for the Eastern Bloc.

dave steyaert

The USSR's policy of sovietisation
I am sorry but this article is very likely to be deleted as original research, which this appears to be is not allowed on wikipedia. See if you can help out with other pages e.g. start at USSR