A.5 Soviet Take-Over of Eastern Europe

Question 1

Salami Tactics

Answer 1

-historian Hugh Seton-Watson devised a pattern of three stages: Genuine coalition (sharing power), Bogus coalition (repression of non-communists), ‘Monolithic’ regime (rigged elections)

Question 2

Poland

Answer 2

• 1945, Government of National Unity set up
• not a free election (too risky for communists)
• an alliance between parties (electoral bloc) that was communist dominated
• the bloc (using terror and falsified results) won the January 1947 election
• west didn’t interfere, accepted that it was part of the soviet sphere of influence

Question 3

Romania

Answer 3

• Soviet Union claimed it was needed for their security
• western powers accepted this
• no strong opposition, an electoral bloc was formed with the socialist party in March 1946 which won 80% of the vote

Question 4

Bulgaria

Answer 4

• Stalin wanted to keep on good terms with western powers so the communist take over was subtle
• December 1945, Stalin forced the communist dominated government to include two members of the opposition
• when changes in policy were demanded, the opposition were smothered
• September 1946, Stalin encouraged a Labour Party to be set up to mask the dictatorship
• October 1946, opposition win one third of the vote in election so Stalin allows communists to liquidate them
• September 1947, creation of cominform begins programme for nationalising industry, collectivising agriculture and creating a one-part state.

Question 5

Yugoslavia

Answer 5

• November 1945, People’s Front (bloc of parties dominated by the communist party) won 90% of the vote
• Tito then began a revolution based on the Stalinist model in the USSR

Question 6

Czechoslovakia

Answer 6

• soviet troops began to withdraw in December 1945
• May 1946, election in which communists win 38% of the vote
• this was carried out with no manipulation of vote or use of terror
• Czech cabinet voted to attend the conference in Paris on the Marshall Plan
• Stalin prevented this, met the foreign minister and threatened to invade Czechoslovakia if they accepted the Marshall Plan. “I went to Moscow as a foreign minister of an independent foreign state; I returned as a lackey of the soviet government”

Question 7

Hungary

Answer 7

• November 1945, elections were free
• 1947, press was still free as well as debate in parliament
• however, soviet influence was guaranteed as they had a dominant position on the Allied Control Commission which was the real governing force
• spring 1947, communist opposition destroyed when leader was arrested
• august 1947, election, left wing bloc get 45% of the vote
• 8 december 1947, Treaty of Friendship and co-operatrion signed with Yugoslavia
• november 1947, mutual aid treaty signed with USSR

Question 8

France

Answer 8

• government was a Communist, Socialist and Christian Democrat coalition
• attempt to act as a bridge between East and West
• March 1946, Leon Blum French Socialist Leader accepted US agreements for free international trade–making France part of the Western capitalist world
• March 1947, Moscow conference, France aligned itself with Western powers
• May 1947, Communists were expelled from the coalition

Question 9

Italy

Answer 9

• April 1945, Communists joined the coalition government
• Italy had little choice but to support the West because they had been liberated and occupied by them
• As East-West tension grew, 1946-7, the government moved to the right
• May 1947, Communists dismissed from cabinet

Question 10

Finland

Answer 10

• weak communist party, received little help from USSR
• stalin only wanted finland to remain neutral,
• 1948, finns signed Treaty of Friendship, Co-operation and Mutual Assistance with the USSR.