Central & Eastern: Discuss the reasons for the establishment of COMECON and the Warsaw Pact Flashcards
Intro/thesis
-COMECON (founded in 1949)- response to Marshall Plan
-Warsaw Pact (signed in 1955)- response to NATO
-Soviet influence in Eastern Europe served both to prevent Western expansion into Soviet territory and to stabilize the area in order to minimize regional conflicts and instability.
-Key reason for both was increased control within Central and Eastern Europe, which the economic aims of COMECON fed into
-Protection from the West was interlinked with the idea of autarky and independence from the West.
Paragraphs
-Economic aims
-Soviet control within Central & Eastern Europe
-Protection from the West
Economic aims- examples
-The socialist Soviet rulers would never accept funding from the capitalist West, in the form of the Marshall Plan (Dollar Imperialism), even if it would help their people recover from a crippling war. But, they needed to offer their people an alternative.
-COMECON aimed to develop socialist economic integration, increase economic and technical protest, increase industrialization and productivity, and offer mutual aid to the states. For example, the Sofia Principle, established in August 1949, made each country’s technologies available to the others for a very small fee and this benefitted greatly the less industrialized and technologically advanced states.
-After establishing trade and lending policies, the Soviet Union used Comecon to carry out specialization across its European empire. The goal was for one country to produce steel, another to mine iron ore, and another to make mining equipment.
Economic aims- explanation and historiography
-Although Stalin didn’t want the West to gain access to the tightly controlled dictatorships he had set up in Central and Eastern Europe, he did perceive that the satellite states of the USSR had to rebuild as well. Thus, Comecon was set up to promote development while keeping the peoples of half of Europe firmly under his thumb.
-These economic developments would serve as tools for political development and allow for increased Soviet control.
-Sandor Richter: The role of COMECON was twofold: to outweigh any possible effects of the Marshall Plan in the Soviet zone of influence and to redirect the economic links of Eastern Europe from the West to the East, building a second level of autarky over the national economies.
Soviet control- examples
-The stated purpose of Comecon was the coordination of the foreign trade and national plans of its members. However, the prices of most goods and commodities were set by individual governments and had little to do with the goods’ actual market values, thus making it difficult for the member states to conduct trade with each other on the basis of relative prices.
-In the post-World War II era, Soviet interest in Eastern Europe largely stemmed from past Soviet vulnerability to invasions through the Eastern European nations, specifically through Czechoslovakia and Poland. As a result, one of Stalin’s main concerns was to secure control over this territory in order to prevent future aggression against the Soviet Union.
-The purpose of the Warsaw Pact was partly to reassert control, should a satellite state attempt to oppose the authority of the USSR (which did happen, for example, in Hungary in 1956 and in Czechoslovakia in 1968).
Soviet control- explanation and historiography
-The Soviets wanted to ensure closer economic cooperation between the Soviet Union and each of the central and eastern European states under its control.
-This allowed the Soviets to isolate the states from each other to prevent them from gaining too much power.
-Its purpose was also a means to strengthen the Soviet military as Warsaw Pact forces could be deployed to reassert control should a ‘satellite’ state attempt to oppose the authority of the USSR.
-There are disputes about the primary purpose of the Warsaw Pact – whether its aim was to strengthen the military security of central and eastern Europe or whether its focus should be to further the Soviet’s political aims. Historian Christopher Jones claims that the Warsaw Pact was essentially a political tool in that as member states had to rely on the USSR for defense then their political dependency would also be guaranteed.
Protection from the West- examples
-Mostly a reason for the WP, but still somewhat important for COMECON. The Soviet aim was to strengthen its buffer zone through increased economic ties with the Eastern European nations. This buffer zone, devised by Stalin, was to serve as protection from Western invasion influence.
-The primary fear of the USSR was a resurgent, rearmed Germany. Therefore, when, against strong opposition from the Soviets, West Germany joined NATO in 1955, the USSR had to respond. The Soviet Union viewed the growing strength of NATO and a freshly rearmed West Germany as a threat to communist control.
-The Warsaw Pact alliance was signed in May 1955 in Poland, and East Germany was one of the founding members. East Germany was subsequently permitted to have an army and to rearm as a counter-balance to the rearmament of West Germany.
Protection from the West- explanation
-The key motive for its establishment was in response to the US setting up the North Atlantic Treaty Organization [NATO] in April 1949 after the Berlin Blockade. In this sense, the Warsaw Pact was a defensive move, as the US’ alliance posed a significant threat to communist regional security.
