Central & Eastern: Evaluate the impact of COMECON and the Warsaw Pact on states dominated by the Soviet Union. Flashcards
Intro/thesis
Paragraphs
-Economic impacts
-Increasing control of the Soviet Union
-Contributed to (and determined the outcomes) of uprisings
Economic impacts- examples
-Comecon’s members coordinated 5-year plans and promoted specialization within each state. Specialization tended to focus on the needs of the Soviet economy. The Soviets pressured other states to develop their agricultural sectors.
-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.
-However, Comecon’s successes did include the organization of eastern Europe’s railroad grid and of its electric-power grid and the creation of the International Bank for Economic Cooperation (1963) to finance investment project jointly undertaken by two or more members. (This demonstrates that there was some desire among the Soviets for the states to cooperate for economic benefits).
Economic impacts- explanation and historiography
-A major difficulty was posed by the incompatibility of the price systems used in the various member countries –> states could not trade with each other
-This allowed the Soviets to isolate the states from each other to prevent them from gaining too much power.
-Mark Mazower: The formation of Comecon as a rival to the Marshall Plan did not ease the discontent of countries like Romania and Bulgaria, which saw themselves destined to serve as agricultural producers in the new communist division of labor.
Economic impacts- mini judgment
Increasing control of Soviet Union- examples
-Comecon: Most trade agreements were signed bi-laterally between the USSR and individual central and eastern European states.
-The Warsaw Pact alliance was used by the Soviets to enforce its control with military interventions, such as with the invasion of Hungary in 1956. In the Warsaw Pact, Soviet troops outnumbered those from other states 4:1.
-The Soviet Union invoked the treaty when it decided to move Warsaw Pact troops into Czechoslovakia in August 1968 to bring the Czechoslovak regime back into the fold after it had begun lifting restraints on freedom of expression and had sought closer relations with the West.
Increasing control of Soviet Union- explanation and historiography
-This maintained Soviet domination and reinforced the isolation of each state.
-As Warsaw Pact forces were used, these interventions could be presented as multi-lateral socialist actions.
-Christopher Jones claims that the Warsaw Pact was essentially a political tool; as member states had to rely on the USSR for defense, their political dependency would also be guaranteed.
Increasing control- historiography for counterargument
Mark Mazower: Moscow tried to reimpose discipline through the Warsaw Pact but neither it nor Comecon could bring back the discipline of the late 1940s.
Contributed to uprisings- examples
-The Warsaw Pact, particularly its provision for the defending of Soviet troops in satellite territory, became a target of nationalist hostility in Poland and Hungary during the uprisings in those two countries in 1956.
-The Soviet Union invoked the treaty when it decided to move Warsaw Pact troops into Czechoslovakia in August 1968 to bring the Czechoslovak regime back into the fold after it had begun lifting restraints on freedom of expression and had sought closer relations with the West.
Contributed to uprisings- explanation
-(Put counterargument abot Comecon first)
-Therefore, the WP not only contributed to the causes of the uprisings, but it was also significant in determining their outcomes, as it allowed the Soviets to crush both uprisings.
Contributed to uprisings- counterargument
-Comecon was not significant to the uprisings as the economic causes of the uprisings had more to do with food shortages and rationing, which were not directly related to Comecon.
-However, it could be argued that because of the difficulty of member states to conduct trade with each other due to prices being set by individual governments contributed to economic problems in the long term.
Contributed to uprisings- mini judgment
