How had the USSR gained control of Eastern Europe by 1948?

Question 1

Describe the Potsdam conference (4)

Answer 1

By July 1945, Germany had surrendered and lay in ruins. All the places that they bombed were destroyed and people killed. The War in Japan was still going on in the Pacific. Potsdam took place in Germany which is right outside Berlin. The Big Three met in a suburb of Berlin. USSR-Joseph Stalin, USA-Harry Truman, UK-Winston Churchill, replaced by Clement Atlee during the conference. The USSR took German war prisoners and put them into camps to work. They also dismantled whole factories and brought them to Russia.

Question 2

First change since Yalta?

Answer 2

Stalin’s armies were occupying most of Eastern Europe: Soviet troops had liberated country after country in eastern Europe, but instead of withdrawing his troops Stalin had left them there. Refugees were fleeing out of these countries fearing a communist take-over. Stalin had set up a communist government in Poland, ignoring the wishes of the majority of Poles. He insisted that his control of eastern Europe was a defensive measure against possible future attacks.

Question 3

Second Change since Yalta?

Answer 3

America had a new president: On 12 April 1945, President Roosevelt died. He was replaced by his vice-president Harry Truman. Truman was a very different man from Roosevelt. His views were seen as a lot more anti-communist and were much more suspicious of Stalin. Truman and his advisors saw Soviet actions in eastern Europe as prepared for a Soviet take-over of the rest of Europe.

Question 4

Third change since Yalta?

Answer 4

The Allies had tested an atomic bomb: On the 16th of July 1945, the Americans successfully tested an atomic bomb at a desert site in the USA. At the start of the Potsdam Conference, Truman informed Stalin about it.

Question 5

What were some agreements at Potsdam?

Answer 5

The Polish/German border was to be settled at the Oder-Neisse Line.
Germany would be denazified and war crimes trials were to be held in Germany and Japan.
Germany would be governed by an Allied Control Council in Berlin where each decision required a unanimous vote and the country would be treated as a single economic unit.

Question 6

What were the disagreements at Potsdam?

Answer 6

Germany
Reparations
Eastern Europe
Poland

Question 7

Disagreements about Germany?

Answer 7

Germany:
Stalin wanted to cripple Germany completely to protect the USSR against future threats. Turman did not want to repeat the mistake of the Treaty of Versailles.

Question 8

Disagreements about reparations?

Answer 8

Reparations:
Twenty million Russians had died in the war and the Soviet Union had been devastated. Stalin wanted compensation from Germany. Truman, however, did not want to repeat the same mistakes.

Question 9

Disagreements about Eastern Europe?

Answer 9

Eastern Europe:

At Yalta, Stalin had won an agreement from the Allies that he could set up Pro-Soviet governments in eastern Europe.

Question 10

Disagreements about Poland?

Answer 10

The allies didn’t agree over the future government of Poland and the Soviet-controlled government at Lublin continued to run the country.
They disagreed over the future of Germany. Stalin wanted to dismember Germany and prevent it from developing its own industry.
The USSR wanted access to Germany’s industrial heartland in the Ruhr. This was rejected.
Stalin Wanted to gain a foothold in Japan, a demand that Truman rejected.

Question 11

Two broad reasons why the USSR gained control over Eastern Europe by 1948?

Answer 11

Force and threat of force

Manipulation and Election Fraud

Question 12

How did the USSR gain control of Poland?

Answer 12

The first example of this would be Poland since the USSR did not retreat out of Polish territories after Germany had surrendered and proceeded to arrest and murder opposing leaders. Poland had a traditional hatred of the USSR so they used methods of force to get Poland to submit to them. Opposition leaders were arrested and murdered.

In Poland, the USSR rigged elections in 1947 gave the communists a turn out of 80% of the vote, following the murder of the other parties

Question 13

How did the USSR gain control of Romania?

Answer 13

In Romania after the Soviets slowly took over police and special forces they rigged the elections in 1946 with 90% of the vote going to them and their allies. They also had a “Show trial” of the main opposition leader in October 1947.

Gradually took over police and security forces. King Micheal was forced to abdicate from the throne.

Question 14

How did the USSR gain control of Bulgaria?

Answer 14

Soviet troops remained after liberation
Initially Joined a coalition with other parties,
the Fatherland Front
Purged rival groups from the Fatherland Front
Monarchy abolished In 1946
The new constitution in 1947 effectively destroyed
parliamentary democracy and opposition
parties were disbanded.

Question 15

How did the USSR gain control of Hungary?

Answer 15

Soviet troops remained after liberation
Communists won 17% of the vote in November
1945 elections but were given control of the
Ministry of the Interior.
Used secret police to discredit and persecute
rival politicians and parties.
Rigged elections in 1947 gave communists
control of a coalition government.
Social Democratic Party and Communist Party
1948.

Question 16

How did the USSR take over Czechoslovakia?

Answer 16

Soviet troops left after the war
Post-war elections gave communists leadership
of a balanced, coalition government
Gradually assumed control of key government
ministries allowing them to arrest political
opponents
Foreign Minister Jans Masaryk, a popular and
non-communist politician, murdered in May 1947
All non-communist members of the
government resigned in February 1948, with
communists filling vacant positions

Question 17

What is Comecon?

Answer 17

Comecon stands for the Council for Mutual Economic
Assistance.
It was set up in 1949 to co-ordinate the industries and
trade of the eastern European countries.
The idea was that members of Comecon traded mostly
with one another rather than trading with the West.
Comecon favored the USSR far more than any of its
other members. It provided the USSR with a market to
sell its goods. It also guaranteed it a cheap supply of raw materials. For example, Poland was forced to sell its coal.
To the USSR at one-tenth of the price that it could have
got selling it on the open market.
It set up a bank for socialist countries in 1964.

Question 18

What is Cominform?

Answer 18

Cominform stands for the Communist Information
Bureau.
Stalin set up the Cominform in 1947 as an organization
to co-ordinate the various communist governments in
eastern Europe.
The office was originally based in Belgrade in Yugoslavia but moved to Bucharest in Romania in 1948 after Yugoslavia was expelled by Stalin because it would not do what the Soviet Union told it to do.
Cominform ran meetings and sent out instructions to
communist governments about what the Soviet Union
wanted them to do.