Pressures on the USSR (16) Flashcards
Khrushchev’s removal
Cuban Missile Crisis and the Berlin Crisis were seen as a failure to the Party
Domestic policies had failed to improve the Soviet standards of living and consumer goods to the Western levels
Vulnerable after 1962
Between January and September 1964 he was absent from the Kremlin for 5 months - Party leaders led by Brezhnev (deputy Party leader) planned his removal
Summoned to a special meeting in October 1964 where after an attack, accepted the outser and retired
Causes of the Prague Spring
The USSR trusted Czechoslovakia as it was a relatively prosperous member of the Eastern Bloc and a reliable ally
1963 there was a negative growth
Economic downturn led to doubts over their connection to the USSR and socialism which was causing inefficiency and corruption
Czechoslovakian Economist Professor Ota Sik proposed reforms for the central economy:
End centrally planned economic targets
Allowing individual enterprises
Communist Party responsive to public opinion
Existence of consumer rights
Workforce having more power
Not allowed at first but in 1966 Sik argued and gained support from all demographics and so the USSR allowed
Success of Western Society
- The ‘Golden Age’ of capitalist expansion and productivity in Western Europe spanned from the late 1940s to the early 1970s
- The Marshall Plan’s $13 billion helped bolster this whilst US nuclear protection allowed for the safe rapid growth
- In July 1952, France, Italy, the German Federal Republic, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg formed the European Coal and Steel Community.
- In March 1957 the same six signed the Rome treaties establishing a European Economic Community (EEC) and a European Atomic Energy Community (EURATOM)
- By 1960 ‘the Six’ accounted in tandem for a quarter of the world’s industrial production and two-fifths of aggregate international trade
- Western European citizens enjoyed higher wages, shorter working weeks, social benefits and improved health and education
- Unemployment virtually disappeared, averaging just 2.9% throughout Western Europe in the 1950s and a mere 1.5% in the 1960s
- In Italy, private ownership of cars increased from 469,000 in 1938 to 15 million in 1975
- Ownership of refrigerators in British households in grew from 8% in 1956 to 69% in 1971
Eastern Europe issues
By the 1960s the growth slowed significantly due to problems with the top-down planning model and the inability to satisfy rising consumer demands
Political repression, religious persecution, suppression of individual freedoms and tightly enforced ideological conformity
Dubcek
USSR replaced Party Leader Novotny with him in January 1968
Thought he was a typical Party Communist
Turned out to be a charismatic advocate of political reform
Said there must be a ‘new start to socialism’
Started replacing key officials without notifying Moscow
‘Socialism with a human face’ reforms
Removed censorship of the press
Hardline communists like Kadar in Hungary said he had left Eastern Europe exposed to ‘democratic infection’
Action Programme
Announced in April 1968 by Dubcek
Basic freedoms of speech, press movement - even to Western Europe
Freedom of economic enterprises to make decisions based on consumer demand rather than economic targets
Communist Party would take ‘leading role’ but would have to recognise other parties and trade unions
New Associations emerged such as Club K-231 - made up of political prisoners
Reassured Moscow that Czechoslovakia would remain part of the Warsaw Pact
Recognition of civil liberties and personal freedom
When no opposition came from the Kremlin they pushed harder, completely removing censorship of the press, opened boarders and planned a trade deal with West Germany
Soviet Invasion of Czechoslovakia
Tried to intimidate Dubcek - Warsaw Pact countries did military exercises in Czechoslovakia in late June 1968
Warsaw Pact leaders and the USSR held a meeting 14-15 July 1968 and the leaders sent a letter to Czechoslovakia explaining that they had rights to internal self determination but were threatening the wider community of socialists
When no split in the Communist Party occurred and no leader revealed themselves to replace Dubcek the Warsaw Pact countries invaded Czechoslovakia on 20-21 August 1968
100 dead, 500 wounded
500,000 troops
No international outcry from NATO countries - some from China and Romania however
Brezhnev Doctrine
November 1968
Communist states have a responsibility to intervene in order to protect the whole communist community
Post Soviet Invasion of Czechoslovakia
Thousands participate in protests in late 1968 on the streets of Prague
Soviets found it difficult to find a member of the Communist Party to replace Dubcek so he remained in power until April 1969
Gustav Husak took power and conformed to the Soviets
A Red Army Presence was required to keep power until the collapse of Communism in 1989
Breakdown of the Sino-Soviet Alliance
Formed in 1950 - defunct by 1962
Mao thought that the Soviets did not respect him and accused Khrushchev of revisionism, mainly due to peaceful co-existence
Khrushchev also indirectly supported India in its border dispute with China in 1959, withdrew technological aid by removing Soviet experts in 1960, refused to provide a prototype atomic bomb, did not notify China that it had placed nuclear missiles on Cuba in 1962
Mao further had provoked the USA through bombing the Taiwanese-held islands of Quemoy and Matsu in 1958, criticised Khrushchev for unwilling to use nuclear weapons and removing missiles for Cuba which betrayed the Cuban revolution
July 1963, talks had broken down
Sino-Soviet relations post-Khrushchev
October 1964 Brezhnev takes power and wants to restore the relationship, mainly due to increasing US influence in Vietnam
Representative sent to China, seeking to establish some unity but failed
furthered strained by the Malinovsky incident - Sino-Soviet talks held Moscow in late 1964 - Soviet Defence minister, Rodion Malinovsky suggested to a Chinese delegate, Marshal He Long, that the Chinese should get rid of Mao as the USSR had got rid of Khrushchev - talks immediately collapsed
Sino-Soviet relations and Vietnam
April 1965 - USSR requested meeting with China and N. Vietnam to develop a collective response to the USA’s escalation of the war - Mao refused as he wanted N. Vietnam dependent on China and did not want to allow any more Soviet involvement in the war
USSR proposed a Soviet air force base in Southern China at Kunming to protect the border against US aggression - China viewed it as an intrusion on its territory and refused
The Cultural Revolution
1966 led by Mao
reaction to a drift away from the ideological purity of the Chinese revolution
Enabled Mao to strengthen his power by justifying the removal of potential political rivals - claimed they were revisionists
Attacks against anything considered Western
Purging of high-ranking communists and anyone in power
Empowerment of the youth
9-18 year olds formed the Red Guard and justified their actions based on Maos ‘Little Red Book’ - spun out of control and army called on in 1969
Used the frenzy to intimidate the USSR
Soviet Union’s embassy in Beijing was besieged by a Red Guard Mob which threatened to burn it down
Border Disputes
USSR places military forces in Mongolia and Eastern Kazakhstan in February 1967
China begins a plan of ‘active defence’, based on limited aggression designed to deter any Soviet initial aggression - began on 2 March 1969 - Soviet border patrol near Zhenbao Island in eastern USSR was ambushed by Chinese forces.
Second incident in Xinjiang in August 1969
Talks in Beijing in September 1969 to reassure both sides didn’t want war were unsuccessful - Mao insecure
Sino-Soviet relations hostile by 1970 - China looks to USA for rapport
