SSS Flashcards
What followed the Soviet suppression of the Prague Spring in Czechoslovakia in 1968?
the most repressive of the East European regimes was installed and the pre-invasion reforms were swept away, leaving serious restrictions on economic activity and education, as well as free speech, even in comparison with neighboring communist countries.
How was opposition to Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968 formed?
primarily culturally, rather than political and sometimes symbolically represented in drama and music after 1968, because of the severity of government repression of dissent (think of Havel’s work as a playwright)
A month after the August 1968 Soviet invasion,for example, rock music became a medium for much political dissent, including the Velvet Underground-inspired rock band, Plastic People of the Universe, who wrote incendiary protest songs in English and were eventually arrested in 1976
What did the fact that the Czechoslovak public easily engaged in peaceful forms of resistance during the Prague Spring of 1968 with very little coaching or pre-planning suggest?
evidence of priming:
- Inspiration from the west through media imagery
- Communist state had allowed certain forms of peaceful protest for propaganda purposes
- Russian was a compulsory language to learn in schools. Meant population (mainly young) could converse directly with invading soldiers = dialogue
Why is the Czechoslovakian resistance of 1968 to Soviet invasion often seen as a failure?
68 resistance often seen as failure because reform socialism was not rescued and by 70s the country had become even more rigidly orthodox. Yet where some argue this the fault of the resistance,Williams argues this misguided: ‘We should see resistance as largely irrelevant to what was happening in high politics from start to finish’
What evidence of democracy is their in Hungary?
- 1956 - Uprising against Soviet domination suppressed by the Soviet Army. Janos Kadar becomes head of government.
- 1960s - Kadar gradually introduces limited liberalising reforms. Political prisoners and church leaders are freed, farmers and industrial workers given increased rights.
- 1968 - New Economic Mechanism brings elements of the market to communist state management.
In what ways was dissent expressed in the GDR that was outside more traditional forms of protest?
Despite minor strikes, workers did not need to strike in order to display discontent. Fulbrook talks about how the policy of‘my enemy’s enemy is my friend’ was applied to expressions of protest. So to demonstrate against the GDR, any symbol that the GDR opposed was used against them. Thus references to Western democracy and Nazism were used in abundance in attempts to undermine/mock the regime. They were designed to antagonise.
The idea was that ‘disgruntlement could easily be expressed through appeals to better times gone by’ and furthermore through comparisons with the west.
In what more traditional forms was dissent displayed in the GDR?
The expression of protest took many forms. Nazi slogans, graffiti, work stoppages, anonymous telephone calls threatening leading functionaries, demands for sympathy strikes or at least a downing of tools for Gedenkminuten (a minute’s silence), and attempted escapes from the GDR,were all common insubordinations. Major form of protest was the distribution of leaflets
How would you define the 1968 protests in the GDR?
1968 protest = protests were very much in the nature of spontaneous, individual, isolated acts: expressions of disapproval rather than organised movements for change. Political dissent was certainly widespread, but it was essentially reactive in nature: people knew what they wanted to protest against, but had no organisational networks to exert influence on government to effect alternative policies
What did the GDR introduce in 1968?
In 1968, East Germany went about adopting a constitution that would provide the legal basis for country’s state-socialist system. Rather than simply imposing this new document, as the ruling Socialist Unity Party (SED) could have easily done, it instead chose a more labour-intensive option: a mass national discussion followed by a plebiscite.
What does the 1968 GDR constitution of the ruling SED party contradict?
contradicts the idea of East Germany as a dictatorship. What was the point of such activities when it was clear to all from the beginning that the new Socialist Constitution would become law if the SED wanted it to happen? Much of the political structure of the German Democratic Republic appears similarly strange in retrospect.
Article 1 of the new constitution of 1968 made it official that the SED was the leading party of East Germany, yet there continued to be elections until 1989. What was the point exactly?
How did SED leader Walter Ulbricht view the 1968 GDR constitution?
the symbolic confirmation that the GDR had progressed from an anti-fascist state to one of real existing socialism. In keeping with Marxist-Leninist ideology, the GDR was progressing on the path from the bourgeois stage of history towards the end point of history: communism.
What was an objection toward the 1968 GDR constitution and how was it countered by the authorities?
when many complained about the absence of aright to strike talking points were developed with counter-arguments: functionaries explained that industrial action in a socialist country made no sense as the workers were already in control. This would be akin to West German press magnate Axel Springer striking against himself.
What challenge did the Catholic and Protestant churches place on the SED’s constitution in the GDR during 1968?
They wrote letters in mass calling for constitutional protections for the faithful. These letters demanded that the SED make space for Christian socialism in the GDR arguing that they were good and loyal socialists, but they would not be able to contribute to East German society if they were forced to adopt an alien atheistic worldview. In exchange for the SED accepting their Christianity, the letter writers were prepared to embrace socialism as an economic and political system. In the end, the SED added a second article on religious freedom as a concession to this mass response.
What happened the legitimacy of the GDR’s communist regime following the Prague Spring?
Following the Soviets alongside Warsaw Pact countries(excluding the GDR themselves) crushing the Czechoslovakian attempt at reform socialism. This led many to see real-existing socialism as un-reformable without drastic change. Then came the Soviet reforms under Gorbachev.
What did the existence of regular elections in the GDR suggest?
The existence of regular elections and political parties in East Germany does not disprove that the SED ran a dictatorial state.It does, however, complicate the simplistic view of the GDR as a totalitarian state that reduced its citizenry to a socially undifferentiated mass
