The USA's involvement in Europe - Cominform, September 1947 Flashcards
when was Cominform formed?
22 September 1947
what was Cominform?
- The Communist Information Bureau
- The Cominform controlled and coordinated the political and economic systems of the Soviet satellite states.
- The control of these states would be in line with orders directly issued from Moscow.
what motivated Stalin to create the Cominform?
- by late 1947, Stalin was increasingly convinced that the USA was not interested in any model of international relations that was based on multiple spheres of influence
- he was convinced that the USA was engineering an anti-Soviet, anti-communist, US-led global alliance
- he believed two camps had emerged and Soviet control in Eastern Europe had to be consolidated
what did Cominform signify?
It signalled a shift from moderate Popular Front policies to ‘two camps’ politics
who were the founding members of Cominform?
the USSR, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, Poland and Yugoslavia but Yugoslavia was expelled on 28 June 1948
What did Tito criticise about the French Communist Party?
There was much criticism - initially led by Tito - of the legalism and electoralism which had characterised the political behaviour of the Italian and French Communist parties since 1944-45
what did the PCF launch in Nov-Dec 1947
The PCF launched massive - but ultimately unsuccessful - anti-Marshall Plan strikes in France during Nov-Dec 1947 which involved 2 million strikers
why was Yugoslavia expelled from Cominform on 28 Jun 1948?
- The nation’s leader, Josef Broz Tito was reluctant in following the Soviet line by harshly criticising Stalin’s lack of assistance to communists fighting for power in Greece throughout 1947-48
- could not due to the percentages agreement in November 1944 between Churchill and Stalin as Stalin wanted good relations with the West
- was expelled when Tito refused to tone down his complaints
who was Andrei Zhdanov and what did he believe?
- a Soviet leader and key speaker at the conference in Poland in September 1947
- he articulated that the world was divided into two camps: imperialists led by the USA and democrats led by the USSR
- he was committed to the view that the USA wanted to establish an anti-Soviet empire based on economic dependancy on the USA for those states who entered this sphere of influence
- this became known as the Zhadov Doctrine and transferred to Soviet cultural policy
outline the events of the Defenestration of Prague in March 1948:
- On 10 March 1948, Jan Masaryk was found dead in the courtyard of the Foreign Ministry below his bathroom window
- The Ministry of the Interior claimed that he had committed suicide by jumping out of the window but it is widely believed that he was killed on behest of the Communist government.
what was Comecon?
The Council for Mutual Economic Assistance
when was Comecon founded?
in January 1949 as a riposte for the Marshall Plan
what were the primary factors in Comecon’s formation?
Joseph Stalin’s desire to strengthen the USSR’s relationship at an economic level with the lesser states of Eastern Central Europe
- this is because war and the breakdown of relations with the USA and the USSR had cut these states off from their traditional markets and suppliers in the rest of Europe
who were the original members of Comecon?
the Soviet Union, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland and Romania
what did Comecon aim to create?
Comecon aimed for Eastern Europe to be collectivised, industrialised and and centralised
- states were expected to trade primarily with Cominform members and all contacts with non-Communist countries were to be discouraged
- Comecon was intended to create an alternative path which might foster development whilst maintaining Soviet hegemony
