Unit 14 (Re) constructing eastern Europe Flashcards
14.1 1956 and the politics of communist rule in Eastern Europe, 14.1 Establishing legitimacy - communist rule after 1945
Communism totalitarianism, collectivisation, personality cults? What do historians say?
Communism’s effect on Eastern Europe = destruction of non-communist parties, the withering away of civil society , the domination of public space by communist rituals and coercive institutions, the cult of personality of communist leaders (the little Stalins) and re foreign policy - satellitiisation - the proving of unswerving loyalty to the Soviet Union and Stalin ‘the Red Tsar’
14.1 Establishing legitimacy - communist rule after 1945 2
A ‘system of domination’ or regime can be legitimate when at least some of the population acknowledges its authority and the rest of the population does not resist the regime in the name of a viable alternative - Heller
1953 Nagy promoted to Chairman (pursues his New Course) and ordered rehabilitation of trial victims, closing of interment camps, support for light industry and returned some land from the collectives to peasants to stabilise Hungary after Rakosi’s hard line
Communists rely on plebiscites (votes on questions rather than the elections of representatives) to approve their measures
14.1.2 Reform and the old to the Hungarian uprising 2
Stalinist regiemes seized power after 1945 and ruled by eliminating or coopting opposition and arousing fear through the use of violence
Stalin’s death 1953 , a decisive break in the history of Eastern Europe - according to historians - Krushchev’s secret speech 1956 in which he denounces Stalin
Eastern countries now consider this a possibility to define their own national paths towards socialism, a way of steering a path between ‘Stalinism’ and ‘Titosim’
14.1 Establishing legitimacy - communist rule after 1945 3
East German workers uprising against excessive production quotas form party and Ulbricht and little or no improved quality of life in 1953, construction workers join in, suppressed by Soviet tanks, Ulbricht propped up by Kremlin
A strike at the Stalin factory in Poznan Poland June 1956, strikers and crowds attack the Provincial Party Committee Building and the State Security headquarters, crushed by troops 73 dead, Gomulka (former communist leader) reinstated in August and relaxes controls in agriculture via decollectivisation and negotiates a greater role for the Catholic Church - addresses significant concerns (Poland would be ruled by Poles) and calms situation
Nagy in Hungary removed in 1955 and replaced by the renowned instigator of the 1948 and 53 purges Rakosi, this results in uprising in 1956 and Nagy’s return, then Soviet bloc tanks entering 4 November, Rakosi returns to power but is called to Moscow for ‘medical treatment’ and replaced, Nagy executed in 1958 after being lured back
14.2 (Re) Building the economies of eastern Europe
In Poland, new elites had to be created (due to WWII) that would be affiliated to the dominant communist parties and in Poland and Czechoslovakia the state took over almost all businesses with more than 50 workers on the payroll.
Central planers formulated 5 or 6 year plans in all communist states between 1948-51, stipulating what and how much had to be produced in the nationalised industries and agricultural collectives
Investment in consumer goods was comparatively low compared with investment in heavy industry, agricultural land brutally turned over to collectivisation farming (peasants lose land),agricultural production did not exceed interwar levels and in 1950’s deteriorates (Mazower and Berend)
14.2 (Re) Building the economies of eastern Europe 2
From 1960’s onwards, threshers and steam ploughs are replaced by combined harvesters and tractors and chemical fertilisers, resulting to in a doubling of wheat, corn, potatoes and sugar-beet by early 1970’s
Labour productivity increases by 3-4 times from 1950’s tp 1980’s
Industrial production and employment grew as fast in Eastern Europe as it did in the west
14.2.1 The Council for Mutual Economic Assistance - another European community?
CMEA - Founded 1949 - Council for Mutual Economic Assistance
a neo-imperialist elite based in Moscow rules through intermediaries in the various capitals of eastern Europe
Soviet leaders dictate how Eastern European economies run and organise them for the purpose of extracting resources in contrast to the more benign Marshal plan that wanted to achieve European integration
14.2.1 The Council for Mutual Economic Assistance - another European community? 2
What Eastern European estates is a Soviet model - autarkic/problems of parallelism, investment turned on and off erratically (self-sufficient) that build ‘socialism in one country)
Countries develp a wide-range of products in small numbers (do not specialise in one or two) for primarily domestic consumption, such an allocation of resources allows only low investment in any given sector
This kept product quality low and prices they can command in a world market low also.
An over concentration in heavy industry points industries away from the west and towards easter European economies
14.2.1 The Council for Mutual Economic Assistance - another European community? 3
The system becomes skewed, theoretically the system was initially advantageous to the Soviets then not so.
Raw material prices to satellites couldn’t rise as the satellites cried it would destabilise economic and social situation, this results in items internally exported being higher priced and poorer quality than western ones
Romania cottons on to a scam and blocks Soviet reforms to give CMEA supranational authority over planning and investment - ‘at times, tails could wag dogs’ Gaddis 2005
CMEA did help build infrastructure such as bridges and roads and the friendship oil pipeline, so some good came of it
14.3 Private life in eastern Europe
Leaders of GDR wanted to gain intelligence on their citizens because of a rival and more prosperous Federal Germany - hence the extensive use and Network of The Stasi (that was the largest employer in the country by 1980’s) who obtained as much data on the population as possible
Security and intelligence agencies actually sought to eliminate ‘private life’ (GDR rued by the SED - Socialist Unit Party Ulbricht)
Berlin Wall 1961
14.3 Private life in eastern Europe 2
‘Miriam’ and ‘Charlie’ (Funder’s Stasiland) murder not suicide
Girls posters teated as ‘sedition’, and they are reported by their classmates
Charlie convicted of trying to flee the Republic after making legal application to leave.Charle murdered in prison - not suicide
Miriam finding it had to get work due to state ostracisation
14.3.1 Private lives public spaces
Individuals were so dependant on the state (the communists) for homes as so many had been destroyed - therefore in thrall
The ‘Warsaw Tempo’ fast (communist led) rebuilding efforts
Houses granted to people (as is everything else) dependant to their use to the communist party
New city-dwellers accused of personalising the functionality and productivity of their apartments, converting multi-purpose rooms into pseudo-peasant dwellings
14.3.1 Private lives public spaces 2
Lifestyle magazines like ‘My flat is my hobby’ begin to appear in Poland which awarded prizes for the best furnished flat
a growing ‘consumer socialism’ emerges and communist states (e.g. in the GDR) create advertising agencies, travel offices, decoration magazines and mail-order ventures
14.3.2 Consumerism and poster art
Socialist realist painting sees modern western art as decadent, distasteful and perverted
Women in floppy skirts (cosmopolitan) derided and set next to heroic welders and workers to highlight her decadence
As communist economies changed the depiction of women moved from their early ‘heroic’ industrial phase to becoming more representative of diversified, consumer orientated economies
14.4 1968 in Prague: the political, economic and social roots of protest
Czechoslovakian interpretation of Communism begins to cause trouble for the Soviet hard liners.
First adult generation after WWII has excellent employment and promotion opportunities
Not so the second and better educated generation, who struggle to advance their careers, no chance to move up
