2. HOW AND WHY DID STALIN CONTROL
EASTERN EUROPE AT THAT TIM E
Basically Stalin wanted to do what France did after world war won
Revenge
Compensation - taking some part of Germany and some countries
near it
Reparation- money
Spreading communism
3. LIFE IN EASTERN EUROPE
Czechoslovakia
East Berlin
Poland Hungary
West Berlin
5. SOURCES
The videos were not really reliable except for the reviews.
Ben Walsh pages – good
Mr Roswell – kind of reliable
6. REASONS(PART 1)
Under Stalin any opposition was swiftly and brutally crushed
His methods to expand his territory was very harsh which had no support from
people
Stalin engineered a communist coup in May 1948 in Czechoslovakia in which a
government minister Masaryk was killed and the president was forced to resign.
After 1956, with Khrushchev's new approach to Socialism and his denunciation
of Stalin, there were increasing calls for independence among the communist bloc
countries who had never been truly supportive of the communist regime.
7. REASONS(PART 2)
In East Germany in 1953 there were a series of strikes and protests
Poland was the first to revolt against the communist regime. Polish workers rioted and
went on strike in 1956 and the Polish communist party also revolted by refusing to accept
the Russian general Rokossovsky as the Polish Minister for Defence.
The fact that Khrushchev was willing to compromise illustrates again the precarious
position of communist rule.
relations began to break down again due to the building of the Berlin Wall in 1961 and
the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962
8. REASONS( PART 3)
In 1964 Khrushchev was ousted from power and Brezhnev with
Kosygin took over from him.
In 1966 the US and USSR agreed to a direct air service between
Moscow and New York. In 1967 they, along with 60 other countries,
signed the first international
treaty providing for the peaceful exploration of outer space.
Therefore communism rule was fragile over these years
9. CZECHOSLOVAKIA
Czechoslovakians had a happy life until the communist responded
This period was called “Prague Spring” because Alexander Dubcek introduce a
policy called “Socialism with a human face”
He Gave people the Freedom of Speech and also gave the chance introduce
New Political Parties. People enjoyed life in Prague, only some were killed
outside Prague. This policy lasted only for four months !!.
10. RESPONSE
Russia was not happy about introducing new political parties
which is not particularly supporting communism. Early august, The
eastern countries had a meeting in Prague about the issue in
Czechoslovakia .
Czechoslovakia was just invaded by all of eastern European
troops. Only some People were killed.
11. THE BREZHNEV DOCTRINE
The essentials of the communists were defined as
A one party system
To remain a member of the Warsaw pact
Dubcek was not executed like Nagy but gradually down graded
and then expelled from the communist party.
12. HUNGARY(1956)
It was led by a hard line communist called Matyas Rakosi .
People hated the restrictions, felt bitter. Communist party opposed Rakosi.
They pleaded help from Moscow for help. The Kremlin replaced Rakosi with
Erno Gero who was no more good than Rakosi .
People became even more angry which led them to the act of pulling down
the Statue of Stalin.
Troops got afraid about the situation, the Nagy’s government also planned
to declare to withdraw from the Warsaw pact.
13. RESPONSE
Khrushchev accepted some of the reforms. Such as changing the president
However he did not leave them out of the Warsaw pact
In November 1956 thousands of soviet troops entered Hungary
Unlike Poland, Hungarians did not give in
The causalities of the war resulted in 3000 Hungarians dead and 7000-8000
Russians were killed. Nagy’s government and the followers were arrested and
executed.
Hungary gave up and was fully under the control Khrushchev .
14. POLAND(1980)
Throughout the years of communist rule Poland there were
normal protests unlike the one in 1980, due to the fact meat prices
were raised by the government.
This was called the solidarity demands
by October solidarity membership was 7 million. And to 9.4 by
January 1981
Polish government agreed to this
15. REASONS FOR AGREEING WITH
THE SOLIDARITY DEMANDS
Poland was the strongest in industries
The union was immensely popular
Solidarity had the support of religion(Catholic church)
Some of the army had supported the solidarity
Had some support from the west( published on media and
posters)
16. RESPONSE
Soviet union brought in troops to Poland and threatened them
Walesa and almost 10,000 other solidarity leaders were imprisoned.
A number of priests were murdered.
Military dictators had a reason for imprisoning them such as
Solidarity was acting as a political party
this made chaos in Poland
Finally Soviet had seen enough so they acted immediately to supress this
protest from Poland.
17. EAST BERLIN (1961)
The people were not given quality and good supplements for living than the West.
People could see what was going on in the west which made them have a feeling to
some how get to that place.
People could still travel freely to Best Berlin and come back until 13th august 1961
when the east berlin troops erected a barbed wire and was soon replaced by a
concrete wall. This meant all the free movement was over. This point was also called
checkpoint Charlie
Families were divided and work chaos was developed
People were killed if they tried to cross the wall without any given access.
18. WEST BERLIN(1961)
Life in west berlin was calm they did not have real troubles
USA troops went into east Berlin to check what their reaction was
USSR troops and USA troops stood at their border defending each other
after eighteen hours they slowly dispersed into their sides.
Kennedy said “its not a very nice solution , but a wall is a hell of a lot
better than a war”
19. EAST AND WEST
Over the following years the wall became a symbol of division of
Germany, Europe and the division of Communist east and
Democratic west.
Communist showed the wall as a defence
West showed it as a prison wall which will lead onto the east.
20. LIFE IN RUSSIA
Khrushchev attempted to carry out reform in a range of fields. The problems of Soviet
agriculture, a major concern of Khrushchev's
Later innovations by Khrushchev, however, proved counterproductive.
Khrushchev's attempts at reform in industry and administrative organization created even
greater problems.
By 1964 Khrushchev's prestige had been damaged in a number of areas. Industrial growth
had slowed, while agriculture showed no new progress. Abroad, the split with China, the Berlin
crisis, and the Cuban fiasco hurt the Soviet Union's international stature, and Khrushchev's
efforts to improve relations with the West antagonized many in the military.
