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- the polish peasantry failed to collectivise
- the government adopted policies of discrimination/ harassment against private farmers
- PF passively resist - bad harvest began 1951, rationing introduced
- living standards decrease 36% from 1949-55
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At the Writers' Congress in 1956, several authors criticized the political repression in , and on May Day of 1956 students
held demonstrations in Prague and Bratislava, demanding freedom of speech and access to the Western press. The President of Czechoslovakia, Novotny, suppressed the movement and reinforced a hard-line Stalinist regime. -
the world youth festival was held in Poland,
Polish teenagers realised how much better the West was in terms of living conditions and freedom.
Therefore, this sparked a new wave of anti-soviet control in Poland -
students, workers, soldiers riot. They attacked police and Russian soldiers and smashed statue of Stalin
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- Poverty: much of the food/ industrial goods were sent to Russia
- Russian oppression: The Hungarians were very patriotic, and they hated Russian control (censorship, secret police + school curriculum)
- Religious oppression: the Hungarians were religious, but the Communist Party banned religion, the leader of the Catholic Church in prison.
- West: the hungarians believed the west would support them
- Destalinisation: Khrushchev would not let Rakosi arrest 400 anti-stalinists
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Imre Nagy- popular war time resistance leader- takes power
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Krushchev agrees to leave Hungary, Russian army pulls out of Budapest
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Nagy plans to introduce democracy, freedom of speech, to disband the secret police, introduce freedom of religion (the leader of the Catholic church freed from prison) and to leave the WARSAW PACT (lasts until 3. Nov)
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1000 Russian tanks rolled into Budapest. by 8:10 am the Hungarian radio was captured, it's last words broadcast were ‘Help! Help! Help”!’ Hungarian people – even children – fought them with machine guns. Some 4000 Hungarians killed fighting the Russians. Kadar placed in power
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200,000 Hungarian refugees fled into Austria.
Russia stayed in control behind the Iron Curtain – no other country tried to get rid of Russia troops until Czechoslovakia in 1968.
the west was horrified, many british commies left com. party
the west became even more determined to contain communism -
1. Nagy’s decision to leave the Warsaw Pact – Russia was determined to keep its ‘buffer’ of states.
2. China asked Russia to act to stop communism being damaged.
3. Nagy had obviously lost control; Hungary was not destalinising – it was turning capitalist.
4. Hard-liners in Russia forced Khrushchev to act -
- Eisenhower did not want to go to war for Hungary, as MAD
- Britain and France tied up in Suez crisis in Egypt
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At the Vienna summit of June 1961, Khrushchev again demanded that the Americans leave West Berlin. Kennedy’s refused – and on 25 July increased America’s spending on weapons
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1) tension - Kennedy financed anti-communist conflict in Vietnam/laos
in 1961 Kennedy (April 17) assists BAY OF PIGS
2) Refugees: by 1961, 3 million had fled to west through Berlin. By aug. 1961, it was 1800 a day, embarrassing Russia, caused Brain Drain
3) US spied on USSR through west berlin -
Berlin wall is erected
Khrushchev closed the border between east and west Berlin -
Berlin was split in two. Hundreds of East Berliners died trying to cross it.
America complained, but did not try to take it down – it was not worth a war.
Tension grew: both sides started nuclear testing.
The West became more anti-communist
The Wall became a symbol in the West of Communist tyranny. -
in the late 1970's the polish economy was in crisis. the country was relatively calm in the first alf of the 1970's as the economy had been good. in 1979, the economy hit the lowest point since the introduction of communism.
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the government increased the price of meat but made it harder for wage increases
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Workers at the Gdansk ship yard, led by Walesa, put forward 21 demands to the government. This included free trade unions, the right to strike, a decrease in waiting periods for apartments, and a day off to rest on saturday. They started a trade union called solidarity. Poland had trade unions that were ineffective in challenging government policies
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Organization: The movement had a committee, spokespeople, and newspaper "Solidarnosc", enabling them to spread their message.
Demands: Their 21 demands were national issues, securing the support from lots of industries/ people
Methods: The movement never used violence/ fear
Support: if all solidarity went on strike, Poland would be paralysed -
October 1980- Solidarity's membership was 7 million. They were officially recognised by the government January 1981 - Membership peaked at 9.4 million, a 1/3 of all workers in poland
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The government agreed to all of solidarity's 21 demands
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1) Solidarity was getting too political. Jaruzelski claimed they had tapes proving they were attempting a coup
2) Poland was sinking into chaos, inflation, unemployment, rationing introduced april 1981
3) Solidarity was split up into factions and people were becoming uncontrollable -
1) highlighted the failure of communism to benefit the working class
2) it highlighted the inefficiency and corruption within com. goves.
3) it showed organisations could resist the control of the gove. + the gov. was threatened by PEOPLE POWER
4) it showed that com. goves needed force to keep power -
On December 13, 1981 the government declared a “state of war” and suspended Solidarity
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February 1981, Jaruzelski came to power
On 13 December 1981, Jaruzelski announced the introduction of martial law in a televised speech
He put Walesa and almost 10k others in prison -
sometime after the death of Breznev, Gorbachev came to power. He essentially would see the downfall of the Brezhnev doctrine with the collapse of the soviet union (BD: one party state// warsaw pact membership)
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– The USSR economy was 80% state owned. People did not believe in the government. Under Stalin they had worked in fear/ loyalty, now they did not care.
– the USSR was losing afghanistan war. Military spending was 25% of GDP by 1980s.
– . Life expectancy was low, mainly because of alcoholism.
– GDP falling by 3-5% in 1990! The USSR had been locked in a costly arms race with USA, developing a range of missiles and nuclear arms that was not sustainable. -
Peristroika (restructuring) – introduced in 1987. Freed up the command economy and allowed market forces to play a part.
Glasnost (openness) – this was the idea that foreign relations should get better. Withdrew Soviet forces from Afghanistan, emphasized international co-operation and responsibility, announced a new policy on eastern Europe which said they should be able to determine their own paths. Disbanded Warsaw Pact and COMECON. -
1988 : Rising prices in Poland lead to strikes and talks with Solidarity
Gorbachev pledges to remove troops from E.Europe -
1989 : Hungary promises elections and choice of parties
Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia declare sovereignty
Solidarity takes control and promises elections
Gorbachev visits E. Germany and urges it to take its own path
Czechoslovakian Velvet Revolution removes Communists from power
Romania: Ceaucescu executed -
1990 : Ukraine declares sovereignty
: Germany unified; wall falls -
1991 : Croatia, Slovenia declare independence
: Warsaw Pact ended : Soviet Coup attempt; Russia declares independence under Yeltsin in Dec : Gorbachev resigns on 25 December 1991; the USSR was no more