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Soviet Control on Eastern Europe
● Cominform: Set up in 1947. An organisation that was made to organise the
various governments in Eastern Europe. Yugoslavia (Tito) was expelled because it
wouldn’t follow what it was told.
● Comecon: Set up in 1949 to coordinate the industries and trade of the Eastern
European Countries. Idea was to trade with each other rather than the West.
comecon favoured the USSR rather than its other members. Provided a market
for the USSR to sell its goods. The USSR was also guaranteed a cheap supply of
raw materials, e.g; Poland was forced to sell its coal for one tenth of a price
that it could have if it was sold on the open market.
Impact on ordinary people
● Newspapers were censored
● Non- communists were put in prison for criticising the government.
● People are forbidden to travel to the West.
● Protests crushed by security forces.
● Between 1945 and 1955, Eastern European economies did recover, but soon
wages in Eastern Europe fell behind the wages in other countries. People were
short of coal to heat their houses. Clothing and shoes were very expensive.
● People couldn’t get consumer goods like radios, electric kettles or televisions
(common in the West).
● Factories produced items such as machinery or electric cables instead of
consumer goods.
Introduction of Krushchev
Stalin died in 1953 and was replaced by Krushchev in 1955.
He appeared different from Stalin;
○ Spoke of Peaceful co-existence with the West
○ Wanted to improve the lives of ordinary citizens.
He closed down cominform and released thousands of political prisoners. He openly
denounced Stalin's rule in 1956 in a speech.
This new approach from the Soviet leader encouraged critics of communist rule. In
1956 large demonstrations broke out in Poland. They demanded for reforms and
Gomulka (a wartime resistance leader) to be put in charge. There were violent clashes
between protestors and Polish police. Despite Gomulka not being the loyal ally he would
have wanted, Krushchev allowed it. However, he did move Soviet troops and tanks onto
the Polish border to show he was only willing to compromise so far.
, Hungary 1956
How it was run before:
From 1949 to 1956, Hungary was led by a hardline communist called rakosi. Hungarians
hated the restrictions imposed on them. Most Hungarians felt bitter about losing their
freedom of speech. They lived in fear of the secret police. They resented the
presence of thousands of Soviet troops and officials in their country. Hungarians had
to even pay for the Soviet forces to be in Hungary.
What Happened?
● Opposition: in June 1956, a group within the communist party opposed Rakosi. He
appealed to Krushchev for help. He wanted to arrest 400 leading opponents.
Moscow wouldn’t back him and he was ordered to retire for ‘health reasons.
● Protest: The new leader, Erno Gero, was bad as well. The discontent was shown
when a huge student demonstration in October brought down a giant Statue in
Budapest.
● Reform: The USSR allowed a new government to be formed under the Nagy. In
October Soviet troops and tanks (stationed since WW2) began to be withdrawn.
Thousands of local councils were created to replace the Soviet power. Several
thousand Hungarian soldiers defected from the army to help in the rebel cause,
taking their weapons.
● Plans: Nagy’s government wanted to hold free elections, create impartial courts
and restore farmland to private ownership. It wanted total withdrawal of the
Soviet army from Hungary. It also wanted to leave the Warsaw Pact and declare
Hungary neutral in the Cold War struggle.
How did the Soviet Union respond?
Krushchev would accept some reforms but not Hungary leaving the Warsaw pact. In
November 1956, thousands of SOviet tanks moved into Budapest. Two weeks of bitter
fighting followed and igt was estimated that some 20,000 Hungarians were killed.
Another 200,000 Hungarians fled across the border into Austria to escape the
communist forces.
How did the USA and West respond?
USA: Eisenhower offered his sympathies towards the Hungarian people and protested
to the USSR. However, since the US was following a policy of containment so didn’t get
involved with areas the Soviet was in control of. They didn't want to start WW3 over
Hungary.
Western powers: The Western powers protested to the USSR but sent no help; they
were too preoccupied with the Suez Crisis in the Middle East.
Outcomes
Kadar was put in place as leader. He crushed all resistance in several months; 35,000
anticomminist activists arrested and 300 executed. Some reforms were introduced but
the Warsaw pact issue remained the same.
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