Eastern Europe and Germany

1
Eastern Europe and Germany

• The importance of the Eastern Bloc

2
Status of Europe

• March 1953 Stalin died, collective leadership
  emerged, Khrushchev became key leader
• Walter Ulbricht governed East Germany along
  Soviet lines
• NATO and Warsaw Pact increased order and
  predictability - lessened uncertainty about
  future of Germany, set limits on permissible
  behaviour
• SU concerned Germany - lack of formal peace
  settlement
• SU feared West delaying settlement

3
The Soviet view

• SU difficulty constructing a viable state in East
  Germany
• East German leadership resisted pressure for
  reform, immigration to West Germany via Berlin
• SU concerned about US plans to furnish West
  Germany with nuclear weapons delivery systems
• Khrushchev viewed the SU position in east Europe,
  esp. East Germany, not only as strategic, but as
  compensation for wartime sacrifices

4
Poem by Bertol Brecht about East German Uprising
1953

• The Solution
• After the uprising of the 17th June
• The Secretary of the Writers Union
• Had leaflets distributed in the Stalinallee
• Stating that the people
• Had forfeited the confidence of the government
• And could win it back only
• By redoubled efforts. Would it not be easier
• In that case for the government
• To dissolve the people
• And elect another?

5
Hungarian Uprising 1956

• 14 May 1955 Warsaw Pact bound Hungary to the SU
• Austrian State Treaty 1955 declared neutrality of
  Austria geographically split NATO alliance from
  Geneva to Vienna, increasing Hungarys imptc. to
  Warsaw Pact
• Nagy, leader of Hungary, considered possibility
  of Hungary following suit
• June 1956 violent uprising by Polish workers in
  Polish city Poznan
• 23 Oct 1956 spontaneous national uprising in
  Hungary

6
Success?

• Pravda published a declaration promising greater
  equality in relations between the USSR and its
  East European satellites
• "The Soviet Government is prepared to enter
  into the appropriate negotiations with the
  government of the Hungarian People's Republic and
  other members of the Warsaw Treaty on the
  question of the presence of Soviet troops on the
  territory of Hungary.
• Day the declaration appeared the Politburo
  decided to remove revolution

7
Reasons?

• Belief that the rebellion directly threatened
  Communist rule in Hungary (unlike the challenge
  posed by Wladyslaw Gomulka and the Polish
  Communists just days before, which had targeted
  Kremlin rule but not the Communist system)
• The West would see a lack of response by Moscow
  as a sign of weakness, especially after the
  British, French and Israeli strike against Suez
  that had begun on October 29
• The spread of anti-Communist feelings in Hungary
  threatened the rule of neighboring satellite
  leaders
• Members of the Soviet party would not understand
  a failure to respond with force in Hungary

8
Plans for Europe

• Polish foreign minister proposed plan create
  nuclear-free zone in central Europe
• SU saw West Berlin as way to force West to
  recognise division of Germany and danger of
  nuclear weapons
• Nov 1958 Khrushchev proposed a German peace
  treaty
• recognise existence of two Germanies
• end of four-power control over Berlin, Western
  sectors becoming demilitarised and self-governing
  free city, independence guaranteed by the four
  powers and the two German states
• If no agreement within six months, Khrushchev
  would turn over control access routes to Western
  sectors of Berlin to the GDR

9
Crisis

• This solution ran counter to West German claims
  that they represented all of Germany
• Also called into question Western commitment to
  reunification
• Leaving Berlin would deprive West of impt.
  propaganda asset and invaluable intelligence
  listening post and base of operations
• Resistance raised possibility of war
  superiority Soviet conventional weapons

10
Political struggle

• Khrushchev withdrew ultimatum spring 1959
• No agreement reached, but meeting sparked hopes
  on both sides for improved relations
• SU shot down a U-2 spy plane on 1 May 1960, on
  eve of planned summit meeting in Paris
• U-2 humiliating symbol of Soviet technological
  inferiority
• Eisenhower refused to discontinue flights
• Khrushchev left the summit before anything could
  be accomplished

11
New leadership

• Khrushchev renewed ultimatum in June 1961, Vienna
• Kennedy called for increased military spending
• Nationally televised address 25 July 1961,
  Kennedy pledged that US would not let communists
  drive the West out of Berlin
• East Germans, with SU approval, sealed off access
  routes between East and West Berlin on 13 August
  1961
• Tide of refugees fleeing through Berlin reached
  4000 a day before the border was closed

12
Confrontation?

• East Germans and Soviet careful not to interfere
  with Western access to Berlin
• Potentially serious crisis arose late October
• Lucius Clay sent US tanks equipped with bulldozer
  blades to Checkpoint Charlie, an allied corridor
  between sectors, to demonstrate US determination
  to maintain its access rights
• Thinking the US was preparing to tear down the
  wall, the SU sent in tanks
• Tense confrontation ensued
• Exchange of assurances between Kennedy and
  Khrushchev

13
The Berlin Wall

• The Berlin Wall an ideological defeat for the SU
  and world communism
• Became a symbol of the Cold War, concrete
  evidence of the inability of East Germany to win
  the loyalty of its inhabitants
• Seen as hard proof that Soviet-style socialism
  was losing its economic competition with
  capitalism
• Ended the mass emigration
• When the Cuban Missile Crisis arose, the initial
  US reaction was that the Soviets had put missiles
  there as a way of forcing the West out of Berlin

14
Prague Spring

• Czech Socialist Republic underwent economic
  downturn
• Atonin Novotny, Communist Party leader, replaced
  by Alexander Dubcek
• Dubcek introduced a series of reforms, including
  more open economy, plans for democratisation of
  the government (introducing multi-party system),
  increased freedom of the press, splitting the
  CSSR into two nations
• Reforms to be monitored by Communist Party, but
  public pressure mounted for immediate
  implementation
• 27 June a manifesto Two Thousand Words was
  published by Ludvik Vaculik, a well-known author,
  showing concern that the reforms would not take
  place - called on the people

15
Prague Spring

• SU concerned reforms weakened communism
• Tried to limit changes through negotiation
  bilateral talks in July
• Czech Communist party divided reformists and
  conservatives
• Brezhnev allowed Communist party to reaffirm
  loyalty to the Warsaw Pact, control the press and
  avoid multi-party system
• 3 August Bratislava Declaration commitment to
  Marxism-Leninism, and renewed struggled against
  bourgeois elements

16
Brezhnev Doctrine

• Eastern European nations must work towards
  interests of SU above their own national
  interests
• Military force would be used to ensure this
• 20-26 August Soviet troops invaded Czech Republic
• 5-7,000 tanks, 200-600,000 troops
• 72 killed, hundreds wounded
• Dubcek asked people not to resist, he arrested
  and taken to Moscow
• Emigration - brain drain

17
Resistance

• Non-violent resistance
• Soldiers guilt-tripped
• Assistance, for example food and water, denied
  the soldiers
• Graffiti and signs drawn on walls and pavements,
  pictures of Dubcek shown
• Originally SU wanted oust Dubcek he returned to
  office, and moderate reform would follow
• 19 January 1969 a student set himself on fire to
  protest the renewal of censored speech
• April 1969 Dubcek replaced by Husak, and reforms
  stemmed

18
Wider effects

• Romanias leader held public speech denouncing
  SUs response
• Finlands Communist Party denounced the
  occupation, although Finnish President Urho
  Kekkonen was first Western politician to visit
  Czechoslovakia after events
• Two supporters, Portuguese communist
  secretary-general and Luxembourg Communist Party
• Within SU protest against use military force in
  the Red Square 25 August 1969
• Letters protests written to Brezhnev
• Acts of protest suppressed