Unit 6: How Secure was the USSR's Control over Eastern Europe?

Hungarian Uprising

Prague Spring

Poland Solidarity

Berlin Wall

Why did Hungarians hate Communism?

What did the Hungarian do about it?

USSR Collapse

Catholic church was banned by the USSR

They feared the secret police

They had no freedom of speech

They disliked the Soviet army living in their country

Thousands of them

They had Russian signs in Hungarian streets

Hungary had to pay them to stay in Hungary

They pulled down Stalin's statue

Hungarians demanded to the USSR

How did the USSR respond?

They killed some Hungarians

They put some in jail, mostly students

How did the Soviet Union Respond?

Outcome

Why was there opposition in Czechoslovakia?

Czechs wanted less censorship, more freedom of speech, and a reduction in the activities of the secret police

There was only one political party in Czechoslovakia

Dubcek wanted "Socialism with a human face"

Troops performed public training exercises on the Czech border

USSR thought about imposing economic sactions

The USSR argued with Dubcek to slow him down

Finally, Soviet tanks moved into Czechoslovakia

Dubcek was removed from power

Even though Dubcek expressed loyalty to communism and the Warsaw Pact, Brezhnev was worried that the new ideas coing out of Czechsolovakia woud spread

There was little violent resistance

Eastern Europe leaders feared that their own people would demand the same freedom that Dubcek had allowed in Czechoslovakia

Importance of Solidarity

USSR Respond

Solutions

After Math

Problems in Poland

Wages were not rising along with the price of goods

Overall economy was shrinking

Price food was going way up

Poland's foreign dept was rising too

The polish economy was in bad shape

The communist Gov't cracked down on these union strikes (arrests, loss of jobs)

Solidarity issued its 21 demands to the government, all were met

Workers began to set up trade unions, which would organize strikes in order to make changes

End of censorship/ free speech

Worker benefits equal to communist party members

More paid

Broadcasting of Catholic church

Elections of factory managers

The leader of solidarity, Lech Walesa, gave interviews and was seen as a true leader

The rest of the world paid attention to the situation in Poland

This was an organized movement, not street protests or riots

Brezhnev(USSR) encouraged General Jaruzelski(Poland) to declare martial law

150,000 solidarity members were arrested

USSR placed tanks and troops on the border with Poland

Solidarity was declared illegal

Solidarity continued call for strikes/boycotts against the government

Solidarity continued to broadcast its radio program

Lech Walesa met with leaders of foreign countries, and in 1990 became actual leader of Poland

Khrushchev's Solution

The West's Reaction

Why was Leaving a problem for the USSR?

Why did Germans want to Leave?

Some left because of political reasons, some left for economical reasons

As standard of living in Eastern Europe fell further behind the west

The Hungarian Uprising showed that it was possible to fight communism

West Germany had freedom due to massive investment by the Western powers

Those who were defecting were very often highly skilled workers or well-qualified managers

1,000 leaving communism meant crossing from East to West Germany

Khrushchev's insisted that Kennedy withdraw US troops from the city

On Augoust 13, 1961, east German soldiers erected a barbed-wire barrier along the entire frontier East and West Berlin, ending, all free movement form the East to West

Khrushchev ordered Ulbricht to avoid any actions that would increase tension

Kennedy said "Its not a very nice solution, but a wall is a hell of a lot better than a war"

On 27 October Soviet tanks pulled up to checkpoint Charlie and refused to allow any further

The communists said the wall was a protective shell around East Berlin

US diplomats and troops crossed regularly into East Berlin to find out how the Soviets would react

The capitalists said that the wall was a prison wall for all of them

Solution

Results

Because of these things, Mikhail Gorbachev decided to make some changes to the Communist system. One of these changes was called Glasnost,or “Openness”, this allowed more freedom of speech for the press and transparency in government. Another change was called Perestroika, or “Restructuring”, this allowed some elements of Capitalism into the USSR’s economy. Gorbachev also decreased the amount of money the government was spending on the military. He even brought back the Red Army from Eastern Europe and told the Communist countries there that they could do as they pleased.

All the countries under control of the USSR eventually turned away from Communism. On Dec. 25th 1991, after the election of Boris Yeltsin, Gorbachev declared the USSR to be dead.

What

During the 1980’s the USSR was having economic problems due to a lack of growth and over spending on the military and life for the average citizen in the USSR was decreasing in quality (corruption, low standard of living).