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Unit 6: How was the USSR's control over Eastern Europe? (Poland Solid,…
Unit 6: How was the USSR's control over Eastern Europe?
Prague Spring
The Soviet Union did not respond too well. The USSR argued with Dubcek to slow him down, troops performed very public training exercises right on the Czech borer etc.
There was many opposition in Prague Spring due to Bubek wanting "socialism with human face" along with Czechs wanting less censorship more freedom of speech and a reduction in the activities of secrete police, and there was only ne political party
Outcome: There was little violent resistance, Dundek was removed from power, Even though Dubdek was expressed loyalty to communism and that the new ideas coming out of Czech would spread, and eastern European leaders feared that their own people would demand the same freedom that Dubdek had allowed in Czech
Hungarian Uprising
Nikita Khrushchev, the new leader of the USSR responded to the protests by bringing in the army, who in 2 weeks killed about 3,000 Hungarians and 2,000 fleeing to Austria
he USSR was using Hungary for it’s own benefit and this made the Hungarian upset.
Hungarians hated communism because they had no freedom of speech, catholic church was banned by USSR, they feared secrete police, disliked the soviet army living in their country
The leaders of the uprising were imprisoned and the new president, Imre Nagy, was executed.
The Hungarians protested by demanding many things, including a new leader, along with a withdraw of the “Red Army”, and leaving the Warsaw Pact.
Poland Solid
There were many problems in Poland. For example, The Price of food was going way up.- Wages were not rising along with the price of goods- Overall economy was shrinking- Poland’s foreign debt was rising too.
Workers then began to set up a trade union that would organize a strike to make changes.
Solidarity union had many demand to the government, for example, more pay, end censorship/free speech, worker benefits equal to communist party members, etc. solidarity movement began increasing rapidly.
Importance of solidarity was that it was an organized movement, the rest of the world started paying attention to the situation in Poland
USSR placed tanks and troops on the border with Poland, Brezhnev encouraged General Jaruzelski to declare martial law, and 150,000 Solidarity members were arrested.-Solidarity was declared illegal
Solidarity continued call for strikes/boycotts against the Government, Solidarity continued to broadcast it radio program, and Lech Walesa met with leaders of foreign countries, and in 1990 became actual leader of Poland
Berlin Wall
Khrushev's insisted that Kennedy withdraw US troops from the city. On August 13, 1962, East German soldiers erected a barbed wire barrier along the entire frontier between East and West Berlin were sealed to foreignness and allied soldier, except one
US diplomats and troops crossed regularly into East Berlin to find out how the soviets would react. On October 27, Soviet tanks pulled up to the checkpoint Charlie and refused to allow any further access to the East
Those who were defecting were very often highly skilled workers or well qualified managers. About 1,000 people left to communism meant that it was undermined communism generally
The Hungarian uprising showed that it was impossible to fight the communist so many people decided to leave because of many political reasons, and economical reasons
The communist believed that the Berlin wall was a protective shell around East Berlin, on the other hand, capitalist thought the wall was a prison wall
The Berlin Wall also became a symbol for the Cold War but eventually it was made useless in 1989 when the Germans refused to be held back by it.
USSR Collapse
