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Unit 6: How secure was the USSR's control over Eastern Europe?…
Unit 6: How secure was the USSR's control over Eastern Europe?
Hungarian Uprising
The USSR banned the Catholic Church, used the secret police and controlled the education system in Hungary.
The Hungarians protested by demanding many things like, a new leader, withdraw of the “Red Army”, and leaving the Warsaw Pact.
Hungary had been a “Satellite State” of the USSR since after WWII.
The New leader of the USSR, Nikita Khrushchev responded with bringing in the army and in two weeks 3,000 Hungarians were killed and 200,00 fled to Austria.
Poland's Solidarity
The people of Poland decided to join a workers union named ‘Solidarity’ to protest the USSR’s control of their country. This union held strikes and criticized the Communist government.
Unlike the protests of Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and East Germany, the Poles were very organized and had a leader that broadcast their demands to the world.
The Polish people were unhappy because Poland’s economy was doing very poorly and they did not have all the freedoms that others had in non-communist countries.
‘Solidarity’ did not give in to these attempts to stop their movement and eventually won their independence from the USSR without the bloody violence that other Communist countries had to live through.
USSR Collapse
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.
During the 1980’s the USSR was having economic problems due to a lack of growth and over spending on the military.
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.
Prague Spring
The Czech government allowed more political parties to exist and relaxed the ban on some freedoms like censorship of the press.
Even though the leader, Alexander Dubcek, promised to stay in the Warsaw Pact, the USSR still invaded his country to avoid the spreading of these ideas into Eastern Europe.
After WWII the USSR had taken control of Czechoslovakia. By 1968 the Czechs in the Capital, Prague, were tired of the lower standard of living, lack of Freedoms, and the One-Party system.
Berlin wall
Leader of the USSR, Leonid Brezhnev, decided to put a wall around the capitalist city of Berlin to stop the Germans from leaving, although he claimed it was to stop capitalist spies from entering his territory.
The Wall remained in place for 28 years and did decrease the number of Germans fleeing the communist controlled country.
Germans were unhappy with the USSR running their country, due to the low standard of living and lack of basic freedoms