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How secure was the USSR's control over Eastern Europe, some 6 markers…

- - - - Why was the Berlin Wall built in 1961?
      - What was the significance of ‘Solidarity’ in Poland for the decline of Soviet influence in Eastern Europe?
      - How similar were events in Hungary in 1956 and in Czechoslovakia in 1968?
      - How far was Gorbachev personally responsible for the collapse of Soviet control over Eastern Europe?
      - Why was there opposition to Soviet control in Hungary in 1956 and Czechoslovakia in 1968, and how did the USSR react to this opposition?
    - - the Berlin Wall
      - 'solidarity' in Poland
      - resistance to Soviet power in Hungary (1956) and Czechoslovakia (1968)
      - Gorbachev and the collapse of Soviet control over Eastern Europe
- - - - Hungarians thouht that the United Nations or the new American president, Eisenhower, would help them after he made supportive comments in speeches
      - Stalin had died in 1953. With his death, Russia had tried to move away from some of his policies, includin the more brutal aspects. The new leader, Nikita Khrushcev, refused to allow the arrest of 400 political opponents in Hungary.
        
        This was seen through Khrushchev’s secret speech, (February 25, 1956), which was a denunciation of the deceased Soviet leader Joseph Stalin made by Nikita Khrushchev to the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. The speech start of a far-reaching de-Stalinization campaign intended to destroy the image of the late dictator as an infallible leader and to revert official policy to an idealized Leninist model. This was seen as a thaw by most Hungarians.
      - In June 1956 workers in POland had risen against Soviet rule and demanded change. AFter a tense few weeks, Russia had given in to some of their demands. This gave people hope in Hungary that the same could happen there.
    - - preconditions:
        
        political instability, bad harvest, fule shortages
        
        Stalin, after havin captured Hungary from the Germans kept a continuous presence of thousands of Soviet troops and hundreds of Soviet tanks. He put Matyas Rakosi n power in Hungary
        
        July 1956: 'Stalinist' Rakosi falls from power due to reforms made by the new soviet leader, nikita Khrushchev, in his 'de-stalinisation' policy - this gives people hope for reform
        
        23 October 1956: Student protests over bad harvest and lack of food, lead to 4 killed, spark national protest due to outrage. This led to a crowd pulling down a huge statue of Stalin and dragging it through the streets on a garbage truck. Protesters where then shot at by the ABH, Rakosi's secret police, they were then hunted and killed by the protesters.
        
        24 October: In order to calm protestors, Soviet forces pulled out of Budapest and Khrushchev allowed the moderate Imre Nagy to become the new Hungarian Prime Minister, Nagy restored different political parties and many critics of the Soviet Union were released
        
        25 October: Attila Szigethy (important figure of the Hungarian revolution) sent an ultimatum to Imre Nagy, requesting the restoration of the multi-party system, the dissolution of the AVH and the withdrawal of Soviet troops.
        
        28 October: Cease fire was arranged. And Army leaves budapest. AVH disbanded (the secret police). Hungarians were allowed to practise their Roman Catholic faith.
        
        1 more item...
        
        This included Cardinal Mindszenty (who was freed on 30th October 1956) who was a prominent figure head for the roman catholic church in Hungary
  - - - The 'prague Spring' was a period of political thaw in which the Czech government, led by alexander Dubcek wanted to reform Communism into 'socailism with a human face'. However, by 1968 summer the political thaw had ended in Chezchoslovakia, this was due to Russian military intervention (which included transporting Dubcek back to Russia.
        
        There had been a change in leadership in 1964 - Leonid Brezhnev becomes the nex USSR leader after Nikita Krushchev is forced to resign
        
        A change in leadership in 1967 takes place in Czechoslovakia, the old communist leader Antonin NOvontny was forced to resign, in his place Alexander Dubcek became leader in Jan 1968
        
        Dubcek criticsed Novontny and proposed a policy of socialism 'with a human face'. To do this he proposed a list of changes.
        
        The abolition of censorship
        
        Which led to reports of corruption in high places
        
        Freedom of speech
        
        Members of the communist state were no longer unconditionally loyal to the party. - members had 'the duty to act according to his conscience' instead of supporting communist ideology
        
        Workers' councils in industry and increased rights for trade unions
        
        This led to farmers having the right to form independent farms away from state control (end to collectivised arigculture)
        
        Reconition of Slovak national identity and customs (this would allow slovaks to practice christianity)
        
        Freedom of movement for all people (this would be a lifting of the Iron curtain and the first time people are able to travel from East to WEst since the Berlin wall was created)
        
        Dubcek knew the reforms would be seen as a threat by Moscow, he therefore emphasised strongly that he was a communist leader and publicaly declared he had no intention of leaving the Warsaw Pact of ending the alliance with the USSR.
        
        This was to reassure the USSR to ensure there was no reaction like in Hungary.
        
        A series of meetings and negotiations were then held between Brezhnev and Dubcek which seemed to have ended well, both parties were smiling when they left
        
        Between 29 July and 1 August a further series of meetings were held between the Czechoslovak and Soviet leaderships at Cierna nad Tisou, where Dubcek bowed to sustained pressure and promised a series of concessions including a halt to political reform and the re-imposition of a higher level of censorship. However, after the summit Dubcek ‘continued his course as if nothing had happened’, despite dispatches from the Czechoslovak Ambassadors in Berlin, Warsaw and Budapest reporting on a ‘steady military build-up’ under way in the Eastern bloc
        
        In July 1968 the USSR leadership announced it had evidence that the West was going to invade through the Sudetenland, the USSR used this excuse to ask permission to send the Red ARmy in 'to protect Czechoslovakia'.
        
        A month later Troops from countries across the WArsaw Pact led by the USSR invaded (troops were from Russia and East GErmany who was against the Czech thaw as feared it would lose power, army entered even though Dubcek refused them entry
        
        The Czech government officials were quickly held captive and tanks roled into Prague, this led the government to order armed forces and population not to resist the invasion.
        
        Prague Spring had been crushed
        
        The army took Dubcek back to Moscow where he announced he would be abandoning his reofrm programme
        
        Dubcek was replaced as party secretary in April 1969 and expelled from the party.
      - The 'Prague Spring' had happened after the Hungarian uprising, this made Brezhnev (and other Eastern European leaders) fear that new ideas of freedom were spreading.
        
        Led to the Brezhnev Doctrine - a soviet policy that stated that communist countries should be mindjul of their impact on other states. Throuh two principles:
        
        There was now a mandatory one party system in each country (to make sure there were no political opposin parties that could gain support)
        
        All countries were to remain members of the Warsaw Pact (this was to ensure countries couldn't switch to the West and gave more military power over the member states
    - - Political reasons for opposition to the USSR
        
        In 1967 the old communist leader Antonin Novotny was forced to resign, he was replaced by Dubcek, which gave people a hope for change as he proposed a policy of Socialism 'with a human face'
        
        Dubcek proposed less censorship which allowed people to examine what had happened in the 20 previous years and people were able to clearly see the problems with Communist control and they didn't like what they saw
        
        There were also many Corruption cases of high up political figures
        
        Intellectuals in Czechoslovakia thought the communist party had not taken the country forward (seen by the economic stats)
      - Socail reasons for opposition to the USSR
        
        Dubcek proposed more freedom of speech and less censorchip (this led people wanting more - reofrm is never enough)
        
        Dubcek proposed a reduction in the actions of the secret police, this led to less oppression and less consequence is people spoke out, which led people wanting more, reform is never enough
        
        There had been tight controls from 1945 onwards on the rights people had - people were now able to compare this to the human rights of the West and wanted what the West had
        
        Through out the 1960s the economy struggled, which led to the standard of living plummeting for most people, which led to a lot of contempt.
      - Economic reasons for opposition to the USSR
        
        The government loosened control on businesses, they can now control wages and set prices - a shift towards a more socialist instead of Communist market
        
        This gave the people the idea that they could start to change things -gave them a sense of power
        
        This was not a welcome change for the Russians as it relied on cheap exports from Eastern Europe to inflate its livin standard which was crucial for a stable communist government in Russia.
        
        There were tight controls from 1945 on the structure of the economy
      - The USSR was also seen as quite weak as it had a new, untested leader Leonid Brezhnev
  - - - July 1980 - increase in meat prices
        
        August 1980 - Forming of solidarity and 21 demands
        
        30 August - Government Agrees to all of Solidarity's demands
        
        September 1980 - Growth of Solidarity
        
        Had grown to 3.5 million members
        
        October 1980 - solidarity Grows to 7 million and is officially recognised by the government
        
        January 1981 - Solidarity membership peaks at 9.4 million members (1/3 of the Polish working population)
        
        1 more item...
        
        Workers at a shipyard, led by Lech Walesea gave the government 21 demands - started a trade union called solidarity - Poland already had trade unions but they were ineffective in challenging Government policies
        
        The main demands of solidarity
        
        A day of rest on Saturday
        
        Priviliges of the secret police are to be eliminated and management personell should be selected based on qualifications instead of party membership.
        
        A full supply of food products for the domestic market, with exports limited to surpluses
        
        an increase in base bay of each worker by 2,000 zlotys a month as compensation for the recent rise in prices
        
        Allow mass media to publish the demands of solidarity
        
        A guarantee of the right to strike and of the security of strikers and those aidin them
        
        Acceptance of free trade unions independent of the communist Party and of eneterprises
    - - Economical crisis
      - Wage rises limited even as food prices are raised
      - government is short of money
      - The Polish people no loner trusted the Commnists leadership
      - country was burdened by foreign debt
      - The Polish Pope - John Paul II - had urged the people to take back their freedom
    - - Demands
        
        They had a total of 21 demands. These were national issues and not just confined to the improvement of shipyard workers. This allowed them to gain the support of a breath of age and population. This meant that they were able to appeal to many different industries, seeking to improve them all.
      - Methods
        
        The movement never used violence. There had been careful lessons learnt from the previous changes attempted reforms – Hungary and Prague had both used violence and the Red Army had crushed them both.
      - Organisation
        
        the movement had a committee and a spokes people, it even had media publications- its news paper was Solidarnosc. This enables the organisation to spread its message and again support beyond the people who were the founders (shipyard workers)
      - Support
        
        Between 1980 and 1981 the movement gained 10 million supporters from all aspects of Polish life. Not just the students but workers and intellectuals joined the trade union, around 80% of Poland's work force were members.
    - - The solidarity clamp down showed that the only thing that kept the Communsts in power was force or the threat of force - if military force was not used, then communist control was weak
    - - Walsea
        
        Leader of Solidarity
        
        Trade unionist (supporter of trade unions such as Solidarity)
        
        Said campaigning not only for their rights but for the rights of workers throughout the communist block
        
        'For your freedom and for ours'
        
        Interested in the rights of all people
      - Jaruzelski
        
        Newly elected PM of POland
        
        Leader of the army
        
        Under the control of the USSR
      - Held talks for 9 months to form a government of national understanding, when those broke down martial law was enacted.
    - - Solidarity showed that there were organizations which were capable of resisting a Communist government - especially since not even force crushed it completely (it came back and won all contested seats in parliament the first democratically elected Priminister of Poland was Walesa)
      - Showed that communist government could be threatened by 'people power'
        
        However, even though 1/3 of workers had united together they were still easily crushed by Polish forces (without the need for Russian intervention - showed the power of violence and oppression which wielded the Communist government)
        
        Solidarity therefore clearly showed that Communism had failed and that it brought to light the fact that this was now just a dictatorial regime - highlighted the fialure of communism to provide ood living standards - Commnism's claim to be a system which benefited ordinary people was clearly undermined by the drop in living standards of people throughout communist states
      - Highlighted the inefficiency and corruption of a Communist government
- - - - REasons why they were leaving
        
        REpression - ruled by a dictatorship, wanted to live in a democracy
        
        Social - There was no/limited entertainment in the East, people wnated to have fun in West Berlin - there were also more consumer goods in West Berlin as the USA didn't focus solely on industry
        
        Economic - decrease in living standards and high food prices as everything was sent to Russia at very low prices as it was the only trade partner. People wanted to be paid more for their work.
  - - - See it as more damaging to the USSR than to the West
      - Entrenches the divide in europe - makes it seem like there was going to be a permanent divide inbetween the two ideologies.
    - - Communism is not spreading as there is a physical barrier
      - Lets them become more prosperous without a constant threat of communists
      - Propoganda for West - they were winning, goodies of the cold war - the USSR ahd to physically stop people from oming to the more prosperous side showing communism didn't benefit the people