Thai
Sikh International School
Year10,
History Notes. [The Soviet takeover of Eastern Europe]
1.
How
did Soviet Union take control of Eastern Europe? Or how did Soviet Union take
control of the following countries?
1. The take-over of Poland:
Stalin’s first priority was control of Poland. In June 1945 few London poles
were included in the polish government. However the Lublin group dominated. The
communist power was strengthened even further in January 1947 when rigged
elections were held in Poland. After the elections, the leader of the London
poles, Mikolaczyk, fled from the country and Poland came under USSR.
2. The take-over of Romania and
Bulgaria: After Poland, Stalin turned to Romania and
Bulgaria. In 1944 coalition governments dominated by communists were set up in
these countries. In 1945, a Soviet politician ordered the king of Romania to
appoint a new prime minister chosen by Stalin. Though the king refused, later
he had to yield to the demand. Stalin got his prime minister. By the middle of
1945 communists were in firm control in Romania.
Elections
took place in Bulgaria in November. Rigged elections were held in September
1946 and the communist government in Bulgaria abolished the monarchy and
communist government came into being.
3. The take-over of Hungary and
Czechoslovakia: In Hungary Stalin allowed free
elections to take place and non-communist party became successful. In 1947
rigged elections were held and an exclusively communist government took power.
And in November all non-communist parties were banned.
Before
1948, Czechoslovakia was ruled by a coalition of communists and non communists.
In 1947 there was an economic crisis in the country. The harvest was bad and
industry was in trouble. Communists were afraid that they would do badly. So
the communists used armed force to seize power. Many non-communists were
arrested and Jan Masaryk, the foreign minister was murdered. Rigged elections
were held afterwards and communists won a huge majority. Thus the soviet
take-over in Eastern Europe was complete.
2.
After
1945 the Soviet Union took control of much of Eastern Europe. Was it a
defensive move or a step towards a take-over of the whole of Europe? Explain
your answer in detail.
OR
It
has been argued that Stalin took over Eastern Europe as the first stage towards
a communist take-over of the world. Explain your answer in detail.
After the Second World War, the Soviet leaders
believed that their country had largely won the war, so they had a right to
shape the future of Europe. Stalin saw the war as proof that communism worked
and had triumphed. This gave confidence and determination to the soviet
government.
In the war Soviet Union suffered much more than the
other allies. This made a difference to attitudes after the war. As many as 25
million Soviet citizens have died because of the war. Stalin was determined
that this should never be allowed to happen again.
In 1914 and 1941 Germany had attacked Russia through
Poland. In 1945 Stalin thought that sooner or later there could be another attack
through Poland. To stop this he was determined to control Poland and other
European states.
By 1945, The Soviet government was convinced that
the American business leaders were planning to spread their power by buying up
companies in other countries and selling American goods wherever they could. In
this way the USA was trying to build up a new kind of World Empire. The Soviet
Union wanted to stop this. So they determined to set up a group of friendly
communist countries in Europe.
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The
Truman Doctrine and the Marshall plan.
1.
What
was the Truman Doctrine? How was the doctrine different to the traditional
American policy of isolationism?
After
1945 the USA moved away from isolationism and became active throughout the
world. American policy took shape in the crucial year of 1947. At the beginning
of the year there was an economic crisis in Western Europe. The harvest in 1946
was poor and there was food shortage in many countries. In Britain unemployment
was severe. In Germany people were close to starvation. In France and Italy
there was real possibility that the communists could come to power.
In
February 1947 the British government sent a message to Washington – Britain
could no longer afford to pay for troops in Greece and Turkey. Unless America
replaced Britain in Greece and Turkey these countries could easily come under
Soviet control. Truman decided to offer American financial help to Greece and
Turkey. He further added that American support was available for any people who
wanted to fight communism. This became known as Truman Doctrine. According to
this Doctrine, America will support free people who are resisting subjugation
by armed minorities or by outside pressures. It was based on the idea of containment-
the USA would use its wealth and power to stop or contain the spread of
communism.
2.
What
was the Marshall plan? How did the Soviet Union react to the Truman doctrine
and the Marshall plan?
In
1947, like Truman Doctrine, there was another strand of American policy
emerged. In Washington there was a belief that communism could only be stopped
if Western Europe became wealthy. By 1947 it was clear that without American
help there was little chance of
economic
recovery. Therefore USA decided to offer massive economic aid to Western
Europe. The project was organized by the American secretary of state, General
George Marshall, and was known as known as the Marshall plan.
As
per the plan, American money was made available to those European countries
which made an application. Since Stalin saw this plan as an attempt to impose
capitalist ideas, he refused it and did not allow Poland and Czechoslovakia to
join the plan. Marshall Plan was based on a belief that communism would be less
attractive to ordinary people of they had good Job and were well paid.
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