Establishment of Communist Regimes in Eastern Europe

1. Establishment of Communist Regimes in Eastern Europe

2. 3 dimensions of the problem of communism in Eastern Europe after World War II • 1. The need for fundamentalsocietal changes • 2. Existence of political forces prepared to lead the postwar transformation • 3. Role of the USSR

3. Eastern Europe in 1945 2 groups of countries: 1. Germany and her former allies: Romania Hungary Bulgaria Finland 2. Victims of Nazi aggression: Poland Czechoslovakia Austria (?) Yugoslavia Albania

4. Churchill-Stalin “percentages” agreement, Moscow, Oct. 1944

6. Shattered states and societies • Discredited elites • Economies destroyed • Legacies of ethnic warfare and border conflicts • Masses in turmoil – hopes for a fresh start • Intensive political struggles in each country • In Western Europe, too: • Capitalism in deep crisis • Socialist ideas popular

7. The Right is either eliminated or severely weakened • The situation favours the Left • The East European Left in 1945, 3 types of left-wing forces: • Agrarian socialists • Social Democrats • Communists • Together, they dominate the political scene in every country • Relations between them depend on both internal and external factors

8. Throughout East Europe, left-wing parties were banned since 1920s or 1930s • Only in Czechoslovakia the Left, including CP, was fully legal until the German occupation - and was dominant in politics • one of the reasons why Britain and France gave it to Hitler? • Now the Left is free to act and take advantage of the postwar crisis • Its issues are popular: • Punishment of collaborators • Building democracies • Socialist reforms

9. Even without the Soviet presence, Eastern European politics would have shifted drastically leftward

10. Stalin’s support of East European Leftists • The only Left Moscow was prepared to tolerate was to follow Stalin’s orders • And the orders were not necessarily: take power now! • And one did not have to be a Communist • No independent Left had a right to exist, from the Kremlin’s point of view • Logic of totalitarianism • This puts East European communists in a situation radically different from the Russian situation in 1917 • Fundamental contradiction between the Left project and Stalinism

11. East European Communists welcomed Soviet aid, but did they want to be Soviet puppets? • Some did, others not • Those who did not, tried to find other options • And the West was more or less willing to treat them as legitimate forces in the region • But Stalin would not tolerate the slightest dissent from the Kremlin line • He was the Red Emperor • And dissenters were severely punished • Degree of Soviet control was determined by Soviet strategic considerations • Any leeway was possible only if Soviet interests demanded it

12. The logic of Soviet actions in Eastern Europe • Geopolitics and security above all • In 1945-47, Stalin considered it pragmatic to allow a degree of freedom in East European countries • “People’s Democracies”, not one-party Communist regimes

13. But then the Cold War confrontation turned Eastern Europe into a political battleground between USSR and the West • In 1948-49, Stalin goes for full control and isolation of Eastern Europe from the West • East European Communists were to serve as the tools for the Soviet takeover – at the expense of national independence • It required a massive purge of East European Communist Parties • Installation of Soviet-type totalitarian regimes