1941-1991 The Cold War

Sovietisation of Eastern Europe

Summar

• Unilateral actions in taking it over
• Started with Poland
• Rigged elections, destroyed opposition parties
• Threatened the USA, resulted in the Iron Curtain

• Stalin saw the West as a threat, and thus needed more control through centralisation to fight them
• obtained control from 1945-1949 – Factfile page 130 in textbook
  • Cominform (political)
    • coordinated political information between Moscow and other Eastern European states
  • Comecon (economic)
    • coordinated economic activities between Moscow and Eastern European states
  • 1955 Warsaw Pact (military)
    • the Soviets’ answer to NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation), another military organisation formed to ensure protection of western states
    • they’re like a package deal
• re-affirmed the Riga Axioms → hardened US perception of the USSR
  • threat of communism = expanding and real = something has to stop this
• timeline:
  • 1945: Poland
  • 1946: Bulgaria, Albanie
  • 1947: Hungary, Romania
  • 1948: Czechoslovakia
• security or ideology?
  • often reactionary towards USA and perception of aggression from it → USSR was defensive, USA true aggressor
  • rejection of Marshall plan
    • formation of Cominform, Comecon
    • showed strong USSR control over satellite states

Stalin rigging elections

todo