17. THE POST-WAR WORLD
THE STALINIZATION OF EAST EUROPE
Soviet Russia's quest for security
Poland
Romania
Bulgaria
Yugoslavia
Greece
Hungary
Czechoslovakia
Austria manages to find some degree of
"neutrality"
The textual material on page below is drawn directly from my work
A Moral History of Western Society © 2024, Volume Two, pages 218-224.
SOVIET RUSSIA'S QUEST FOR SECURITY |
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Soviet Russia's Stalin, the matter of what was to happen after Germany
was defeated was quite simple. The Soviet Red Army was in
occupation of nearly all of Eastern Europe – offering him and his
people a sense of security that they had never felt since Russia began
opening up to Western culture in the 1500s. There was no way,
despite the promises he made to hold free elections throughout Eastern
Europe, that Stalin (who was massively paranoid anyway) was going to
allow any but the most Moscow-dependent (even Stalin-dependent) regimes
to be "elected" to high office in those countries that his Red Army now
controlled. In one country after another, Stalinist "puppets"
would appear at the head of each of the new governments of Eastern
Europe. |
Electric cable being shipped
by Finland to Russia – 1948 – part of a $300 million
reparations obligation imposed on the Finns by the Soviets
(who had done nothing worse that be somewhat cooperative with Hitler's Germany
after Stalin's Russians had invaded their country in 1939)
But the Finns paid off the obligation ... removing an excuse for Stalin
to try to grab control of their country.POLAND |
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World War Two changed Poland deeply. Prior to the war, Poland was a
rather tolerant, multi-cultural society – with one third of its
population being non-Polish minorities. But the war changed all that.
The country lost the eastern half of its territory to the Soviet Union,
never to recover that land … ever. It also lost an enormous portion of
its population during the war. Then after the war it was expanded …
but only westward into German lands – leaving the Germans to decide
what they wanted to do now that they were living in "Poland." Nearly
all fled. But this opened up property to Poles who wanted to leave the
Russianized East … which about 2 million did (millions more to do so in
later years). And with the decision of the large Jewish population
that survived the Holocaust to head off to Palestine, this left
(Catholic) Poland now for the first time with a largely ethnically
homogenous population. With much of its active population and the country's physical infrastructure destroyed (including its beautiful architectural heritage: for instance, 80% of Warsaw was destroyed) – and with Soviet troops occupying the country – Poland found itself in deep trouble at war's end. Actually, Stalin had to do some rebuilding of Poland himself … because, in his extensive paranoia-inspired purges in 1938 of the Communist ranks under him, he nearly destroyed the Polish Communist Party – when 5,000 Polish Communists were brought to Russia and killed there. Thus in 1942 he supported the rebuilding of a new Polish Workers' Party, under the leadership of Władysław Gomułka (who survived Stalin's purges because he was in prison at the time) … although Gomulka, understandably, was a bit wary of Stalin's hand in Polish affairs. Another problem was that in the first days of post-war Poland, Stalin's Polish Communists had very little appeal within the larger population. But at the same time, the London Poles suffered from a bad image as politicians who had earlier "failed" their people … although there was little they could have done against the Hitler-Stalin program. In any case, the Polish Workers' Party was given key positions in the (appointed rather than elected) post-war Polish Provisional Government of National Unity … which the party used to begin the buildup of the Communist position in Poland. Also, tens of thousands of the members of the Polish resistance were arrested and sent off to Soviet prisons by the occupying Soviet authorities … for their "collaboration" with the Nazis … the most flagrant of lies – but the excuse that was offered anyway in order to further undercut any serious opposition to the Communist political buildup in Poland. By 1946, all Polish conservative parties had been outlawed. In 1947, Poland had its first election under its new constitution … with an astounding victory of the Polish Workers' Party. According to Stalin, the Communists had won 80% of the vote. America, Britain and France protested these obviously inflated results (the actual count would never be known). But there was little they could do about matters. With that, Poland officially came under Communist (thus Stalinist) control. Ultimately, a widely popular social program of family and worker support was put in place. But as for the people having any say in how Poland was to be governed … in that they had no say. But that was hardly a new thing … for actual democracy had very little to do with the way much of Europe had been governed, at least until very recently – and even then when it finally did come into "democracy," it did so only on a very limited basis. So Communist authoritarianism was simply business-as-usual in Poland. |
A Polish soldier oversees Polish elections - January 1947
ROMANIA |
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When war broke out in 1939, the country – under King Carol II –
declared its neutrality … not realizing that the Hitler-Stalin treaty
had already designated the area as belonging to the Soviet sphere of
control. With France's fall, Romania no longer had a protector … and
its land was carved up – with half of the country going either to
Hungary or the Soviet Union and a small portion to Bulgaria. This in turn stirred the ultra-conservative Iron Guard to action … resulting in a bloody civil war, plus huge attacks against Romania's Jewish population1 ... and the forced abdication of King Carol (his son Michael replaced him) and his exile. From this point on, Romania moved towards a strong pro-Axis position ... making it official in November (1940). And in 1941, the Romanians sent a large number of their own troops – ultimately 1.2 million troops – to join Hitler in his assault on the Soviet Union … all the way to Stalingrad. At this point, Romania underwent intense Allied bombing – its vital oil fields at Ploiesti being a particular target. Then when the Soviets swung through Romania in their counter-assault against Germany, King Michael forced Romania to switch sides and join the Allies (August 1944). But still, the Soviets would cart off some 130,000 Romanian soldiers to Russian prison camps. Few would survive. After the war, Romania followed lines very similar to Poland's. An agreement to hold elections for a new Romanian government was supposedly confirmed at both Yalta and Potsdam in 1945. But with Soviet troops occupying Romania, the outcome of any election was a foregone conclusion. At war's end, Romanians were highly supportive of the National Peasants Party; the Romanian Communists were merely a tiny group. The National Peasants wanted national elections as early as 1944. But Soviet administrators blocked that move, insisting instead on the inclusion of more Communists in the Romanian government. Then when King Michael scheduled national elections for February 1945, contending sides came out to contest each other in the streets of Bucharest, prompting the Soviets to move Russian tanks into the capital ... and insist that the king appoint Communist Petru Groza as prime minister and postpone elections. The king had no choice but to comply. Meanwhile, from that point on and step by step, the country was brought under total Communist control. Finally, in November of 1946, Romania was "ready" to hold national elections … which went unsurprisingly 90% in support of the Communists – the National Peasants gaining less than 7% of the seats. Now securely in power, the Communists undertook land reform, expropriating huge amounts of farmland, then distributing this as small landholdings to some 800,000 peasants – in order to secure their support. Then in mid-1947, the Romanian Communists began their program of eliminating all opposition to their rule … filling the prisons and work camps with such individuals. And King Michael was forced to abdicate that December. Romania was now a fully-Communist dictatorship. 1Estimates are that between 300,000 and 400,000 Romanian Jews were murdered or died under orders of the Romanian authorities in the course of the war.
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