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Why was communism able to take hold of the Central and Eastern European countries in the period after 1945
Arguably if not delving too deeply the reason for central and eastern Europe turning communist after 1945 could be summed up in three words, the Soviet army. However not only would that be an extremely brief answer it would be a simplification of the internal and external factors behind national communist parties being able to seize power across the central and eastern European region in the immediate post war period.
Those factors differed from country to country throughout the region and even where the same factors were present they could vary in importance. The power base, skills, support and opportunities for communists were variable in the region. During the Inter –war period the countries of central and eastern Europe had to face up to the grim reality of being situated between a resurgent Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. The Second World War brought a great deal of destruction, suffering and changes across the region. At its finish Nazi Germany was completely defeated and under allied occupation leaving the Soviet Union free to dominate the region.
The war and its aftermath certainly provided the communists that had survived it unrivalled opportunities to gain and keep hold of power. Central and eastern Europe did not become instantly communist just because Germany was smashed and soon to be divided or because the Soviet army was close to hand, it took time to seize power throughout all of the region. As will be discussed various means were used to establish communist regimes; means and strategies were often combined to achieve power.
A factor that contributed to the establishment of communist regimes in central and Eastern Europe was the part that some of them played in resisting Nazi’s Germany before and during the war. However, this was not a factor across the whole region and was mainly confined to Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia and Albania. In the Czechoslovak case the communists had gained support for their opposition to the Munich agreement of 1938 and their opposition to Nazi occupation. After the war the Czechoslovak government in exile under President Benes returned to power. Their 38% share of the vote showed Communist popularity in May 1946. By 1947 that support had grown to 40%.
The communists did not take outright control of power in 1945 because that did not suit the Soviet Union at that time although their position in the ruling coalition left them well positioned. Then again Stalin had a track record of making communist parties do things or not do things that seemed illogical and contradictory. The collapse of the Czechoslovak coalition government gave the communists their chance to rule on their own in 1948. Mass pro-Communist demonstrations and the Soviet army’s well timed saber rattling (or more accurately the mass movement of tanks) at the Czechoslovak borders deterred the non-communists from resisting further.
During the Yalta conference the Soviet Union had agreed to free elections across central and Eastern Europe that the communist parties in the region had to form electoral strategies and even coalitions on the road to power. In another way parts of Eastern Europe had already gained a communist regime when the Soviet Union annexed Bessarabia from Romania, East Prussia from Germany and large parts of Eastern Poland (the Poles making gains from Germany to compensate).
In Albania the communists were able to take hold of power without any problems or hitches. The communists had led the resistance to the Axis powers and dominated the government that took over once the Germans retreated. Without any viable alternatives power and like it’s larger neighbour Yugoslavia would not follow Moscow’s lead. The Yugoslav communists not only defied the Germans they also had to takeover power by winning a bloody civil war. Marshal Tito’s Peoples Liberation Army thwarted five major German campaigns against them.
They were protectors and liberators of their own country and their opponents were discredited by their wartime collaboration with Axis powers. Greek communists had a similar position of strength to those in Yugoslavia but were defeated as the Soviet Union (sticking to agreements made at Yalta and Potsdam) refused to help them. Bulgarian communists although they had not played a part in wartime resistance were able to takeover relatively quickly achieving power following a coup in September 1944.
Communist takeovers in central and Eastern Europe were aided by social and economic transformations that resulted from the war. Large numbers of the middle or upper classes were either killed or deported as a result of the conflict. That was because many of them had been Jews deprived of their properties or businesses and frequently their lives. The others deprived in such a way were the ethnic Germans that formed sizable minorities in countries such as Czechoslovakia and Poland from whence they were expelled in 1945. Confiscated property often ended up transferred to the state. The reason that helped communist takeovers was that it weakened opposition from capitalist interests and allowed the communists to carry out land redistribution and nationalization of industry and private business.
The expulsion of ethnic Germans had been agreed by the Allies to prevent Germany using minorities as an excuse for aggressive expansion. The Romanian communists whose membership could counted in hundreds joined the first post-Fascist government in August 1944 but had to bide its time to build up its support before taking hold of power. Despite switching sides to join the allies, Romania ended up giving the Soviet Union reparations and under military occupation into the late 1950s. The communists used campaigns of intimidation and violence to undermine Radescu’s government. The Soviet threat of intervention forced the king to accept a communist led coalition at the end of 1945.
Perhaps the major factor in allowing the communists to hold power in central and Eastern Europe was the presence of the Soviet army. The Soviet Union had done the bulk of the fighting and had liberated central and eastern Europe on the road to Berlin. The Soviet army remained in the region in large number, their presence alone enough to back up the communist dominated front governments set up in Poland, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria. The soviets were even prepared to use covert measures to maintain the new regimes in the region. For instance, sixteen non-communist members of the Polish resistance opposed to the pro-Moscow regime disappeared (presumably killed) after meeting Zhukov. Whilst coercion and the threat of overwhelming soviet force could help to explain the above takeovers it does not explain the communists holding power in Czechoslovakia where the Soviet army withdrew it’s forces shortly after the war finished. The Soviet army remained formidable despite post war reductions it numbered 2.9 million men in 1948. It was a fearsome barrier who wished to prevent communist takeovers.
It proved more difficult for the communists to take hold of power in Hungary and Poland. The Poles had traditionally been anti-Russian and anti-Communist. Tsarist Russia had partitioned Poland with Austria and Prussia whilst Stalin had partitioned Poland with Hitler in 1939. If that treachery had not been enough many Poles correctly suspected that Stalin halted the Soviet advance into Poland to allow the Germans to crush the Warsaw uprising in August 1944.
As far as Stalin was concerned the Germans did him a favour by eliminating thousands of the most effective non-communist resistance fighters that would have opposed a communist takeover for the Soviet Union both Poland and Hungary were strategically vital. Stalin did not like the Poles resisting his wishes and distrusted their communist party so much that he broke it up in 1937. The communists that took hold of power were unquestionably loyal to Moscow and received Stalin’s backing. The Polish communists did hold power but shared it with agrarian parties, the Soviet Union having to tolerate the compromise.
The Hungarian communists were only able to take hold of power and feel secure due to the soviet military presence, cynics even hinted that was because the Hungarians were too politically developed to accept communism. For Hungarian communists the gaining hold of power that would have been easier in 1945 was delayed at the behest of the Soviet Union. This was due to Stalin regarding the securing of a communist regime in Poland as a greater priority.
A poor performance in the elections of 1947 (17% of the vote) was mitigated by their continued presence in the governing coalition and the willingness to use underhand tactics. From control of the interior ministry communist led police clamped down on non-communist rivals and gradually gained control of the press. The other coalition parties were infiltrated and neutralized by communist party members and saboteurs. The communists resorted to dirty tricks (such as threatening the Prime Minister’s son) to break the Small holders’ party and forced the Social Democrats to merge with them.
Communists were able to take hold of power in the region because they outmaneuvered their opponents or simply bypassed them. When communists joined the coalition governments they would try to hold key positions such as the interior, defence and foreign ministries. Interior ministries were vital to control, to run police forces and to gain the power to censor the media. Other media parties within the government were there to give the façade that the coalition was still running the country rather than just the communists. It can be no surprise that the free elections that helped to usher in communist regimes were not deemed to have been all that free by the Western powers.
Perhaps a major advantage for the communists were that they were better organised and had a greater belief in their policies. Across the region what was left of the old order was shattered in disarray or completely discredited by the war. Communism seemed to be the future, liberal democracy, capitalism and fascism had been tried, and all had failed or brought disaster. Communism offered equality and maybe even prosperity. There were enough people attracted to that vision in central and Eastern Europe to support the communists getting hold of power.
Communists were able to take hold of power throughout Central and Eastern Europe after 1945 because of their strengths, their opponents’ weaknesses and Soviet intervention actual or implied. Communist popularity varied throughout the region, their superior organization and motivation allowed them to take advantage of strong support in Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia and Albania whilst working around weaker support in Hungary and Poland.
The communists were able to mobilize enough support for their regimes to operate once power was held. Their path to power was eased by the consequences of the Second World War, opponents being destroyed, weakened or discredited and profound social and economic changes. Private property, land and businesses deprived from the Jews and confiscated from expelled ethnic Germans started the process of state controlled economies and undermined capitalism. Across the region the prestige of the communists and their Soviet backers was increased by their resistance to Germany and the Soviet army’s liberation of most of Eastern Europe (Yugoslavia and Albania had virtually freed themselves).
Communists were also not afraid of using under hand tactics, violence, demonstrations and the threat of Soviet intervention to undermine and defeat their rivals. As a guardian and promoter of communist regimes stood the Soviet Union. And the overwhelming military strength at its disposal. Actual or threatened intervention allowed the communists to gain hold of power at the expense of their rivals.
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