Political systems in Europe

1
Political systems in Europe

• Communism 19451991
• 28.11.2007
• Prof. Vesa Vares

2
After the War the New World?

• new prestige the other super power, an expanding
  bloc
• Eastern Europe adaptation without enthusiasm
  or alternative
• the new system did bring out industrialization
  and a higher standard of living
• belief in progress the Sputnik phenomen
• position of women

3

• decline began in the 1970s but was
  overshadowed by the military might and the
  Western difficulties
• lost chances for renewal
• Prague Spring
• neo-Leftist Western Radicalism
• Third World Socialism, China, Cuba etc.
• Eurocommunism
• Conservative Communism?

4
The Soviet Union

• Model, Big Brother, Controller and Punisher
• comparatively lenient years after Stalin
• peaceful coexistence
• Sputnik optimism
• Chrusjtjovs speech in 1956
• Chrusjtjovs position never the same as Stalins
• domestic Stalinists and East European Reformists

5
(No Transcript)
6
(No Transcript)
7
(No Transcript)
8

• coup of 1964
• Brezhnev era
• Stalinism with computers
• occupation of Czechoslovakia and the Brezhnev
  Doctrine, occupation of Afghanistan
• deténte
• 1977 Constitution
• economic stagnation, stifling bureaucracy and a
  geriatric Politbyro

9
(No Transcript)
10

• Andropov, Chernenko
• Mihail Gorbachev
• glasnost, perestroika, war against alcohol
• our train does not move
• still one-party system and refusal to let
  independence-seeking republics to go
• failure to compete with Reagan America in arms
  race economic catastrophe and separatist
  nationalism, Islam etc.

11

• loss of Eastern Europe, German unification
• the Baltic states in resistance finally even
  Boris Yeltsins Russia
• 1991 failed coup

12
The Bloc countries General

• drawbacks
• system was based on Soviet military power
• economic, social and political potential was
  usually low
• deep-rooted nationalist antagonism against Russia
  and against neighbours
• power was conquered by undemocratic means first
  election defeats, then the Salami tactics

13

• system was based on terror when needed Stasi,
  AVH, Securitate
• advantages
• you did not have to fight against a democratic
  tradition or a civic society
• social base was ensured by land reform and social
  and education policy, which meant progress for
  masses
• convinced intellectuals as an elite

14
German Democratic Republic

• often the most convinced and ardent one the
  identity formed by the Socialist system
• the most developed Socialist state
• however, the existence of the bigger, wealthier,
  more developed Germany was a threat both
  ideologically and in reality (defections RF)
• always the other Germany, the Socialist
  Prussia, a bit artificial

15

• heritage of the 19th century German Labour
  movement also different characteristics from
  Leninism (Bebel, Liebknecht etc.) Ernst Thälmann
• mass movement
• Sozialistische Einheitspartei SED united the
  former KPD and SPD
• a multi-party system with decrees and quotas
• FDJ
• Walter Ulbricht, Erich Honecker

16
(No Transcript)
17
(No Transcript)
18

• 1953 uprising crushed by the Soviets
• 1961 Berlin Wall against Fascism
• already 2 million had defected
• West Berlin the centre of imperialism,
  americanism, reaction and pornography
• 1968 took part in the occupation of
  Czechoslovakia
• collapse in 1989 Goodbye Lenin

19
(No Transcript)
20
(No Transcript)
21
Poland

• moral dilemma for the West
• Communist rule (United Labour Party) by force a
  hostile population
• very troublesome ally for the Soviets popular
  uprisings in 1956, 1968, 1970, 1976, 1980
• special characteristics Nationalism,
  Catholicism, smallholders
• Wladyslaw Gomulka 19561970

22
(No Transcript)
23

• strikes and demonstrations in 1970 Edward Gierek
  19701980
• strikes at Gdansk 1980 Lech Walesa
• the first agreement which broke the Socialist
  power monopoly independent trade union
  Solidarnosc
• martial law in 1981
• negotiations already 19881989 peaceful takeover

24
(No Transcript)
25
Czechoslovakia

• winter 1948 partly a genuine revolution
• an industrialized country, fear for Germany, in
  many cases pro-Russian population
• forced and violent emigration of the Sudeten
  Germans
• spring 1968 Socialism with a human face,
  Alexander Dubcek

26
(No Transcript)
27

• cautiousness no withdrawal from the Warsaw Pact
  or a multi-party system
• liberal press, freedom for trade unions, workers
  councils and small firms
• occupation 1968 and passive resistance
• Gustav Husaks administration extremely loyal to
  the Soviets
• 1989 Velvet Revolution

28
Hungary

• smallholders party won the 1945 election then
  the Salami tactics
• the extremely Stalinist administration of Matyas
  Rakosi
• the relief the football team and then the
  disaster of 1954
• 1956 Hungarian uprising Hungarian Revolution
• started as Reform Communist movement

29
(No Transcript)
30

• Imre Nagy and Janos Kadar
• radicalization withdrawal from the Warsaw Pact,
  revenge against Communists and then the Soviet
  occupation
• Kadar had changed sides, 19561988
• from traitors image to a true father figure the
  one who could handle the Russians and guarantee
  the rise of the standard of living liberal
  gulasch Socialism

31
(No Transcript)
32
(No Transcript)
33
Rumania

• Communist-founded National Democratic Front
• forced abdication of the King
• often the troublesome partner for the Soviets
  the Red Army had left, oil resources, strong
  agriculture and an unscrupulous leader Nicolae
  Ceausescu
• Western sympathies up to the 1980s

34
(No Transcript)
35

• Ceausescus North Korean style in the 1980s
• economic catastrophe (paying foreign debts)
• anti-Hungarian oppression in Transsylvania
• extended terror
• megalomaniac construction policy
• personal cult
• ended in 1989 a coup, show trial and murder

36
Bulgaria, Albania, Yugoslavia

• Bulgaria and Todor Zhivkov the most loyal and
  pro-Soviet ally (16th Republic?)
• Albania and Enver Hoxha extreme Communism,
  pro-Chinese
• Yugoslavia and Josip Broz Tito
• domestic prestige and very independent policy
  (withstood Stalin-s pressure) sometimes almost
  pro-Western
• liberal economic and ethnic policy
• disaster from the late 1980s

37
(No Transcript)
38
Fall of the systems

• in 1989 in a very short time
• peacefully (velvet revolution, GDR mass movement,
  negotiations in Bulgaria, processes already under
  way in Poland and Hungary)
• violently (Rumania, Yugoslavia)
• end result often very neoliberal, pro-NATO and
  EU-membership-seeking administrations