Eastern Europe 1945-1969: From Stalinism to Stagnation (Seminar Studies) [1 ed.] 1138836095, 9781138836099

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Eastern Europe 1945-1969: From Stalinism to Stagnation

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SE MINA R STU DIES

IN H I ST OR Y

Eastern Europe 1945-1969: From Stalin ism to Stagnation BEN FOWKES

Routledge R~~~&t~, :~,~~p R

Taylor & Francis Croup

LONDON LONDON AND AND NEW NEW YORK YORK

First published 2000 by Pearson Education Limited Published 2013 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA

Routledge is an imprint ofthe Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business Copyright © 2000, Taylor & Francis. The righr of Ben Fowkes ro be identified as aurhor of rhis work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Parents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including phorocopying and recording, or in any information srorage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Notices Knowledge and best practice in this field are constantly changing. As new research and experience broaden our understanding, changes in research methods, professional practices, or medical treatment may become necessary. Practitioners and researchers must always rely on their own experience and knowledge in evaluating and using any information, methods, compounds, or experiments described herein. In using such information or methods they should be mindful of their own safety and the safety of others, including parties for whom they have a professional responsibility. To the fullest extent of the law, neither the Publisher nor the authors, contriburors, or edirors, assume any liability for any injury and/or damage ro persons or property as a matter of products liability, negligence or otherwise, or from any use or operation of any methods, products, instructions, or ideas contained in the material herein. ISBN: 978-0-582-32693-4 (pbk) British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Fowkes, Ben. Eastern Europe 1945-1969: from sralinisrn to stagnation / Frank Benjamin Michael Fowkes. p. cm. -- (Seminar studies in hisrory) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-582-32693-1 (ppr) I. Europe, Eastern-Politics and governmenr--1945-1989. I. Title. II. Series. D]K50 .F69 2000 320.947--dc21

Set by 7 in 10/12 Sabon Roman

99-089001

CONTENTS

Int roduction to the Series No te on Referencing System Preface Acknow ledge ments List of Abbreviation s Maps

I.

J.

5.

x

'"

XI V- XV

3

GEN ER A L BA CKGRO U ND The Intern ation al Context

3 3 4

8

PAR T T W O : AN A LYS IS

15

T Il E SEIZU R E OF POW ER Reasons for the Communists' Success Stalin's Aims a nd Meth od s Th e Process of Ga in ing Power T he Yugoslav Exception Th e Defeat ed Side

17 17 22

T H E IM PO SI TI O N OF THE ST ALIN IST SYST EM The Phase of Recon st ruction The T urn ing-po int o f 194 7

4.

rx

PAR T O N E: I NT ROD UCTIO N

The Burden of History Th e Co mmunist Part ies of Eastern Euro pe an d the Wa rtim e Victo ry o f the Allies

2.

vii viii

STA LI N'S SYSTE M AT IT S H EI G H T Th e Po litics of Stalinism in Eastern Europe Economi c O bjectives and Social Cha nges Th e Textu re of Life and Though t T he Purges Pressure fro m Ou tside: Co minform and Comeco n D E-ST ALI NI Z AT IO N AN D T H E C R IT ICA L Y EAR O F 1956 Hungary in 1956: A Crisis out of Control Poland in 1956: A Crisis Mastered

24 26

31

33 33

37 41

41 42 46 49 53 56

57 61

VI

Contents

6.

A DECADE OF CONSOLIDAnON Divergent Developments The Years of Consolidation Czechoslovakia in 1968: The Last Chance to Reform

64 64 71 76

PART THREE: ASSESSMENT

83

ACHIEVEMENTS AND FAILURES Equality and Inequality Educational Progress Health Standard of Living Economic Performance The Balance Sheet of History

85 85 88 89 90 90 92

PART FOUR: DOCUMENTS

95

7.

Chronology Glossary Who's Who Bibliography Index

130 135 139 145 154

INTRODU CTI ON TO THE SERIES

Such is the pace of historical enq uiry in the mod ern world t hat there is an ever-widening gap between th e spec ia list art icle or monograph, incorporat ing the result s of curr ent resea rch, and general surveys, which inevitably becom e o ut of date. Semina r Stud ies in Hi story are designed to bridge thi s gap . Th e series wa s founded by Patrick Richardson in 1966 and his aim was to cover maj or th emes in British, European and World history. Betwee n 1980 and 1996 Roger Lockyer

continued his work, before hand ing the ed ito rship o ver to Clive Emsley and Gordon M artel. C live Emsley is Pro fesso r of Hi sto ry at th e Open University, wh ile Gordon Martel is Professor of Intern ati on al History at the University o f Northern British Columbia, Ca nada and Senio r Research Fellow at D~ Montfort Unive rsity. All the books are wnrten by experts in th eir field w ho a rt not only fami lia r with th e laresr research but have o ften conrribueed to it. They art freqceedy revised, in order ro rake account of new informa tion an d interpre tations. Th ey provide a selection of documen ts to illusrrare major themes an d pr ovok e discussion, and also a guide to furt her readin g. The aim o f Seminar Studies is to cla rify complex issues wit hout over-simplifying the m, and to stimulate read ers in to deepening their kn owl edge and und erstanding of major themes and topics.

NOTE ON REFERENCING SYSTEM

Read ers sho uld note that num bers in squ ar e brackets {51 refer t hem to the co rresponding entry in t he Bibliography at the end of th e book (specific page numb ers a re given in italics ), A num ber in square brackets preceded by D oc. (D oc. 5] refers readers to the co rres po nding item in the Documents section

wh ich follows the main text. Asterisks mark items listed in the Glossary.

PREFACE

Easter n Europe is defin ed in th is book as th e part of Europe w hich ca me under com mu nist ru le after th e Seco nd Wo rld Wa r. T his definition is historica l ra ther th an geog ra phica l. It expresses the reality that over th e whole of t he a rea from the Baltic to t he Adr ia tic, from t he River Elbc to the Rhodop c Mount ains, the met ho ds an d ob jectives of co m mu nist rule, and the impac t o f comm unism on nations a nd soc iet ies, we re pract ically ident ical. T his fact ser ved ver y quickly to mark off these countries as a whole fro m the West. T his is wh y G reece is never, a nd Bulgar ia alwa ys, regarded as part of Eastern Europe. Admitted ly, the defin itio n is fuzzy a t the edges . East Ger ma ny ought perh a ps to be excluded (it oft en has been by wri ters on t his subjec t). Perh a ps th e Baltic count ries o f Estonia, La tvia a nd Lithu a nia deser ve ind usion . But they were directl y incor porated int o the Soviet Unio n rat her than being given the rela tive independence fro m wh ich the rest of Eastern Europe benefited afte r 1945. M oreo ver, the story of t he 'three tha t got a wa y' Finla nd , Aust ria a nd Gre ece - is po ssibly also relevant, as it throws ligh t on co mm un ist techn iqu es of achiev ing pow er and reason s fo r failure , as well as on Sta lin's postwar stra tegic opt ions. Despite these hesitat io ns, we shall concentra te her e on the cent ra l bloc of satellite sta tes, ' Euro pe of th e Eight', na mely East Germa ny (known officially after 194 9 as t he Ge rma n Democ ra tic Republic, befor e tha t as (he Soviet O ccup at ion Z one, or SBZ); Czechoslovakia; Poland; H ungar y; Roman ia; Bulga ria; Yugosla via; a nd Alb a nia. T hese are the Europea n cou nt ries tha t passe d under com munist control bet ween 1944 a nd 194 8 a nd remained in that situation for the ne xt fe rry o r so years. Differences in development an d culture w ill also somet imes com pel us to view Eastern Euro pe as co mposed of tw o parts, nam ely East Ce ntra l and South Eastern Europe, divided by a line run ning to the east and so uth of H unga ry. T he to pic, to o, has been di vided into tw o parts: before and afte r 1969. T his book is the first part . It cove rs the seizure of power, the period o f Sta linism a nd subsequent a ttempts at reform withi n th e system. T he period o f decl ine aft er 196 9 is dea lt wit h in a co mpa nion volume by Dr Bulent Go key.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

T he publishers are grateful co the following for permission to use co pyright mat erial:

Photograph 1 'Sceptical East German workers listen to Fritz Selbmann, GDR M inister of Heavy Industry, opening a coke and lignite works, 3 1 Aug ust t 955 ' from Anatom y of a Dictatorsh ip; Inside the C DR 194 9-1 989, pp. 14 8- 9, O xford University Press, permission so ught from SED Bildarchiv, Berlin (Fulbrook, 19 95 ) Pho tograp h 2 'Comm unists demo nst rate in Belgrade promising the doubling o f wh eat pro duction in 194 7, dominat ed by Tiro's pict ure' from Yugoslavia as History, p. 244, Cam bridge University,Press, used with permission from the M useum of the City o f Belgrade (Lampe, 1996) Photograph 3 'T he female stu dent militia on parade in T irana, 1964 ' from The Albanians: Europe 's Forgotten Survivors, pp. 104- 5, Victo r Go lanz, used with perm ission fro m D. Logoreci {Logoreci, 1977 ) Photograph 4 "Tiro in discussion with his two chief lieutenants, Eduard Kardelj and Aleksander Rankovic, at some time during the mid-1960s' from Tito, pp . 320- 1, Constable, used with per mission from Hrv atski Povijesni M uzej, Z agre b (Ridley, 1994) Photograph 5 'A New Year's Eve part y in Yugoslavia at the end of 1967, attended by Tito and his wife jovanka. Tito (though a Croat by ethnic origin) is wearing Serbian national costume for the occasion' from Tito , pp, 320- 1, Constable, used with permission from Hrvarski Povijesni Muzej, Zagreb (Ridley, 1994)

Acknowledgements

Xl

We have been unable to trace the copyright holders for the following: Photograph 6 'The resurgence of protest in Poland: a student demonstration in Warsaw, March 1968' from The Struggles for Poland, p. 176, Michael Joseph (Ascherson, 1987) Photograph 7 'Alexander Dubcek acknowledges the crowd's enthusiasm for "socialism with a human face", Prague May Day 1968' from Dubcek, p. 111, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1970 Photograph 8 'Walter Ulbricht, the East German leader, visited Czechoslovakia on 12 August 1968. Here he is pictured presumably laying down the law to Dubcek about the risks entailed in his reform programme' from Dubcek, p. 175, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1970

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

Aces AK AVH AVNOJ

Ava cc

CM EA C PCz

CPSU

cry

DG Sr GDR

Hcr

Hswr Hwr J ZD

KBW KGB

KPD KRN KSRs LCY LPG M EFESZ

MGB

NKVD NSZ OZNA

PKWN

PPR

rps

PSL

Allied Control Commissions Home Arm y State Defence Authori ty Anti-Fa scist Co unci l o f the Peop le's Liberat ion of Yugo slavia State Defence Depa rtment Central Committee Cou ncil fo r Mutua l Econo mic Assista nce Communis t Par ty o f Czechoslova kia Communist Party of the Soviet Union Co mm unist Parry of Yugoslavia General Directora te of Popular Secu rity German Democrat ic Republic Hu ngar ian Co mmun ist Party Hu ngari an Socialist Workers' Parry Hungar ian Work ers' Part y Unified Agricultura l Cooperative Corps for Internal Security Co mmi ttee for State Security Co mmunist Party of Ge rmany National Council of the Homela nd Co nferences of Workers ' Self-Ma nage me nt Leag ue of Comm un ists of Yugoslavia Agricultural Product ion Cooperati ve Federation of Hu ngarian University and College Students' Assoc iations Mini stry o f State Security People's Co mmissariat for Internal Affai rs Na tiona l Armed Forces Bureau for the People's Protection Polish Committ ee o f National Liberation Polish Workers' Party Polish Socialist Part y Polish Peasant Party

List of Abbreviations

PZPR ROH SBZ SED SL SPD StB TOZ UB UDBA USSR WRN ZSL

Polish United Workers' Party Revolutionary Trade Union Movement Soviet Occupation Zone Socialist Unity Party of Germany Peasant Party Social Democratic Party of Germany State Security Association for the Joint Cultivation of the Land Security Office Administration of State Security Union of Soviet Socialist Republics Freedom, Equality, Independence United Peasant Party

Xlll

xv

Maps

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I

SW ED EN

D E N M A H JL

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