Transcript Document

The USSR & Eastern Europe
From Khrushchev to Gorbachev
Kevin J. Benoy
Conflicting Pressures
• There were two conflicting pressures in the
USSR since the death of Stalin:
– Party conservatives and bureaucrats sought to
preserve their privileged positions by opposing
any changes that might threaten them or the
position of the CPSU.
– Reformers saw stagnation, so felt it necessary
to change the system to make it work.
• Because of the closed system of the USSR,
most of this conflict happened behind
closed doors.
Conflicting Pressures
• It was not until
Mikhail Gorbachev
introduced Glasnost
(openness) that this
dispute became clear.
• Underneath all of this
also simmered the
discontent of national
minorities in the
USSR.
The Fall of Khrushchev
• Khrushchev created
many party enemies
with his 20th Party
Congress speech.
• His attempts to reform
agriculture in the late
1950s and early 60s
increased opposition.
The Fall of Khrushchev
• Positively, more funds
were made available
for agriculture,
allowing for pensions
for Kholkhoz workers
and more and better
equipment.
The Fall of Khrushchev
• On the other hand, significant
problems arose:
– Bad advice led to planting
Maize – a thirsty crop unsuited
to the Virgin Lands.
– Labour problems arose as
workers did not want to move to
the area. Appeals to patriotism
were not enough. Few women
moved to the area.
• Though early crops were
good, later crops failed
miserably.
The Fall of Khrushchev
• In foreign affairs,
Khrushchev’s
blustering brought
little.
• Kennedy’s forcing
him to back down over
the Cuban Missile
Crisis was an
embarrassment.
• His failure in regard to
Berlin was also noted.
The Fall of Khrushchev
• Khrushchev was
accused of fostering a
personality cult not
unlike that which he
criticized Stalin for
encouraging.
The Fall of Khrushchev
• Within the politburo
the opposition grew as
other leaders came to
resent Khruschchev’s
colourful personal
leadership and
reckless style.
• In the end it seems that
Suslov and Brezhnev
played key roles in his
downfall.
The Fall of Khrushchev
• On October 14, 1964,
the world was shocked
to hear that
Khrushchev had
resigned.
• Overnight he went
from leader of the
world’s second most
powerful nation to
ordinary pensioner.
The Brezhnev Era
• Brezhnev became titular head of the USSR.
• In fact, it appears that there was a greater degree of
collective leadership exercised than at any other time
in Soviet History.
The Brezhnev Era
• Brezhnev’s time was marked by
extreme conservatism.
• DeStalinzation was dropped in
1965 and most criticism of
Stalin ceased.
• There was no question of
further liberalization in the
USSR.
• New 5 year plans called for
increases in consumer
production, but the only
progress seemed to happen on
paper and not in the real world.
The Brezhnev Era
• Under Brezhnev
corruption was rife.
• Government bureaucrats
and managers of state
enterprises carved out
private empires at public
expense.
• Graft became deeply
ingrained in the Soviet
economy.
Foreign Affairs Under Brezhnev
• The chief problems
of the Soviets were
the continuing rivalry
with China,
maintaining control
of Eastern European
Satellites, and
avoiding conflict
with the United
States
Foreign Affairs Under Brezhnev
• Despite Soviet support for
North Vietnam, the
Soviets did not allow
rhetoric to get in the way
of Soviet-American
relations.
• This seems to be because
the Soviets were coming
to see Mao’s China as a
bigger threat than the
USA, particularly after
China tested its first
nuclear weapons.
Foreign Affairs Under Brezhnev
• It is generally believed that in
1968-9 the Soviets considered
launching a pre-emptive nuclear
strike against the Chinese,
holding back only because the
US refused to commit to
neutrality.
• Some believe the KGB also
tried to create a Sino-American
war by launching a nuclear
attack on the US from a Soviet
submarine, feigning to be a
Chinese vessel – K169.
Foreign Affairs Under Brezhnev
• The Soviets tried to
manipulate the overthrow
of Mao during the mid
1960s by encouraging
Mao’s opponents in
China.
• The result was one of the
most horrific events of the
20th Century – the Great
Proletarian Cultural
Revolution – Mao’s
radicalization of China to
win back control.
Foreign Affairs Under Brezhnev
• In Eastern Europe, the Soviets
resisted fragmentation.
• Yugoslavia left the fold in 1948
and Albania followed – having
the audacity to ally itself with
China.
• During the 1967 Arab-Israeli War
it seemed that Romania was
making independent noises –
refusing to break off diplomatic
relations with Israel.
The Czechoslovak Crisis
• The conservative-reformer
struggle in the USSR was
paralleled in Czechoslovakia.
• In 1967, reformer Alexander
Dubcek challenged Antonin
Navotny for the leadership of
the Czechoslovak Communist
Party.
• In January, 1968 he was chosen
First Secretary. General
Ludwig Svoboda became
President.
The Czechoslovak Crisis
• Some freedom of the
press was introduced
for the first time since
1948.
• Civil liberties were
proclaimed.
• Dubcek said he
wanted to create
“Socialism with a
human face.”
The Czechoslovak Crisis
• Cooperatives were
to be established.
• Workers would get
a greater say in
running their
factories.
• Travel restrictions
to the West were
lifted.
The Czechoslovak Crisis
• Carried along by a wave of
enthusiastic support, Dubcek
seemed to be willing to allow
opposition groups to form in the
country.
• This was too much for Brezhnev
and other Eastern European
communist countries to accept.
• On July 14-15, Soviet, Polish,
Hungarian, E. German and
Bulgarian leaders warned Dubcek
of being “pushed off the road to
Socialism.” They demanded he
end press freedom.
The Czechoslovak Crisis
• Dubcek tried to convince
Warsaw Pact leaders that he
had no intention of changing
Czechoslovak foreign policy.
• Between July 29 and August 1,
the Politburos of
Czechoslovakia and the USSR
met at their countries’ common
border.
• On August 3, they met again,
along with other Warsaw Pact
leaders.
The Czechoslovak Crisis
• At first it seemed Dubcek
had won.
• Warsaw Pact forces on
maneuver in
Czechoslovakia withdrew.
• Visits from Jugoslavia’s
Tito and Romania’s
Ceaucescu further
bolstered Czechoslovak
morale.
The Czechoslovak Crisis
• Suddenly, on the
night of August 20,
1968, Soviet &
other Warsaw Pact
troops invaded
Czechoslovakia.
The Czechoslovak Crisis
• The Czechoslovak
leadership asked
the public &
military to not fight
back. They did not
want a repeat of
Hungary, 1956.
The Czechoslovak Crisis
• The population adopted
passive resistance tactics.
– Street signs were changed
to confuse the invaders.
– Students, who learned
Russian at school, argued
with invading troops.
– Some risked their lives to
plug tank barrels with
flowers.
The Czechoslovak Crisis
“Is this what our Lenin
ordered you to do?”
• Dubcek and Svoboda were
arrested and spirited out of
the country.
• Soviet ambassadorial staff
around the world argued
the Czechoslovak case.
• Even western communist
parties protested against
the attack, splitting them
from the Soviets and
creating a new term –
Eurocommunism.
The Czechoslovak Crisis
• Ultimately the
Czechoslovak
leadership was placed
in more compliant
hands – Dubcek gave
way to Gustav Husak.
• However, Dubcek and
Svoboda were not
executed like Imre
Nagy.
The Czechoslovak Crisis
• In September, Pravda published a
retroactive justification for the
invasion that came to be known as the
Brezhnev Doctrine. Claiming he was
“resolutely opposed to interference in
the affairs of any state” he went on to
insist that “when a threat arises to the
cause of socialism” in any socialist
country, it becomes “also a general
problem, the concern of all socialist
countries.”
• The Chinese, Jugoslavs and
Romanians all felt greater unease after
this show of Soviet force.
The Czechoslovak Crisis
• Interestingly, the
Soviets did not act
with such force
elsewhere.
• The key appears to be
the Czechoslovak
insistence on a free
press.
• The Prague Spring
was now over.
The Czechoslovak Crisis
• Or was it?
• On the surface it appeared like Brezhnev won
decisively. As in 1956, the West complained,
but did nothing.
• Beneath the surface things were less clear.
Litvinov’s Red Square
banner: “For your freedom
and ours”.
– A large number of Soviet generals seemed to
die in the early months of 1969.
– The May Day parade was cancelled in
Moscow that year.
– There was even a small protest in Red Square
in 1968 – led by Pavel Litvinov, grandson of
the 1930s foreign minister.
The Czechoslovak Crisis
• In the 1969 World Hockey Championships in Stockholm, the Czechoslovaks beat
the Soviets, sparking wild nationalist demonstrations in Prague. Riots followed
and Aeroflot’s office in the Czech capital was ransacked.
• Born after the Prague Spring, Czech hockey player Jaromir Jagr immortalized the
event when he adopted “68” as his number in the NHL and on his national jersey.
Dissent
• Such dissent did not
disappear.
• A lively underground
network developed of
Samizdat literature.
• Despite arrests and show
trials in the 1960s –
protesters did not go
away.
Dissent
• Dissidents were arrested and exiled.
• Alexander Solzhenitsyn was even
expelled from the Soviet Union.
• Some were confined to psychiatric
institutions.
• However, unlike in Stalin’s time, they
were not shot.
• Stalinists might be in power, but the
techniques of the 1930s were no
longer possible in the 1960s and
1970s.
Afghanistan
• In 1978-80, with an Iranian
style revolution looming as a
possibility in neighbouring
Afghanistan, the Soviet Union
intervened to prop up a client
state.
• Faction differences in the
Afghan Communist Party led to
Brezhnev and the Politburo
deciding to back one group
against the other.
• Order was needed to prevent
chaos and revolution.
Afghanistan
• Neighbouring Soviet republics
were overwhelmingly Muslim.
• The Soviets felt it essential to
contain Muslim fundamentalism –
no matter what the cost.
• Troops were deployed in
December, 1979. They would not
leave for 9 years.
• This would become the USSR’s
“Vietnam.”
• The cost in men and money would
be staggering.
Stagnation
• Throughout the 1980s
the leadership group
aged and stagnated.
• What would happen
when the old men died
and a new generation
assumed power?
Stagnation
• Brezhnev’s cronies hung
on even after the old man
died.
• First Yuri Andropov
replaced him – from
November 1982 to
February 1984.
• Next came Konstantin
Chernenko – until March
of 1985.
• Both died before anything
could be achieved.
A New Generation
• Finally power
transferred to a
younger man –
Mikhael Gorbachev,
in 1984.
• The USSR was in
crisis and it would be
up to him to end the
decay.
finis