The Soviet Union and Eastern Europe Chapter 12 Section 2

A. Soviet Recovery After WWII ► WWII devastated the Soviet Union ► USSR workers worked in harsh conditions for little pay ► The Government spent money on machinery and western technology ► Did not spend money on consumer goods ► Periodically, Eastern Europeans rebelled

B. Stalin’s Reign ► After WWII, the USSR econ. Recovered quickly under Stalin ► By 1950, industrial production had increased by 40% ► Stalin built new power plants, canals, and factories were built ► Stalin focused on Heavy Industry,  the manufacture of machines and equipment for factories ► USSR’s reputation increased by building the hydrogen bomb and putting Sputnik into space

► Ordinary people under Stalin’s reign suffered ► No consumer goods, and housing shortages ► Stalin was suspicious of everyone in his regime ► He controlled all literature in the USSR ► He also killed many of his generals out of suspicion ► On March 5, 1953, Stalin died and Khrushchev took over

C. The Khrushchev Era ► Khrushchev took power began to undo some of Stalin’s programs ► Khrushchev condemned Stalin for his oppression and violence ► The process of eliminating Stalin’s policies was called destalinization ► Khrushchev loosened gov’t control on literature ► Khrushchev tried to place more emphasis on consumer goods ► He also began an agricultural program to grow large amounts of corn in the Ural Mountains

► The agricultural program failed, which hurt Khrushchev’s reputation ► Khrushchev still spent money on weapons and technology that drove the Soviet Union into debt ► Khrushchev’s failure to put missiles in Cuba damaged his reputation ► In 1964, he was voted out of office

D. Eastern Europe: Behind the Iron Curtain ► At the beginning of the Cold War, Winston Churchill said that an Iron Curtain separated Eastern Europe from Western Europe ► -Iron Curtain referred to the Soviet Union

► Btwn 1945 and 1947, the Soviet Union took over East Germany, Bulgaria, Romania, Poland, and Hungary ► They quickly established communist governments in those countries ► In 1948, they also took over Czechoslovakia and set up a communist gov’t there ► Albania and Yugoslavia already had communist governments in place and never became Satellite States

E. Revolts Against Communism ► Many Eastern European countries disliked the USSR and communism ► After Stalin’s death, many try to rebel ► The USSR made it clear that it would not tolerate rebellion ► In 1956, Poland tried to rebel, but backed down out of fear ► Hungary tried to break away the same year and promised free elections in their country ► Khrushchev ordered Soviet tanks into the country and executed the Hungarian leader Imre Nagy

► In Czech, writers forced dictator Antonin Novotny to resign ► In Jan. 1968, Alexander Dubcek was elected as the new leader of Czech ► He promised Czech freedom of speech and freedom of press ► This was called the Prague Spring ► The Soviet army invade Czech. The same year and Dubcek was replaced

F. Western Europe: Recovery and New Unity ► Western Europe recovered rapidly due to the Marshal Plan ► In France, Charles de Gualle became president ► Under Gaulle, the French economy grew rapidly ► France became a large exporter of automobiles and weapons ► France successfully tested their first nuclear bomb in 1960 ► High cost of living and labor strikes ► Gaulle resigned from the presidency in April 1969

► In West Germany, Konrad Adenauer was the leader, helped the economy recover ► Unemployment dropped and remained low ► Britain was economically destroyed after the war ► Britain turned into a modern welfare state ► -this is a system in which the gov’t takes responsibility for providing citizens with services and a minimal standard of living ► The cost of their welfare program made Britain give up all of its colonies ► Britain was no longer a world power

► In 1957, France, West Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and Italy formed an economic alliance ► called the European Economic Community ► EEC countries would not tax each other’s goods, but rather tax goods from countries outside of EEC ► By the 1960’s, the EEC had become an important trading bloc- a group of nations with a common purpose