Tensions in Europe

Cold War Conflicts HIST 1301 | History Tensions in Europe 1953 saw the death of Joseph Stalin. Nikita Khrushchev succeeded him as the head of the Soviet Union after a brief stint as Georgy Malenkov. While Khrushchev boasted at one conference that communism would “bury” capitalism, he was just as fiercely anti-Western Bloc as Stalin had ever been. He also supported a new approach to the US and a new course for the Soviet Union. At the Soviet Communist Party's Twentieth Congress in February 1956, Khrushchev condemned the late Stalin and charged him with crimes against the Soviet people. Subsequently, he started a vigorous process of de-Stalinization, altering the policies of the Stalin era, including the prohibition of the arts, the release of many political prisoners, the dissolution of the special tribunals that had found them guilty, the removal of Stalin's name from public buildings, and the demolition of monuments honouring him. This marked the start of a political thaw among the nations that made up the Eastern Bloc. Workers in Poznan, Poland, staged riots in June 1956 to express their displeasure about inadequate housing, a lack of food, and other issues. Protests sprang out in other places throughout the autumn. They had a decidedly patriotic bent and demanded things like the Soviet troops to be driven out of Poland and the inclusion of Russian language instruction in Polish school curriculum. Władysław Gomułka, a reform-minded politician, was appointed leader of the Polish Communist Party in October, making him the country's leader. Fearing that Poland would be forced out of the Eastern Bloc via reforms, Khrushchev organised Soviet forces in Poland and led them in a march towards Warsaw while personally visiting the city. Khrushchev consented to revisions after Gomułka gave him assurances that he had no plans to abolish communism or Poland's ties to the Soviet Union. As a result, the Soviet advisors were returned home, political prisoners were liberated, and the Roman Catholic Church was granted more autonomy. The collectivization of Polish agriculture was also terminated. Others were encouraged by the Poles' triumph. Students in Budapest, Hungary, marched through the streets on October 23, 1956, calling for a number of demands, including the departure of Soviet troops from the nation, pay increases, and economic changes. Several students were murdered when the State Security Police opened fire on them as they gathered outside the main radio station to repeat their demands aloud. Enraged residents started attacking the Soviet troops and the police, sparking an insurrection. Ernő Gerő, the leader of the ruling Hungarian Workers' Party and the prime minister of the nation, escaped with his premier minister, András Hegedüs, when demonstrators besieged the parliament building. As prime minister, Imre Nagy was a reformist. In contrast to Gomułka, Nagy was content to stick to Moscow's policies without enacting any internal reforms. He ordered the dissolution of the State Security Police, a cease-fire, and the withdrawal of Soviet forces from Budapest on October 28. Nagy said on November 1st that Hungary would no longer be a part of the Warsaw Pact and would maintain its neutrality in global affairs. After three days, Soviet soldiers arrived in Hungary to join those that, before to Nagy's declaration, the USSR was about to withdraw from. Khrushchev could have been concerned that Nagy's proclamation of Hungarian neutrality might jeopardise the Soviet Union's security. It's possible that he wanted to show his determination to more traditional communists as well as the heads of the other Soviet nations. Some contend that he became more confident as a result of the Western Bloc's inaction. On November 10, with around 2,500 Hungarians slain, the rebellion came to an end and János Kádár's communist administration was reinstated. Twenty thousand Hungarians were detained, and a further two hundred thousand left the nation. Hungary was home to Soviet forces permanently, and in 1958 Nagy was put to death after a trial. Khrushchev later blamed the United States for not getting engaged in the events in Hungary. Though the United States did not want a conflict with the Soviet Union, it quickly realised that it could not disregard Khrushchev's order about Berlin. Khrushchev made unfulfilled demands for the United States, Britain, and France to evacuate West Berlin in 1958 and again in 1961. The old German capital's capitalist sector was a source of irritation for Khrushchev. The communist eastern regions' inhabitants were not only unsettled by its affluence, but many East Germans and other Eastern Bloc citizens were able to flee to freedom thanks to the openness that prevailed there. A barbed wire barrier was built by East German forces on the evening of August 12–13, 1961, dividing Berlin's western and eastern halves. Cement barriers were also built in the days that followed to prevent east-west travel. A disagreement over the free movement of American government workers between East and West Berlin broke out between the US and the USSR on October 22. The United States insisted that Allies might move freely across Berlin in accordance with the accords made at Potsdam at the end of World War II. The United States started sending automobiles with American officials over the border to see whether they would be stopped in order to gauge the Soviet Union's commitment to upholding this agreement. If they were, American soldiers followed them across, occasionally in tanks. In response, the USSR sent some of its own tanks to the East Berlin gate on October 27. Tanks from the US and the USSR levelled their weapons at one other. Kennedy and Khrushchev decided to evacuate their tanks simultaneously, barely averting a clash. When Czechoslovakia, like Poland and Hungary before it, attempted to sever its links to the Soviet Union in 1968, tensions in Europe rose once more. Alexander Dubček took over as the nation's leader early in the year, replacing Antonín Novotný, who was a conservative. Dubček abolished state censorship and implemented economic reforms. The Soviet Union, like in Poland and Hungary in 1956, became frightened as Czechs demanded even more changes. On August 20, 1968, the Soviet Union's new leader Leonid Brezhnev ordered an invasion of Czechoslovakia out of fear that changes in that country would inspire calls for reform elsewhere in the Eastern Bloc or in the Soviet republics themselves. Brezhnev was also confident that the United States would not intervene, as it had failed to do previously. Early in 1969, resistance had all but vanished, and Dubček was replaced by the Soviet Union with the right-wing Gustáv Husák, who undid his reforms. Government control escalated once more, and censorship was reinstated. This was a successful implementation of the Brezhnev Doctrine, which the Soviet Union adopted to support communist regimes under threat of overthrow.