Building the Soviet bloc: 1949 - 1953

1. Building the Soviet bloc:1949 - 1953 Dr. Tomas Janeliūnas

2. Main points of the lecture • Institutionalization of soviet bloc: main treaties and decisions • Strengthening of control: communist party expansion, hierarchy of party’s structure • Yugoslavia– a threat for the soviet bloc unity • Terror – the best instrument to maintain control

3. Importance of 1947-1949 • Marshal plan proposal – 1947 • The Organisation for European Economic Cooperation- established in April 16, 1948 • NATO - established in April 4, 1949.

4. Reaction by the Soviets • 1947 – Cominform founded (to discuss divergences among CEE government regarding Marshal plan) • 1947 – The Molotov Plan, • 1949 - Council for Mutual Economic Assistance – COMECON (by the Soviet Union, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland and Romania)

5. Role of Cominform • Founded in September, 1947 as a response to the Marshal plan • Becomes as a tool of Soviet foreign policy and Stalinism, devoted to spread its ideology and critise any alternatives in socialism interpretation • Yugoslavia expulsed from the Cominform in June 1948 because of Titoism • Cominform was dissolved in 1956 after Soviet rapprochement with Yugoslavia and the process of De-Stalinization.

6. Role of COMECON • coordination of national economic plans • Since November 1950 officially limited only to "practical questions of facilitating trade” • Stalin preferred bilateral agreements. Lack of either rationality or international central planning tended to promote autarky in each Comecon country.

7. Role of COMECON • General tendency: • The Soviet Union had provided fuel, non-food raw materials, airplane- and helicopterdesigns and semi-manufactures ("hard goods") to Eastern Europe, which in turn, had supplied the Soviet Union with finished machinery, and industrial consumer goods ("soft goods").

8. Bilateral treaties By 31st March, 1949, the USSR had treaties of mutual assistance with the following states in Central and Eastern Europe: • Czechoslovakia (signed 12 Dec. 1943); • Yugoslavia (11 April 1945); • Poland (21 April 1945); • Romania (4 Feb. 1948); • Hungary (18 Feb. 1948); • Bulgaria (18 March 1948).

9. Bilateral treaties The CEE 'people's democracies' were linked by similar treaties: • Poland-Yugoslavia(18 March 1946); • Czechoslovakia-Yugoslavia (9 May 1946); • Albania-Yugoslavia (9 July 1946); • Czechoslovakia-Poland (10 March 1947); • Bulgaria-Yugoslavia (27 Nov. 1947); • Hungary-Yugoslavia (8 Dec. 1947); • Albania-Bulgaria (16 Dec. 1947); • Rumania-Yugoslavia (19 Dec. 1947); • Bulgaria-Rumania (16 Jan. 1948); • Hungary-Rumania (24 Jan. 1948); • Czechoslovakia-Bulgaria (23 April 1948); • Bulgaria-Poland (29 May 1948); • Poland-Hungary (18 June 1948); • Hungary-Bulgaria (16 July 1948); • Czechoslovakia-Rumania (21 July 1948); • Czechoslovakia-Hungary(16 April 1949) • Poland-Rumania (26 Jan. 1949).

10. Communist party expansion Communist party membership, in millions

11. Purges in CEE communist parties • In Poland were expelled about 370 thousands party members • In Czechoslovakia - about 550 thousands • In Hungary – 200 thousands • In Romania – 200 thousands • In Bulgaria – 90 thousands

12. Socialists constitutions The foundation of socialist system was legalized by newly enacted constitutions. According to them the leading role was granted for the communist party: • Yugoslavia and Albania introduced their “people’s democratic” constitutions in 1946, • Bulgaria – in 1947, • Romania and Czechoslovakia – in 1948 • Between 1949 and 1952 the genuine socialists constitutions were introduced in Hungary, Poland and Romania.

13. Structure of the communist party

14. Tito-Stalin split • Tito’s Plans for Balkan confederation – a threat for Soviet influence in CEE • Treaty of alliance between Yugoslavia and Bulgaria – “contrary to the views of the Soviet Government” • In spring 1948: two letters from the Communist Party of the Soviet Union to Yugoslavia with critics • In July 1948 Yugoslavia officially expelled from Comminform • in 1949 the seven treaties of CEE countries with Yugoslavia were eliminated and unilaterally denounced by the Soviet bloc Molotov, Stalin, Tito Josip Broz Tito Titoism - policies and practices based on the principle that in each country, the means of attaining ultimate communist goals must be dictated by the conditions of that particular country, rather than by a pattern set in another country. The communist goal should be pursued independently of (and often in opposition to) the policies of the Soviet Union.

15. To eliminate proponents of Titoism • Hungary: 1948/49, public trial of Lazlo Rajk. Sentenced to death in September 1949 • Bulgaria: 1948/49, Georgi Dimitrov exiled to Moscow. Died in July 1949 • Traicho Kostov was convicted to be guilty for espionage and sentenced to death. • Albania: the interior minister Koci Xoxeafter a secret trial in May 1949 executed L. Rajk G. Dimitrov

16. Terror – the best instrument to maintain control • Incriminations for nationalism: Poland and Romania • Anti-semitist purge: Hungary and Czechoslovakia Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej Wladyslaw Gomulka Janos Kadar Rudolf Slansky

17. Mass Terror Victims of political trials, forced labor camps, deportations • In Czechoslovakia – about 83 thousands • In Hungary – about 30 thousands • Deportations from the Baltic states – only from Lithuania from 1944 to 1952 deported about 147 thousands