Lesson Two
Domination
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The Korean War and Breaking Soviet
Outcomes (SWBAT)
Review McCarthyism in the states.
Describe the conflict in Korea from 1950-53
Describe the growth of alliances in the 1940s and 50s
Evaluate to what extent various Eastern European nations were in
breaking away from Soviet domination
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Activities
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pre-lesson questions
McCarthyism chart – review from last day
“Guilty by Suspicion” – show DVD from start to Chapter 12, then skip
to Chapter 23 to end.
Korean War – map this on the board.
Containment Alliances – use map book PPT page to go over these
Attempts at Breaking Soviet Domination – talk about DeStalinization
under Khrushchev
Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia – locate on map of Eastern Europe as
students take down information.
post-lesson questions
Materials
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pre and post lesson responder questions
Lecture Notes – Breaking Soviet Domination
world map from lesson #1
McCarthyism source docs and table
KOREAN WAR – see map book page 123
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Soviets had liberated the North Koreans from Japanese forces
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USA had liberated South Korea from the Japanese – Syngman Rhee is
president – would turn it into a dictatorship by the 60’s
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38th parallel is set as a the boundary
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tension builds over Korea’s fate… US and USSR do little
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June 1950 – North invades the South  Truman announces that his
doctrine applies to Asia as well as Europe
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North captures almost all of the South before being held near Pusan
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UN passed a resolution committing troops to Korea. Soviet delegate
was absent as they were boycotting the Security Council (because Red
China not allowed into UN)
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Truman sends in American troops who dominated the UN mission (16
nations took part under UN flag), General Douglas MacArthur
commanding
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Applying what they had learned about amphibious landings from WWII,
they landed at Inchon, just south of the N. Korean border, crossing into
the north by October, 1950
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Worrying that the USSR would retaliate in Europe, NATO scrambled to rearm
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Communist and Chinese troops pushed US back well beyond the 38th by
the end of October
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Truman started talking about using A-bombs… scary!
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PM Attlee talked Truman out of that course of action
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Instead, $50 billion dollars would be spent and a 50% increase in the
standing army to 3.5 million men
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Pushed the Chinese back to the 38th
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MacArthur-Truman split: Truman no longer wanted a war of liberation,
just containment… MacArthur disagreed, wanted to push into mainland
China
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MacArthur fired on April, 1951… went home to the largest ticker tape
parade in US history
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Growing popularity for McCarthy’s House Committee on Un-American
Activities…
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War was essentially over, but peace talks dragged on for 2 years
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1952, November – Dwight Eisenhower (WWII hero) new president, Nixon
as his VP
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July, 1953, armistice signed at Panmunjom… but “Korean problem” still
exists today
Show map book page on containment alliances here
ATTEMPTS AT BREAKING SOVIET DOMINATION
After Stalin’s death in 1953, Malenkov became Soviet leader for 2 years, but
replaced by Nikita Khrushchev
DeStalinization – bring the satellite countries into an alliance (Warsaw Pact,
1955), and begin less harsh relations with those nations
Khrushchev – 20th Congress of the Communist Party in 1956 – speech
denounces Stalinist rule, and highlights his atrocities
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7 year plan to increase production of goods
increase living standards (wages, pensions, mat leave, lower taxes)
increase relations with the West
reduce cult of Stalin (move body from Red Square to Kremlin)
decrease powers of Soviet political police (no more prison camp labour
for public works)
keep political opponents alive, but reassign them to other satellites
imprisonment with benefit of a trial
loosen control over theatres, music (publish Dr. Zhivago)
POLAND – 1956
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Summer/Fall 1956 – workers demanded more freedom through strikes
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This unrest led to establishing Wladyslaw Gomulka as First Secretary…
stayed in power for 14 years and lifted many restrictions, yet stayed in the
Communist Bloc
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He decollectivized Polish agriculture
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Lifted restrictions on the Catholic Church
HUNGARY – 1956
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Demand arose to remove harsh Stalinist, Rakosi
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Replaced by Imre Nagy – imprisoned by Stalin… forced to make promises
regarding more freedoms
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Everyone hoped for a Hungarian Gomulka, but Nagy insisted on pulling
Hungary out of the Warsaw Pact
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Soviet tanks entered Budapest, 4 November, 1956, short, fierce war in
which 30 000 died and 200 000 fled (incidentally, the entire Forestry
Department at the University of Budapest packed up and fled. They re-
established themselves in a little known university on the shores of Point
Grey , Vancouver!!!)
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Janos Kadar installed as a puppet leader by the Soviets… ruled for 20
years
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“Where were the Americans”????? this has to do with backyards
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backyards = territories or regions where the opposing superpower had
special privileges and the other power could not intervene with out a great
risk of starting WWIII
The Prague Spring in Czechoslovakia
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Czechoslovakia had built a democratic tradition during the inter-war
years. It felt more a part of Western Europe than Eastern
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Early in 1968 Alexander Dubcek became Secretary… replaced Novotny, a
Stalinist
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Freedom of press, assembly, worship, right to strike, travel abroad
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Preparing for free elections, he called his reform movement “socialism
with a human face”
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The movement threatened to spread to neighbouring Romania, which
introduced the prospect of an independent bloc of eastern European
countries
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Too much for the Soviets! Troops from satellite countries moved in, but
only token resistance
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Dubcek arrested, eventually released, but replaced by Husak who
followed Moscow’s line and freedoms disappeared
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Brezhnev Doctrine – Leonid Brezhnev, the Soviet President at the time,
announced it was the right and duty of fraternal socialist countries to
intervene in each others affairs when socialism was threatened
Historical Significance – the attempt by Hungary and Czechoslovakia in 1968
to gain a greater degree of autonomy or freedom took on a clearer significance
in 1989 as the Soviet empire in Eastern Europe collapsed. Brezhnev was proven
correct when he said that if one satellite was granted more freedom, the others
would do the same
History 12
Ms. Lacroix
Name _________________________________
ATTEMPTS TO BREAK FROM SOVIET DOMINATION
DeStalinization (Stalin dies 1953)
Poland
Hungary
Czechoslovakia
Historical Significance
The Challenge of Revolution – further information
Ours is a revolutionary age… people making their own decisions, refusing to
accept traditions
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Terrifying and exciting – revolutions and ways of dealing with them
present the contemporary world with its most serious problems
Both superpowers have faced the problem of revolution within their
own sphere of influence
i.e. Russians in Hungary and Czechoslovakia – although the US approved of
these revolutions, they were powerless as they were scared of provoking a Third
World War
US had to face the Cuban Revolution 90 miles off the coast of Florida
The Hungarian Revolution
Remember, Stalin’s successors attempted to take a more liberal attitude – one
aspect of this was ending of hostility toward Tito and giving Gomulka’s Poland
increased autonomy
The idea that maybe others could be good communists without necessarily
obeying the USSR  a different road to socialism?
Reasons for Mass Demonstrations
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Demands for greater political freedoms and reforms
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People wanted the sacking of the BRUTAL STALINIST Rakosi
(students, trade unions, army)
Nagy
Succeeded Rakosi – forced to meet Hungarians most extreme demands to set up
a government including non-communists and to get rid of Soviet forces… wanted
Hungary to withdraw from the Warsaw Pact
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This was a challenge the Soviets couldn’t ignore – this could collapse
Soviet sphere
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Bitter fighting in Budapest resulted in 30 000 dead Hungarians and 7000
dead Russians (200 000 fled to the West)
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Support from USA never came…should they carry some blame?
Nagy’s fate? Arrested, and hanged by Russians in Romania, 1958 (buried face
down, with hands and feet tied with barbed wire)
Janos Kadar
Appointed by Russians as the new Premier
Became a brutal leader, hunted down rebels, but ruled for more than 20 years –
dismantling much of Rakosi’s work and remained loyal to the Soviets
Aftermath
Message to the West?
The failure in Hungary showed how difficult it was to overthrow a government
backed by a foreign power
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Proved that the West despite verbal backing wouldn’t risk a war… not
prepared for nuclear attack
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Post war ideology of communism – even though open discussions had
risks, the Communists realized that repression along communist lines
could only be maintained by armed force
CZECHOSLOVAKIAN REVOLUTION, 1968
As in Hungary, communist regime was never popular… they had a liberal
democracy in the 1930’s
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Revolt against Stalinism began with the intelligentsia (i.e. writers) against
the falsification of Czech history and the concept of a planned economy
where decisions were made in Moscow
Radio programs attack Stalin and Communism
Newspapers and television showed evidence of the new freedoms of the
1960s in the West
Between 1962-67, Czechoslovakia gradually evolved into a more
democratic society – Czechs excited about that!
The Liberals in power – 1967-68
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Dubcek – replaced the Stalinist Novotny – allowed greater freedom of
worship, religion, travel abroad, right to strike, etc.
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Also argued that the Warsaw Pact should allow for greater individual
country’s point of view
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Czechoslovakian Action Program – “socialism with a human face”
Soviet Reaction and Intervention
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Could NOT let Czechoslovakia, which shared a common border with West
Germany, to join Yugoslavia as an independent communist state
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Eastern European and Soviet presses began denouncing Czechoslovakia
May, 1968
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Warsaw Pact armies (USSR and Poland) entered Czechoslovakia (legally,
as part of a Pact excuse) but once there, refused to leave
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Tried to bully Czechs into backing down
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Dubcek refused (Russians didn’t want to use force – wanted the West to
see their Pact countries as accepting of Soviet style communism)
Russians arrested Dubcek – tried to do it quietly, but Czechoslovakian
broadcasts on television splashed it all over the world
Husak
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Replaced Dubcek, following the Soviet party line… gradually, liberalism
disappeared
Why a different end result from Hungary?
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Dubcek was not seen as a traitor to communism, but an idealist. Czech
themselves did not see the events of 1968 as an reason to break away…
during the 70’s, the resentment lessened as their economy improved