* *Central Europe after WWII -Emergency of two German States - Coup d´Etat in Czechoslovakia *J.V. Stalin, H. Truman, W. Churchill /C. Attlee •Main goals: 1. united Germany – 4 occupation zones only temporary •Plan 4 “D” – demilitarization, democratization, denazification, decartelization • New boards – polish boards •Expulsion of Germans from Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary •War reparations - products and raw materials •Punishment of war criminals * •Germany divided into four ocuppation zones – French in the southwest, British in the northwest, United States in the south, and Soviet in the east, also Berlin, which was situated in the Soviet zone, was divided into four occupation zones •All the territorries that Germany had occupied (Austria, Czechoslovakia …) were detached •Germany lost some territories for Poland and Russia, new Polish frontiers on the Oder-Niesse line •Millions of ethnic Germans expelled from Czechoslovakia, Poland and Hungary returned to Germany • *Occupations zones in Berlin *Occupations zones in Germany •August 1945 – transfer of German populatin form Czechoslovakia and Poland, expulsion of Hungarian population was not agreed •Related President´s Decrees - revoke citizenship, National Administration of firms, confiscation of land •Immovable property, valuables •Personal luggage 30 – 50 kilos •Organized transfer – 1946 - Allied Control council. 2, 256,000 •1947 – 48 - Additional transfer - family reunification – 80, 000 •Expulsion of German population from Czechoslovakia •May 1945 – wild expulsion (15,000 – 30, 000)!! - displacement and expulsion of German populations, Saxon, Austria – 660, 000 •http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6IFfQdM7EI&feature=related • * •February 1947 Paris – Bulgaria, Finland, Italy, Hungary, Romania •With Germany and Japan – NEVER signed (conference in Moscow - contradictions between the powers – how should be Germany organized – centralized x federated) •The Treaty of San Francisco or San Francisco Peace Treaty between the Allied Powers and Japan came into force 1952 •WW II lasted for 2.194 days •30 states, operations – 40 states •110 millions of men and women (army) •Neutral – Ireland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Swiss •Soviet Union – 27 millions, China – 10 millions, Germany – 6 millions, Poland – 6 millions, Japan – 2.5 millions,… •Germany - the principle of collective guilt •New superpowers: US and Soviet Union (defeated Nazi Germany), in Asia – growing China •New trend in European policy – left •US – the strongest world economy •April 1945 – OSN - United Nations charter, Security Council, General Assembly (50 states, today more then 193, international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace, replaced the League of Nations, to stop wars between countries, and to provide a platform for dialogue. It contains multiple subsidiary organizations to carry out its missions) •After the common enemy was defeated – relation between US and Soviet Union became worse and slowly the rivalry began • US – better economy, atomic bomb, technically better equipped army •Soviet Union – huge material lost, but still very powerful army – aroused American respect •After Japan was defeated – H. Truman – stop supplying – first step: from alliance to enemies (Lend-Lease aid) •1947 - H. Truman – Doctrine against Communism •http://www.history.com/speeches/the-truman-doctrine •1946 – W. Churchill – Iron Curtain •http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvax5VUvjWQ •1946 – G. Marshall – Marshall Plan, Czechoslovakia and Poland had to refuse – definitive line between East and West •http://www.oecd.org/general/themarshallplanspeechatharvarduniversity5june1947.htm * * * •No open military conflict •Rivalry: policy, economy, science, culture and sport,…very dangerous phenomenon of was armaments •Soviet Union x West Bloc •In western occupation zones – 4 political parties, election, institutions under the occupation power gave the political power to new local governments •In soviet zone – one party (communists and social democrats), land reform, nationalization of some factories and denacification (schools, offices) •June 1948 - 3 zones – monetary reform, reparation was cancelled, Marshall Plan • J.V. Stalin – new wave of terror, no criticism, labor camp •http://www.google.cz/search?q=soviet+working+camps&hl=cs&prmd=imvns&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=p R2ZUMrwCIjEswaM8oHIBA&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAQ&biw=1008&bih=619 •Extreme poverty x extreme investment – army •Crises of agriculture, 1946 - crop failure •Soviet policy - Soviet-bloc countries were subordinate Moscow, Soviet advisers in Security forces •1949 - Council for Mutual Economic Assistance * •1949 Council for Mutual Economic Assistance - Soviet Union – economical power – control over the national economies, members: Soviet Union, Albania, Bulgaria, Romania, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary, East Germany,…Cuba, Mongolia and Vietnam •Political (Show) trials – againts Communist and non – communists - accused of subversive activities, effort to find the culprit responsible for economic problems and effort to discourage people from disagreeing with the régime (50´s Hungary, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia - Milada Horaková) •Nationalization of industry, prohibitions and restrictions on private enterprise and the peasants were forced to join the collective farm •Hardest enforcement - Soviet interests ended in 1953 •http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-EwVVm89og • • • •1947 - H. Truman – Doctrine against Communism •http://www.history.com/speeches/the-truman-doctrine •1946 – W. Churchill – Iron Curtain •http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvax5VUvjWQ •1946 – G. Marshall – Marshall Plan, Czechoslovakia and Poland had to refuse – definitive line between East and West •http://www.oecd.org/general/themarshallplanspeechatharvarduniversity5june1947.htm * * * •No open military conflict •Rivalry: policy, economy, science, culture and sport,…very dangerous phenomenon was armaments •Soviet Union x West Bloc •In western occupation zones – 4 political parties, election, institutions under the occupation power gave the political power to new local governments •In soviet zone – one party (communists and social democrats), land reform, nationalization of some factories and denacification (schools, offices) •June 1948 - 3 zones – monetary reform, reparation was cancelled, Marshall Plan * •Extreme poverty •The black market - American cigarettes •Rationing is the controlled distribution of scarce resources, goods, or services. Rationing controls the size of the ration, one's allotted portion of the resources being distributed on a particular day or at a particular time. • •US and GB – 1. 1. 1947 – Bizone and 1948 Trizone (France) •23 May 1949, the Trizone became the Federal Republic of Germany, commonly known as West Germany •Berlin Blockade – Berlin Airlift (24 June 1948 – 12 May 1949) was one of the first major international crises of the Cold War: June 1948 – decision to establish Germany (3 zones) → Soviet reaction – occupation of western ways to Berlin - collapse in supplying the city- Berlin Crises (https://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/BERLIN_A/INDEX.HTM) * * •Common control of Germany was finished •September 1949 – Federal Republic of Germany, Konrad Adenauer, Independent position – West Berlin •October 1949 – German Democratic Republic, Wilhelm Pieck • * •1949 – 1990 •Communist party, known as the Socialist Unity Party of Germany •President W. Pieck and General Secretary Walter Ulbricht •After 1950, political power in East Germany was held by the First Secretary of the SED •Soviet control •Establishing - two German states - completed struggling for the post-war order in Europe * vEconomy •Lack of food •1947 - disastrous drought •prerequisite for economic recovery •Monetary reform •Payroll reform üchild benefit üXmas benefits üextension of paid leave * *X •Volume of industry ½ compare to before WWII •URNA - *United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA), organization founded (1943) during World War II to give aid to areas liberated from the Axis powers. 52 participating countries, each of which contributed funds amounting to 2% of its national income in 1943. A sum of nearly $4 billion was expended on various types of emergency aid, including distribution of food and medicine and restoration of public services and of agriculture and industry. China, Czechoslovakia, Greece, Italy, Poland, the Ukrainian SSR, and Yugoslavia were the chief beneficiaries. UNRRA returned some 7 million displaced persons to their countries of origin and provided camps for about 1 million refugees unwilling to be repatriated. More than half the funds were provided by the United States. •3. 4. 1945 - President Beneš returned from exile • National Front government - the first Czechoslovak government declared in Košice 4th April 1945, prime minister Zdeněk Fierlinger • Composition of the goverment was agreed in advance – representatives of: London's resistance, Moscowś resistance (communists) and the representatives of Slovak National Uprising. • The most powerfull - Communist • Right-wing parties forbidden! • 5 April – Košice Govermant Program: punishment of war criminals, nationalization, land reform, Czechs and Slovaks, two equal nations ... •Loss Ruthenia (Czechoslovak Government in June 1945 signed in Moscow contract with USSR) •Expulsion of Germans -expulsion Wild (May-August 1945) - Revenge - Germans expelled about 660.000 + murdered: from 15.000 to 30.000 -organized evacuation (August 1945 - November 1946) - based on the Potsdam Conference – 2.250.000 Germans -additional evacuation (1947-1948) - about 80.000 *Overall displaced about 3 million Germans, left in Czechoslovakia 300.000 •August 1945 – transfer of German populatin from Czechoslovakia and Poland, expulsion of Hungarian Population was not agreed •Related President´s Decrees - revoke citizenship, National Administration of firms, confiscation of land •Immovable property, valuables •Personal luggage 30 – 50 kilos •http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6IFfQdM7EI&feature=related • * •In Slovakia 600, 000 Hungarians •Expulsion of Hungarians from Slovakia was not realized •West powers did not agree with the transfer but 1946 - Czechoslovakian - Hungarian Agreement on exchange of populations (limited population Exchange) •Persecution of the Hungarian minority, denationalization Hungarians • *(The legal basis for the expulsion of the Germans and the intended explusion of the Hungarians were Beneš Decrees) •The Decrees of the President of the Republic (and the Constitutional Decrees of the President of the Republic known as the Beneš decrees, üSeries of laws drafted by the Czechoslovak government-in-exile in the absence of the Czechoslovak parliament during the German occupation of Czechoslovakia in World War II üIssued by President Edvard Beneš from 21 July 1940 to 27 October 1945 and retroactively ratified by the Interim National Assembly of Czechoslovakia on 6 March 1946 •October 1945 Edvard Beneš decrees issued: -nationalization of key industries, banks and insurance companies -decrees of the punishment of Nazi war criminals → trials and executions -confiscation of property – based on Potsdam Conference -expulsion of the German population + confiscation of property traitors, collaborators and Germans •28 October 1945 first meeting •Unicameral (Senate was abolished) •Formed by presidential decree •Representatives of political parties and other organizations (non-elected) •Confirmed: Edvard Beneš as President of the Republic and •Zdeňka Fierlingera as Prime Minister •Validity of presidential decrees was confirmed •The National Assembly started to issue legal documents •Land reform - land confiscated (the Germans and collaborators; assigned to the landless and small peasants, especially in the border regions) •Continued ration management Monetary reform (November 1945) - War deposits in Banks were frozen ("linked deposit") •Introduced: obligation to work and child benefits •Ration repository, ended 1953 * •1939 – 118, 310 x 1945 14, 045 •Open asylum policy, pro – Jewish state policy •Anna Hanusová – Flachová * * •BRENNER, H.: The Girls of Room 28: Friendship, Hope, and Survival in Theresienstad. New York 2009. * * •1946 – last “ democratic“ election - National Assembly •Parties: ü- Communists (mass party. 1,000,000) ü- National Socialists ü - The People's Party ü - Social Democrats üDemocratic Party – Slovakia,… - - •Czech lands: üCommunists – 40% •X •Slovakia: ü- Democratic Party – 62% x Communists – 30% •May 1946 “halffree“ elections - people can choose from several political parties but right-wing parties were not allowed •Elected National Assembly of Czechoslovakia •June 1946 Edvard Beneš re-elected – President •New Government: Prime Minister – Klement Gottwald – Communist Party •1947 – catastrophic drought → crop crop failure - food imports from the USSR •Reduction of the supplying – growing black market •Slovakia – real poverty •1947 (June-July) - Marshall Plan - plan presented by US Secretary of State George Marshall – Economic Recovery of Europe; Soviets promptly rejected it. Czechoslovakia was interested, but J.V. Stalin did not agree •Soviet Union help – 600,000 tons of grain x propaganda – Soviets saved Czechoslovakia again… •Disputes: Communist Party x Democratic Party (non-communist) •Communist Party controled Ministry of Interior → organized provocations against Democratic Parties • •Ministry of Interior during Fall 1947 revealed a "conspiracy" in the Democratic Party •Communists managed to limit the influence of Democratic Party provocations, but still alive • "Millionaires" - Communists pushed through extraordinary tax - all propetry over 1 million •Communists – mass POPULARITY •Extra income to the Treasury •Government succumbed to pressure – state budget + 6,000,000,000 Czechoslovak crown (76 304 993 000 Kčs) * *potato beetle •Propaganda and publicity campaigns, mass protests, staged affair and assassination attempts, some of the policy component – provocation and espionage + close ties to the Soviet Union effort to influence opinion about situation in Czechoslovakia •Convergence process of democratic forces began late – lack of unifying personality vFebruary 1948 - two affairs at the National Security Corps: •Affair of Most - secret police agent tried to falsely accuse leaders Czechoslovak National Socialist Party of preparing a coup d'état •Case of Krčmaň - ministers of Czechoslovak National Socialist Party and minister Masaryk (all non – comunists) received boxes with explosives. Minister of Interior Minister Václav Nosek (KSC), it "is not able to investigate" → non-communist parties in government are demanding to investigate both affairs. V. Nosek responded by strengthening the positions of the Communist Party in the National Security Corps → Government decided to stop the implementation but Václav Nosek refused v 20th February – 12 non-communist Ministers resigned •They hoped that President E. Beneš will not accept it (new election or Communists retreat) but Communists started coercive actions to force E. Beneš to accept the resignation → manifestation,…and 24th February – General Strike vJ.V. Stalin encouraged → K. Gottwald necessary to ask the Soviet Union for military aid (Soviet Army was ready : Hungarian-Slovakian border) •K. Gottwald aid refused, apparently handle the situation himself •Action Committees of the National Front raise the power of the Communist Party, depriving political functions of their opponents vThe only one public opposition action to the Communist Party was a demonstration of University students on 25th February – suppressed manifestation v25.2.1948 - President E. Beneš accepted the resignations of the non-Communist ministers and appointed a new government in accordance with KSČ demands → Final Victory of Communist Party * •Feis, H.: Between War and Peace: The Potsdam Conference. Greenwood Publishing Group, 1983. •Roberts, G.: Stalin's Wars: From World War to Cold War, 1939-1953. Yale University Press, 2006. •Kaplan, K.: The Short March: The Communist Takeover in Czechoslovakia, 1945-1948. C. Hurst & Co. Publishers, 1987. •Zeman, Z.: The Life of Edvard Beneš, 1884-1948: Czechoslovakia in Peace and War. Clarendon Press, 1997. * * *