Today’s topics:
• Soviet Union: Stalin, Khrushchev
• Britain: Atlee, Welfare State
• West Germany
• France: Charles de Gaulle
• European Community

Soviet Union

After WWII, Stalin picked up where he left off: purging potential rivals left and right. (The fact there were few rivals never dampened Stalin’s enthusiasm for killing people.) Stalin had a huge problem as large numbers of Red Army troops returned home; these men had seen Western Europe and the standards there. Stalin responded by isolating the USSR from Europe and by renewing the “war on capitalism.” Soviet propaganda claimed the Russians invented almost everything and proclaimed the superiority of Soviet culture over the West.

Stalin also fought to recover Soviet industrial capacity without the Marshall Plan aid that benefitted Western Europe. German factories — dismantled and taken to the USSR — formed the backbone of Stalin’s recovery. However, while the USSR recovered industrially, Stalin almost ignored the agricultural problems facing the nation.

Stalin would accept no opposition to his rule, internal or external. Stalin expelled the Yugoslav Communist Party from the Cominform, an international Communist organization, in 1948 when Tito refused to agree to Stalin’s control. Stalin quickly purged all like-minded rulers from Eastern Europe.

In 1948, Stalin launched his last purge, chiefly against Soviet intellectuals and literary figures. In 1593, the Communist newspaper Pravda reported a “doctors’ plot” which claimed that Jewish doctors had murdered several top Party officials. Just as another purge seemed inevitable, Stalin died in March 1953. His potential successors — Georgy Malenkov and head of the NKVD, Lavrenty Beria — were promptly removed from power to prevent their accession to power. Beria was quickly tried and shot by the Red Army, while Malenkov was demoted to manager of a hydroelectric plant in Kazakhstan.

Stalin therefore left no clear successor. After a period of “collective leadership,” Nikita Khrushchev — a Ukranian by birth — succeeded Stalin as head of the Community Party.

Khruschev was no democrat, but he was no Stalin, either. In 1956, Khrushchev denounced Stalin and his brutality at a Party Congress. Khrushchev removed Stalin’s body from Lenin’s tomb in Moscow (where it had been on public display) and buried it in a plain grave elsewhere in Moscow. Khrushchev also renamed Stalingrad to Volgograd. Khrushchev relaxed censorship on intellectuals and attempted to establish “peaceful coexistence” with the West.

In foreign affairs, “peaceful coexistence” meant different things to different people. Khrushchev may have believed in coexistence, but he also believed in the superiority of Marxism-Leninism and loudly promoted it every chance he got. In 1957, the Soviets launched Sputnik, the first artificial satellite. The Soviets lauded Sputnik as proof of their scientific superiority over the West.

Khrushchev was not known for his restraint. On at least one occasion, he told a U.S. President, “we will bury you.” He also pounded the podium with his shoe during a U.N. speech.

Khrushchev badly miscalculated in 1962 by placing missiles in Cuba. The U.S. responded by blockading the island, and Khrushchev backed down. His willingness to compromise the issue led to his replacement in 1964 by Leonid Breshnev.

Great Britain

Churchill was voted out of office in 1945 and replaced by Labour Prime Minister Clement Atlee. Atlee was a socialist who was deeply influenced by a government report in 1942 that said Britain’s greatest problems were “squalor, ignorance, want, idleness and disease.” (Source: Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welfare_State), last accessed 30 November 2005). Atlee was determined to end poverty in Britain, and he decided to do this by created the first comprehensive “Welfare State” in Britain. Atlee’s concept called for “cradle to the grave” care for every citizen as a right.

Atlee’s government passed welfare legislation that gave every British subject basic services such as free health care, education, and lunches in schools. Atlee nationalized the utilities, the Bank of England, the coal mines, iron and steel industries, and the national transportation system. Atlee also created the National Health Service to guarantee free health care to all British subjects. All subjects received sick leave benefits, unemployment compensation, maternity benefits, and government pensions. All of these benefits were to be paid for by profits from nationalized industries and taxes on the British subjects.

Churchill and the Conservatives regained power in 1951, but aside from privatizing iron and steel and some transportation, the Conservatives left the welfare state alone. Britain’s welfare state served as a model for other nations for the next 2 decades until Margaret Thatcher became prime minister in 1979.

Germany

Germany was permanently divided by 1948. Millions of Germans fled the Soviet-controlled area as the borders solidified between East and West Germany. The Soviets and their German allies were terribly embarrassed by the exodus, so much so that in 1961 the East German Communist government built the Berlin Wall between East and West Berlin. West Berlin was completely shut off from East German citizens for the next three decades.

In the west, West Germany became its own nation in 1949. The constitution created a federal system of government with a liberal bill of rights. West Germany built its society on a welfare model such as Britain’s. German chancellor Konrad Adenauer, leading the Christian Democratic Union, created a consumer-driven economy that emphasized peace between corporations and labor unions. In return, employees received generous benefits such as 4 to 6 weeks of annual vacation. The socialist party in West Germany, the Social Democratic Party, supported many of Adenauer’s policies and renounced Marxism and class war. Under Adenauer, West Germany became a major economic power in Europe.

In 1963, Adenauer created a series of regular meetings with French president Charles de Gaulle. These meetings led to the Elysee Treaty between the 2 nations in 1963. The Elysee Treaty renounced the Franco-German rivalries of the previous centuries; created a system of close economic cooperation; and provided student exchanges between the 2 nations.

France

The Fourth Republic was founded in 1946, but it suffered from major political instability that reminded most French of the Third Republic before the War. Since no political party could win an outright majority in the Assembly, governing the nation proved almost impossible. Even worse, the government badly fumbled decolonization, leading to war in Algeria that almost exploded into civil war in France itself.

The Fourth Republic managed to implement an economic recovery based on state planning of the economy, almost like the Soviet Union. However, the state did not mandate participation by industry, although some parts of the economy were nationalized.

The Fourth Republic fell in 1958 over the Algerian issue. French paratroopers from Algeria actually occupied the island of Corsica to protest perceived government weakness in Algeria. On 1 June 1958, Charles de Gaulle — the leader of the French Resistance during WWII — became Premier and was given emergency power for 6 months to resolve the crisis.

de Gaulle blamed the constitution under which the Republic was governed and set about writing a new constitution. In September 1958, the French citizens approved de Gaulle’s new constitution. French colonies were given a choice between immediate independence or the new constitution. Most colonies voted to remain part of France. Algeria was given no choice; it was considered a part of France.

de Gaulle was very independent minded. He had never forgotten that the U.S. and Britain had tried to replace him as leader of the Resistance, and he was determined to do everything in his power to maintain French independence — especially if it led to American and British discomfort.

de Gaulle coined the phrase, “Europe from the Atlantic to the Urals.” de Gaulle pointedly left Britain out of his vision of “Europe” because he felt Britain was too closely tied to the U.S. France exploded its first atomic bomb in 1960, making France the fourth major nuclear power. (de Gaulle claimed France was the third nuclear power because Britain had received American assistance in the development of its bomb.) In 1964, de Gaulle recognized Communist China and accorded it diplomatic status. In 1966, de Gaulle withdrew France from NATO’s military command structure, although France remained a NATO member.

de Gaulle’s meetings with Adenauer led to more than Franco-German cooperation; they would lead to greater European integration than the continent had seen since Roman times.

The European Community

Europe’s divisions had led to the most brutal wars ever experienced. After the War, many European statesmen began seeking to establish formal treaties that would integrate Europe to the point that another world war would never start on the European continent.

In 1948, Belgium Luxembourgh, and the Netherlands signed a treaty establishing the Benelux Customs Union. This treaty led to the European Coal and Steel Community in 1951. Rubert Schuman of Luxembourg joined with the genius of French economic planning, Jean Monnet, to create a means for European nations to pool their coal and steel production. Iron and coal workers from any member nation could work in any other member nation. France, West Germany, Italy, and the Benelux countries joined the ECSC. Britain refused to join, fearing Continental control of its economy.

The Paris Treaty of 1951 that established the ECSC also contained provisions for a European Parliament to meet in Strasbourg, France. In 1953, the European Court of Human Rights was established to guarantee human rights on the Continent. When the ECSC proved successful, the 6 countries began discussion to create a common market — a tax-free trade zone — among themselves. The European Economic Community was formed by the Rome Treaty of 1957.

The success of the Common Market rested on the elimination of tariffs between the members and a common tariff policy towards non-member nations. Following its success, 7 other nations formed the European Free Trade Association in 1959: Austria, Denmark, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland — and Britain. The EEC had major advantages over the EFTA, however, and Greece applied for EEC membership in 1961. Greece received associate status in 1961, and Turkey received the same status in 1963.

Britain, Norway, and Ireland then applied for membership in the EEC. de Gaulle, always the Frenchman who never passed an opportunity to stick it to the British, blocked British membership. As a result, all applications for membership were tabled until de Gaulle finally retired in 1969. Instead, the EEC, the ECSC, and other organizations joined to form the European Community in 1967.

After de Gaulle’s retirement, Britain, Ireland, and Denmark received membership in the EC; the Norwegians rejected membership in a national vote. Britain came into the EC only under negotiated terms for their membership, but Britain became an official member of the EC in 1973.

Unrest and Terrorism in Europe

In 1968, the Czech Communist Party chose Alexander Dubcek for the post of first secretary to the party. Dubcek tried to implement humanitarian policies to liberalize the Communist brutality. Instead, a Warsaw Pact army of 200,000 troops invaded Czechoslovakia on Breshnev’s orders, deposed Dubcek, and installed a pro-Moscow government. The U.S. was too involved in the Vietnam War and wracked with problems of its own to support the Czechs.

Also in 1968, de Gaulle faced violent student protests throughout the nation, but the largest demonstrations were in Paris. The students protested against the Americans, college administrators, and almost any other power they thought worth the fuss. On one night, 25,000 students fought police in Paris. de Gaulle resigned by the end of the year.

Terrorism also flared in Europe during the 1960’s. Communists throughout Western Europe began assassinating national and corporate leaders, especially in West Germany (the Red Army faction) and Italy (the Red Brigade). The Red Brigade would murder a former Italian prime minister in 1978 (Aldo Moro).

The worst violence came in the 1972 Munich Olympic Games. Gunmen from the Palestinian Liberation Army (the PLO) kidnapped several members of the Jewish Olympic team and held them hostage. The feeble rescue attempt resulted in the murder of many of the hostages.

Conclusion

It’s amazing that Europe managed to survive the post-War period as well as it did. By 1970, the continent seemed permanently divided between capitalism and Communism, between East and West. The West became far richer materially while the East suffered under Russian Communist rule. No one in 1970 could have foreseen events that would transpire in the next 30 years.