HIST 226 Lecture Notes - Lecture 18: Klement Gottwald, Avail, De-Stalinization
10 Nov 2017
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Document Summary
Class warfare through cultural initiatives (socialist realism, etc. ) Peasants moved to work in urban factories. Plethora of new associations, especially for young people. Soviet advisors control all policies of bloc states. Under stalin, relig insts were closed and many priests/nuns sent to concentration camps. Also attempts to create rifts w/in church. Cardinal mindszenty of hungary the most outspoken, eventually tortured, Opp newspapers either shutdown or deprived of resources. Criminal codes also redone to give communists leeway/control. Show trials, namely of slansky and rajk. Widespread mourning in east-central europe, much of it genuine. Some workers responded by making moves for better conditions, but suppressed. In east germany, more stalinist figure ulbricht remained. State budget strained, more production demanded of workers (same wages) Strikes spread quickly from e berlin gdr. Radio spread news of strike to 300+ cities began demanding free elections. Soviets thus maintained ulbricht in e germ. Workers inputs behind protests showed how regimes failed to represent their idealized.
