JAGIELLONIAN UNIVERSITY IN KRAKOW FACULTY OF INTERNATIONAL AND POLITICAL STUDIES

INSTYTUTE OF AMERICAN STUDIES AND POLISH DIASPORA CATHEDRAL OF AMERICAN STUDIES

Marcin Ponarski Number of index : 1050118

FIELD OF STUDIES: Cultural Studies

Speciality: Transatlantic Studies

THE COLD WAR AND COMMUNISM

In Eastern Europe in the 20th Century.

Supervisor: Prof. Patrick Vaughan

Krakow /2011/

Introduction : After the end of the WW2, the world was once again threatened. At that time, the danger came from the Soviet Union. The newly adopted ideas of communism, were used by Stalin in order to create his totalitarian system. The Soviet Union didn’t gain power overnight. The crucial decisions that was made at Yałta Conference made that possible. At the conference Stalin received the sphere of influence over Eastern Europe.. He lured the most powerful leader of the world at that time to achieve his goals. The power that he got, started from controlling Poland and successively, obtained more control over other eastern countries in Europe. The communistic regime proved to be disastrous. Hunger and death was the consequence of the Soviet leadership. With many people not standing the pressure, revolts were occurring throughout the Soviet Block. Poland was one of them, where thanks to Solidarity movement and the help of the Church, ordinary people believed in change and better tomorrow. The communism was overcame thanks to strong standing against the Soviet oppression from the Reagan’s administration. The communism ended when the truth was revealed that it couldn’t no longer sustain itself. The truth that caused the Berlin Wall to fall and let millions of people to reunite. The Eastern Europe became free again, yet that came with a great cost. Millions of lives were destroyed through imprisonments, murders and tortures. Hundreds of thousands will always remember the day that the colossus took their freedom from them. Millions will always remember the day it vanished. The solidarity and faith proved to be bulletproof when fighting communism.

Chapter 1: The beginning of the Cold War in Europe. The United States learned its lesson after the WW I, that there were many political mistakes done that as the result caused the Pearl Harbor to be attacked and the WW II to outbreak. It primarily had to do with the isolationism supported by the Congress and the failure to join the League of Nations. Roosevelt’s plans for the post WW II peace, included the creation of strong economic and political conditions that would allow for the democracy and capitalism to have the solid base for the future. However, F.D.R and his successors, had to deal with another emerging ideological doctrine after Nazism. That ideology, namely communism, proved to be as disastrous as Fascism. Communism is an utopian idea of a society without any class division. It is a society where there are no labor wages or private properties, it was create in order to replace capitalism. There are many theories associated with the communism, yet the one that was adopted by the Soviet Union was based on the Marxism-Leninism theory and consisted of ideas such as industrialization and collectivization. Those ideas were used by the former Soviet Union leader, Joseph Stalin .While the objectives of Hitler were very clear, Stalin on the other hand, used his unusually clever methods in order to obtain, exactly what he wanted. His personal convictions in communism were extremely strong along with the determination to poses power. He used an illusion in order to fool almost everybody and especially the Roosevelt’s administration to achieve his goals. F.D.R had great and optimistic plans for the postwar future of the world, he was an idealist believing in changes. Stalin on the other hand was a cold hearted realist, that abused the benefit of a doubt, that the US had given him. F.D.R stressed some of the aspects of his plan with a great importance. The necessity of much harsher treatment and occupying the territories of the aggressor by the victorious

nations, along with the requirement of self-determination to prevent future depressions was scheduled. Roosevelt also blamed the collapse of the international order on the failure to join the League of Nations. Therefore in order for the world-peace to prevail, the US had to emerge itself from the isolationism and cooperate more with the friendly nations. According to Gaddis “ Finally, Roosevelt and his advisers clearly realized that their vision of the future would never materialize unless the members of the Grand Alliance, united now only by their common enemies, built friendly relationships which would survive victory”.1 The two members of the Grand Alliance, Great Britain and the Soviet Union expressed some kind of commitment to the ideas of self-determination by each country and trading policies stated in the Atlantic Charter. While Great Britain couldn’t insists on its postwar plans, the Soviet Union on the other hand had the powers to do so. Although both Washington and Moscow wanted peace, there were many internal issues like communistic ideology that went along with a great deal of suspicions expressed towards the West. Another problem was the territorial issues. Gaddis states “ Three devastating invasions in one hundred and thirty years had convinced Moscow of the need to seek security through territorial acquisition and spheres of influence”.2 There was no doubt that cooperation with the Soviet Union would be a very difficult one. The Bolshevik Revolution, secret pact with the Nazis or the secret pact with Japan and the partition of Poland, all indicated that Stalin’s resistance would be very difficult to deal with. However at that time the fighting of Germany was the priority number one, that is why the United States was willing to help the Russians as much as possible (one example would be the Lend-Lease that allowed for the US to supply the Soviet Union with weapons, planes and tanks). Gaddis claims “ The President knew that the vast difference in culture,

1 The United States and the Origins of the Cold War, p. 2. 2 Idem 3.

language, and ideology separated the Soviet Union from the United States. He had no illusion about the nature of Stalin’s regime which he regarded as no less rigid dictatorship that Hitler’s”.3 The main difference between Stalin and Hitler, F.D.R believed was that Stalin wouldn’t use the military aggression to promote communism. He also believed that obtaining the long-lasting peace and preventing the future wars was possible. He stressed continuously that Stalin would cooperate. The facts however, clearly indicated that Stalin was not a person that could be trusted at all. This had to do with the situation of Poland, country which was particularly betrayed by Stalin and eventually ignored by the Big Three. Arthur Bliss Lane, the American ambassador, reported on many occasions about what happened to Poland around 1945. When he arrived in Poland three months after the war with Germany was over, he witnessed Warsaw completely destroyed. According to Bliss “ The smoky smell of long-dead fires hung in the air. The sickening sweet odor of burned human flesh was a grim warning that we were entering a city of the dead”.4 The Nazis, made every effort to demolish the city thoroughly, literally block by block and got rid of all the inhabitants, by putting them into the concentration camp at Pruszkow. Bliss states “They were those whose legs or arms were carried away by bombs, or whose gangrened limbs were amputated in mercy. The war left these frail and heartbreaking victims everywhere in Europe. In Warsaw we counted them in sickening numbers”.5 In his view Poland was basically the only one country in Europe that was hit the most by the Nazis. And even after all those severe hardships inflicted upon Poland, its future was again, going in a wrong direction, due to the Soviet Union manipulative tactics and Roosevelt’s indifference . Those manipulative

3 Idem 4. 4 I saw Poland betrayed, p.20. 5 Idem. 21.

tactics were clearly visible during the events related to the Home Army, struggling with Germans in Warsaw in July of 1944. General Bor Komorowski, the national commander of the Home Army was in constant radio contact with the Soviet authorities and surely counted on the Soviets help to his Army. According to Bliss “General Bor and his staff were confident, Russians would begin their attack upon the city almost immediately”.6 And his hopes were reinforced by the radio broadcasts sent by the Soviet government, encouraging Poles to start fighting Germans. Bliss states “ It said : Poles, the time of liberation is at hand! Poles, to arms! Make the every Polish home a stronghold in the fight against the invader! There is not a moment to lose”.7 The State Department confirmed that the broadcast sent, was approved by the Soviet authorities and there were other similar broadcasts send by the Soviets to create an illusion of helping the polish army. The Home Army soldiers fought extremely bravely, capturing from the Germans the most important buildings in Warsaw, despite of food shortage and ammunition supplies, yet the Soviet Union soldiers were still stationed on the other side of the Vistula River not giving any support to the Polish army. The Polish Premier Mikolajczyk was given an ultimatum from Stalin, that had to do with the Lublin Government being considered as more superior than the London Government. And if that happened along with the “Curzon Line” issue, resolved, which would give substantial Polish eastern territories to the Soviets, the Red Army would come with the needed help. Bliss states ” The conferences continued for five days. At their conclusion Mikolajczyk returned to London to place Stalin’s proposals before his government. They were a heavy Blow”.8 The help from the Soviets never came and that was for the

6 Idem. 42. 7 Idem. 43. 8 Idem. 47.

purpose of discrediting the London government. The communists strongly feared that if the Red Army would have driven the Germans form Poland it would be very difficult, to preserve the Lublin government, since all the credit would be given to the Polish Government in exile. Bliss reveals “ It is plain that the destruction of the Polish Home Army had been premeditated purpose of the Soviet political strategists from at first “. 9 After various pleading to Stalin for the Red Army’s help, the Polish premier made, official statement was made by another Soviet source “Tass”, accusing the London Government of starting the Warsaw rising at the wrong time. According to Bliss “ Tass is in possessing of information which shows that the Polish circles in London responsible for the Warsaw rising made no attempt to coordinate this action with the Soviet High Command. In this circumstances, the only people responsible for the results of the events in Warsaw are the Polish émigré circles in London”.10 At some point the United States government along with the British government, got involved in the problem. Yet, still even after many requests for cooperation to the Soviet government the help they offered was insufficient. The courageous Polish National Army fought with very little food supplies and ammunition, and finally was conquered by the Nazis on October 3, 1944. From the Bliss’s account it looks like those manipulative tactics used by Stalin were aimed at the discrediting the London government and were being executed with a great detail. There were two main reasons for the duplicity of Stalin at that time. The first one was to weaken the London government by offering help and encouraging the Polish Home Army to undertake the Warsaw uprising, only to call the undertaking “adventure” later on. Another one was to destroy the city of Warsaw. The plan that the

9 Idem. 48. 10Idem. 49.

Soviet government had, was to be achieved through the Home Army’s collapse. According to Bliss “ Minister Churchill addressed a joint appeal to Marshal Stalin, stating that there were thinking of world opinion if the anti-Nazis in Warsaw were in effect abandoned “.11 After all, those events that took place during the Warsaw uprising, seemed like the Soviet army helped the Nazis to destroy Warsaw. Bliss reveals “ The Red Army waited at the gates of Warsaw from September until the middle of January-a full four months-before entering the city. In this period the Nazis completed the demolition of Warsaw. The Nazi commander of Warsaw had virtually fulfilled his promise not to leave a stone standing”.12 The future of Poland was to be shaped at the two crucial conferences, the first one took place at Tehran in December 1943. The discussions made at the conference were kept strictly confidential and were only available to few officials. The few points, the Premier Mikolajczyk and Foreign minister Tadeusz Romer took under consideration form Churchill, had to do with territorial and governmental issues. They had to do with accepting by Poles the Curzon Line, granting to Poland East Prussia, Danzig and Upper Silesia to the Odra River. They also stated the right of Poles, left on the Soviet side to return to Poland and removing the German population from Poland’s new boundaries. Those were the frameworks for later negotiations with Stalin at Yalta conference. Yet, for the Polish authorities, those frameworks were not satisfying enough. According to Bliss “ Mikolajczyk refused to accept Churchill’s proposal. First of all, he had no constitutional authority to do so. Secondly, acceptance would entail submission to Soviet demands without possibility of revision and would conceivably encourage further encroachments on Polish territory”.13 Another issue had to do with the United States

11 Idem. 53. 12 Idem. 13 Idem. 56.

guaranteeing its support in materializing such settlement, questions asked by Ambassador Ciechanowski. Bliss states “ 2. Whether the United States was prepared in principle to participate in bringing about such settlements and to guarantee them. 3. Whether the United States Government regarded it possible to lend its support to Churchill’s plan and to its realization”.14 The Polish authorities were very concerned with the future of their nation and realized that dealing with the Soviet Union was extremely difficult . Therefore, they needed reassurance from the United States. President Roosevelt was very favorable of Poland being independent. During his conversations with the Polish authorities that took place at the White House in June of 1944, he expressed his admiration for the Polish Home Army and envisioned Poland strong and independent. Also, he mentioned that he understood Stalin like nobody else did. Yet he did not seem to guarantee a strong support for Ciechanowski and Premier Mikolajczyk.. In the FDR’s view the Soviet Union was much bigger country than Poland and that there must have been some kind of compromise made between them. Bliss states “ He pointed out, however, that the Soviet Union had five times the population of Poland and could swallow up Poland if she could not reach an understanding on her terms. And he added in cryptic sentence. When a thing becomes unavoidable, one should adapt oneself to it”.15 Roosevelt wanted to keep his relations with Stalin as friendly as possible. According to Bliss “ And at their final conversation with on June 14, he reminded the Premier that “You cannot risk war with Russia. What alternative remains? Only to reach an agreement”.16 And there were many other Polish delegations to the FDR, Mr. Rozmarek was a head of them an acted as a spokesman, he wanted the guarantee of the Atlantic Charter being applied to the situation of Poland. Nevertheless, Roosevelt never made

14 Idem. 57. 15 Idem. 58. 16 Idem.

a clear and definitive statement when it came to the situation of Poland. It seemed like he already knew its destiny, but he did not want to make the Polish public disappointed, since that would be very uncomfortable for his political career. Bliss states “ He said nothing about the legal Polish Government in London, nothing about boundaries,’ Mr. Gimski said”.17 The silence had to do with Roosevelt’s dealings with the Pulaski Republican League of New York State, which Mr. John A. Gimski was a president. He mentioned that during the interview at the White House, Roosevelt did not satisfy the demands of the league. Arthur Bliss Lane pointed out to the American President that the US, was a very strong country at that time and could have a strong influence on the Soviet Union, when it came to the question of Poland. According to Lane ” The President asked rather sharply and with a note of sarcasm, “Do you want me to go to war with Russia?”.18 When Bliss replied, explaining that it was rather a matter of a mediation with the Soviet Union and achieving the goals, considering the position of the US, the President Roosevelt sustained his trust in Stalin’s words. Bliss reveals “ The President stated that he had entire confidence in Stalin’s word and felt sure that he would not go back on it”.19 And after the Tehran Conference F.D.R expressed even more trust in Stalin and optimism on a nationwide radio. According to Gaddis “ I believe that we are going to get along very well with him and the Russian people-very well indeed”.20 Therefore his main design was to prevent the future wars and keep the alliance with Stalin cooperative and in accord, also not to repeat the past mistakes and hold the aggressors responsible to the greatest extent possible. In fact in 1943 at Casablanca conference he and Churchill announced the doctrine of unconditional surrender. Its purpose was the

17 Idem. 60. 18 Idem. 66. 19 Idem. 20 The United States and the Origins of the Cold War, p. 7.

complete elimination of German and Japan. Yet to keep the alliance together, friendly relationships with the Soviet Union were crucial. The public opinion of the Soviet Union shifted from the negative to positive gradually. As the polls showed in the late 1939 the American people preferred fascism over communism. However when by the end of 1941 the United States was fighting the same enemy with the most powerful communistic country in the world on its side, the perception of the public changed to be more positive. According to Gaddis “ Reassessing recent events in this light, many informed observers came to believe that Stalin had fundamentally altered the ideological orientation of his own regime; that the Soviet Union was in the process of abandoning communism in fact, if not in name”.21 Stalin made great efforts to portrait the Soviet Union to be as harmless as possible. He showed no interests in promoting the worldwide spread of his communistic ideology. In 1943 he abolished the Comintern, organization for which the spread of the worldwide communism was the priority. And even showed tolerance towards the Russian Orthodox Church. Therefore, Americans started to believe that Russia would develop a democratic system of government and in the future would became an equal partner along with the United States. However, as the history has shown that wasn’t exactly the case, since the Soviet Union leaders’ good intentions proved to be a tactical manipulation that was to win the support they needed. Gaddis claims “ By disclaiming the goal of international revolution, Stalin seemed to have removed the chief impediment to postwar cooperation with the capitalistic world, thus greatly facilitating implementation of President Roosevelt’s “grand design””.22 In fact, not everybody shared the idea that the Kremlin seemed to stop promoting its interests when it came to the spread of the communism on the global scale.

21 Idem. 33. 22 Idem. 33.

Many people claimed that although, Stalin abandoned the idea of the world revolution and got into the alliance with the US against Hitler, that was very important for the national interests, there would be some postwar conflicts against the Soviet Union. One of the important former Moscow correspondent William Henry Chamberlin the author of many books and articles on Russia, strongly supported that perception. According to Gaddis “ The Stalin who had proved to be such a ‘courageous, clear- sighted, astute, tenacious leader of his armies and his people,’ Chamberlin observed, was the same man who had slaughtered his own associates and signed the pact with Hitler “.23 Chamberlin and his supporters were pointing out to the American public that the striking sudden metamorphosis of Stalin into a good guy was nothing but an illusion. They claimed that although the Red Army fought in the WWII with the US against Hitler, and they fought well, that was only in those countries own interests. In other words, the supporters of more skeptical view of Russia insisted on being more realistic when dealing with Stalin. Louis Fischer, former Russian correspondent critiqued the Soviets’ appeasement, while being on air. According to Gaddis “ Stalin has only torn up the a label. He loses nothing. He must be laughing at us for being so naïve as to celebrate the death of a name”.24 And there were many others with similar views of the Soviet Union that warned the US when it came to the duplicity of Stalin. As the history revealed, the Roosevelt administration and the American public undervalued the power of the Marxist-Leninist doctrine, the strength it oppressed its citizens and it’s tactical mind games. Nevertheless, it all came to the question of the postwar order and the future of the Eastern Europe. That question was to be answered mostly at the Yalta Conference. The problem of Poland and its sovereignty turned out to be a major one. It mainly had to do with the Polish-Americans wanting to restore its borders to those of the prewar times 23 Idem. 43. 24 Idem. 55.

and preserve the land of their parents and grandparents. The Polish-American leaders, even created its own nonpartisan congress, that would govern the public opinion among Poles when it came to the partition of their motherland. Gaddis states “ During the spring the White House received thousands of printed postcards, all of them urging Roosevelt to oppose ‘the forth partition of Poland’”.25 Poles wanted a definitive application of the Atlantic Charter in the dispute between Russia and Poland. And the propaganda against the Soviet Union was enormous. Especially the Polish government in exile caused a great deal of disapproval. In the US, the Detroit Polish language newspapers were pushing on Polish-Americans not to give up to the Russians by placing few anxiety causing articles. Nevertheless, Roosevelt pointed out many times to the Polish-American leaders that they would have to reconcile with the Soviets on the territorial agreements. Both British and Americans did not see a point in fighting with Stalin over that issue. At the Yalta Conference, Gaddis states “ Roosevelt suggested, merely as a ‘gesture’, that the Russians leave the predominately Polish city of Lvov and the surrounding oil fields within the new Poland even though they were on the Russian side of the Curzon Line”.26 At the culmination of the Russo-Polish boundary dispute, Stalin refused to the suggestion of Roosevelt. Since Stalin claimed that the Curzon Line was drawn by the allies after the WW I and he did not want any change. The far more difficult question emerged as to who was supposed to govern Poland. Whether it was the Lublin Poles, the London Poles or both of them. According to Gaddis “ Roosevelt told Stalin that the American public opposed recognition of the Lublin government on the grounds that it represented a minority of the Polish people”.27

25 Idem. 143. 26 Idem. 161. 27 Idem.

Nevertheless, the American President wanted the Polish government to be friendly to the Soviet Union. There was a disagreement between Stalin and the West when it came to the political and economic issues. While Roosevelt wanted to establish the democratic government in Poland, Stalin’s point of view was that Poland was a huge treat to the Soviet’s security since it was a corridor that gave hostile countries easy access to attack and that Poland attacked the Soviet Union in the past. Therefore, Stalin insisted on pro- communistic government in Poland that would secure the Soviet Union against any potential treat from the West. There were many economical disagreement as well, when it came to satisfying Soviets. Powaski points out “ The Big Three also were not able to agree on the amount of reparation Germany would be required to pay. The Soviets wanted to exact $20 billion from the Germans”.28 From the Big Three, Churchill was the one who thought that the Soviets demands were very excessive and claimed that the world peace collapsed after the World War I because of the reparations. Roosevelt on the other hand was willing to negotiate with Stalin during the next occasion. Latter on it was agreed that each country, including the Soviet Union, would get repayments from its share of eventually divided Germany. As a finalized deal between Stalin and F.D.R, Poland fell into the sphere of the influence of Stalin on the contingency of a guarantee from the Soviet Union to establish free election within Poland and subsequently a democratic form of government. This is where the Roosevelt administration made a dramatic mistake, since as the history has shown, the Soviet Union did not keep its promise and caused Poland and the Eastern Europe to fall into it’s communistic regime. Many historians argue that it wasn’t only the very bad health of Roosevelt itself that caused the flaw at that time, but also the fear of breaking up the

28 The Cold War, chapter 2, p. 60.

Grand Alliance. According to Powaski “ The alternative was to risk the breakup of the Grand Alliance before the war was over. Until then, Roosevelt hoped that Stalin would cooperate by curbing his territorial appetite and by preserving the façade of democracy in Eastern Europe that was created at Yalta “.29 The Yalta conference and the FDR death soon afterwards, shaped the events that followed. The very lenient and naïve approach towards Stalin, caused the beginning of a new era, that had to do with the spread of communism and the total control of the Soviet Union over the countries of Eastern Europe. The Cold War started. The very beginning of the Cold War is dated with the implementation of the “Containment Policy”, by the United States. The policy was necessary since the Soviet eagerness of domination of the world and perception of the capitalism as an enemy, along with the events of the betrayal during the Warsaw uprising and very harsh treatment of Poles caused a great deal of anxiety among American people. The Containment Policy was introduced by George F. Kennan, an American diplomat and advisor. He was the key figure during the Cold War period and he pressed the authorities towards more strict approach towards the Soviet Union rather than cooperation, instead he wanted more work to be done with other parts of Europe in order to control the Soviet Union sphere of influence. His writings made a great deal of inspiration on the president Roosevelt’s successor Harry Truman. He was the president that basically started the Cold War, due to his famous doctrine. The “Truman Doctrine’ that had to do with much more cooperation with the postwar Europe and tough approach to the Soviet Union. He differed a lot on this matter from FDR and was very similar to president Wilson in his idealistic international approach. Also, Truman can be distinguished as the president who sign into law “Marshall Plan” on April 3 1948. The Marshall Plan was implemented by the State Department

29 Idem. 62.

officials, especially George F. Kennan. It primarily had to do with a huge deal of economic rebuilding of the Western Europe. According to Scott Jackson “ Just over thirty-one years ago, on June 5, 1947, Secretary of State George C. Marshall suggested that the United States was prepared to consider a greatly increased program of economic assistance for European recovery”.30 He presented how badly postwar Europe was doing. The Europeans could not even afford the transportation of food and other important commodities. He stressed that the United States would give the help needed through various programs, yet the Europeans themselves would have to take a lead in the overall recovery. Scott states “Marshall's approach to the nations of Europe has had its share of interpreters. It has been described variously as a symbol of American generosity and humanitarianism, as a central event in the developing Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union, as an outgrowth of the imagined or structural need of American capitalism to save itself by controlling and channeling Europe's economies and , most narrowly, as a series of bureaucratic decisions made in an effort to solve the dilemma of military occupation of Germany”.31 The plan was design to modernize the European industries and businesses using American based models of operations. Namely it was to create a sense of confidence within developing corporation and aiming at successful outcomes. The plan was being implemented for about four years . The total of $13 billion dollars were disbursed as a help to the European country. The Marshall Plan proved itself to be a great success making the Western Europe very strong politically and economically. Contrary, Eastern European countries like Poland, Hungary or Czechoslovakia, were exposed into a great deal of economic struggles. According to Bennett Kovrig “ The ravages of war had left most of the East European countries in desperate need of aid for immediate 30 Prologue to the Marshall Plan: The Origins of the American Commitment for a European Recovery program. The Journal of American History. p 1043 31 Idem. 1044

relief and reconstruction”.32 The United States wanted to provide some of the US loans to the poorest countries, yet due to the unsatisfactory requirements being met as far as the financial records availability was concerned, many countries failed. That was, since the political and financial matters, were being controlled by the Russians. That was the case with Poland for example. Bennett states “ American-Polish negotiation on a loan were broken off in May 1946 when the Warsaw government refused to provide information on its economic and commercial policies and agreements”.33 In the countries neighboring with Poland the soviet pressure prevented the US from making financial contribution, that had to do with the fact that in order for a particular country to receive any money they had to belong to a special organization. Bennett reveals “Economic leverage failed even in the case of relatively autonomous Czechoslovakia. Prague asked for a $300 million loan in September 1945, then dropped the request, presumably because of Soviet pressure”.34 In other words the Communists had great control over those Eastern European countries and were constantly spreading propaganda against the American capitalistic ”Imperialism” and made impossible for those countries to receive any kind of aid. According to Bennett “ That hope was definitively dashed only when Moscow prevented Prague from enrolling in the European Recovery Program. But even in late 1945 the East European regimes were not free enough to accept the reasonable conditions for American aid.35 The sphere of influence over certain regions of Europe, that the Soviet Union acquired through bad strategic planners from the US side since the Yalta Conference in 1945, divided the world. The worst of all was that Stalin was an inpatient man and wanted his control over the Eastern Europe to speed up. Bennett states “ Within

32 Of Walls and Bridges. The United States & Eastern Europe. p. 17. 33 Idem. 18. 34 Idem. 35 Idem.

a few months, the more backward East European Communist parties had forcibly absorbed the social democrats, their main competitor for the allegiance of the working class. By the end of 1948 the elimination or neutralization of all institutionalized opposition, including the churches, was accomplished”.36 One of the key figures that supported liberation of the Eastern Europe from the Soviet oppression was John Foster Dulles. Dulles was well known for his great antipathy towards communism. From 1953 to 1959, served as a U.S Secretary of State under President Dwight D. Eisenhower. According to Bennett” The most prominent exponent of liberation was John Foster Dulles, whose long experience in foreign affairs ( including serving as an adviser to Truman) made him a leading contender for the post of secretary of state in a Republican administration”.37 Dulles made a famous speech at a Council on Foreign Relations dinner in his honor, where he examined the strategy of communists towards the United States, by pointing out that, the over- militarization in the countries the US soldiers were stationed in order to fight communists, were going to make the US bankrupt sooner or later. Instead, he proposed a policy that would guarantee a maximum security at the most affordable cost. What Dulles implied in this policy was the use of massive retaliatory powers, which could be read as a use of an atomic bomb against communists. In general terms the speech was very closely related to the president Eisenhower political approaches. Dulles believed that the Truman administration was not efficient enough in fighting communists. In his view, much more vigorous approach was needed in fighting communists and terminate the Soviet Union Sphere of influence. Similarly, Eisenhower wanted to cut the cost related to military expediters on other countries territories, and to reduce the US domestic deficits. Bennett states” Speaking in its defense, Dulles insisted that the resolution was „no call to bloody and senseless revolution” but was necessary to reassure the East Europeans and generate ”

36 Idem. 30. 37 Idem. 47.

spiritual power” that would ultimately overcome Soviet dictatorship”.38 After an unexpected death of Stalin the negotiation with the new Soviet leader didn’t bring any significant outcome to the table. However, there was a special planning exercise conducted in summer of 1953. It was called” Operation Solarium” and had to do vastly with the US foreign policies towards the Soviet Union. Many of the ideas implemented during the early stage of the Cold War such as liberation of Eastern Europe and roll back of communism, tuned out to be very difficult to achieve. Bennett reveals” Separate study groups at the National War College reviewed the merits of containment, deterrence, and liberation, as well as of negotiation with the Soviets within a two year limit”. 39 In fact George Kennan participated in the event himself and made it possible for the president to come up with a revision of the containment policy. The president Eisenhower came up with an idea of the ” The New Look” policy. It had to do with balancing the military powers during the Cold War. The president wanted to avoid economic disaster in an event of a military threat from the Soviet Union. Therefore, the continental and naval forces were cut and the air forces were expanded. And what is even more important, more reliance was put on the nuclear weapons. According to Bennett” Greater reliance on the nuclear deterrent and on alliances would, it was argued, help the United States regain the initiative in meeting Soviet challenges selectively, with superior force, and at lower cost (more bang for the buck, as Secretary of Defense Wilson put it).40 While the military strategies were being discussed. The situation in the Soviet Block was getting worse. The most disturbing deficiencies, were in the monetary supplies. Czechoslovak communistic regime announced new drastic economic measures, that had

38 Idem.51 39 Idem.58. 40 Idem.

to do with very abrupt rise in prices of everyday goods like food etc. as well as harsh currency reform. That reform, which were later revised would cause a drop in living standards for almost more than half. Bennett states” The riots were quickly quelled and thousands placed under arrest, but the message to both East and West was clear. Stalinist economies was not working, and totalitarian controls could not prevent spontaneous outbursts against Communistic rule.41 Yet, similar economic problems occurred in many other satellite states. The more dramatic at that time happened in East Germany. Those riots, were much more longer and violent, calling for death of communism and for free elections and what is more important it significantly shook the confidence of the communistic leaders. The uprising of East Germany, reassured the policy of liberated Eastern Europe. The outcome of the uprising showed many internal weaknesses within the Soviet Union. For the first time officials in Paris and London were willing to apply the principle. The president himself showed a great deal of confidence in the liberated Eastern Europe. According to Bennett” Eisenhower, for this part, sent a reassuring message to Chancellor Adenauer predicting that the contrast between democratic and prosperous West Germany and East Germany would ‘ in the long run produce conditions which should make possible the liquidation of the present Communistic dictatorship and of the Soviet occupation,’ and pledging America’s political, diplomatic, and moral support”.42 In the United States, the public opinion when measured by a survey showed a great deal of dislike towards the Soviet Union expansion. From the political point of view arena, was much more pressure towards implementing the peaceful policy of liberated Eastern Europe and more emphasis on harsher approaches towards the Soviet Union. Besides, many public

41 Idem.59. 42 Idem. 62.

devices like Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberation that were implemented by the Central Intelligence Agency, there were new policies considered towards the Soviet satellite. Bennett states ” Its ultimate general conclusion was that the” ‘detachment of any major European satellite from the Soviet bloc does not now appear feasible except by Soviet acquiescence or by war’”.43 What it meant was that if one of the satellites would remain outside of the Soviet control, that would not affect the communistic country militarily, but it would only deprive it of its overall status. The United States pursued policies of detaching any possible satellite from the block as well as creating special economic and political conditions that would eventually diminish the control of the Soviet Union over the Eastern Europe. From the economical perspective the Unites States reduced its trades with the Eastern Block significantly. That, on the other hand, let the Western Germany to grow its trades with the Eastern Europe up to historical levels. Although, the trade sanction did not particularly weaken Soviet Union strong position in Europe. It allowed for the West to expand militarily and economically very rapidly. The situation within the Soviet bloc’s was very financially and socially unstable at that time on the other hand. Working people of Poland were complaining more and more on the communistic regime. The historic and one of the crucial events ,shaping polish rode to free Poland was the Poznan uprising that took place on June 28 1956. Despite all the communistic propaganda, the living conditions in Poland did not improve and questions of freedom were being expresses more often than usual. That had to do with very low wages and high taxes and with very poor financial condition of most of the workers. The various strikes that took place that day required a huge intervention of the state. According to Bennett ” Armored troops took three days to quell the revolt. Scores were killed or

43 Idem. 67.

wounded, hundreds imprisoned. A semblance of order was restored, but the scent of revolution was unmistakable and the party’s leaders began to win back some public support”.44 The United States government’s officials expresses a great deal of enthusiasm towards the revolt, completely supporting it, since in their view, that was the first step towards winning independence. The revolution itself called ” Polish October” with the well known leader Wladyslaw Gomulka did made some changes after all. Besides the 50% wage increase, Gomulka and Polish October of 1956 can be associated with the end of the Stalinist era and more liberation. The revolution itself made a significant difference in a way the Soviet Union viewed the Satellite block and resulted in more courageous demands from workers like religion classes to be reinstated or crucifixes being placed on the classrooms walls. After all, the decisions made at Yalta Conference started the mutual hostility and tensions between East and West. As a consequence the Cold War started. The underlying causes of the beginning of the Cold War were mainly due to the great suspicions about the Soviet Union as the next potential threat to the world peace after Nazism. Stalin on the other hand, feared the domination from the West. That was because the United States and the Soviet Union had totally different political systems. While the United States wanted to promote democracy, free trade, free elections, freedom of speech and everything that the Capitalism stands for, Stalin on contrary wanted to keep his communistic ideology at all cost in the Eastern Europe, believing that Capitalism would sooner or later fall and that the Soviet Union and communism would eventually prevail and rule the world. After all, Stalin indeed materialized his ideological goals which proved to be devastating for the Eastern European countries. There is no doubt that the Roosevelt Administration made many mistakes when dealing with Stalin. From

44 Idem.81.

the psychological perspective, when comparing the both characters of Roosevelt and Stalin, F.D.R proved to be submissive to Stalin’s demands. It really seems like Roosevelt was simply an optimist believing in Stalin false promises. Whatever the reason was, the more cautious and realistic approach to the Soviet dictator would have been more appropriate. After all, giving Stalin the benefit of a doubt proved to be disastrous.

Chapter 2: The division of Berlin and fall of communism in Europe. After the Cold War started, the World was divided, between the East and the West, due to the agreements made between the victorious sides of the WW II. Besides Poland, being the main center of the Cold War commotion another very important historic region that was divided during that time was Berlin. While Poland being famous of the Yalta agreements between the East and the West as the crucial in the beginning of the communistic era developments. East Berlin was crucial in establishing the fall of the communism and the end of the era. The German City was symbolic in its nature, not only since it was severely demolished during the war but also due to the creation of the Wall between the East and the West. It was the notion of the division between two completely different worlds and different ideologies. The two of them namely capitalism and communism were clearly contrasted during the division of Berlin. The historical city was one of the most damaged during the war. Frederick Taylor reveals " After five years of relentless Allies bombing and two weeks of vicious street fighting costing almost a hundred thousand Soviet army dead and twice as many German civilian lives, scarcely a building remained standing in the city center”.45 In fact, the devastation was so severe that forty four percent of the buildings were no longer usable. Berlin was so devastated that it had no power and transportation systems available. When it came to the casualties, roughly half of the entire population from the prewar levels was no longer alive, it was absolute horror and chaos. While the communists settled down comfortably in the most luxurious accommodation available in Berlin, its citizens experienced hunger and hopelessness, hiding under 45 The Berlin Wall, p. 32.

ground the city. Walter Ulbricht, the first secretary of the communist party and his accomplices were very well aware of the Red Army's wrong doing, that included murdering Germans and raping the women, yet the Stalinist doctrine seemed to quiet down all the objections and proclaim their communistic political doctrine. According to Frederic Taylor " In his fantasy version of 'liberation', such horrors could not have happened. After twelve years in Stalin's USSR, Ulbricht knew that, above all when reinforced by fear, such political fantasy could constitute a stronger power than any reality, however universally known”.46 Yet, every person living in Berlin at that time knew all about the brutality of the Soviet soldiers. Rapes on German women, hundreds of thousands of abortion on the East side, murders etc. Nevertheless Ulbricht had to obey orders of his communistic leaders. One of the Soviet leaders was Ivan Serov, known for being very powerful, extremely corrupt and exceptionally brutal figure. He was the man who was to shape the future of East Germany and he was the one that Ulbricht was to listen to. As the matter of fact, Ulbricht and his team were puppets in the hands of the communist, that wanted the most power for themselves. Frederic Taylor claim "Servov's chief task was to dismantle vast areas of eastern German industry and ship it to the Soviet Union, as part of the reparation Moscow was determined to extract from the defeated Reich".47 The communists destroyed the industrial part of Germany by removing 11,800 kilometers of railway tracks and took any possible wealth for granted as part of their compensation. Communists took every possible step to put in control their own people, that were to govern their occupation zone, regardless of the fact that the bases of democracy was supposed to be implemented. Those were the shared rules by all the wartime allies. Frederic Taylor reveals 46 Idem. 47 The Berlin Wall, p. 33.

"Communists would also be in charge of the police, giving them a monopoly of institutional force. Last but by no means last, they controlled the hotline to the true power in the shattered land, the Soviet Military Administration (SMA)”.48 The SMA powers were later on to diminish due to the very abusive involvement into the lives of private citizens and that was not what communists wanted. Everything was to look as being performed according to the democratic rules. Yet, what seemed to be democracy, was nothing but, misleading conducted by the Soviets, since everything was controlled by them in the end. Taylor states “The trick was that, although the KPD would appear to be just one party among equals, it was in fact the only political group within the 'Unity Front' that had the ear of the all-powerful SMA. Ulbricht met with senior soviet officials every day. without these officials - and therefore without him - nothing happened in the Soviet Zone".49 The political tensions between all the allies were visible more and more and the Cold War atmosphere was as prevalent as never, the huge gap between East and the West got even larger. The Soviets were making every possible attempts to separate West Berlin from the East, Making it impossible for people to travel between the two zones by various means. Taylor claims " Within a short time, all routes became unavailable. Claiming fuel shortages, Eastern power stations near enough simultaneously ceased to supply electricity to the Western sectors of Berlin. Just after midnight on 24 June 1948, the Berlin Blockade had begun".50 The blockade caused thousands of Germans to experience hunger and misery. Therefore the Western Allies had to come up with some kind of solution to the problem. They had two choices though, yet both of them would finish with fiasco. The first one, that would involve striking the Soviet Union 48

Idem. 34. 49

Idem. 43. 50

Idem. 54.

and to destroy the blockade yet, would certainly cause another war. And another one, to surrender, would be well too humiliating. Left with no alternative the Western allies agreed to build an airport on the French occupied zone in order to land planes with food and necessary supplies for the Berliners. According to Frederic Taylor “Seventeen thousand civilian volunteers from the Western sectors of Berlin helped construct 5,500 feet of runway, built with over ten million bricks salvaged from wartime rubble. The first transport plane landed at Tegel Airfield on 5 November 1948”.51 The Airfield made it possible, for the Berliners to get the help they needed from the Western Allies. In fact, later that year there was fully loaded transport plane landing in West Berlin every minute. The unloading and distribution of the goods were the prime task of Berliners who were doing it with great pleasure. That of course, was against, what Stalin himself and the communistic world would prefer. The reality, however was that neither communists wanted to attack the West and risk a war, nevertheless, they used their dirty tactics to make the lives of West miserable. Taylor claims " They played 'chicken' with the incoming planes, buzzing them aggressively and performing dangerous acrobatics around the air corridors. The soviets blinded Allied pilots with searchlights, jammed radio frequencies, and carried out ' exercises' with their anti-aircraft artillery that involved shooting previously close to the corridors".52 As much as the communists hated the West, the Berliners begun to acknowledge the American culture by using their slangs, listen to American music, etc. The people of the West Berlin could not help to notice that they were being taken care by the Western Allies. In 1952 the Cold War seemed to have its sudden turn around by a surprising declaration from Stalin's side. He offered a possibility of unifying Germany by sustaining free elections. What seemed to be an offer that could not be refused, met 51

Idem. 56. 52

Idem. 58.

with a lot of opposition. Frederic Taylor reveals " The main stipulation was that a reunited Germany while permitted to rearm for its own defense, must not join any alliance directed against any of its former opponents in the Second World War".53 Rejection of the offer by the Western authorities were supported by the fact that the East was not freely elected. That decision however was highly criticized by many historians. Moreover, that refusal gave the paranoid Stalin grounds for isolating the East Germany by making it virtually inaccessible without special permits. Taylor states " The GDR leaders didn't waste time, or scruples, in carrying out this command. The zone border was closed, and its transformation into a fortified international boundary began. The project carried the startlingly brutal title of 'Operation Yermin' (Aktion Ungeziefer )".54 The factual day of closure of the border dividing East and West Berlin was 26 May 1952. The communistic regime was more and more visible in the GDR, that was being abandoned by its inhabitants in extremely high numbers. One of the main reasons behind those escapes was that fact, that in July, the same year the, Soviet authorities announced that it was building Stalinist-Communist state in the East Berlin. The very tough border restriction were eased out few years later due to Stalin death and new Government in power. Nevertheless, the massive emigration was so overwhelming that the new leaders had to make some changes towards consumer wellbeing, however that would be totally contradictory with the communistic regime. Therefore things were not going well in the Soviet Zone those days. Taylor states " The East German economy was in trouble. In 1952, the budget showed a deficit of 700 million marks. The negative trade balance with other Communist countries was almost 600 million ( more that it sounds - these are 1952 process) ".55 The economic problems within the Soviet 53

Idem. 75. 54

Idem. 76. 55

Idem . 79.

state had its reflection within the working public. Especially in Berlin, there were numbers of strikes. The workers demanded more freedom and better living conditions. The strikes were so vivid, that the Russian police had to intervene and even use tanks to scare the demonstrators. Taylor claims " A group of youth clambered up the Brandenburg Gate and tore down the Soviet flag that flew there, chanting: 'We want freedom, we want bread, we will beat all Russians dead!'. Something close to a full-scale uprising was taking shape, involving tens, even hundreds of thousands of ordinary Berliners. They were calling for freedom, elections and, increasingly, a reunited Germany ".56 The response from the Red Army side was immediate and with great consequences, they fired numbers of shots into the crowd of demonstrators, especially those trying to escape the walls into the West Berlin. Those mad Russians were beating up people, causing them serious injuries and great suffering, they were shooting people from behind in the execution style. And unthinkably, they murdered a fourteen years old innocent boy. Bloody riots and strikes of workers were prevalent in the entire Eastern Europe, especially in Poland and Hungary, the living conditions were dramatically low, people were in need of basic necessities that were not available. Moreover, people were fleeing their countries for West whenever possible in massive quantities. Taylor states " Since the foundation of the GDR in 1949 and the end of Honecker's first full year as Secretary for Security in 1958, 2.1 million East Germans had fled the country that Ulbricht built. Almost a million would leave during the next three years. In the first twelve years of its existence East Germany lost around a sixth of its population".57 The beginning of 1960's brought some new developments in the Cold War era. In the United States, the new appointed president Kennedy and his administration had a bad start due to the 56

Idem . 85. 57

Idem 100.

Bay of Pigs disaster. The failure in overthrowing the regime of Fidel Castro in Cuba gave the communists and the current Soviet Union leader Khrushchev more advantage in the Cold War struggle. In fact, the strongly negating Capitalism, Khrushchev, now was promising better future in the eyes of the third world countries people. Yet, there was one crucial thing, that gave Soviets the winning hand at that time. That all had to do with the space travel and landing on the moon by one Soviet. According to Frederick Taylor " The world was treated to a glorious and peaceful technological achievement of the USSR, contrasted just a few days later with naked American aggression against Cuba. It was, especially for those who failed to recognize the underlying and deeply frightening violence that underpinned the Soviet sphere of influence, a telling comparison. That comparison did not favor the United States ".58 The flight of Gagarin, made the Soviets seemed to be capable of producing nuclear weapons and therefore unbeatable. That gave the Soviet leader basis for spreading information among the public of the world, that would made the Soviet Union a very strong and more advanced rival when comparing with the West. His arguments were not true though. He claimed that the capitalistic USA was having great economic problems and that the communists were going to win the war an rule the world eventually. In fact the situation in the East was getting dramatically bad due to its great internal weakness. Moreover, a huge number of people was leaving East for the West on a daily basis. Frederick claims " By early 1960, the GDR was suffering from serious shortages of raw materials and quality industrial products as well as food. It was heavily in debt both to the USSR and the West. Far from overtaking West Germany, the GDR was falling farther behind “.59 Not only money was borrowed from the USSR constantly. The most shortage was within the 58

Idem 115. 59

Idem. 119.

working sector. That problem was being solved by importing the work force from that region. Moreover, the communists were spreading propaganda that all the internal problems were due to the West Berlin, since they were to kidnap people and steal the food, the communists claimed. After all, the communists by spreading the false accusation and exaggerating they strength, were posing a treat, since they wanted to take over the West Berlin. In the United States, the newly elected president Kennedy proclaimed to the American public, that he would take the Berlin problem very seriously. Not only he wanted to ease up the commotion, but also he wanted to make up the two disappointments he already made during his first twelve months in the office. The commitment he made was very goal oriented. Frederick Taylor states " So long as the Communists insists that they are preparing to end by themselves unitarily our rights in West Berlin and our commitments to its people, we must be prepared to defend those rights and those commitments. We will at all times be ready to talk, if force is used upon us. Either alone would fail. Together, they can serve us the cause of freedom and peace ".60 The television broadcast of the US president was taken extremely serious by the Soviet leader Khrushchev. He even considered a nuclear war with the United States. Nevertheless, the problems within the GDR were getting worse every month. The major one was the public fleeing the Eastern Berlin for the West in enormous numbers. There was that constant fear within the public that the border with the West may be permanently closed within foreseeable future. The communists knew that the problem of massive refugees meant one thing only, the inevitable collapse of the GDR. Frederick Taylor reveals " The growing flood of refugees was increasingly disorganizing the entire life of the Republic. Soon it must lead to explosion. If something was not done, then East Germany's collapse was 60

Idem. 133.

'inevitable' ".61 Eventually, the communists come up with a project called “Rose”. It would include the details regarding isolating the East from the West in every possible way. The sealing off would require shutting down the East-West transportation channels, the electricity, telephone and radio transition. Also, in case of uprising as a response to the sealing of the border, the Soviet authorities sent massive reinforcements in armored tanks and military units. All those actions from the Soviet side were based on the president Kennedy television broadcast and the unstoppable flow of refugees into the West Berlin. The American authorities realized at this point that the structure of the wall dividing the West from the West was inevitable, since they, themselves would not risk a physical war over Berlin itself. On July 27, the communists come up with a map pointing out the shape of the border route and few days later, the soviet military was put in the alert. The construction of the Berlin wall started. Frederick Taylor states " On 1 August, border-police units, in co-operation with the Transport ministry, began putting together the materials that would be needed for the initial phase of the operation. These included 18,200 concrete posts, 150 tons of barbed wire, and two tons of staples. Aside from this, materials were also scraped together to create a temporary barrier all around the 'Berlin ring', totaling 146.3 kilometers ".62 The official announcement of all the traffic being stop between East and West was given on Sunday 13 August 1961. What seemed as a temporary thing at first, became permanent for most of the Berliners on the both sides. With the time passing by, more and more, crowds were gathering near the gates. The soviet government were sending their agents in order to control the situation, the East Berlin heavy armed soldiers were filling up the streets along with their tanks, to the most surprise of the public. The closing of the border was something people did not like. That especially 61

Idem. 139. 62

Idem. 147.

made those who were working in the West the most angry of all. Yet, what was most frustrating was dividing the families. The barbed wire was getting thicker and thicker. Frederick Taylor states " It still felt somewhat primitive, the whole new control arrangement. A clumsy, uncertain beginning that would one day be far more malevolently sophisticated and permanent. What they were creating here would become symbol for the world of division and cruelty, but not yet ".63 There were many attempts to escape the East Berlin, unfortunately all of those ended tragic for the attempters. Those successful were caught by the 'Vapos' and sent for processing in the totalitarian system. The most tragic was the perspective of those being madly in love since many couples to be married were caught in almost permanent separation due to the wall. Especially the notorious 'Border Crossers' before the wall was built were treated with an exceptional discrimination. Those were directed to labors camp in the factories in the East Berlin. Others, studying in West Berlin were barred for life from finishing their education in the East, not mentioning working in educational system. And those people having to do anything with the politics or the social sciences being thought in the West were directed to the factories immediately. Frederic Taylor reveals " As for so-called Weststuden ('West- students'), who had chosen to study in West Berlin or West Germany during the time of the open border, they were also to be punished. An element of 'class war' was clearly present in handling those who might be seen as privileged traitors to the 'workers' and peasants 'state' “.64 Almost immediately after the wall was built, the communists were making notorious arrests. Those were the people accused of contacts with Western spies, caught by the Stasi agents. The political prisons had very bad condition. Not only they didn't provide enough food and breathing space, the interrogations the Soviets agents were conducting had only one goal, to crush a potential innocent human being and give him a 63

Idem. 183. 64

Idem. 191.

long sentence. Frederick Taylor states " It was clear to the prisoner that, just out of his line of vision, a window revealed the world he had left weeks or months previously for a lonely, silent cell ".65 The other side of the world across the Atlantic seemed much less preoccupied with the crisis than the Berliners themselves. The residing US president Kennedy's physical and mental state was going from bad to worse very quickly due to a very serious condition, therefore his initial response was minimal. Nevertheless, the US authorities had a clear stand on the Soviet blockade. Frederick Taylor claims " From there Salinger went on to the offensive, pointing out that the restrictions were in 'direct contravention of the four-power agreement and represented a 'damning admission by the Soviets of the inability of communist society to compete with a free society’s".66 That interpretation was extremely accurate indeed, as the future events later showed. Yet, the situation in the West Berlin was getting worse due to many protests from the locals. However, the president Kennedy as well as other Western leaders were very careful when dealing with the Berlin problem. While the Great Britain and the France did not wanted to get involved in any possible military conflict, since booth of the countries suffered enough because of the WW2. The United States was the one as the main player in the entire situation. Taylor states " The result of Washington's reluctance to commit would be a slow burning outrage in both West Berlin and West Germany ".67 The president Kennedy had a clear stand on the US passiveness. He repeated continuously that the Berlin crisis was nonexistent and no military involvement was necessary . That was due to the fact he claimed that the Soviets’ separating from the West automatically expressed their inability to take over the West Berlin. Also in his view, an alternative to doing nothing was a military intervention which in turn would only mean a war with the Soviet Union. In other words the separation from the West was a failure of the Soviet Union. Taylor reveals " 65

Idem. 198. 66

Idem . 206. 67

Idem . 216.

The Kennedy administration set out today to portray East Germany's closure of the border between East and West Berlin as a dramatic confession of Communist failure ".68 When it came to dealing with the accelerating criticism from the press and the public the US president organized a mission to Berlin. General Clay and the Vice-President's visit mainly involved the significant reinforcement of the Western garrisons to build up the military strength. Nevertheless, that did not stop the desperation of the Berliners. In fact, short after the US authorities visit, there were many tragic attempts to escape the blockade that almost always needed with death or imprisonment. About two years after the US Vice-President's visit to Germany. The president Kennedy arrived at the German airport in June 1963. The interesting fact from his visit was that despite prepared speech for him by the State Department, president Kennedy improvised throughout entire speech. Frederick Taylor claims " Perhaps it was the emotional effect of the visit to the Wall earlier that morning - Kennedy had been visibly moved by his first on - the - spot view of the cement blocks, the barbed wire and watch-towers - but the part of his speech that he improvised were both more stirring to the audience and more aggressively anti- Communist than planned ".69 He compared the two ideologies, communism and capitalism and concluded that they have nothing to do with each other, he pointed out that the people of Berlin deserve freedom and that the US was going to put every effort to that He acknowledged that the problem of Berlin was a very difficult one and could not be resolved overnight. There were some changes being made indeed by the communistic government in the GDR. It mainly had to do with the ' New Economic System' that did not proved to work, yet turned out to be much better that the previous one. That had mainly to do with portraying the communistic regime as not such a bad thing. Ulbricht and other communists made that by easing the political regime by allowing 68

Idem . 224. 69

Idem . 338.

the young people to listen to the pop music or Jazz. The East Berliners were to feel more like regular middle class people with their families, regardless of the fact that they were prisoners. The 'New Economic System' indeed brought some positive change into people's lives. According to Taylor " Private consumption per household rose by almost a quarter between 1965 and 1970 ". " The regime gradually gained from an obvious but key fact: the generation growing into adulthood within the decade after the Wall was built had no experience of any kind of society".70 The only thing that seemed beneficial at first for the young people were the sport activities, the communistic system was promoting. The most promising sport oriented young people were really well rewarded by good jobs, pay, apartments etc. Especially those, well physically built could count on great positions within the Stasi units. The sad thing was that, since the communist could not play fair, many times they encourages the young people to take many steroids and performance enhancing drugs that proved to be disastrous for the future of those young people's health. Different picture was presenting in the West Berlin though. That was mainly due to massive financial support from the US government for the most part. It was really visible at the end of the 60's by displaying modern buildings, stores, etc. The West Berliners, despite of the wall were very happy people enjoying their freedoms. The only problem that was existing in the West Berlin at that time was low population rate. According to Taylor " All the same, in the late 1960's and 1970's, West Berlin was a pleasant enough place to live...There was a lively party and cultural scene, plenty of interesting people. Little was forbidden, just about everything was tolerated ".71 While the West Berliners enjoyed their freedom, the people of the GDR were going through very difficult times dealing with the totalitarian government total control. The overwhelming pressure was mostly affecting the young generation in very negative ways. The urge to rebel, created many subcultures, 70

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including the punk culture expressing it's unhappiness with their lives through music and in many cases 'hooligan' like behaviors. It did not have to take much to cause those young people quite a lot of troubles. In many instances young men and women representing the rebellious subcultures ended up in jails. Frederick Taylor states " For a young person to be incarcerated in such a place, the crime need not be serious. In fact, there need have been no crime at all, in the usual sense of the word. Teenagers between fourteen and eighteen could be confined to these places without trial for minor crimes such as theft or fighting, but also for truancy or ( in the opinion of the authorities) anti-social behavior, such as having long hair, wearing unconventional clothes, or hanging out with the wrong crowd ". 72 The communistic regime's role at that point was to make them to obey its rules, that other members of the utopian society were to adhere to. Towards the end of the 70's the communistic government was using its deceptive tactics to portray the state what in fact it was not. They were spreading fake numbers that represented the state's shape as if it was in a very good condition. In their view the communistic sector was doing almost as well as the Western countries. The reality was far different though. The overwhelming misery of the tired people, lack of basic necessities, alcoholism and very low standard of living was the everyday scenario. In fact, the communistic government was doing very bad, especially financially. The massive loans they were taking, were barely enough to support its bankrupt state, trying to import, some of the technological advancements the West already had. And then hit the bottom, the series of oil crisis. Frederick Taylor reveals " In the mid-1970's, the Soviet Union raised its prices for vital supplies of fuel and raw materials. In 1979-80 came the second 'oil shock', and the Soviet Union reduced its oil deliveries to the GDR. The country slid into a situation of massive ineptness to both the USSR and the West".73 Another part of the Eastern Block that was closely related with 72

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the fall of the communism and experienced serious economic problems was Poland. During the Gierek's administration Poland found itself in a dramatic financial situation, between 1976 and 1979 its foreign dollar debt jumped drastically from 10 to 17 billion. Western goods were available more easily through pewex along with new modern structures being built. Getting a brand new car, or dream apartment was becoming a reality, according to the communistic authorities. Yet, that was nothing but another lie in order to make the Soviet Union look stronger. Nevertheless, the consequences were very serious. The fake, booming economy based on the massive loans from the United States created very dangerous division of people into very poor and very rich, was a cause of a tremendous corruption in the country. The sudden huge increase of the food prices and nonexistence of the basic products in the stores caused the public to became very rebellious. That was the nucleolus of the incoming revolution . It was the sharp decrease of the expectations among the young generation. Were promised the great improvement yet they got very big disappointment. The number of strikes took place in the Gdansk Shipyard, demanding higher wages and more freedom. The strikes themselves became world-wide known for its main leader Lech Walesa. Thanks to his leadership, Poland was the first Eastern-Bloc State that established independent, self-governing trade unions. The workers from now on, had the right to choose their own trade unions along with the privilege to organize strikes. In return, they had to acknowledge the communistic government as the leader in the country in general terms. The Solidarity movement that was created later on the same month, had a great influence on the government for years to come, it was to fight mostly by strikes for better pay, wages increase and better living conditions in Poland. The inability of the communistic government to come up with the solutions to the promised things earlier intensified strikes throughout the country. That was when the trade

union, called “Solidarity” was established. On that day, the 17th of September, 1980 Lech Walesa took the leadership of the massive social movement . What that movement mainly stood for, was Poland with its people, since the country was bankrupted and needed change through radical actions. And the situation of an average citizen was getting worse in Poland at that time. The lack of the most necessary things to live like bread, meat or sugar were now extremely difficult to get. The enormous shortage caused the people to stand in very long lines, sometimes for as much as five hours. The reality was getting scary, since it was more than certain that the food prices were to rise again sharply. The Solidarity movement was a tremendous threat to the communists at that moment. It was a huge organization that had roughly 9,5 million members, organization that had its own radio and that was very well organized from the inside. It was the organization that made it possible for the biggest strike in the history of the Soviet Block. That event took place in the morning on 27th of march 1981. On that day, the entire country stopped working for full four hours. That four hours of strike, that ended with its suspension by the Solidarity leaders did not turn out to be beneficial for the future to come. Solidarity itself become much weaker and the situation in the country was getting even worse, to the extent that in order to buy food, the people required special coupons. The situation in the country was getting very tense. The authorities were searching for stronger methods then, when dealing with the public. The communists decided that they would create a special military and police force in order to repress the strikes, rebellions and the support for the Solidarity. The general Jaruzelski himself made a decision that in order to satisfy his Soviet comrades something big would have to happen. That event with the military intervention would take place on the 13th of December. The two sides The free trade unions Solidarity and the communists could not get a political agreement in the view of Jaruzelski but the reality was that Walesa wanted the peaceful solution on many occasions.

Jaruzelski was very stubborn and did not acknowledge any possibility of Solidarity as being free and independent of the authorities and the Soviets. For the communists it could only exist as an advisory element and nothing else. In order to repress the public Jaruzelski had highly skilled military and police persons that counted almost 130 thousands. Those units named Zomo had its recruits from the poorest areas in the country. Also those soldiers were train in special conditions. On a very cold night on December 13th. entire country became paralyzed. The phone lines were blocked and the mass media were taken over by the militia forces. Poland became a some kind of island, cut off from the outside world and divided into parts. The Solidarity leaders were taken into custody and thrown into jail cells. From the morning the same day until the dawn, all of the media in the country were showing the general Jaruzelski. He as the leader of the nation informed the public that the state of war was implemented. The main reason behind that as he claimed, was the Solidarity earlier eagerness to abolish the socialistic system. Throughout his speeches he wanted the support of the public by reminding of patriotism and promising better tomorrow. The Marshall Law that was implemented, carried a very strict limitation on the citizens that were treated very seriously by the military. One of its main tasks, was to make it impossible for the public to engage in any kind of activity reminding of protests or congregations and to implement various curfews. The penalties for disobedience could be as severe as long imprisonment and even death. The restrictions reminded a Nazi occupation for some, yet the one thing was very clear to everyone. The Soviet Union wanted to suppress the people, in order to stop the revolution. The opposition to that was enormous. The fastest to react was the academic environment, students and teachers were conducting strikes in the classrooms. The world was shock to see tanks and military next to the university buildings while the military was arresting the students. Nevertheless, the biggest controversy was

displayed at the gates of the Lenin's Shipyard in Gdansk. That was where the Solidarity proponents were striking and demanding the end of the Marshal Law and release of the imprisoned. The communists organized a true military action involving helicopters, specialized military units, tanks and other military equipment, the Gdansk Shipyard was one of many factories that was targeted. What later on turned out, other facilities in Katowice and Warsaw were being occupied as well. It was the well design plan of the general to suppress all of the protests. One of his plans executed, was to make the workers leave, by waiting and letting them to get extremely hungry. Another action was to use force, chasing the workers and arresting them. In order to deal with the workers, general Jaruzelski was using the most brutal police units called Zomo, those units were trained to kill their fellow citizen with cold blood. Those units were used mainly in Sląsk, where the workers were protesting the longest. The authorities even threaten to use a chemical weapon against the strikers. In Fact the Katowice's occupation had the biggest casualties, where seven people were shot to death by the zomo. That bloody massacre took place in the coal mine called “Wujek". As later sources revealed more people were killed and wounded. The last facility where the strike was being conducted was in the “Piast” coal mine. Almost 1300 coal miners were protesting, five hundred meters underground. That was the most exhausting strike for the workers. They showed unusual persistence by going through great hunger and very low temperatures. They were so exhausted that were close to death, therefore the strike had to be stopped. Apart from the economic problems within the Eastern sector involving strikes, the turning point in the fight of the USA with communism was the president Reagan's election. The Reagan’s administration took an office in January 20, 1981 and stepped down in January 20, 1989. The republican administration, strongly favored , reduction in the social programs spending that as a result reduced the debt deficit considerably. What is

more to add, the Reagan’s administration introduced the world-wide known economical programs called the “Reaganomics”. The main principals of the program were the largest income tax cuts, along with the reduction of the inflation, as well as the government’s intervention reduction. In other words. President Reagan’s administration, was the one that put more emphasize on what the previous president Carter started to pay attention to. During the presidency, Carter and his administration, shifted from being a strong supporter of the idea of “Détente”. The approach that was to ease out the tensions with the Soviets, changed into, suspending the SALT treaties and generally sanctioning the communists. The new president Reagan went even farther away from the “Détente” by fighting the communism considerably more. Also, he made some revolutionary statements in public that were to announce a new era in the world history. According to Frederick Taylor " Reagan told an audience at Notre Dame University, Indiana, on 17 May 1981, in a speech delivered with a president's gravity and an actor's flair: " The West won't contain Communism, it will transcend Communism. It won't bother to dismiss or denounce it, it will dismiss it as some bizarre chapter in human history whose last pages are even now being written".74 At the end of 1970's the detente was gone completely. President Reagan introduced a new breakthrough that involved creating a completely innovative anti-missile system that would prevent the warheads from reaching the USA. That shook the entire Soviet Union and caused the communists to panic. The Soviet Union was scared of the United States like never before. The courageous US president Reagan won his second term in the office. During that time things were happening rather quickly. The communistic regime that was soon to collapse was getting weaker and weaker. With the new Soviet leader Gorbachev, the possibility of the Eastern bloc population to be free was getting closer and closer. Frederick Taylor 74

Idem . 386.

reveals " Addressing the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, Gorbachev declared that all European countries were now free to choose their own social and political order and excluded the use of military force between East and West or 'within alliances' ".75 Gorbachev was the last Soviet Union leader. Getting appointed as the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, served from 1985 until 1991. Mikhail Gorbachev wanted to reform the communistic state, that was economically stagnant. The industrialization and modernization of the agriculture were his main target. Through programs like Perestroika or Glasnot, the former soviet leader was making it possible to change the communistic social structure and the economy to improve. His reforms and programs, were quite controversial in nature, since they consisted of ideas that were to allow the free election, suspend various nuclear programs and generally make the Soviet Union closer to the West. All those programs concluded in dissolution of the Soviet Union eventually and for the communism to fall within several years to come. The year 1989 proved to be the final one for the communism. During that year revolutionary changes occurred. The long time GDR leader Honecker lost his job due to many financial misdoings on his part. The report that was issued to the new communist party members on 30 October included some very freighting information. It presented the GDR as being in a shape of a complete wreck and very close to bankrupt. Almost half of the transport was nonexistent, country was way behind the West when it came to productivity. And what was more striking, was that the country had enormous amount of debt. Frederick Taylor states " State indebtedness had risen from 12 billion marks in 1970 to 123 billion in 1988".32 That was the consequence of effective hiding of the real numbers and proclaiming the GDR as a country well advanced by the previous party members. The situation was so dramatic that the new authorities regarded the shape of the 75

Idem . 403. 32

Idem . 415.

state as not possible to recover unless its people would starve to death. In other words in their view, the state was no longer governable. Apart of the financial disaster, the people of the GDR were more and more anxious to stop all the frauds and deception and demanded free democratic elections. According to Taylor " By the end of the month, it was obvious that something much bigger was happening. Tens, sometimes hundreds of thousands, of ordinary East Germans were turning out all over the country to demand democratic change ".33 The massive demonstration were occurring all over the country for some time until the historic change came. Taylor reveals " At around 10.40 p.m., ARD's late-night news discussion program me 'Themes of the Day' (Tagesthemen) began with the announcement: 'This ninth of November is a historic day: the GDR has announced that its borders are open to everyone, with immediate effect, and the gates of the Wall stand wide open'".34 The joy of the East Berliners was overwhelming, thousands of them were pouring through the border, the crowd was so enormous that the GDR soldiers stop checking the passports and let them go freely. After all, what happen on Sunday 13 August 1961 was the beginning if a new and a very bizarre chapter in the history of the World. Families were separated and surrounded with overwhelming chaos, the freedom was taken away by the communists. However few decades later the truth prevailed and the wall collapsed. It later became a symbol of not only the value of freedom and how quickly it can be taken away from us, but also the symbol of faith and spirit of chasing the truth. The fall of the communism, proved once again that every utopian totalitarian ideology and its suppressing governments must sooner or later fall. It proved that every human being is born free and will preserve that freedom at all cost. 33

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Idem . 427.

Chapter3: Communism in film and literature. The human race encountered a great deal of pain and suffering throughout the twentieth century. The two World Wars, completely destroyed some of the parts of the world, leaving millions of homeless, dead or orphaned. The main reasons for the outbreaks of the wars were the human greed and hunger for power and dominance, that made the impossible, within the reach of human touch. The same hunger for dominance, took place at the very end of the WW2, yet that time it was the hunger to dominate the world by an ideology that was to make everybody equal. The ideology of communism that was to eliminate inequalities, proved to be utopian in nature, mostly because of the simple fact, that the human nature is constructed in a way that is seldom satisfied by basic things. Human beings are psychologically predisposed to live in social structures that are mainly composed of variety of members, creating a society as a whole. Yet, as everyday life shows, there is always a some kind of hierarchy visible in every kind of establishment. As literature and film reveal communism was the totalitarian system that used fear and torture in order to rule. The system was utopian in nature. That nature oppose two values that cannot exist at the same moment. On one side there is the notion of equality among all of the members of the society while on the other there is total control and oppression being imposed on the members of the society. That total control, being constantly used by the communistic government is a form of a defense against a possible rebellion of themember of a particular society. The rebellion itself as shown in literature as well, is a tremendous threat to the communists, since it unites people, creating solidarity. The means that the communistic government is using to suppress the rebellion are all encoded in one simple procedure. That is to cause the member of the society that has decided to rebel to encounter a tremendous amount of fear, powerful emotion that makes any living creature paralyzed if given in a huge dosage.

One of the authors that effectively portrayed communism in his works was George Orwell. Born in 1903 in England, Orwell was a great writer that regarded topics like social inequalities and dislike of the totalitarian systems for the most part. His famous book “1984”, was one of his works that showed the communism in a profound way. In fact, the book itself was so highly censured by the communistic governments that was not allowed to be published until the fall of the totalitarian system in Europe. In his book, Orwell describes the society living under the strict communistic ruling. The entire story is purely fantastical and highly exaggerates what the usual communistic regime looked like. Nevertheless, it is very similar to those communistic systems that took place in Eastern Europe. Winston Smith, the main character of the book is the member of the society and represents the communistic party itself. He lives in a world of constant surveillance by the government. Winston and everybody in the story is under the watch of the Big Brother. According to Orwell “The black-moustachio'dface gazed down from every commanding corner. There was one on the house-front immediately opposite. BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU, the caption said, while the dark eyes looked deep into Winston's own “.1 The entire concept of being constantly watch is very closely related with the “Thought Crime”. In the book, the “Thought Police” is making sure that nobody is doing anything against the government. The Winston’s everyday reality is shown as being under total control by the totalitarian system. Everything, from history to vocabulary is controlled by the government. The information of unusual good numbers of productivity and fake wars being conducted is presented by the media. Winston lives in the world of extreme fear and paranoia, until he makes the first move to rebel the government. What he does, is punishable by death and that has to do with questioning the system by writing a _______________________

1 1984.p.1.

forbidden diary. Orwell states ” His pen had slid voluptuously over the smooth paper, printing in large neat capitals DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER over and over again, filling half a page “.2

He strongly believes that there must be others, felling totally controlled by the party and that the rebellion could take place. That is where the O’Brien comes into place in the story. Another party member is in the Winston’s conviction tired of the system as much as he is and is ready to revolt. That party member appeared in the past in Winston’s dreams on several occasions. It is almost, as if deep in his mind, he wants change in his life, change that would bring a relief from the system. In the dream, he had, O’Brien proposed a secret meeting that would initiate the grounds for Winston’s revolution. The revolution that would free him from the nonsense the party enslaved him into. The nonsense that make everything upside down, since the party even had its own department of truth that was telling people in what to believe. Therefore, the party would tell the people to believe in a nonsense like for example, Orwell reveals “WAR IS PEACE FREEDOM IS SLAVERY IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH”.3 Along with always being under watch and suspicion. According to Orwell “Always the eyes watching you and the voice enveloping you. Asleep or awake, working or eating, indoors or out of doors, in the bath or bed--no escape. Nothing was your own except the few cubic centimeters inside your skull”.4 The same nonsense applied to the job that Smith was doing. That particular job was what the totalitarian governments were doing exactly. His main task was to constantly changing information, usually numbers in newspapers, magazines etc. So that the final information would be the closest to what the party wanted to announce at a particular moment. That _______________________ 2 Idem. 9. 3 Idem. 14.

4 Idem.

required changing the past information and adjusting the current information. In other words a complete chaos. All those above examples of the control of the communism were very similar to the methods that were used during the Soviet regime. Although, quite exaggerated ( there were no Big screens in apartments of the party workers), the special police like KGB or Zomo were very much present in the Eastern Blocks. Those units were monitoring allegedly suspicious activities against the communistic government. The best example of that control was in Poland during the Solidarity activities, the secret congregations of the movement’s members in order to schedule demonstrations or to distribute flyers were highly investigated by the communistic authorities. Besides the methods of observation by the agents the communistic leaders were always making up numbers, when it came to the productivity and the national debt. The perfect example would be Poland during the Gierek’s administration, where the entire economic boom that took place at that time, was based on the dollar debt that proved to be disastrous for the economy later on. Going back to the Orwell’s story, Winston Smith rebelled all the lies the party was telling him to believe into. In his forbidden diary he memorizes the past and questions the future and present. The idea of the revolution in his point of view makes sense only if started apart from the party workers. That had to happen, he claims within the lower social class the “Proles”, living separated from the party center in London. What makes the proles so special is the number of people that the social class represents. In other words is the substantial majority that makes any revolution possible. The same goes in the book as well. Orwell states “In the Party itself there were not many people left whose ideas had been formed before the Revolution. The older generation had mostly been wiped out in the great purges of the fifties and sixties, and the few who survived had long ago been terrified into complete intellectual surrender. If there was any one still alive who could give you a truthful account of conditions in the early part of the century, it could only be a

prole”.5 In the story, there was one more way to rebel against the communistic government. That had to do with uncontrolled love. That was because in the party view the sexual relations were reserved for the party only, since they used only the purpose of procreation, any pleasure taken from it was regarded by the party as an act of rebellion. The children themselves were being turned against their parents by the party in order to make the kids to spy on the parents and report them to the thought police. As the story reveals Smith and other party member Julia made that rebellion. They were secretly meeting behind the party back and encountered in love acts. She made the revolt by changing from the party woman into the regular one, by painting her lips and eyes. He on the other wanted to feel that there is more in life than the party and the communistic government. According to Orwell “The process of life had ceased to be intolerable, he had no longer any impulse to make faces at the telescreen or shout curses at the top of his voice. Now that they had a secure hiding-place, almost a home, it did not even seem a hardship that they could only meet infrequently and for a couple of hours at a time”.6 His and Julia’s dream has finally came through, not only they had their own secret room, but also they came into contact with the inner party member O’Brien. While in his room something unthinkable happened, for the first time they were able to talk with the telescreens off. During that time in the O’Brien’s room Smith acquired the knowledge of the “Brotherhood” and the conspiracy against the party that was real. He admitted to disobey the party and to become an anti-government member of the society. He possessed the knowledge of all of the conspiracy codes and the secret book he was about to read and later destroy. That book was to reveal the true nature of the society Winston was living in. Orwell states “We believe that there is some kind of conspiracy, some kind of secret organization working against the _________________________ 5 Idem. 46. 6 Idem. 81.

Party, and that you are involved in it. We want to join it and work for it. We are enemies of the Party. We disbelieve in the principles of Ingsoc. We are thought-criminals. We are also adulterers. I tell you this because we want to put ourselves at your mercy. If you want us to incriminate ourselves in any other way, we are ready “.7 As later in the book is revealed. It was not a coincident that Smith, along with Julie got caught red handed in their secret room. That happened right after O’Brien got them into the “brotherhood” and gave them the book written by the biggest party enemy Goldstein. This is the point where Orwell shows how powerful the totalitarian system could be. The writer shows that within the society so mechanical like the communistic one, where there is nobody to trust, it is very easy to get oneself incriminated. Like in the case of O’Brien who happened to be the spy of the party, Smith thought that he was his friend. The similarity of spying on people during the communism in Easter Europe is very much to the point. The secret police NKVD and later KGB used the same methods of forming false friendships only to get somebody caught. The consequence of Winston arrest was imprisonment by the party. The description of a jail in the book is very much alike the ones prisoners were sent to, during the Soviet regime. The main thing that repeats itself all the time, is the omnipresent hunger and felling of being terrorized. Winston himself experience the room ‘101’, which was the interrogation room. The methods of confession described by Orwell were the same as used by the communists in the Eastern Europe. The prisoner like Smith was hungered to the extreme and then beaten up severely all over again with only short breaks for recovery. Nevertheless, the main technique being used, was the questioning through interrogations. It was the asking the same question all over again, in different forms. According to Orwell “ Three more kicks, two more kicks, and then I will tell them what ____________________________ 7 Idem. 9

they want.' Sometimes he was beaten till he could hardly stand, then flung like a sack of potatoes on to the stone floor of a cell, left to recuperate for a few hours, and then taken out and beaten again. There were also longer periods of recovery”.8 After series of questioning, Winston was pressed to confess to the worst crimes against the party that existed. In the end of the book Orwell reveals the sad truth about the totalitarian system. The disturbing truth is that Smith was not guilty of any crime, but simply the party could not stand any disobedience to the system. During the final scenes, he is being tortured and brain washed to the extremes. And ironically, that is the O’Brien, the spy, the person he trusted the most after Julia who appeared to be an agent too. Smith is being administered enormous deal of pain through apparatuses similar that the communistic regime were using during torturing its prisoners. Smith’s mind belonged to the party, since it was physically destroyed through the electric current. According to Orwell “ We shall crush you down to the point from which there is no coming back. Things will happen to you from which you could not recover, if you lived a thousand years. Never again will you be capable of ordinary human feeling. Everything will be dead inside you. Never again will you be capable of love, or friendship, or joy of living, or laughter, or curiosity, or courage, or integrity. You will be hollow. We shall squeeze you empty, and then we shall fill you with ourselves “.9 The main purpose of the party and communistic regime was to poses power in the Orwell’s book. To the extremes where the party wanted to poses the human mind. The point that the author makes, is that the communistic regime cannot function without every member to obey the same ideology. That is because the communism, is only an idea that only works as collectivism, ideas that Stalin implemented in the Soviet Block. Therefore, it was very uncomfortable for the party, if even only one mind slipped away. If _____________________________ 8 Idem. 130. 9 Idem. 139.

for example, the Soviet Union spread its power and overtook the United States, the world for sure would have been under the totalitarian control. In the end of the book Orwell makes his point completely. After being reshaped by O’Brien, Smith goes back to work as if nothing happened, with one difference though. He loves the face and especially the deep dark eyes of the big brother. Another short book written by George Orwell that deals with communism is the “Animal Farm”. Similarly to the “1984” the short novel describes the flaws of the communistic system. Both of the books were very much disliked by the communistic authorities and not allowed to the public in the Soviet Block, until 1989. In the book by using animals, Orwell describes events that lead to the revolution and struggles within the new form of government, namely “Animalism” that reflects the communism. It starts with the Major as the one of the oldest and dying, having a dream and conveying it to the animals. That dream is later on the turning point in the revolution. Revolution that was necessary according to him, due to the very bad treatment by the owner of the farm Mr. Jones. According to Orwell “ What then must we do? Why, work night and day, body and soul, for the overthrow of the human race! That is my message to you, comrades: Rebellion! I do not know when that Rebellion will come, it might be in a week or in a hundred years, but I know, as surely as I see this straw beneath my feet, that sooner or later justice will be done”.10 The old Major resembles Lenin himself with his ideas towards revolution and rebellion against class division. The ideas of the Major who later died, were quickly taken over by the most intelligent animals on the farm, namely pigs. The two of them, Snowball and Napoleon were to lead the group of the animals through the revolution. That day has finally came, the animals excluded human from the farm and from now on the farm belonged to them under the leadership of the two pigs. That _________________________ 10 Animal Farm.p.7.

name of the farm gets changed and the seven commandments established that were to distinguish the animals from the humans as much as possible. One of them “All animals are equal” is the specific one since it is related directly to the communistic doctrine. It said that all of the members are equal and poses the same amount of goods, work the same amount of time etc. All those values proved to be utopian in nature due to the greed of human beings. Orwell shows that flaws of communistic system in a satiric way by using pigs. While the Snowball was the good guy and strongly adhered to his ideological values of communism. Napoleon did not like the idea of truly sharing with the others. The first instance had to do with the disappearance of milk and apples. Orwell states “ Comrades! He cried. You do not image, I hope, that we pigs are doing this in a spirit of selfishness and privilege? Many of us actually dislike milk and apples. I dislike them myself. Our sole object in talking these things is to preserve our health”.11 Napoleon explained that first inequality in simple terms. In his view pigs as the heads of the farm were making a great effort to work everything smoothly. One other argument that he used was that there was a very big possibility and the human could come back if the pigs did not stand to the fullest job done possible. The overall posture of Napoleon started to remind of the Stalin’s himself. He and Snowball were arguing constantly over the issues concerning the farm and the animals. Nevertheless, the crucial moment came during the mill question. Napoleon strongly opposed to it, Snowball was the initiator and other animals very much liked the idea of working less thanks to the electricity the mill would produce. That is when the true nature of the Napoleon came. No sooner had the animals chosen the mill idea and supported Snowball. Napoleon used his trained dogs in order to make the Snowball to disappear from the farm. In that example Orwell clearly showed where the pig’s governing would go from now. The totalitarian control and tyrannical approach to any kind of ___________________________ 11 Idem. 22.

opposition is revealed in use of force, to exclude the uncomfortable member. Those were the practices used by Stalin in the Soviet Union. Any person not sharing his idea would be removed by death through special militia units. On the farm Napoleon would be the only leader from now on, holding absolute power over animals. Orwell states “If comrade Napoleon says it, it must be right. And from then on he adopted the maxim, ‘Napoleon is always right,’ in addition to his private motto ‘ I will work harder”.12 The animals had to rearrange their lives and follow the strict order of Napoleon who decided that the wind mill would in fact be built. He took the idea as his own from the start and decided to cut animals food rations. The new means of governing started to look much alike those ones in the Soviet regime. The animals would have to work like slaves in order to keep up with the difficulty of building the structure. The Napoleon made and announcement that would breach the rules that were established right after the revolution. He would engage in trades between other adjacent farms, which would involve dealing with people and use of money. The animals objected strongly to any dealings and similarities with humans. Nevertheless, the oppressive leadership would make the excluded Snowball looked like guilty. According to Orwell” He assured them that the resolution against engaging in trade and using money had never been passed, or even suggested. It was pure imagination, probably traceable in the beginning to lies circulated by Snowball”.13 The pigs everyday routine started to look like human’s, they now lived in the farmhouse, slept in beds. Any disagreement would be met with the use of the trained dogs. Nevertheless something terrible would happen. The windmill the animals were working so hard on would be ___________________________ 12 Idem. 34 13 Idem. 38

destroyed. The person that would be guilty according to Napoleon was Snowball. From now on Snowball was called the criminal number one and death sentence was pronounced upon him. The situation among the animals was getting worse. They had to rebuild the windmill despite all of the hardships that the weather would bring. Another major obstacle was the lack of food. They were close to starvation. The situation in the Soviet Block was very much alike, there was very difficult to obtain food. In countries like Poland people were standing in long lines for hours to get bread or sugar. Things like meat was available only through special stamps. The communistic government was always blaming somebody else for their own failures. They were always lying and never showed the real situation, even if there was no food they used they informants to use propaganda to claim otherwise. The similar situation is shown in the story. Orwell reveals “ In addition, Napoleon ordered the almost empty bins in the store-shed to be filled to the brim with sand, which was then covered up with what remained of the grain and meal. On some suitable pretext Whymper was led through the store-shed and allowed to catch a glimpse of the bins. He was deceived, and continued to report to the outside world that there was no food shortage on Animal Farm”.14 Similarly to Stalin, Napoleon was becoming more and more paranoid, always in the presence of his dogs, rarely went out. The farm was in terrible shape, the animals were getting minimal ratios and anything that was produced was stolen by the pigs. Snowball became the main obsession of the pig. Everything bad, that happened on the farm, was attributed to the Snowball’s secret action. And that was the case in the Soviet Union, all of the misfortunes that could not be covered up by lies, were being blamed on _________________________ 14 Idem. 44

other nations. During the Berlin division in the Cold War era, there were other nations according to Stalin, that were responsible for all of the trouble the East Berliners had to encounter. The Capitalists were always the ones to blame. In fact during the Soviet regime anybody that was friendly with the West and capitalists was guilty of terrible crimes. Mass murders were very much prevalent during those horrific times. Katyń Massacre is one of the examples. Tens of thousands of officers and members of intelligentsia were murdered by the order of the Stalin. The responsibility of the murder was denied by the Soviet Union until the end of communism. Similarly in the story Napoleon was ordering to slaughter the rebellious animals on the pretext to confide with his opponent. The fear was omnipresent making all of the animals feel guilty. Orwell reveals “ They were shaken and miserable. They did not know which was more shocking- the treachery of the animals who had leagued themselves with Snowball, or the cruel retribution they had just witnessed. In the old days there had often been scenes of bloodshed equally terrible, but it seemed to all of them that it was far worse now that it was happening among themselves. Since Jones had left the farm, until today, no animal had killed another animal. Not even a rat had been killed”.15 The everyday life of the animals was very far from the ideas that the “Animals” was based on. In fact, it did not reflected the ideals of old major at all. The lives of the animals consisted of constant very hard work and necessity of the absolute obedience of the orders of their leader. The leadership of Napoleon has completely shifted from the principals of “Animalism” and it’s anti-human rules. Those rules were being constantly violated and being changed by the leadership. There was a clear division being formed ___________________________ 15 Idem. 49

between the pigs and other animals. The pigs were the privileged kind, they were allowed to get the food other animals were not, and even allowed to drink beer. The initial idea of equality among all was abandoned. The same situation was taking place during the communistic times in Europe. Socialism was to make everybody equal, in order to escape the class division the capitalism was creating. The idea was transformed into totalitarian form of government. All the lies, control, arrests and executions of the innocent people were nothing but the abuse of the power that the communists had simply way too much. Every member among the communistic party that had some form of power was very privileged. Communists were the ones that were getting all the goods that were not available in the stores for the regular people. They were the ones that were getting the highest paying jobs. It was no coincidence that the most prestigious positions were reserved for the party members. The retirement funds they were getting were sometimes tree times bigger that the regular citizens were getting every month. The cars, the most luxurious vacation, everything was for them only. The best example of that inequality under the communism is still visible in the former Soviet Union. That has to do with Oligarchy. Everything that is privately owned in Russia ( oil mines, media, television, newspapers etc.) is owned by the ex-members of the former communistic party. It is a closed circle of extremely rich and powerful people that do not allow anybody from the outside. Corruption and theft is every day scenario in many post-communistic countries like Russia. There were many instances of “Difficult” journalists being shot to death for revealing the truth about the corrupted government. The similarity in the Orwell’s book is striking. According to Orwell “ In April Animal Farm was proclaimed a Republic, and it became necessary to elect a President. There was only one candidate , Napoleon, who was

elected unanimously”.16 In the of the book all of the animals except pigs and dogs are forced by the threat of death to work harder and harder in order to bring more profits for the greedy pigs. The farm is being transformed throughout the trades with humans into a very large moneymaking facility with more wind mills being built. The pigs themselves get all of the profits by enslaving the other animals. The dream of electricity, tree-day work week and equality is a dead dream, now for all of the other animals. The pigs are becoming money-hungry humans. The Animal Farm becomes the Manor Farm. The prerevolutionary ideas are gone. Orwell reveals “There was nothing now except a single Commandment. It ran: All animals are equal but some are more equal than others”.17 Besides the literature portraying communism, there have been various movies produced on that subject. One of the movies showing the events during communism is “ Popiełuszko. Wolność jest w nas”. The movie was written and directed by Rafał Wieczyński and depicts life of a young priest Jerzy. Popiełuszko was just a little below twenty years old, when his homeland Poland fell under the control of the communistic regime. As the military training was mandatory in Poland at that time. Popieluszko id drawn into the army, where he encounters a first direct contact with the communism. While in the army he distinguishes form all of the other soldiers markedly. He doesn’t want to listen to orders and refuses to surrender the symbols of Christ. He is a very humble person, deeply devoted to God. That is why he becomes a priest soon after. The striking fact, that the movie reveals is that the ordinary priest is becoming a major threat to the communistic authorities in Poland in the events that follow. He starts his mission against the communistic party, from the mass he undertakes in Warsaw’s factory during the free labor unions strikes. That is when the party is gradually becoming aware of the power the church is holding. The main ___________________________ 16 Idem. 66 17 Idem. 77

figure at that time, that played a major role against the communism was the Pope, Karol Wojtyła. The fact that he was polish, made it much more easy for his massages to get to the society. The mass were the only place, where huge amounts of people could hear the truth about their country. While the communistic authorities could not interfere in the words of the Pope being directly aimed at the people. The messages that he was conveying had to do with the values of faith, hope, freedom and the truth. The messages, that the communists disliked the most. The party was afraid that the huge amount of people could overthrow the communistic system. The sad fact, that happened during Pope’s visit to Warsaw in 1981 was an attempted attack on his life where he was seriously wounded. As later investigations revealed the attack was plotted by the communistic authorities. The party was very scared of the truth being told by the church members. The Church along with the Solidarity movement, famous for its free labor union deal reached, caused the entire society to be more hopeful and willing to fight for freedom. Those facts were very much against the party agenda. Apart from the Pope, Popiełuszko was the second person that was uniting the people and sustaining their faith through profound speeches during his masses. Whenever there was a strike going on, he was always there to support the participants during the arrests, trials, imprisonments. He was uniting the society through spread of the Solidarity flayers and was organizing manifestation against the party. During that time, the communistic authorities were afraid of the Solidarity actions to the point that the general Jaruzelski implemented the Martial Law. The military police called Zomo was becoming very brutal while dealing with the protesting people and was especially vicious with students. Students were among the most active against the party. The young people were fighting for freedom and for better tomorrow for them and their children. Even after the Martial Law was suspended, the Zomo unit killed a very young student named Grześ at one of the militia stations. Nevertheless, the more the communists oppressed the public,

the more united they were becoming, thanks to people like Popiełuszko. The courageous priest was being under stick surveillance by the special militia units KB. Later on in his life he was being accused of criminal activity against the party. He was being threaten by the KB all the time. It was more obvious that the communistic authorities wanted to get rid of Popiełuszko, since he was not afraid to preach the truth and support the Solidarity movement. In order to make an arrest of Popiełuszko, the communists placed in his apartment, materials indicating his alleged activity against the party. However, soon after being placed in jail he was released, thanks to the church authorities. Nevertheless, the communists placed a strict condition on his release that were to stop his preaches. The priest realized that his life was in great danger, so did the church highest members. When confronted with the possibility of leaving the country for studies in Rome Popiełuszko refused. He was number one on the authorities most watching list. Yet, he did not get scared and continued with his support for the people and his preaches. At that time, the most important thing for him was the organization of the first pilgrimage of the working people to Częstochowa. The pilgrimage that the party authorities were strongly against to. The pilgrimage finally took place, yet every single word was being closely monitored by the SB. The party disliked the fact that Popiełuszko preached about the need of Poland to be free country with its people believing in the values of the democracy. As the movie reveals the priest knew that he was going to be murdered by the UB. He went to his parents to eat his last meal with them and said goodbye. The mass he preached in Gdańsk in 1984, appeared to be the last one the priest undertook. During the trip from Gdańsk, his car got stopped by the UB and the priest was kidnapped by the communists. The news of the kidnaping was heard by the entire country through the media. Everybody who was with Popiełuszko during his preaches and wanted for Poland to be free was praying for his wellbeing. Nevertheless, Popiełuszko was brutally murdered by the SB and thrown

into river. The news of the murder made a huge impact on the Catholic world. During the Pope’s visit to Poland in 1987 millions of people were praying for the priest. The priest Popiełuszko’s been the symbol of Poland fighting for freedom and the necessity to preserve the values of the truth. He is the symbol of Solidarity through unity of millions of people fighting with the communistic oppression. During his visit, Pope compares Popiełuszko to the Jesus Christ. Like the Christ, the simple priest died for the truth. The two stories written by George Orwell, “1984” and “The Animal Farm” very clearly confront the communistic ideology. The movie about Popirłuszko deals with the truth and the unity, the communists were scared the most. The picture of the totalitarian system depicted in “1984” is the catastrophic one. In the story the system holds an absolute power to control human mind to the point that it seems to read Winston Smith’s mind. Therefore, any idea of rebellion to the system always ends with the party’s subsequent destruction of the rebel. By using exaggeration, the story is a kind of warning for the future generation of a potential revolution against the values of democracy. As the past events has already shown, it took only few mistakes for the disaster to take place. The totalitarian regime of Joseph Stalin would be the best example to refer to. Its powerful will towards deception and cruelty, caused death to millions of innocent people. However, the key difference between the Orwellian “1984” and the Soviet Union regime was that in the reality the democracy and solidarity proved to be stronger. Moreover, in his stories, Orwell stresses that the human greed with no boundaries is one of the main causes for the totalitarian power to take place. In “Animal Farm”, he portrays pigs as humans. He emphasizes, that the totalitarian control exists due to that extreme greed. After all, no matter how strong the totalitarian control takes, it can be broken by the people united under pray. The movie “ Wolność jest w nas” reveals that it only takes an ordinary

priest for the system to collapse thanks to the unity and solidarity of the people valuing freedom and the truth.

Conclusion: The rise of communism after the WW2 was a true threat to the World. Nevertheless as the above thesis has analyzed, the totalitarian system was eventually overthrown and the truth prevailed in the end. It is hard to miss that the entire wrongdoing communism had done, could have been avoided. The facts have already revealed that there were evident negligent done on the US part. The Roosevelt administration ignored the early warning signs of the Stalin’s decoy. As many historians agreed, the tragic events wouldn’t have happened if Roosevelt was more cautious. The situation of Poland was the best example, where the country was basically handed over to Stalin at Yałta. It is truly unimaginable, that person of such a questionable background like Stalin would be agreeable and promote a democracy in Poland. Even more questionable was his approach toward Polish authorities during the Warsaw rising long before the Yałta conference took place. The Home Army of Poland was slaughtered because the Nazis were much more stronger at that time. The Warsaw would have never been destroyed so much if the Soviets made their promises. All those events clearly shows that there was more to just simple mistakes of trusting Stalin. It was the dictator himself that was using his tactical mind games in order to achieve his totalitarian objectives. Nevertheless, the history, literature and film has shown that there is nothing more valuable that the truth. The truth always win, because it can’t be fabricated as the lies of Stalin. The people of Poland revealed that through Solidarity and faith, every lie can be exposed and that every totalitarian system can be overcame through that solidarity. After all, as the examples has revealed in the above thesis, the truth and faith, when believed by the majority of people wanting freedom are the most effective weapon with the fight against the totalitarian systems.

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