How did Stalin control eastern Europe?

1 – What was the Cominform?

2 – What was the Comecon?

3 – What was it like living in eastern Europe?

4 – Study source 3 (page 125). Why do you think that Tito wished to remain independent?

5 – What was the policy of De-Stalinisation? Give some examples.

6 - What happened in Poland in 1956?

1- Cominform was set up by Stalin as an organization to co-ordinate the various communist

governments in Eastern Europe. The Cominform ran meetings and sent instructions to communist
governments about what the soviet union wanted them to do. So with this monthly meetings Stalin
could control the Eastern Europe following the same policies as the soviet union.

2- Comecon stands for the Council for the mutual economic assistance. It was set up in 1949 with the
purpose of coordinating the industries and trade of the eastern European countries. The idea was to
trade with each other rather than trading with the West. Comecon favored the USSR far more than any
of its other members. It provided the USSR with a market to sell its goods and it also guaranteed a cheap
supply of raw materials. Moreover, it set up a bank for socialist countries in 1964.

3- People didn't have the right to critics the government. They censored newspapers, they didn't let
people travel to western countries, and anyone who was against communism was sent to prison. Also,
the wages fell behind the wages in other countries, including the Soviet Union. But Eastern Europe was
forbidden to apply for the Marshall Aid which could have helped in the recovery of the economy.
Furthermore, people were short if coal to heat their houses, short of milk and short of meat. Clothing
and shoes was very expensive. People couldn't buy what was normal on the western Europe like a
television or a radio. The factories didn't produce to satisfy people's needs, they produced what the
Soviet Union wanted. And last, they couldn't do protests. if people did something tanks and troops
would appeared killing and arresting

4- I think that Tito was part of the Soviet Union because he knew how Stalin was, a poweful dictator that
wanted to do everything in his terms and everyone should follow. So Tito also a dictator was against it,
he was communist too but he wasn't willing to be under Stalins rules without his thoughts being
considered. Also he was aware of the terrible economic situation and he knew if he entered the Soviet
Union he wouldnt be receiving money from the Marshall Aid. He prefered be seen as a betrayer rather
than being in a huge economic crisis and couldnt do anything because Stalin was who decided.

5- Khrushchev didn't like Stalin at all so he started a program called De-Stalinization, that was against
some Stalin`s work. For example he closed down Cominform, he released thousands of political
prisoners, he agreed to pull soviet troops out of Austria, he invited Marshall Tito to Moscow, he
dismissed Stalin's former foreign minister Molotov and also he seemed to be signaling to the countries
of eastern Europe that they would be allowed much greater independence to control their own affairs

6- In the summer of 1956 demonstrators attacked the polish police, protesting about the fact that the
government had increased food prices but not wages. Fifty three workers were killed by the polish army
riots in Poznan and the government couldn't control the demonstrators, so Khrushchev moved troops to
the Polish border. So, sometime after Poland was becoming more stabilized. Also a new leader took
charge, who was communist and nationalist. He had not seen eye to eye with many polish communist.
Khrushchev accepted Gomulka's appointment that was a popular move in Poland for the next couple of
years