Soviet-built tanks wheel into action in a smoke-filled Budapest street during Hungary's rebellion against communist satellite government in October of 1956. (AP) In a long-awaited history due to be published this week, journalist and author Anne Applebaum draws on firsthand accounts and previously unpublished archival material to describe how the Kremlin established its hegemony over Eastern Europe at the end of World War II. The book, titled Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe, 1944-56, explores the gutting of local institutions and the murders, terror campaigns, and tactical maneuvering that allowed Moscow to establish a system of control that would last for decades to come. I spoke with, Applebaum, whose previous book, a history of the Soviet Gulag, won the Pulitzer Prize. Here is more information. because they are so different and they just had extremely different experiences of war. Germany obviously was Nazi Germany, Hungary had been a country somewhat in-between, a sometimes happy, sometimes unhappy ally of Hitler, and of course Poland was an ally and very actively [involved in the fight against Hitler.]
So therefore there were three countries with different recent histories and what interested me was the fact that despite those cultural differences, despite the linguistic differences, despite the recent political history, by about the year 1950 if you'd looked in at this region from the outside, they would have all appeared very similar.
In the preface, you state that one of the purposes of the book it is to study the history of totalitarian countries and the methods employed by dictators to suppress populations. What can be learned from the history of the Soviet influence in Eastern Europe?
What you learn from studying the period is several things. One is how well prepared Stalin was before he got there. He had for example prepared police forces, secret police forces for each of the countries before he arrived in those countries. Most notably in Poland he begins recruiting policemen from the year 1939. Of course we've always known that he prepared and recruited, and organized communist parties from the time of the Bolshevik Revolution onwards.
You also see which kind of institutions the Soviet Union was most interested in. For example, everywhere that the Red Army went, one of the first things they did was take over the radio station. They believed very much in propaganda, in the power of propaganda and they believed that if they just could reach the masses by what was then the most efficient means possible, namely the radio, then they would be able to convince them and then they would be able to take and hold power.
You also learn about some of their obsessions, some of the things they were concerned about. From the earliest days of the Soviet Union, Soviet representatives in the region were very interested in what we now call civil society. So they were very interested in self-organized groups. That means both political parties, it means soccer clubs, it means chess clubs. Self-organized groups of all kinds were a target of Soviet interest and in some cases repressed from the very beginning. Hope this helps!
<span>great
britain responded to the crisis by fixing its lost markets, decline in
textiles and coal caused unemployment , the creation of a labour party,
there were many national strikes, and many believed that if there was
more demand unemployment rates would go up. In france, it was the
strongest power under the national bloc gov. Cartles and taxes rose to
compensated for the depression. The popular front was created to create
more fair working conditions. There political system was unprepared of
the nazis. Latsly, in the US fdr create 2 new deals to bring relief
after the depression through insurance , spa, and the social security
act</span>
The correct answer is A)Now is time to take action against racial injustice in Birmingham.”
<em>What Martin Luther King is claiming in the passage of the letter is that now is time to take action against racial injustice in Birmingham.
</em>
We are refereing to a passage of the famous Martin Luther King’s “Letter from Birminham Jail.” King wrote the letter on April 16, 1963, from the jail in Birminham, Alamaba. In the letter, Martin Luther King Jr. supports and defend the nonviolent approach to protest against racial segregation. In the letter, he also explains that his protests in Birminham are important because the local leaders and courts are not willing to confront the issue of racism.