History: Behind the Iron Curtain

How particular characteristics, cultures and even different political systems in the six countries of Eastern Europe under Soviet control combined to undermine what was the USSR’s protective barrier against the West. We will examine why the Soviet leadership under Josef Stalin believed it was so necessary to control these countries in the first place. Then we will cover the various features of socialism applied here, particularly Marxist-Leninist ideology on the Soviet model, and how this was inculcated into the citizens by various methods, including propaganda and the media and through youth groups and clubs and societies, but also by coercion from secret police organisations. But we’ll see how nationalism and ethnic diversity, cultural differences, economic difficulties, and, in the case of Poland, a more dominant ideology, the Catholic Church, undermined the imposition of the new system, and how dissatisfaction led to rebellions and uprisings and finally the events of 1989. We’ll also look at the different conditions in East Germany and the reasons for the building of the Berlin Wall. We will also consider why Poland was allowed to introduce reforms in 1956, while Hungary’s attempts to bring about change through revolution failed. We will also look at why individual Soviet leaders were so significant over the period.