Soviet Satellites and Divided Germany

The new U.S. containment policies' of 1947 brought a swift reaction from the Soviet Union. Stalin judged these initiatives to be a threat to his sphere of domination in Europe.

He responded by drastically strengthening Soviet control over the states in his sphere

and by mobilizing other communist parties for political opposition to the West. Late in 1947, Soviet leaders organized a meeting of European communist parties, ostensibly to

create a new international organization, the Communist Information Bureau (Comin-.

form). Its real purpose was to make clear Moscow's view of East-West relations and to

mobilize the communist parties and states within and outside the "socialist camp" for

action. Reviving the rhetoric of war, the principal Soviet speaker called for opposition to the Marshall Plan and to the “expansionist and reactionary policy” of the United States. He warned that a new "struggle against the U.S.S.R." had begun. His message was clear:

Communists and communist states once again had to rally to the defense of the socialist

motherland.

The mobilization of international communist support for the Soviet Union entailed three new developments: (1) increased Soviet control of communist parties and governments; (2) the elimination from power of the remaining non-communists

in the eastern European countries' and (3) new efforts by communist guerrilla forces to seize power and establish communist insurgents in their own revolutionary regimes. The most dramatic result of Stalin's Cold War policy in eastern Europe was in Czechoslovakia. In February 1948, the Czech Communist party forced the democratic parties in the coalition government out of power, destroying parliamentary democracy and forming a single-party dictatorship. The call for guerrilla war affected most particularly Greece and China. The Chinese communist guerrillas, already engaged

in fighting the Nationalist government, set out to destroy Chiang's regime. The Greek

guerrillas regrouped in the north and proclaimed the formation of a Greek communist

government. Stalin privately judged them reckless for fighting a government backed

by the United States, "the most powerful nation in the world." But they continued their

struggle.

The increased Soviet control over foreign communist parties, proceeding secretly, permitted no room for national independence among communist states. It succeeded everywhere except in Yugoslavia. In that country, the Yugoslav communist leaders understood national independence to be the fundamental condition of their revolution. In 1946, Tito had protested that his state was not part of anyone’s sphere of influence”, though he did explain later that, of course, he did not have the Soviet Union in mind. The Yugoslav Communists were revolutionaries in their own country and supporters of communist forces in neighboring states, such as Albania and Greece. They were also nationalists in their unwillingness to accept Soviet domination. When Stalin attempted in early 1948 to replace Tito with a compliant Yugoslav leader, he found that his agents in the Yugoslav leadership were powerless against a united Yugoslav party leadership. Failing in his secret maneuvers, he made the conflict public. In the spring of 1948, the Soviet Union withdrew its economic and military advisers, a warning of Moscow's displeasure. That summer, the Cominform expelled the Yugoslav party from its membership. Its real goal was the overthrow of Tito. Stalin privately boasted

that "I will move my little finger and Tito will fall." Instead, the Yugoslav party rallied around Tito. For the first time. Stalin had been defied by communists, loyal to their own

state in an unequal conflict Western observers compared to the Biblical contest of David and Goliath.

The first open conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union occurred in Germany, brought about by the new Allied policy toward the western German zones.

These zones were joined in 1947 into one economic unit. The union was the first step in their plan to revive the West German economy. still suffering from the destruction of war, serious shortages of food, and inflation so rampant that the German currency ceased to have real value. No longer were economic policies formulated for all the Germany; negotiations with the Russians had but to block the formation of a united West

Germany. The means was hunger and cold imposed on West Berliners, completely desfe helpless Berliners, the Western powers would abandon their plans in exchange for an end to

But Stalin did not take into account the cabroken down. The Western Allies' ultimate pabilities of modem air transport (the Soviet objective was the creation of a new German state had little of its own). The Westem..pQ.wstate (including their areas of West Berlin). To ers decided to keep supplies moving along achieve this they were prepared to disregard the air corridors, which the Soviets could not the wartime agreements on German occupa- block WIthOut an act of war. 1he airlift tion. In the spring of 1948, the Western occu- worked; at its peak that winter, one plane arpying

powers announced the issuance of a rived every two minutes in Berlm. Ihe Dlocknew

German currency for their zones. This aa.e failed, and Soviet officials finally opened

was an important step toward an indepen- the roads to Berlin in May 1949. Neither side

dent West Germany, which they decided had used military force. for both sought towould

be formed in 1949. keep the conflict W';th;n rnHnral and diplo-

West and East had split in the middle of matic lirlli!§. Yet the blockade greatly height-

Europe. The West was in the process of re- ened Western fears of war. Stalin's clumsy

building a new Germany. Even without the action had succeeded only in accelerating the

eastern German lands, this western state had unification of the Western zones and the fora population of 50 million and an industrial mation of a Western military alliance.

base to become a major economic power in The German Federal Republic was founded

Europe. Supported by the United States, it be- in 1949. Its constitution was written by

came a front-line region. The Western occu- Germans under Allied supervisi~ It was

pation forces no longer protected the Allies principally the work of Konrad Adenauer,

against Germany; they protected West Ger- leader of the Christian Democratic (CD)

many against the Soviet Union. party, imprisoned by the Nazis and a strong

Stalin opposed the creation of a unified supporter of German collaboration with the

West Germany as strongly as he objected to West. It gave West Germany a federal strucan independent Yugoslavia. Once again. he_ ture under parliamentary rule (similar to turned to thp in~tTl1mpnt of pconomic block- Weimar democracy). In the first national elecacre to achieve his goal. To stop unification re- tions of 1949, the Christian Democrats bequired halting the currency reform; fu order came the majority party, and Adenauer to ach1eve that goal, he began the Berlin became the chancellor of the new Federal Re- ~1ocka~:J~hen the new currency first ap- public. A sizable minority of Germans backed peared mJune 1948, Soviet troo s sto ed the Social Democratic party, opposed to the ra, road, and canal traffic alon Western alliance and in favor of neutrality.

corn ors from the western zones through Throughout the 1950s, however, Adenauer

theIr zone mto West Berlin, with 2.5 million continued to receive the support of a majority inhabItants. The cut off electric power from of voters.

East to West Berlin. e OVlet0 jective was Gradually, the West German state recovered

not to seize all Berlin, which was only a pawn, its full sovereign powers. In 1951, Adenauer

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