confusing or contradictory. Gottwald, a loyal
communist, believed in 1947, for example, that
Stalin would not object if Czechoslovakia partic-
ipated in the Marshall Aid Programme; as we have
seen, he was rapidly obliged to recant. But when-
ever Stalin made his views known the communists
made speed to fall into line.
A façade of representative institutions would
placate the West; meanwhile the US was pulling
most of its armed forces out of Europe. Firm
communist bases in Czechoslovakia, Romania,
Hungary, Bulgaria, Poland and the Soviet zone
of Germany were established. Everywhere com-
munists were strongly entrenched and dominant
in coalition National Front governments. The
political activities of other parties were controlled,
and those labelled ‘fascist’ were banned. The
influence of the landowners was removed by
dividing up their estates, and for the time being
the peasantry benefited from the redistribution of
land: for this, the communists gained the credit.
Large industries were nationalised, and progres-
sively the smaller ones as well. The economic base
of the dominant wealthy pre-war social groups
was destroyed; in Poland it had already been
destroyed by the Germans. With local committees
established in every community, the communists
entrenched their influence to prepare for ultimate
control as soon as the Kremlin judged the time
right.
In each country there were differences too. The
Catholic Church was powerful enough in Poland
and Hungary to form an opposing force. Social
and economic conditions also differed, Poland
having suffered more grievously during the Second
World War than any other Eastern European state
apart from the Soviet Union. The strength of the
anti-communist opposition varied from country to
country too, as did the tactics adopted by the com-
munist leaders. In Czechoslovakia, the commu-
nists were sufficiently strong to seek control by
semi-legal means; in Yugoslavia, the communists
took control from the start. But all the countries in
the Soviet orbit had this in common: the dynamics
of the social and political changes introduced after
1944–5 were bound to end in a communist
victory.
Communist domination after 1948 did not
mean the end of political strife. The Moscow-
trained communist leaders turned on the ‘native’
communists in great purges during the closing
years of Stalin’s rule. The revolution began to eat
its own children. Moscow’s was a savage domin-
ance over a turbulent region.
1
THE SOVIET UNION 327
