User:Pseudo-Richard/Post-WWII Soviet occupation of Eastern Europe

Soviet occupation of Eastern Europe is a term used for military occupations ande force-backed political influence of Soviet Union since the prelude to World War II. Typically, Soviets established of Soviet-type regimes in these countries, either by direct force or through subversion. The term is most commonly used by Western nations and by formerly-occupied countries in Eastern Europe. Soviet Union denied that the events involved constituted occupation or were illegal under applicable international laws, and Russian Federation continues that practice.

While the word 'occupation' is, in other contexts, often used primarily for military occupation, it's important to realise that a further significant aspect of Soviet occupations was civil occupation.

Variations

The Soviet Union created puppet governments in some of these territories, and in others it overthrew the local governments by subversive means. In some cases, the Soviet military presence began immediately upon subjugating the territory to Soviet will; in others, the will was supported by a threat of invasion. An important example of such a threat materializing is the termination of Prague Spring in 1968.

Importantly, two countries partially occupied by Soviet Union, Germany and Austria, were occupied under an arrangement with the Four Powers. The rest of Soviet occupations were unilateral actions by the Soviet Union, and although it has been claimed that the Western Allies tacitly recognised some of these at the Yalta conference, it is a policy of most Western countries to deny the legality of these occupations. This practice started with Stimson Doctrine, but has since the World War II become a well-recognised principle of international law.

Soviet occupations

World War II

As Soviet armies advanced on Germany at the end of World War II, they occupied much of Eastern Europe where Communist governments came to power with their assistance. These countries eventually formed the Soviet bloc.

Further information: History of the Soviet Union (1927–1953)

Hungary

In the Summer, 1941 July, 1941 Hungary, a member of Tripartite Pact, took part in the Axis invasion of the USSR in alliance with Nazi Germany. Hungarian forces fought shoulder to shoulder with Wermacht and advanced through Soviet Ukraine deep into Russia all the way to Stalingrad.

However, at the end of 1942 the military initiative was recaptured by the Soviets and in 1943-44 the Red Army liberated the Soviet territory and crossed the Soviet western frontier on the way to defeat Germany and its allies. In September 1944 Soviet forces crossed into Hungary.

As the Hungarian army ignored the armistice with the USSR signed by Horthy-government on October 15, 1944 the Soviets fought their way further westward against the Hungarian troops and their Nazi allies capturing the capital on February 13, 1945 and continuing the operations until April 4, 1945 when the last Nazi forces and the part of Hungarian troops that chose to stay loyal to Germans, despite another armistice (by Szálasi's government), were routed out of the country.

The Soviets made sure that the loyal post-war government dominated by Communists is installed in the country before transferring the authority from the occupational force to the Hungarian authorities. The presence of the Soviet troops in the country was regulated by the 1949 mutual assistance treaty concluded between the Soviet and Hungarian governments.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the last Soviet soldier left the country in 1991 thus ending Soviet military presence in Hungary.

Poland

Main articles: Soviet invasion of Poland (1939), Polish areas annexed by the Soviet Union, Occupation of Poland (1939-1945), and Northern Group of Forces

Poland was the first country to be occupied by Soviet Union during the World War II era.

Under the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact, the alliance of Soviet Union and Nazi Germany designated Poland to be split in two in their joint invasion of Poland. In 1939, the total area of Polish territories occupied by the Soviet Union (including the area given to Lithuania and annexed in 1940 during the formation of Lithuanian SSR), was 201,015 square kilometres, with a population of 13.299 million, of which 5.274 million were ethnic Poles and 1.109 million were Jews.

After the end of World War II, the Soviet Union kept most of the territories it occupied in 1939, while territories with an area of 21,275 square kilometers with 1.5 million inhabitants were returned to communist-controlled Poland, notably the areas near Białystok and Przemyśl. In the years 1944-1947, over a million Poles were resettled from the annexed territories into Poland (mostly into the Regained Territories).

Soviet troops (the Northern Group of Forces) were stationed in Poland from 1945 till 1993. It was only in 1956 that official agreements between communist regime in Poland established by Soviets themselves and Soviet Union recognized the presence of those troops; hence many Polish scholars accept the usage of term 'occupation' for period 1945-1956.

Romania

Map of Romania after World War II indicating lost teritories.

Main article: Soviet occupation of Romania

Bucharesters greet the Red Army entering the city on 31 August, 1944.

Soviet occupation of Romania In 1941 Romania allied with Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union. After quick initial successes of the Axis forces Romania annexed the areas of Bukovina, Bessarabia, as well as parts of Southern Ukraine all the way to the Southern Buh and continued to fight side by side with the forces of Nazi Germany elsewhere in the Eastern Front. By 1942 and 1943 the tide of the war has turned and the Red Army liberated the Soviet territory and advanced westward from its borders to defeat Germany and its allies. It was in the context of these events that the Soviet forces crossed into Romania (August 1944) and continued to advance westward reaching the capital Bucharest on August 31, while the Romanian King Michael I launched the coup d'état overthrowing the pro-Nazi government of Ion Antonescu and switching the Romanian side in the war.

By mid-September, 1944, when the Red Army already controlled much of the Romanian territory, the Armistice Agreement between Romania and USSR was signed under which Romania retroceded the territory it conquered earlier in the war to the USSR and subjected itself to the allied commission consisting of the Soviet Union, the United States, and the United Kingdom, while the Soviet military command de-facto exercised predominant authority. The presence and free movement of the Soviet troops was also stipulated in the agreement.

The terms Armistice Agreement ceased on September 15, 1947 as the conditions of the Paris Peace Treaty entered into force. The new treaty stipulated the withdrawal of all Allied forces from Romania with an important exemption that such withdrawal was "subject to the right of the Soviet Union to keep on Roumanian territory such armed forces as it may need for the maintenance of the lines of communication of the Soviet Army with the Soviet zone of occupation in Austria."

In the aftermath of the agreement the Soviet presence fell from 130,000 troops (peak in 1947) to approximately 30,000. The troops were fully withdrawn by August, 1958.

Austria

Main article: Allied-administered Austria

Occupation zones in Austria

The Soviet occupation of Austria, 1945-1955. At the end of the war, Austria and Vienna were divided into 4 zones of occupation, following the terms of the Potsdam Conference. The country was earmarked for heavy economic exploitation. The Soviet Union expropriated over 450 businesses, formerly German-owned.

On May 15, 1955, the Austrian State Treaty was signed, officially establishing Austrian independence and sovereignty. The treaty was enacted on July 27, and the last Allied troops left the country on 25 October.

Germany

Main articles: Soviet occupation zone and History of the German Democratic Republic

Soviet occupation zone of Germany was the area of eastern Germany occupied by the Soviet Union from 1945 on. In 1949 it became The German Democratic Republic known in English as East Germany.

In 1955 the Republic was declared by the Soviet Union to be fully sovereign; however, Soviet troops remained, based on the four-power Potsdam agreement. As NATO troops remained in West Berlin and West Germany, the GDR and Berlin in particular became focal points of Cold War tensions.

A separation barrier between West and East Germany, the Berlin Wall known in the Soviet Union and in East Germany as the "Anti-Fascist Protective Rampart," was built in 1961.

The Treaty on the Final Settlement With Respect to Germany signed in Moscow, mandated the withdrawal of all Soviet forces from Germany by the end of 1994. Conclusion of the final settlement cleared the way for unification of East and West Germany. Formal political union occurred on October 3, 1990.

Bornholm

Soviet occupation of Bornholm 1944-1946 Soviet troops occupied northern Norway and the Danish island of Bornholm, strategically situated at the Baltic sea entrance. The Americans viewed these forces as intended to establish a Soviet claim for base rights.

Bornholm was heavily bombarded by Soviet forces in May 1945. Gerhard von Kamptz, the German superior officer in charge failed to provide a written capitulation as demanded by the Soviet commanders, several Soviet aircraft relentlessly bombed and destroyed more than 800 civilian houses in Rønne and Nexø and seriously damaged roughly 3000 more during 7-8 May 1945. On May 9, Soviet troop landed the island and after a short fight the German garrison did surrender. Soviet forces left the island on April 5, 1946.

Further information: Bornholm § History

Post-WWII era

Hungary

Soviet forces intervened into the events of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 and suppressed the movement for reform.

Czechoslovakia

Main articles: Prague Spring and Soviet occupation of Czechoslovakia

Soviet Occupation of Czechoslovakia In 1948, the Czech Communist Party won a large portion of the vote in Czechoslovak politics, leading to a communist period without immediate Soviet military presence. The 1950s were characterized as a repressive period in the country’s history, but by 1960s, the local socialist leadership had taken a course toward toward economic, social and political reforms. However, a number of significant Czech communists, together with the Czech security agency, conspired against limited introduction of market systems, personal freedoms, and renewal of civic associations (see Socialism with a human face) by leveraging Russian support towards strengthening Communist Party's positions.

Leonid Brezhnev, a communist hardliner, reacted to these reforms by announcing the Brezhnev Doctrine, and in 21 August 1968, about 750,000 Warsaw Pact troops, mostly from the Soviet Union, Poland, Bulgaria, East Germany and Hungary, with tanks and machine guns occupied Czechoslovakia, deported thousands of people and rapidly derailed all reforms. Most large cities were individually invaded and overtaken; however, the invasion's primary attention focused on Prague, particularly the state organs, Czech television and radio.

The Czechoslovak government held an emergency session, and loudly expressed its disagreement with the occupation. Many citizens joined in protests, and by September 1968 at least 72 people had died and hundreds more injured in the conflicts. In the brief time after the occupation, which had put an end to any hope that Prague Spring had created, about 100,000 people fled Czechoslovakia. Over the whole time of the occupation, more than 700,000 people, including significant part of Czechoslovak intelligentsia. Communists responded by revoking Czechoslovakian citizenship of many of these refugees and banned them from returning to their homeland.

At a meeting of the United Nations Security Council, Jakov Malik, Soviet ambassador to the United Nations issued a proclamation, claiming that the military intervention was a response to a request by the government of Czechoslovakia. Soviet Union being a permanent member of the Security Council — with veto right —, it was able to circumvent any United Nations' resolutions to end the occupation.

Prague Spring's end became clear by December 1968, when a new presidium of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia accepted the so-called Instructions from The Critical Development in the Country and Society after the XIII Congress of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. Under a guise of "normalisation", all aspects of neo-Stalinism were returned to everyday political and economic life.

Soviet occupation of Czechoslovakia ended only in 1990, just before the collapse of Soviet Union. The last occupation troops left the country on 21 June 1991.

In 1987, the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev acknowledged that his liberalizing policies of glasnost and perestroika owed a great deal to Dubček's socialism with a human face. When asked what the difference was between the Prague Spring and his own reforms, Gorbachev replied, "Nineteen years".

Further reading

• Czech government: The Soviet occupation of Czechoslovakia
• Mart Laar April 29 2007: Why Russia likes Soviet occupation monuments?
• Stanislav Kulchytsky July 17 2007: Was Ukraine under Soviet occupation?
• Encyclopædia Britannica: Latvia. The Soviet occupation and incorporation
• Armistice Negotiations and Soviet Occupation, a part of Romania: A Country Study. Washington: GPO for the Library of Congress, 1989, edited by Ronald D. Bachman

Category:Soviet occupations Category:Foreign relations of the Soviet Union

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