For as long as I can remember, I've been appalled by the sheer illogic and utter stupidity of communism. And, the Soviet's barbaric treatment of their own and foreign peoples rivals the worst in the world's history. Thus, a few years ago, I vowed to never read a history book about or a novel set in the bestial, vulgar world of Josef Stalin. But, it'd hard to read about the 20th century without coming back to the Bolshies. Anne Applebaum won a Pulitzer for her book on the Gulag, thus making this required reading for me.
The sub-title of this book is "The Crushing of Eastern Europe 1945 - 1954" and it opens with one of the most famous quotes of the century; "From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the Continent"- Sir Winston Churchill. "False Dawn" is the first half of the book and covers the years up to 1948, when Stalin kind of tried to not show his hand. He mouthed compliance with the Yalta Agreements about "free and unfettered elections". But the fact remained that the Red Army was on the ground in Poland, E. Germany, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Albania and Yugoslavia. The Soviets took over all police and security powers immediately. Death, deportation, or imprisonment followed for anyone who showed fascist tendencies, To be educated,wealthy, intelligent, a nationalist, or opposed to communism was to be "fascist". All civic organizations eventually fell under a communist umbrella. Radio stations and the press were compromised. Land was disbursed, trade was prohibited, and industry nationalized. The communists believed that after the wartime failure of the capitalist states, they would prevail in elections. Rudely awakened in elections everywhere, falsification and brutality overtook the democratic process.
Part Two is called "High Stalinism" and it portrays the institutionalization of the Soviet system in "all the capitals of the ancient states of Central and Eastern Europe". Politically, there was no longer any opposition. Opponents were either gone, in jail, or dead. The Czechs went to Paris to sign up for the Marshall Plan. Stalin called and told them to leave immediately. Knowing the people disliked them, the communists pushed harder, dismantled the churches pretty much everywhere except Poland, conducted show trials modelled on Stalin's in the late '30's and controlled all aspects of life. Particular emphasis was placed on indoctrinating the young. The people pushed back and rioted in Berlin and revolted in Budapest. The Red Army and its tanks crushed these last post-war attempts to throw off the yoke of Soviet communism.
The Czechs failed in 1968 and the Poles in 1981. But we knew that with the creation of the Solidarity movement in Poland, something very dramatic had taken place. The workers had had enough of the workers' paradise. Thankfully, it all ended in Europe in 1989.
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