was not, of course, the only decisive factor in the competition between the two systems. In order to win the Cold War, the opposing systems had to demonstrate which of them was more effective and able to offer its people a better quality of life; democracy or Communism. By maintaining and developing democracy, cooperating and opening up to the rest of the world, the countries in the West hoped to open up new possibilities for their citizens and make them more innovative and receptive. This allowed for significantly faster development and higher living standards in the West than was the case under Communism and demonstrated the advantageous effect of freedom in everyday life. Particularly important in this respect was the concept of the ‘social market economy’, developed in Western Germany after the Second World War by West Germany’s first Chancellor, Konrad Adenauer, and his Minister of Economics, Ludwig Erhard. The economic situation in West Germany after the war was dire: industry had been almost entirely destroyed, inflation was very high, money had lost its value and the black market flourished. Initially, planning and regulation were considered the best tools with which to combat the chaos, however, they only made the situation worse. It was only later, when the Christian Democrats launched the concept of the social market economy in the western sectors that the situation there improved. The social market economy first entailed radical monetary reform followed by the liberalisation of the economy, as a result of which power would shift from the government to the people. On 18 June 1948, the D-Mark was introduced in the Western occupation zones at an exchange rate of between 10:1 and 15:1. National savings were lost, but purchasing power was created overnight. Goods appeared in the shops as if by magic. The Social Democrats fought actively against the economic reforms, blaming the government for the drop in living standards. The government remained in power with only a one-vote majority in Parliament. Adenauer and Erhard nevertheless pressed on and, indeed, the economic situation did start to improve leading to the creation of the German ‘economic miracle’ and allowing the government to focus more on social programmes.118
The rise of the West encouraged people in the captive countries of the Eastern bloc to continue their resistance to Communism. In fact, active resistance in the Communist countries was the work of a small minority, yet only a few people actively collaborated with the Communists. A majority tried to pursue a livelihood outside public life. Nevertheless, many people participated in cultural activities outside the system such as membership of a choir, book club, cultural circle or church. In doing so, they detached themselves from the Soviet system, protected their Western values and developed a passive resistance to Communism. For this reason, even the most apolitical activities outside the system were considered by the Soviet authorities to be potential threats and, consequently, they too were massively controlled. Despite official intrusion, such cultural circles became bases for more widespread opposition. One major battle proved to be for the preservation of national history and culture and through this, the continuation of Western ideas and identity. Central and Eastern Europe continued to harbour Western beliefs and values that defied pressures to adopt the socialist ideology. Memories that preserved the truth in the midst of the daily profusion of official lies were decisive for the future of the captive nations. The Communist authorities’ revisions of history were ignored; activism in Central and Eastern Europe was based largely on a commitment to truth and its liberating force in the face of a system founded on lies. To this end, the younger generation was provided with an accurate account of their national legacy and the long tradition of resistance to Russian and Soviet domination. In this regard, symbolic acts of resistance became especially important, including the destruction of Soviet monuments, the placing of flowers and candles on the graves and monuments of freedom fighters, and the flying of national flags. When the Communists began to destroy national monuments, many of them were saved, hidden and put back by local people after the fall of Communism.
In order to turn such a silent majority into an active one, it was necessary to free people from the fear on which the Communist system was built. The people who marched in long columns under red flags and slogans praising Communism one month were ready to march against it the next if they felt that the system of terror was weakening and they had a chance of success. Fear also disappeared in stages, from one event to another, distributing the power of courage to ever-greater sectors of society. Whenever the Soviet empire displayed signs of weakness, fear decreased among its captive people and they became more active. Uprisings were often the result of a weakening of the centre – the Soviet Union. Since the local Communists remained in power only by reason of Soviet tanks, if Moscow showed signs of weakness, this encouraged people to rise up against Communism. Conflict among the local Communists also demonstrated a weakening of the system; it is no coincidence that the uprisings against Communism often coincided with internal splits among the ruling Communists. The international situation also played an important role in resistance activities. Even though there was no centre to coordinate the resistance movement, if protests or uprisings started in one Communist country, the spirit of opposition and unrest soon spread to other socialist states too. Success in one country demonstrated that it was possible to get rid of Communism, thus encouraging the opposition movement. The domino effect was strongly working in Central and Eastern Europe.
Western radio broadcasts also played a crucial role in the distribution of free information. Early in 1942, the United States started to broadcast radio programmes to the territories occupied by Japan or Germany under the name of ‘Voice of America’, but from 1947, when programmes in Russian were also introduced, the ‘Voice of America’ concentrated increasingly on the countries under Communist rule. In 1946, the American forces in Berlin founded a new radio station, Radio in the American Sector (RIAS), which, within a few years, had become a highly effective tool for delivering free information to the East Germans. One example of RIAS’ activities in these years was the programme it broadcast from 1950 onwards, ‘Radio Free Europe’, which was aimed at the countries that had been conquered by Communism. The US administration actively supported such broadcasts. President Eisenhower stressed that only if people from the countries under Communist rule ‘[were] reminded that the outside World had not forgotten them … [would] they remain potential deterrents to Soviet aggression.’119 From 1949 onwards, the Soviet Union and other Communist countries started actively jamming the Western shortwave broadcasts, but this did not stop people listening to them. Soviet authorities’ reports demonstrate that the influence of ‘foreign voices’ was at times even underestimated in the West; the Central Committee of the CPSU, for example, became very worried about the rise in the amount of short-wave radios among the population. In 1950, only 2 % of Soviet citizens had short-wave radios yet by the 1980s, half the population had access to one. The Soviet leadership took measures to prevent domestically manufactured radios receiving Western stations, which they jammed. According to a report sent by the KGB to the Soviet leaders, the main instrument of hostile foreign influence was foreign radio propaganda that was listened to more or less regularly by 80 % of university students.120
The ongoing hope that Western support would be forthcoming also played an important role in resistance to Communist power. The captive nations of Central and Eastern Europe were sometimes more sure of the power of democracy and freedom than the Western countries were themselves. Seeing the weakness of the Communist system from within, they knew that the West could crush Communism and simply could not understand why it was so hesitant and afraid to do this. Hope was particularly strong during the immediate post-war years when the West had yet to awaken to the seriousness of the new threat. Because of this inertia, the first battles against Communism held in Central and Eastern Europe went entirely unnoticed in the West. This was a forgotten war.
The forgotten war: armed resistance to Communism 1944-1956
During the Second World War, the guiding principles for Central and Eastern European nations were announced in the Atlantic Charter signed by President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill in 1941. Even though the promises of the Charter were violated during the early stages of the war, Central and Eastern Europe continued to believe in them. For them, it simply defied belief that the democratic world, which had entered into the war to save Central and Eastern Europe from one bloody dictatorship, would now deliver those very same nations into the hands
Schwarz 1995.
Puddington 2000, p. 15.
Gaidar 2007, pp. 72-73.
