JUNIOR CYCLE HISTORY 1. 1953: Workers on strike in East Berlin were attacked by Soviet tanks stationed in the city.
2. 1956: During the Hungarian Uprising, there were mass protests against the USSR and the local communist government. The protesters appealed to the West for help, but they were ignored. The uprising was crushed by a Soviet invasion after 13 days.
3. 1961: The Berlin Wall was built to stop people fl eeing from East Berlin to the West. Afterwards, anyone trying to cross over was shot by the border guards.
4. 1968: The Czechoslovakian government tried to introduce more freedoms for its people in the Prague Spring. Moscow sent in tanks, as it feared that the country might try to leave the Eastern Bloc.
5. 1980–1981: Workers in Poland formed the Solidarity trade union to demand more rights and better pay from the government. Under the threat of a Soviet invasion, the Polish government imposed military rule (martial law) on the country and arrested the leaders of Solidarity.
The threat of the Soviet Union using military force kept the governments and people of Eastern Europe under its control for over forty years.
DID YOU KNOW?
In 1983, the Soviet Union’s military leaders mistook army training manoeuvres by NATO forces in Western Europe as the first step in an attack. They almost launched a full- scale nuclear strike that would have started World War III before they realised the truth. No one in the West had any idea how close the world had come to war until years later.
Soviet tanks during the Prague Spring CHECKPOINT!
1. What was the main objective of Soviet policy in Eastern Europe after World War II? 2. How did the Soviets seek to control the countries of Eastern Europe? 3. What happened when those countries tried to break free of that control? Give an example. 4. Why do you think the West refused to intervene in the Hungarian Uprising in 1956?
5. Why do you think the Soviet threat of force was so successful at keeping Eastern Europe under control?
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I understand how the Soviet Union retained control over Eastern Europe during the Cold War.
