German / French documentary series three parts by Arte, directed by Tania Rakhmanova (F 2022, 52 min)
Part 1 – Satellite States
While the Red Army was advancing towards Berlin in 1944, Stalin was already planning to incorporate Eastern Europe into his sphere of influence. Within a few years, he had imposed the totalitarian Soviet system in the satellite states – by any means necessary. From then on, the Iron Curtain divided the continent into East and West.
By 1944, Hitler’s Germany’s military defeat had long been looming: Soviet troops were advancing inexorably towards Berlin. In February 1945, the USA, Great Britain and the USSR agreed in Yalta to install democratic governments in the liberated countries. Stalin retained control of the areas in the East, but established communist regimes there, for example in Hungary, Poland and East Germany.
The population, traumatized by the deprivations and cruelties of the war, let it happen: they were busy rebuilding the destroyed cities and ensuring their survival. The USSR took over the industry in the satellite states and confiscated coal, wheat and uranium.
Marxism-Leninism was declared the only valid worldview in the newly formed Eastern Bloc. Propaganda and repression permeated society, surveillance apparatuses were created: arbitrary arrests and denunciations were the order of the day. The Iron Curtain divided the old continent into East and West for decades.
Teil 2 – Stalin’s Empire
The entire Eastern Bloc celebrated Stalin’s 70th birthday in December 1949. At this time, all Eastern European satellite states were under the absolute control of the Soviet Union. Churches and believers were monitored, and critics of the regime were persecuted. Young people found their place in the ranks of the Young Pioneers, and socialist values were propagated in research and teaching.
In 1949, Josef Stalin turned 70, and in his honor, cities in Eastern Bloc states were even named after the Soviet ruler. The USSR monitored the governments of the newly formed satellite states even after the official withdrawal of the Red Army. Churches and believers were spied on, and dissidents and critics of the regime were persecuted. Young people found their place in the ranks of the Young Pioneers, and socialist values were propagated in research and teaching. Collectivization took away families’ land, and there were countless expropriations.
Only a few years after the end of the war, Moscow initiated a major anti-Jewish show trial that also targeted Holocaust survivors: in November 1952, eleven high-ranking party members were sentenced to death in Prague on flimsy grounds. The people of the Soviet Union prepared for further merciless “purges”. But on March 5, 1953, Stalin died unexpectedly from the effects of a stroke. His death sent a wave of hope through the population.
Part 3 – Uprisings
After Stalin’s death, hopes for an end to the communist dictatorship grew in the Eastern Bloc countries. But the growing protests were brutally suppressed from Berlin to Budapest. The construction of the Berlin Wall brought an abrupt end to all dreams. From then on, the Iron Curtain stretched right through Europe, and the satellite states were completely at the mercy of the USSR.
Stalin’s death on March 5, 1953 paved the way for a series of protests and uprisings in oppressed Eastern Europe. It all began in Berlin, where workers went on strike in June 1953 and deliberately attacked symbols of the Soviet occupying power. This first major uprising against the regime installed by the USSR was crushed by Soviet tanks.
Hope for a possible change came from Moscow in 1956: at the 20th Party Congress of the CPSU, the new Soviet head of government Nikita Khrushchev condemned the crimes of his predecessor. A popular uprising breaks out in Budapest, but the Soviet army puts a bloody end to it.
After that, life goes on as before: repression, surveillance, coordination. On the morning of August 13, 1961, East Germany is finally sealed off with the construction of the Wall; the last loophole to freedom is a thing of the past. Barbed wire, mines and orders to shoot are the inhumane reality of the Iron Curtain, which was not to fall until 1989.
