Stalin's behaviour shocked Churchill and Roosevelt. The}
each had a different concept of democracy. Soviet Russia was
assembling a new kind of empire cemented by ideology. The
government of each country would orientate itself towards the
Russian camp either willingly or by constraint. Communists,
usually heads of the communist parties returning from Moscow,
became members of National Union governments. The 'fascists'
and their supporters were immediately prosecuted. This formula
was adopted without objection by the Bulgarians, who had not
opposed Soviet Russia in the War, and had always been on
friendly terms with the Russians.
In Rumania the national front was splintered by the communist
policy of reapportionment of land and nationalization of
industry. In February 1945 Vychinski, the Soviet Vice -Minister
of Foreign Affairs, arrived at Bucarest and issued King Michael
an ultimatum to change the government in accordance with
Soviet policies and to appoint a communist as minister of the
interior. Roosevelt and Churchill proposed setting up a tripartite
commission, but Stalin politely refused. In Czechoslovakia,
Benes agreed to appoint a communist head of government.
Rumania and Czechoslovakia had both been strongly
pro -Western.
In Hungary the communists tried unsuccessfully to seize
power. They were a minority party within the liberation committee
which had been set up at Debreczen. The Red Army
treated Hungary as an enemy and occupied it on the grounds
that it had been a long standing German ally. In Yugoslavia the
communists were completely successful. Tito formed a National
Council government in March 1945. He himself was head of the
government and partisans filled 23 of the 28 ministerial posts.
Under the agreement between Stalin and Churchill influence was
to have been shared equally between them. In the final event
Churchill was very bitter. He felt he had been duped. At the time
it was not known that Stalin and Tito did not see eye to eye. All
the central European states had entered the Russian sphere irrespective
of their wartime policies. Only Greece escaped. Churchill
had been adamant and Stalin upheld his part of the
bargain. But Greece was soon rent by civil war, possibly at Russia's
provocation, and the outcome seemed uncertain.
World History
