Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe, 1944-1956

Anne Applebaum's "Iron Curtain" is the first volume-length full treatment of the crushing of Eastern Europe by the Soviet Union. It is vital to the preservation of liberty to understand what liberty's absence means in concrete terms, and this well-researched account, which includes maps and great pictures, of the establishment of totalitarianism focuses on East Germany, Poland, and Hungary in the first decade or so following World War II. Applebaum notes that there were significant differences between the nations that fell under Communist control, but that in each country subdued the common methods used by the Communists were the establishment of a secret police force (the author informs the reader how the secret police forces operated), the use of radio for propaganda purposes, and the banning of independent organizations. Other tragic outrages of the time included ethnic cleansing and forced population transfers, liquidation of potential counterrevolutionaries, and show trials with bogus, fabricated evidence. Totalitarians demand just that--total loyalty, and early on the Communists sought to crush civil society to eliminate any rival sources of thought or community. Free speech and free press rights were smothered, the arts were corrupted, religion was banned or greatly undermined from within, established holidays were replaced, and even apolitical organizations were banned. The Communists especially focused on youth, attempting to mold and shape their characters via propaganda while manipulating those who would not conform with ostracism. Adults were kept busy with Party activities and gatherings, likely to deprive them of free time that they could have used to consider their actual condition under Communism. The author describes how taxation and regulation were introduced to strangle private enterprise, and how the obvious poor performance of the economy in the wake of these disastrous policies only led the Communists to double down on economic statism. In both the economic and social spheres, people were not free to speak their minds, and Applebaum limns the resulting psychological consequences to ordinary Eastern Europeans that resulted as they felt that they had to lead double lives to survive. People with even a modicum of knowledge of the human condition would expect Communism to be about as popular as gangrene, but the Soviets actually expected their system to be affirmed in the first elections after the war in the Eastern bloc countries. When it was not, the Communists could not believe it, and in their tantrums that followed their rejection they labeled those who saw through them as "ignorant" and "too autonomous" (viz., wise enough to know that apparatchiks and central planners never have their best interests at heart). When the Communists failed in convincing the people of their right to rule, they knew their only route to power was naked imposition of their system, and when the failures of that system became manifest, they simply and ham-handedly doubled down on their propaganda efforts. Marxist regimes, be they economic or cultural, decide issues and resolve conflicts on the basis of power instead of by reason and truth, and expect those on the business end of those movements to live a lie of one form or another; as surely as spring follows winter, active and passive opposition rapidly arise, and both did so even in an environment like mid-twentieth century Europe in which people did not have the Internet to find unauthorized opinions about news and politics and to locate and connect with other dissidents. If everyone under a totalitarian regime decided to resist either actively or passively the regime would disappear in about ten seconds, but there are always varying responses to totalitarianism--everything from support to resignation to resistance. The author describes the quislings who submitted in order to flourish in a society in which certain careers were closed to those who held forbidden opinions on social or economic issues, and also noted the honest differences of opinion by resisters on the degree to which they should rebel--some limited their subversion to jokes that highlighted the absurdity of the Communist system. Applebaum also lists some of the true heroes of the book--those who voted with their feet, got out of Dodge, and sought a new life in a non-Communist country. The author closes by recalling some of the riots and revolutions that erupted in the Eastern bloc during the Communist era. This volume recounts great brutality on the part of Communists, but the book is ultimately reassuring. Applebaum asserts that people are not as stupid and easily manipulable as totalitarians think--she quotes a sniveling East German Leftist who wailed that "We've done so much education and training, but none of it was absorbed." "Iron Curtain" documents the amorality, brutality, and hauteur that resided in the corroded "souls" of the totalitarian rulers, but also spotlights the resisters' courage, wisdom, fierce intelligence, resilience, and love of liberty as well.

I really want to give this book 5 stars, and, in many ways, it deserves the highest rating. However, the author’s writing style was laborious to follow. The history is incredibly important. The understanding of the history is critical to understanding much of the 20th century and current world events. Many people NEED this history to understand the world today and this book provides that information. Unfortunately, there’s something about the author’s writing style that makes the absorption of that information difficult. I’ve read a lot of history, and I generally burn through those books at a fast pace; I struggled with this book. Perhaps my struggle with this author’s style was due to my shortcomings but I just cannot give this book a full 5-star rating. It’s maybe a 4.5. That being said, the vast detail covered in this book is not only fascinating, but incredibly important. If you have any desire to understand the current politics of Europe, particularly Eastern Europe, you need to read this book.

This well-researched book brings many aspects of this oppressive period including violence, ethnic cleansing, politics, and economy, control of youth, radio, and arts, which makes it a very interesting read. The book concentrates on three countries: Poland, East Germany, and Hungary, “because they were so very different.” It is worth noting that the author starts with explanation of the term “totalitarian,” which was the idea of “total control” and nowadays it is “applied to so many people and institutions that it can sometimes seem meaningless.” And the difference between Soviet Union and the countries occupied by Soviet Union, which still in present time some people have trouble distinguishing, for example Poland was occupied by Soviet Union; it was not part of Soviet Union. What happened before WWII? “In 1939, after the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and agreed to divide Poland, Romania, Finland, and the Baltic States into Soviet and German spheres of influence. On September 1, Hitler invaded Poland from the west. On September 17, Stalin invaded Poland from the east.” What happened after WWII? April 1945, the liberation day across the capitals of those three countries is described as quiet or silent. The next day the Red Army arrived in Poland and a new chapter of history had started. “In Poland, Hungary, Germany, Czechoslovakia, Romania, and Bulgaria, the Red Army’s arrival is rarely remembered as a pure liberation. Instead, it is remembered as the brutal beginning of a new occupation.” The regime of Soviet Union, including its ethnic cleansing turned out to be pretty extensive and violent. It was all done on purpose as they knew that “disoriented and displaced, the refugees were easier to manipulate and control than they might have been otherwise.” Also it has to be mentioned that the Soviet Union soldiers did good for millions of Jews freeing them from concentration camps. Their arrival “made it possible for Poles in the western part of Poland to speak Polish after years of being forbidden to do so in public.” At the same time, “the Red Army left extraordinary devastation in its wake.” The Soviet soldiers were overwhelmed by what seemed to them as richness. “More horrific, and ultimately of deeper political significance, were violent attacks on civilian. (…) Women of all ages were subject to gang rapes and sometimes murdered afterwards.” “In Hungary they seemed unsure of how, exactly, a fascist might be identified. As a result, the first arrests were often arbitrary. Men were stopped on the streets, told they would be taken away to do a little work. They would then disappear deep into the Soviet Union and not return for many years.” In regards to economy, “the Bolshevik Revolution’s first slogan had been ‘Peace, Land, and Bread!’ From the moment they arrived, Red Army troops vigorously tried to enforce the same policy, confiscating land from richer owners and redistributing it to poorer peasants. But in Eastern Europe, this simple formula did not have the impact that Soviet officers expected or that their communist colleagues hoped.” “Land reform was greeted with even greater suspicion in Poland, where collectivization carried particularly negative connotations. In the eastern part of the country, many people had family and friends across the border in Soviet Ukraine, whose peasants had experienced first land reform, then collectivization, then famine. So strong was their fear of this scenario that many Polish peasants opposed partial land redistribution – even knowing they might personally benefit...” In Hungary, “many peasants thanked the communists for their new land. But many were made uneasy by the receipt of someone else’s property,” particularly as the clergy were often preaching against it.” As nationalization progressed, the shortages worsened. Shortages and imbalances lasted for about four decades, 1947-1987. Already in 1950, during the communism, the private sector proved to be more profitable, popular and efficient than state run business. But Soviet Union’s response was, “more control, not less, was what the communist parties of the region believed would stop the strikes, fix the shortages, and raise living standards to the level of the West.” During the era of High Stalinism, 1948-1953, religion was being suppressed. “Many children were expelled from school for refusing to publicly renounce religion – estimates vary from 300 to 3,000 – and far more were expelled from universities. (…) The closure of monasteries followed soon after.” Oppression of teachers, arrests in some cases and raids were designed to punish the entire institution if “ideologically correct atmosphere” was not maintained. Another debilitating aspect of economy was “socialist competitions” – competing to finish given quota quickly, but this never made the economy more productive as quality was ignored. “The second part of this book describes techniques: a new wave of arrests; the expansion of labor camps, much tighter control over the media, intellectuals, and the arts.” It included control of artistic production. “Private galleries had disappeared almost entirely, along with the rest of the private sector.” On the other hand, Wanda Talakowska, polish art teacher, designer, curator was inspired by folk art created by peasants and favored by Communists. She saw an opportunity to inspire and create new designs in folk art. She saw an opportunity, where others saw none. Unfortunately, the Poles saw her as a Communist collaborator. As Warsaw was being rebuilt after the war, the Soviet Union tried to make it as Moscow with wide streets, but this is not how Warsaw was built originally. Warsaw with narrow cobbled streets - this is how people remembered it and this is how they wanted it to be rebuilt. It wasn’t an easy process, but to keep people quiet and to avoid riots, little by little the Soviets allowed the rebuilt of Old Town as it used to be. And personally, I am grateful to those who fought for it, as a lover of art and architecture I am a great admirer of Old Towns and folk arts, which make every culture so much richer.

Once again, as with her earlier Pulitzer-Prize-winning Gulag: A History , Anne Applebaum provides a comprehensive overview of her subject - in this case the development of Soviet domination of Eastern Europe during the decade following the end of World War II, using East Germany, Poland and Hungary as her particular "test cases" for how this process unfolded. As with GULAG, Applebaum organizes the book more by topic than in a strict chronological narrative. In the first half of the book, chapters focus on how communist authorities used particular strategies (ethnic cleansing, for example, or attacks on civic organizations or church affiliates) to assert greater control over the society; the second section principally discusses how the societies responded - many (at all levels of society) who felt they benefited from these regimes and supported them, others who opposed the regimes, however quietly. Applebaum's discussion of the "reluctant collaborators" and the "passive opponents" of the regimes includes many personal stories that actually are quite moving about how individuals responded to the increasing oppression. The book's view of how the Soviets increasingly asserted control is consistent with a fairly orthodox interpretation of the beginnings of the Cold War - Applebaum makes clear, for example, that the secret police agencies for East Germany, Poland and Hungary (and for other East European countries) existed in embryonic form even before the Red Army pushed the Nazi armies out of these countries in 1944-45. Iron Curtain provides considerable supporting detail for her arguments in each of her areas of focus, with a subtle analysis of how the control strategies evolved in response to developments. It's a very powerful account of how Soviet totalitarianism (replacing fascist totalitarianism) came to permeate these societies following the war, but she also is very attuned to pointing out ways in which the resulting societies contained within them fundamental flaws that would lead to their ultimate failure when communism collapsed in the late 1980's. The book assumes some familiarity with the history of the period - if you don't know what happened to Jan Masaryk (for example), you'll find only a brief reference here, not a full explanation of his role in the Czech government after the war. Applebaum provides enough background that you can follow her argument even if you don't know the specifics of the history, but this isn't the book to learn the basics of what happened when. As noted, Iron Curtain is organized by topic, as GULAG was, rather than a strict chronological narrative. In this book, however, she organizes her discussions of each of her topics with some attention to the chronology, so you do have some sense of how the process unfolded over time, and how the response of the East German, Polish and Hungarian populations evolved towards the outbreak of open resistance in each of those countries in the early to mid-1950s. Her last chapter, describing these uprisings and the response of the communist authorities, is particularly powerful. A superb and comprehensive review of how the "Sovietization" of Eastern Europe happened, and how the societies it produced contained within them the seeds of their collapse in the late 1980's.

I got this book because I wanted the day-to-day picture of life under the communist regime. This book did a phenomenal job of capturing what it was like through thorough research and interviews with individuals who lived through it in Eastern Europe. It also helped me understand the means by which the Soviet Union assumed control of its satellite states. This book shows the true toll exacted by Marxism on human dignity and quality of life, and it is written on a strong basis of primary sources and eyewitness accounts. Even if you are not a Cold War history buff, this is NECESSARY reading. If we as a society forget the reality of the evils of totalitarian communism, history will surely repeat itself.

Arrived unpackaged, unlabeled, with broken binding. So far, the book is as good as anticipated.

In her expoistion of how East Europe became Stalininst puppet states following the end of the Second World War and exploration of why East Europeans didn't resist more openly against the imposition of a Stalinist system, Applebaum provides a richly detailed, exhaustively researched and strong indictment of a critical period in European history. The only criticism I have of what is otherwise a magnificent book is its scope: the "Eastern Europe" examined here is limited to East Germany, Poland and Hungary, with only passing reference to Czechoslovakia; Romania and Bulgaria are virtually ignored. Her attention to the areas she does discuss is excellent; it is disappointing, therefore that these other nations are not given equal consideration. The first section, "False Dawn" discusses the way in which the communists gained a toe-hold in Hungary, Poland and East Germany by exploiting the psychological shock of both the war and Nazi occupation while the Soviets simultaneously played up their roles as liberators. The massive displacement and movement of populations (what Applebaum calls "Ethnic Cleansing") further added to the disequilbrium experienced by the populations of East Europe. As Applebaum writes, "With time it became apparent that this particularly powerful combination of emotions - fear, shame, anger, silence - helped lay the psychological groundwork for the imposition of a new regime." This was exploited by the Moscow-trained native communists (Beirut, Rakosi, Ulbricht) who, along with their Soviet masters used the police forces to intimidate, kill or discredit any source of resistance while Soviet-modeled systems were gradually put in place: youth groups, state control of the media, a command (state-run) economy. Much of what is detailed here is not new - Hammond's ( Anatomy of Communist Takeovers was the first to show this pattern. The second half of the book "High Stalinism" is what warrants five stars. Here Applebaum shows how the secret police in East Europe were recruited and trained by the NKVD, how a gradual system of intimidation and observation of the populace was put in place, and how a direct mimicking of Soviet internal and external policies were put into place. What I found particularly compelling was Applebaum's evaluation of East Europe in the late 40s and early 50s and her answer to the question "why didn't East Europe resist more? Why were so many apolitical, allowing this system to exist?" The answer, of course is complex but in short, she argues it is a function of (1) the devastation of the war, (2) simple exhaustion by the populace, (3) the appeal of the language of the liberators (reconstruction did take place, and a society was being remade), (4) the systematic destruction of all alternative sources of authority, and (6) the fact that given all the above, most people simply wanted to get on with their lives. As she writes in the conclusion, "(Stalinism) excelled at creating large groups of people who disliked the regime and knew the propoganda was false, but who nevertheless flet compelled by circumstances to go along with it." It is a remarkable history not only for its detail (I have only touched on the broader points made here), but also for its exhaustive bibliography - any student of the period (or reader who wants to know more about a specific time, place or event during this time) has a rich and wide variety of sources for further reading. While the first half of the book covers well-trod ground, Applebaum does address some aspects of the immeadiate post-war occupation that is not often discussed: the mass rapes of German women in the Soviet occupation zone, the active and brutal hunt for any non-communist partisans in Poland, the great demographic shift of Germans, Ukrainians, Poles and Magyars, the mismantleing of industry (what remained of it) and its shipment east. I highly recommend this book.

This is one of the very best books of its type I have read. It is extremely well researched and authoritatively written and annotated and covers the vast expanse of the Communist takeover and consolidation of power throughout Eastern Europe following World War II under Stalin and his successors. The control, delusion and paranoia engendered is palpable and one develops a great sense of sadness and tragedy for those forced to live under the "big brother system of sham equality" which became so cannibalistic, myopic, self-indulged and hypocritcial. Ironically, for all the praise of workers slaving away for the great and almighty motherland and state, the party elites everywhere ended up as privileged and apart as those in the "terrible" and "predatory" capitalist system they had transplanted. Author Applebaum leaves no secret hidden in her masterly account which makes gripping reading. While communism sought to export a certain glamour through tight control of reality and the use of things such as sport and totally staged and choreographed rallies to engender a sense of superiority over all else and all others, it failed to work and the reality did gradually emerge, both at home and abroad. Of course, escapes and uprisings - although they were ruthlessly suppressed - indicated clearly and increasingly that all was not well. Further, the economic results simply failed to achieve the levels expected of an inherently "superior" system, and, although terror, torture and other controls could and did intimidate most, without exercise of free will, it was doomed and the cancer of doubt took hold and metastasised. The entire structure was inherently unstable. Another key element was that one totalitarian ideology could not easily be imposed over vast numbers of very diverse people and peoples with different national histories, characteristics and features. Ultimately it was merely a matter of painfully-lived time before the entire edifice crumbled, as it indeed did. In the meantime, the stage was littered with corpses and the painful injustices suffered by millions had to wait a book such as this in order to be fully acknowledged.