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Jakub Basista, PhD, DLitt Institute of History Jagiellonian University COLD WAR 2015/2016 Meeting 8 Lecture Notes Stalinism and McCarthyism. Stalinism and the age of terror 1948-1956. Synopsis The system introduced after WW II in Central Europe changed over time. Its first period, from the establishment of Communist rule lasted till the Thaw of 1956. It is referred to as Stalinism after its creator – Joseph Stalin. And although Stalin himself died in March 1953, it took three more years for the situation to change. A signal was given by one of Stalin’s successors – Nikita Chruschov. AT the XX Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, he pronounced Stalin a criminal and his period as a period of wrongdoing. The speech, intended to be secret, leaked out and let to changes in various countries of the Soviet block. In some places they were slow and careful, in other they led to Soviet intervention after Moscow saw that they went too far. As far as Stalinism was concerned it was a period of totalitarian military-party regime. Who is not with us is against us. Stated the party slogan. And if one were not with the system, with comrade Stalin, one could end up in jail. The system included and overrun every domain of life: politics, education, production, family life, culture, sports, travel..... 1. The system 2. Methods of maintaining power - Leadership; Leader cult - Pseudo-religious ritual 3. Party’s role in society/economy - Economy - Art; Literature - Industrialisation - Political domination 4. Soviet control of dependent states “The Soviet-controlled people’s democracies were meanwhile in the grip of mature Stalinism. It was characterized by the enforced imitation of political, administrative and cultural institutions; absolute obedience to Soviet directives and even hints; administrative supervision by Soviet personnel; bureaucratic arbitrariness; police terror uncontrolled even by the local party; economic deprivation while pursuing overambitious industrial investment programs and undercapitalized agricultural collectivization drives (“lunar economics”); colonial-like foreign-trade dependence on the Soviet Union; isolation from the non-Communist world and to some extent even from other people’s democracies; synthetic Russomania; a mindless cult of Stalin adulation; and resultant widespread social anomie, intellectual stagnation, and ideological sterility.” Quote from Rothschild J., Return to Diversity, New York, Oxford 1989, p. 145. • • • • • Communist Party Power – gaining power (revolution, war) – purposeful process of history – the state ruled by workers – party guarding the revolution Methods of maintaining power – Personality cult: 1. Link with Lenin 2. Role in achievement of success 3. Relationship with the people 4. Scientific achievements/writings – Pseudo-religious ritual Party’s role in economy/society – economy – art,literature – industrialisation – political domination Practice – army – peoples’ militia – party membership – education/censorship Soviet community of states – control of other states – bilateral consolidation with Moscow – Soviet embassies – close contact between party bodies – direct penetration of institutions – isolation of peoples’ democracies – the Warsaw Pact – COMECON STALINIST REPRESIONS 1944-53 are the years of the hardest repressions in Poland: in 1954 at least 5 million people were entered into the files of the security organs as „criminals and suspects’ 1945-1953 at least 756000 were in custody (jails, arrests) with barely 12 % having a court sentence 1945-53 Special Committee to Combat against Economic Misdoings sentenced 310000 persons (loss of property and alike) 1944-56 probably 20439 were executed or died in prisons 1946-55 there were 3468 death verdicts announced by the Regional Military Courts 1946-55 at least 1363 death verdicts were carried out SHOW TRIALS January 1946 – court case against 15 members of the so called „special corps” – seven persons executed, others sentenced to 5-19 years August-September 1946 – trial in Katowice against six members of „Wolnośc i Niezawisłość” (3-10 years prison) October 1946 – court case against founders of „Narodowe Zjednoczenie Wojskowe (Leon Mirecki tortured yet sentenced after one year only to five years) Summing up – probably 150000 were detained and accused in connection with political activity in the years 1945-46 1945-48 some historians claim 71336 persons were detained in connection with military activity Labour and Concentration camps Stalinist show trials begin on 12 May 1949 with a trial against the Albanian Minister of Interior, Koci Xoxe (Titoist). The trial against him and his followers started in Sofia on 7 December 1949. Those tried with him were Prof. Ivan StefanoT, Nikola Pavlov, Nikola Nachev, Boris A. Hristov, Tsonyu S. Tsonchev, Ivan S. Gevrenov, Ivan G. Tutev, Blagoy I. Hadzhipanzov, Vassil A.Ivanovski and Ilia I. Bayaltsaliev. The accusation was the following: a) of treason, because they had organized an illegal organization and groups aiming to overthrow the legally established people's power by forceful means; that they have committed actions-aiming at worsening the friendly relations of Bulgaria with the Soviet Union and the People's Democracies; b) of espionage for having collected and transmitted to the British, American and Yugoslav Intelligence Services Information considered as a state secret and also have placed themselves under the orders of a foreign Intelligence Service for spy work; c) of sabotage for having committed criminal acts aiming at the disorganization of the national economy and the supply system of the country. Kostov received his sentence on 14 December 1949: death, depriving of all rights and confiscation of all properties. The death sentence was executed on 16 December 1949, by hanging. In reality the aim of Kostov and his followers was to save Bulgaria from full Soviet influence and economic exploitation. After the 20th Congress of the Soviet CP and the BCP's CC plenum of April 1956, Rostov and those sentenced together with him were rehabilitated. Arrests start on 18 May 1949 (six days after the opening of Xoxe trail). Laszlo Rajk Hungarian Communist; Stalinist; victim of the system he helped create; obviously he was eliminated because of his backgroud – he was a Hungarian Communist, not ‘imported’ from Moscow. Slánský was found guilty of "Trotskyite-Titoist-Zionist activities in the service of American imperialism" and on 3 December hanged in Pankrác Prison with 10 ‘accomplices’. McCarthyism Mar 21, 1947 Truman Loyalty Oaths President Harry S. Truman issues Executive Order 9835, establishing a Loyalty- Security Program for all federal employees. Designed to pre-empt Republican charges of Communist infiltration of the government, Truman's loyalty oaths only heighten the country's growing fears of Communist subversion. Jun 23, 1947 Taft-Hartley Act Congress passes the Taft-Hartley Labor-Management Relations Act over President Truman's veto, sharply curtailing the rights of organized labor while forcing unions to purge Communists from their ranks. Oct 20, 1947 House Un-American Activities Committee The House Un-American Activities Committee opens hearings investigating Communist activity in Hollywood. Oct 27, 1947 John Lawson Refuses Screenwriter John Howard Lawson, a hostile witness before the House Un-American Activities Committee, refuses to answer, on constitutional grounds, whether he is or was a member of the Communist Party. He is ejected from the hearing and later charged with Contempt of Congress. Nov 24, 1947 Hollywood Ten The House of Representatives issues citations for Contempt of Congress to the Hollywood Ten—John Howard Lawson, Alvah Bessie, Herbert Biberman, Lester Cole, Edward Dmytryk, Ring Lardner Jr., Albert Maltz, Samuel Ornitz, Adrian Scott, and Dalton Trumbo. Nov 25, 1947 Hollywood Blacklisting The Motion Picture Association confirms the blacklisting of the Hollywood Ten from employment in the film industry. May 1, 1948 Arrest in Alabama Glenn Taylor, Progressive Party candidate for Vice President on Henry Wallace's ticket, is arrested in Alabama for violating segregation laws by attempting to hold an integrated political rally. Taylor's jailor is Birmingham police commissioner Bull Connor, who will later became notorious for unleashing attack dogs on peaceful civil rights protestors associated with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Aug 3, 1948 Alger Hiss Named a Communist Former Communist Whittaker Chambers testifies before the House Un-American Activities Committee, naming Alger Hiss—an important figure in Franklin Roosevelt's State Department—as a Communist agent. Aug 5, 1948 Alger Hiss Testifies Alger Hiss testifies before the House Un-American Activities Committee, denying that he is, or ever was, a member of the Communist Party. Aug 25, 1948 First TV Broadcast of Congressional Hearing Alger Hiss and Whittaker Chambers both testify in a televised hearing of the House UnAmerican Activities Committee. It is the first time any Congressional hearing has been broadcast over television. Nov 2, 1948 Truman’s Surprise Reelection President Harry S. Truman is elected to a second term as president, defeating Republican Thomas Dewey, Progressive Henry Wallace, and Dixiecrat Strom Thurmond in the election of 1948. Nov 2, 1949 CIO Boots Communist Labor The Congress of Industrial Organizations votes in its national convention to revoke the charter of the United Electrical Workers, the third largest union in the CIO, for failing to purge itself of Communist influence. Ultimately twelve left-leaning unions, and countless individual leftwing organizers, will be booted from the CIO. Jan 21, 1950 Alger Hiss Convicted Alger Hiss is convicted for perjury after a jury concludes that he made false statements in denying Whittaker Chambers' allegations that the two men had known each other as Communists in the 1930s. Hiss will serve more than three years in federal prison. Feb 9, 1950 Joseph McCarthy Claims Targets Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy gives a speech in Wheeling, Virginia, dramatically claiming, "I have in my hand a list of 205 cases of individuals who appear to be either cardcarrying members or certainly loyal to the Communist Party" within the United States State Department. Alger Hiss (November 11, 1904 – November 15, 1996) was a U.S. lawyer, civil servant, administrator, businessman, author, and lecturer. In 1948, Whittaker Chambers, a government informant and former Communist Party member, testified to the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) that Hiss had secretly been a Communist while in federal service. Called before HUAC, Hiss categorically denied the charge. When Chambers repeated his claim in a radio interview, Hiss filed a defamation lawsuit against him. At both trials, a key piece of prosecution testimony was that of expert witnesses who stated that identifying characteristics of the typed Baltimore documents matched samples known to have been typed on a typewriter owned by the Hisses at the time of his alleged espionage work with Chambers. Also presented as prosecution evidence was the typewriter itself, which the Hisses had given away years earlier; it had been located by defense investigators. In the second trial, Hede Massing, an American ex-Communist, provided some corroboration of Chambers's story when she recounted meeting Hiss at a social function in which they both spoke obliquely about their Communist activities. The second trial jury found Hiss guilty on both counts; on January 25, 1950, he was sentenced to five years imprisonment. The verdict was upheld by the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (case citation 185 F.2d 822) and the Supreme Court of the United States (340 U.S. 948). Hiss served 44 months at the Lewisburg Federal Prison before he was released November 27, 1954. The term "Red Scare" has been applied to two distinct periods of intense anti-Communism in United States history: first from 1917 to 1920, and second from the late 1940s through the mid-1950s. Both periods were characterized by widespread fears of Communist influence on U.S. society and Communist infiltration of the U.S. government. These fears spurred aggressive investigation and (particularly during the first period) jailing of persons associated with communist and socialist ideology or political movements. American communists who were executed in 1953 for conspiracy to commit espionage. The charges related to passing information about the atomic bomb to the Soviet Union. This was the first execution of civilians for espionage in United States history. Rosenbergs were convicted of passing atomic secrets to the Soviet Union on Mar 29, 1951 and executed on June 19, 1953. http://civilliberty.about.com/od/freespeech/tp/McCarthyism-Timeline-History.htm 1946 Using elaborate (and completely fictional) war stories, forged documents, and a fake limp, Wisconsin politician Joseph McCarthy successfully wins election to the U.S. Senate as a war hero. 1947 The U.S. House Un-American Activities Committee destroys the careers of ten prominent Hollywood figures for their refusal to testify about alleged ties to U.S. progressive and socialist movements. While McCarthy is not directly involved in the HUAC's work, it appears to have inspired his later efforts. 1950 In a February speech, Joseph McCarthy argues that the United States is losing the Cold War and that the fault rests with McCarthy's political enemies in the Truman administration:The reason why we find ourselves in a position of impotency is not because our only powerful potential enemy has sent men to invade our shores, but rather because of the traitorous actions of those who have been treated so well by this Nation. It has not been the less fortunate, or members of minority groups who have been traitorous to this Nation, but rather those who have had all the benefits that the wealthiest Nation on earth has had to offer - the finest homes, the finest college education and the finest jobs in government we can give. This is glaringly true in the State Department. There the bright young men who are born with silver spoons in their mouths are the ones who have been most traitorous. I have here in my hand a list of 205- a list of names that were made known to the Secretary of State as being members of the Communist Party and who nevertheless are still working and shaping policy in the State Department.The explosive accusations transformed Joe McCarthy, a little-known freshman senator from Wisconsin, into a household name. 1952 McCarthy's book, McCarthyism: The Fight for America is published, and his characterization of the Democratic Party as soft on Communism helps General Dwight Eisenhower win the November presidential elections. Eisenhower would later become a critic of McCarthy's tactics. 1953 McCarthy becomes chair of the Senate Operations Committee, and uses his authority in this role to assign himself as chair of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, which he uses as an instrument to push his "anti-Communism" efforts. 1954 The four-day Army-McCarthy hearings, nationally televised and broadcast on the radio, damage McCarthy's standing among the American public. He is censured by the U.S. Senate and stripped of his chairmanship, and his role as a national politician effectively comes to an end. Later that year, Eisenhower famously refers to McCarthyism as "McCarthywasm." 1957 His career as a national politician essentially over, Joe McCarthy dies of alcohol-induced hepatitis. 1958 The John Birch Society, which advances paleoconservative principles and targets alleged Communists in the U.S. government, is founded. 2003 Conservative pundit Ann Coulter's Treason, which portrays McCarthy as an American hero, is published. 2007 Conservative revisionist historian M. Stanton Evans' Blacklisted by History: The Untold Story of Senator Joe McCarthy and His Fight Against America's Enemies, which further attempts to rehabilitate McCarthy's image, is published. 2010 Citing the work of American Nazi author Elizabeth Dilling (who, ironically, was herself convicted on sedition charges in 1944), right-wing pundit Glenn Beck argues that Joseph McCarthy was "absolutely right." 2012 Rep. Allen West (R-FL) accuses Democratic politicians of secretly belonging to the American Communist Party:What percentage of the American legislature do you think are card-carrying Marxists? I believe there’s about 78 to 81 members of the Democratic Party that are members of the Communist Party. They actually don’t hide it. It’s called the Congressional Progressive Caucus.Earlier in the year, West called on Democratic leaders to leave the country:This is a battlefield that we must stand upon ... Take your message of equality of achievement, take your message of economic dependency, and take your message of enslaving the entrepreneurial will and spirit of the American people somewhere else. You can take it to Europe, you can take it to the bottom of the sea, you can take it to the North Pole, but get the hell out of the United States of America.This is consistent with the older Tea Party movement's emphasis on anticommunism and other policies associated with paleoconservatism.