Thursday 31 December 2009

The Marshall Plan

George C. Marshall, the originator of the post-Second World War Marshall Plan, was born today, 31st December, in 1880. US President, Harry S. Truman, once referred to Marshall as "the greatest living American", and in January 1947 appointed him as his Secretary of State where Marshall formulated his plan, the European Recovery Programme (ERP).

The Cold War
More commonly known as the Marshall Plan, the ERP aimed to revive Europe's post-war economies, to alleviate the hardship, and to deprive communism its foothold in Europe just as the Cold War began taking shape. Once these economies were stabilised, America too would benefit as trade between Europe and America increased.

The offer was extended to the countries of Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union itself. The Soviet Union had received huge loans from America during the war to help defeat Germany and now, during the immediate post-war years, further aid would have been hugely beneficial to a country still suffering economically from the consequences of its war effort.

Stalin says no
But Stalin was never going to allow American / capitalist interference with the Soviet economy, and nor would he permit his satellites. However, Czechoslovakia and Poland saw the obvious benefits of American aid, and both accepted invitations to attend a conference, set for July 1947, to discuss the Marshall Plan.

Furious, Stalin forbade them to go. Meekly, representatives of the Czechoslovakian and Polish governments traipsed to Moscow to face their dressing-down from Stalin, and returned home to politely decline the invitation to Paris.

"If Italy goes red"
In April 1948, Italy went to the polls. American Congress was worried: "If Italy goes red, Communism cannot be stopped in Europe," and threatened to prohibit Italy from receiving Marshall Aid if the Communists won. They did not.

The Marshall Plan, therefore, had the effect of reaffirming Churchill's concept of the Iron Curtain by forcing countries to decide whether their loyalties lay to the west or east. Loyalties that would endure throughout the Cold War. Sixteen countries finally accepted aid, which by 1951, had amounted to $13 billion.

Marshall was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace for his contribution to the recovery of Europe after the Second World War. He died in on October 16th, 1959.

Rupert Colley.
Read about the whole of the Cold War in just sixty minutes.

Wednesday 23 December 2009

The Execution of Beria

Today, 23 December, 56 years ago, in 1953, saw the execution of a monster. Born in Georgia on March 28, 1899, Lavrenti Beria rose to prominence during the Russian Revolution and during the 1920s became a firm favourite of Josef Stalin, a fellow-Georgian. In 1938 Beria was appointed head of the dreaded secret police, the NKVD.

"Plump, greenish, and pale"
A brutish, inhumane man, he declared in 1937 that enemies "of the party of Lenin and Stalin will be mercilessly crushed and destroyed". He was true to his word and played a major role in Stalin's Great Purges of the 1930s, sending countless numbers to the gulags or to be executed. Yugoslavian writer, Milovan Djilas, described Beria's physical appearance as "plump, greenish, and pale, with soft damp hands. With [a] square-cut mouth and bulging eyes behind his pince-nez."

Following Stalin's death in March 1953, Beria seemed favourite to succeed. Other members of the Politburo feared for their safety: "As long as that bastard's alive, none of us can feel safe," said one.

Beria arrested
Contrary to his character, Beria implemented an amnesty, releasing many from the gulags but many saw this as mere attempt to impose his claim on succeeding Stalin. But it wasn't enough - on June 26 Beria was arrested on trumphed-up charges, such as spying for the British. Nikita Khrushchev (who was to replace Stalin) described Beria's reaction when arrested: "He dropped a load in his pants!"

From his cell, Beria wrote several groveling letters to his Politburo colleagues pleading his innocence and devotion to the party and the communist cause. Exasperated by the number of letters, Khrushchev ordered the removal of Beria's pen and paper.

The execution of Beria
In December 1953 Beria was tried. The whole case was a mockery but no more than Beria had subjected so many of his victims to. He was, unsurprisingly, found guilty and sentenced to be shot. Beria fell on all fours and begged for mercy. He was taken down and promptly shot. He died as so many of his victims did.

Rupert Colley

Monday 21 December 2009

The Birth of Stalin

130 years ago today, December 21st 1879, in Georgia, was born one of the greatest tyrants, Josef Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili, better known to history by his adopted name - Stalin, 'man of steel'. Training to be a priest, Stalin was expelled from his seminary in 1899 and from there followed the revolutionary path of a Marxist.


Stalin's rise
Following the October Revolution in 1917 and the formation of the Soviet Union, Lenin delegated numerous tasks to his eager protege culminating in 1922 with Stalin's appointment as General Secretary of the Communist Party. But Lenin began to regret his decision and Stalin's fast-track rise through the party hierarchy believing Stalin to lack the necessary tact and skill for such a post.

"Stalin is too rude."
In January 1923 Lenin penned a secret memorandum suggesting Stalin's removal from power: "I am not sure whether (Stalin) will always be capable of using (his) authority with sufficient caution... Stalin is too rude and this defect... becomes intolerable in a Secretary-General. That is why I suggest that the comrades think about a way of removing Stalin from that post and appointing another man in his stead."

The other man Lenin had in mind was Stalin's great rival Lev Trotsky. Together with Trotsky, Lenin was going to use the party congress in April that year as his opportunity to have Stalin removed. But in March Lenin suffered a stroke, his third, which confined him to home and effectively ended his political career.

After Lenin
In January 1924 Lenin died. Trotsky may have been the obvious successor but two of his rivals, Lev Kamenev and Grigori Zinoviev, suppressed Lenin's memorandum and decided to side with Stalin, from whom they felt they had nothing to fear. Trotsky was promptly sidelined and eventually expelled from the party and exiled from the country.

But if Kamenev and Zinoviev thought they could tame the Georgian beast they were wrong. Stalin sided with Nikolai Bukharin to have them removed from the party before turning on Bukharin as well. Between 1936 and 1938 Kamenev, Zinoviev and Bukharin were all put on show trial accused of ridiculous charges, sentenced and executed.

Absolute power
Stalin's power was now absolute and he was to rule the Soviet Union unopposed, respected and feared until his death, aged 73, in March 1953.

Rupert Colley.

Wednesday 16 December 2009

Battle of the Bulge

World War Two. 65 years ago today (December 16, 1944) saw the start of the German 'Ardennes Offensive' (the Battle of the Bulge). The Allied forces were advancing towards Germany, pushing the Germans back town by town and this was Hitler's last attempt to stop the momentum. The aim was to cut the Allied armies in two and then push on towards the port of Antwerp, a vital Allied stronghold.

"Nuts"
Heavy fog prevented the Americans from employing airpower and the German advance forced a dent in the American line (hence battle of the 'Bulge'). Germans, dressed in American uniforms and driving captured US jeeps, caused confusion and within five days the Germans had surrounded almost 20,000 Americans at the crossroads of Bastogne. When the German commander gave his American equivalent, Major-General Anthony McAuliffe, the chance to surrender, McAuliffe answered with just the one word - "Nuts."

The bursting of the Bulge
Near Christmas the fog lifted, the Americans launched their planes, the Germans ran out of fuel and the bulge was burst. The Ardennes Offensive did delay the Allied advance but by January 28 the line was back to where it was on December 16. The march on Berlin was back on.

The struggle and conditions at Bastogne are brought to life in the excellent US TV series Band of Brothers. There was also a 1965 film starring Henry Fonda and Terry Savalas, "The Battle of the Bulge", a classic American epic where sometimes, it has to be said, historical accuracy took second place to entertainment but none the worse for that!

Rupert Colley.
Read all about World War Two at historyinanhour.com

Sunday 13 December 2009

Solidarity - the last nails in the coffin of communism

A wonderful country Poland. Only a couple hours from London by plane. But it wasn't always the case.

When I was a sixth former in England during the early eighties and the era of the Cold War, Poland might as well have been on the other side of the world for all we knew about it. Apart from the occasional England v Poland football match, Poland could have been North Korea.

In September 1980, the workers formed Solidarity - the first trade union, of sorts, within the Eastern Bloc. When Lech Walesa, Solidarity's leader, signed the charter, he did so with a large pen bearing the image of Pope John Paul II, the Polish pope, and such a figure of inspiration for the Poles living under communism. But at the time my friends and I were more interested that The Police had got to number one ('Don't Stand So Close To Me').

I visited Gdansk, home of Solidarity, in 2005 and my souvenir mug is a treasured possession.

But 28 years ago today, 13 December 1981, the Polish government, fearful of Solidarity's increasing influence, clamped down on its people, proclaimed martial law, imposed curfews and sent in the tanks. Solidarity was banned, its leaders, including Lech Walesa, arrested. When they came for him, Walesa said: "This is the moment of your defeat. These are the last nails in the coffin of communism."

I remember watching on TV at home: the tanks on the street, the scattering crowds, the frightened faces. Although 17, I could not understand what it all meant. My mother tried to explain, tried to tell me about "freedom" - this thing that I had and had no idea I had it.

I know now but I still don't really appreciate it. No one can unless they've experienced the opposite. It's similar to trying to explain the full meaning of hunger. We know we're lucky; we just can't fathom how lucky.

Rupert Colley
Read about the Cold War in just one hour at historyinanhour.com

Friday 11 December 2009

"There is no excuse for repression"


I found an interesting article on the BBC History Magazine blog about Russian president Dmitry Medvedev's criticism of Josef Stalin.

Since 1991, October 30 has been marked in Russia as a day of remembrance for those who perished during the era of Soviet repression. In Moscow an Orthodox priest led an act of memorial in Lubyanka Square, the former headquarters of Stalin's secret police, the dreaded NKVD. Whilst on his video blog, President Medvedev delivered a damning condemnation of Stalin: "Even today you still hear voices claiming that those innumerable victims were justified for some higher national purpose... There is no excuse for repression."

No one would have dared disprove of Stalin, the Party or the nation during his lifetime. If, as a Soviet citizen, you were accused of criticising, whether guilty or not (that didn't matter), you and your family would have been transported east to fester in a gulag for a decade or two. A slip of the tongue, a joke, something misheard would be enough. Equally, if you were envious of your boss's job, or your neighbour's apartment, a word in the right ear would have him removed.

The first open criticism of Stalin came in February 1956, at the Soviet Twentieth Party Congress, when Stalin's successor, Nikita Khrushchev, delivered a six-hour speech to party leaders in which he denounced Stalin's methods, acknowledged his mistakes and criticized his murderous reign. The text of the speech, although secret, soon spread across Russia and abroad, causing shock that the great man's name should be so besmirched but also relief that, through Khrushchev's 'destalinisation', the tyranny that had overshadowed the Soviet Union for so long was now something of the past.

Rupert Colley
www.historyinanhour.com

Monday 7 December 2009

Never in the field of human conflict has one man won so much for so little

What a hero! Sixty-one year old Roger Day appeared at a Remembrance Day parade in Warwickshire, UK wearing 17 medals.

The medals ranged over half a century - from World War Two to the Gulf War, via the Korean War and the Falklands. They included a gallantry medal or two, including the Military Cross and the Military Medal (pictured). And on his head - a SAS beret with badges.

Our hero insists it's all "pukka" but when pushed for information said the Official Secrets Act prevented him from revealing the details. Hmm.

Never in the field of human conflict has one man won so much for so little.

Rupert Colley. www.historyinanhour.com

The Day of Infamy

A good day, I think, to start a historical blog - December 7th, the 68th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, the attack that brought the USA into World War Two.

It was 7 a.m., a Sunday morning, when the radar station on the island of Oahu first reported to its HQ a number of aircraft on its screen. The reply came back: "Don't worry about it." HQ were expecting a squadron of US planes to be passing by. But these were Japanese planes (bombers, dive-bombers and fighters), 185 of them, intent on ripping out the heart of the US fleet quietly moored on this Pacific island, 3,400 miles away from Japan.

Within a couple of hours it was over - three of the eight American battleships sunk, many other vessels and almost 300 planes. 2,403 Americans died (civilian and military) and over 1,000 wounded. The Japanese lost 29 planes and 100 pilots.

On the same day the Japanese attacked the Philippines and the British colony on Hong Kong.

A Day of Infamy
December 7 was, said US president, Franklin D. Roosevelt, the following day "a date that will live in infamy" and Congress accordingly voted 470 to 1 to go to war (the one being a pacifist vote from Montana).

The USA had entered World War Two and Churchill was delighted. "To have the United States at our side" (he later wrote), "was to me the greatest joy... Hitler's fate was sealed."

But Hitler too was pleased, the teetotaler toasting the occasion with a small glass of champagne. Three days later, on December 11, Hitler declared war on the USA. The conflict, that had started 27 months before, was now truly global.

Rupert Colley
Read all about World War Two in just one hour at historyinanhour.com