Stalin and the European Communists after World War Two (1943-1948)

Abstract

Two basic differences in the Soviet attitude to Europe can be discerned in the years following the Second World War as compared with the aftermath of the First. On the one hand, although conflicts between imperialist interests, state rivalries over hegemony, economic crises and social turmoil were expected to reappear, it was no longer possible to see revolution in its original sense as the answer. On the other, Soviet Russia was no longer marginal to international politics, indeed its role appeared central to Europe’s future. Furthermore, Soviet influence in post-war Europe was amplified by the formation of communist parties whose activities in anti-fascist movements and in the resistance had made them stronger and more legitimate than they had ever been. In 1944–45, Stalin saw the reconstruction of Europe as a process based on the geopolitical division of the continent between Soviet Russia and Great Britain. Sooner or later conflict between the Soviet and the capitalist worlds would arise, but it was not on the immediate agenda. Moscow encouraged both Eastern and Western communists to follow the line of national unity—which reflected the prospect of post-war collaboration with the Western powers—and to avoid any revolutionary uprising. In principle, all communists were given the chance to articulate their own national policy, which was supposed to be consistent with Soviet interests. Radical pressures towards insurrection and civil war were contained, although not entirely marginalized.