As a compliment to DingBat's excellent Cold War series of quizzes, I threw this one together about the effects of the Cold War in Eastern Europe in particular:
1. Yalta to Malta. Explain.
2. The Potsdam agreements gave the Soviets the right to extract reparations from the Germans through seizures of property in their zone of occupation. In practice, however, the Soviets claimed that all former German-occupied areas were game which effectively meant that they robbed all Eastern Europe blind. In Poland's case, the Soviets demanded from 1945-1956 and received 152 million tons of a valuable commodity despite the fact production was at 45% of pre-war capacity, already not enough to meet Poland's needs alone. What was this commodity? (Hint: The successive winters of 1945-46 and 1946-47 were among the worst in Europe in the 20th century.)
3. Explain what "defenestration" means and why Jan Masaryk went for a "walk".
4. What was different or unusual about the early communist leaders in Eastern Europe, particularly Ana Pauker, Mátyás Rákosi, Boleslaw Bierut and Klement Gottwald?
5. While communist parties in the 19th and 20th centuries were almost always led by intellectuals, the middle class or peasants, anti-communist uprisings in Eastern Europe were almost always led by workers. Two nearly simultaneous uprisings broke out in 1953 in Eastern Europe (unrelated to one another); where were they?
6. According to his memoirs published in the West, Khrushchov said that he had consulted Mao about a crisis in Eastern Europe. Mao's advice reportedly was that the Soviets should let the [Fill in the blank here] go because they were just anti-Russian, but the [Fill in the blank here] should be crushed because they were anti-communist.
7. They succeeded with Lenin (though some claim it's a fake), they succeeded with Stalin but were later embarrassed by this success, they partially succeeded with Gottwald in Czechoslovakia but only for a few years, and the Bulgarians failed with Todorov because of his alcoholism and the hot, humid Balkan sun. What am I talking about?
8. What was "Goulash Communism" (gulyás kommunizmusz)?
9. This country in the 1960s had the 2nd largest army in Europe and trained specifically to meet a potential Soviet invasion.
10. True or False: Eastern Europeans largely had access to Western music, particularly rock and roll, getting new albums as soon as they came out in the West and developed their own rock and jazz scene throughout the 1960s, 70s and 80s that flaunted censorship rules?
11. What were "Pewex" shops in 1970s & 80s Poland?
12. What were workers' militias for and how long did they exist?
13. Romania in the 1970s and 80s made very decent quality meat products and insulated winter clothing that competed well on the Western markets. What was unusual about these products?
14. In 1990s Poland, May 1st became May 3rd, December 21st became December 25th, etc. This phenomenon was known all over Eastern Europe; what was going on?
15. What event precipitated the creation of the Warsaw Treaty Organization (known as the Warsaw Pact in the West)?
16. What communist country did not allow house address numbers to be displayed on homes, and why?
17. What was unusual about the Soviet publications Pravda, Izvestia, and Novaja Vremja in 1980s Eastern Europe?
18. According to the collection of Soviet military defectors who published collectively in the West in the 1980s under the pseudonym "Viktor Suvorov" (the Russian hero-general of the Napoleonic wars), the Soviet troops being mustered for action in August 1968 knew they going to suppress an independence movement in Eastern Europe, but were surprised when they found themselves in Czechoslovakia. Where did they think they were going?
19. In 1989 the Hungarian government made a momentous decision that infuriated Erich Honecker, who even threatened war (though this was an empty threat). What was this decision?
20. What event touched off the Romanian Revolution of December 1989?
21. When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, what "advantage" or right did the former Soviet citizens gain vis-a-vis Eastern Europe? (Hint: You have to go back a half century to WW II.)
Good luck folks!
1. Yalta to Malta. Explain.
2. The Potsdam agreements gave the Soviets the right to extract reparations from the Germans through seizures of property in their zone of occupation. In practice, however, the Soviets claimed that all former German-occupied areas were game which effectively meant that they robbed all Eastern Europe blind. In Poland's case, the Soviets demanded from 1945-1956 and received 152 million tons of a valuable commodity despite the fact production was at 45% of pre-war capacity, already not enough to meet Poland's needs alone. What was this commodity? (Hint: The successive winters of 1945-46 and 1946-47 were among the worst in Europe in the 20th century.)
3. Explain what "defenestration" means and why Jan Masaryk went for a "walk".
4. What was different or unusual about the early communist leaders in Eastern Europe, particularly Ana Pauker, Mátyás Rákosi, Boleslaw Bierut and Klement Gottwald?
5. While communist parties in the 19th and 20th centuries were almost always led by intellectuals, the middle class or peasants, anti-communist uprisings in Eastern Europe were almost always led by workers. Two nearly simultaneous uprisings broke out in 1953 in Eastern Europe (unrelated to one another); where were they?
6. According to his memoirs published in the West, Khrushchov said that he had consulted Mao about a crisis in Eastern Europe. Mao's advice reportedly was that the Soviets should let the [Fill in the blank here] go because they were just anti-Russian, but the [Fill in the blank here] should be crushed because they were anti-communist.
7. They succeeded with Lenin (though some claim it's a fake), they succeeded with Stalin but were later embarrassed by this success, they partially succeeded with Gottwald in Czechoslovakia but only for a few years, and the Bulgarians failed with Todorov because of his alcoholism and the hot, humid Balkan sun. What am I talking about?
8. What was "Goulash Communism" (gulyás kommunizmusz)?
9. This country in the 1960s had the 2nd largest army in Europe and trained specifically to meet a potential Soviet invasion.
10. True or False: Eastern Europeans largely had access to Western music, particularly rock and roll, getting new albums as soon as they came out in the West and developed their own rock and jazz scene throughout the 1960s, 70s and 80s that flaunted censorship rules?
11. What were "Pewex" shops in 1970s & 80s Poland?
12. What were workers' militias for and how long did they exist?
13. Romania in the 1970s and 80s made very decent quality meat products and insulated winter clothing that competed well on the Western markets. What was unusual about these products?
14. In 1990s Poland, May 1st became May 3rd, December 21st became December 25th, etc. This phenomenon was known all over Eastern Europe; what was going on?
15. What event precipitated the creation of the Warsaw Treaty Organization (known as the Warsaw Pact in the West)?
16. What communist country did not allow house address numbers to be displayed on homes, and why?
17. What was unusual about the Soviet publications Pravda, Izvestia, and Novaja Vremja in 1980s Eastern Europe?
18. According to the collection of Soviet military defectors who published collectively in the West in the 1980s under the pseudonym "Viktor Suvorov" (the Russian hero-general of the Napoleonic wars), the Soviet troops being mustered for action in August 1968 knew they going to suppress an independence movement in Eastern Europe, but were surprised when they found themselves in Czechoslovakia. Where did they think they were going?
19. In 1989 the Hungarian government made a momentous decision that infuriated Erich Honecker, who even threatened war (though this was an empty threat). What was this decision?
20. What event touched off the Romanian Revolution of December 1989?
21. When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, what "advantage" or right did the former Soviet citizens gain vis-a-vis Eastern Europe? (Hint: You have to go back a half century to WW II.)
Good luck folks!
