Pressures on the USSR 1963-72

When did Stalin die?

1953

What two differing forms of communism threatened the USSR’s global stronghold?

Tito’s Yugoslavia and Mao’s deteriorating relationship with the USSR

When did Czechslovakia first uncover negative economic growth?

1963

Who promoted reforms that were against central planning and for private enterprise and greater consumer rights in Czechslovakia?

Ota Sik

How did Sik propose to facilitate these changes?

Through political reform attacking the communist regime

Who had to resign in 1968 and who replaced him?

Novotny resigned and was replaced by Dubcek

Who did Brezhnev thing Dubcek was and how did he surprise the USSR?

• They thought he was a typically communist bureaucrat who would stabilise communism

• Instead he produced a ‘new start to socialism’ and proposed ‘Socialism with a human face’ through his action programme

Dubcek’s action programme:

• Freedom to travel and work abroad

• A shift from heavy industry to consumer goods

• Increased minority rights for the Slovak minority

• Allowance of non party institutions like Trade Unions

• Free speech and press

• Freedom to make economic decisions based on consumer demands and not government targets

How did Dubcek reassure Moscow after his bold action programme?

He convinced that he would stay loyal to the Moscow Pact

What was the Warsaw letter?

A letter arguing the views of others in the Soviet Bloc that socialism being challenged in one country was a threat to the entire movement

The Invasion of Czechoslovakia:

• Brezhnev could not convince Dubcek to repeal and so invaded in August 1968 with Warsaw Pact Forces

• Dubcek was then arrested and was compelled into repealing the action programme

• NATO condemned the invasion but did nothing else

• Soviets left Dubcek in charge until 1969 then replaced him with Husak

• The situation stabilised and the Red Army had to remain in Czechoslovakia

When was the Sino-Soviet Split?

1960

When did China establish a relationship with the US?

1972

Who did Khrushchev support in Sino-Indian border disputes in 1959?

Indian

What did Khrushchev refuse to give China?

A prototype atomic bomb

What did Mao accuse Khrushchev of?

Revisionism

What islands did China bomb under Mao that provoked the US?

Quemoy and Matsu

Malinovsky Incident 1964:

• In Sino-Soviet talks, Soviet Defence Minister Malinovsky suggested the Chinese should remove Mao from power

What was organised in 1965 between Russia and China?

A collective response to US heightened aggression in South Vietnam

What did Mao bring out in 1966?

• His cultural revolution that was implemented to ideologically purify China and remove any Western influence

• The USSR embassy in Beijing was then besieged by a Red Guard mob

Border disputes:

• Feb 1967 - USSR positions troops on the Amur and Ussuri rivers

• March 1969 - Chinese forces attack USSR troops near Zhenbao island - using the ‘active defense’ strategy

• August 1969 - Forces then clash at Xinjiang

• September 1969 - Talks were held in Beijing that neither wanted war but Mao remained insecure