(OOC: This is written as an excerpt from a textbook, specifically dealing with events that happened post-WWII in this TL.)
The USSR was unable to beat back many of the Nazi offensives that speared deep into Russian territory, even after the Germans were repulsed from Moscow at dear cost to both sides. Historians would later note that the German offensive, codenamed Case Blue, that pushed into southern Russia was the death knell of the early Russian war effort, and would limit the Russians to minor offensive operations until much later in the war.
At the end of the Second World War, Allied leaders met in the German city of Ulm (OOC: Postdam Conference OTL) to decide the fate of the Axis and recently liberated countries. Though Stalin had pledged to raze Berlin to the ground, he was forced to make due with the fact that Russian forces only sat as far west as Warsaw, Bratislava, and Budapest, and the post-war agreements reflected this.
The Soviet Union was granted de facto control of Hungary, Bulgaria, and Romania. Poland was split into East and West territories reflecting the positions of Allied forces, and the former nation of Czechoslovakia was split into Czech and Slovak lands, with the Soviets in control of Slovakia. This was met with a furious disagreement by the leaders of Slovakia and Hungary, as they had been expecting to be integrated with nearby Western occupation zones.
This sense of abandonment by the West Hungarians and Slovaks felt only increased during the post-war era and was intensified by ironhanded Soviet repression. These events culminated in the Slovakian Revolution of 1957. Beginning in the Slovakian capital of Bratislava, Slovak civilians and military units revolted against Soviet rule after opposition leaders had received covert Czech aid and a statement that the Czech military would support any Slovakian resistance against the USSR. Armed fighting soon broke out Budapest as well, with Hungarian leaders following the lead of their northern neighbors.
The existence Czech volunteers and material aid to the Slovaks and, eventually, the Hungarians, was quickly discovered by the Soviets. Stalin, unaware that the Czech Republic was acting on its own accord, viewed this as a cassus belli by the West and retaliated by invading Western Poland and the American and British zones in Warsaw.
The conflict over Central and Eastern Europe, including the limited nuclear exchange between the United States and the Soviet Union, will be covered in the next chapter of this textbook.
Study Questions:
1) Did the Slovakian Revolution have to occur as it did? What are some other eventualities that could have happened?
2) Many historians have remarked that the Soviets "overreacted" to the Slovakian and Hungarian Revolutions, and that that was due to a "national inferiority complex" after their "poor showing" during the Second World War. Do you agree or disagree with these comments, and why?
3) The admittance of the Czech Republic into NATO in 1951 was contentious at best, given the public Czech policy of reunification with Slovakia. German and French leaders nearly vetoed the Czech Republic's admittance, but eventually backed down under pressure from the United States. Given the events you just read about, do you think allowing the Czech Republic into NATO was the correct choice? Why or why not?
The USSR was unable to beat back many of the Nazi offensives that speared deep into Russian territory, even after the Germans were repulsed from Moscow at dear cost to both sides. Historians would later note that the German offensive, codenamed Case Blue, that pushed into southern Russia was the death knell of the early Russian war effort, and would limit the Russians to minor offensive operations until much later in the war.
At the end of the Second World War, Allied leaders met in the German city of Ulm (OOC: Postdam Conference OTL) to decide the fate of the Axis and recently liberated countries. Though Stalin had pledged to raze Berlin to the ground, he was forced to make due with the fact that Russian forces only sat as far west as Warsaw, Bratislava, and Budapest, and the post-war agreements reflected this.
The Soviet Union was granted de facto control of Hungary, Bulgaria, and Romania. Poland was split into East and West territories reflecting the positions of Allied forces, and the former nation of Czechoslovakia was split into Czech and Slovak lands, with the Soviets in control of Slovakia. This was met with a furious disagreement by the leaders of Slovakia and Hungary, as they had been expecting to be integrated with nearby Western occupation zones.
This sense of abandonment by the West Hungarians and Slovaks felt only increased during the post-war era and was intensified by ironhanded Soviet repression. These events culminated in the Slovakian Revolution of 1957. Beginning in the Slovakian capital of Bratislava, Slovak civilians and military units revolted against Soviet rule after opposition leaders had received covert Czech aid and a statement that the Czech military would support any Slovakian resistance against the USSR. Armed fighting soon broke out Budapest as well, with Hungarian leaders following the lead of their northern neighbors.
The existence Czech volunteers and material aid to the Slovaks and, eventually, the Hungarians, was quickly discovered by the Soviets. Stalin, unaware that the Czech Republic was acting on its own accord, viewed this as a cassus belli by the West and retaliated by invading Western Poland and the American and British zones in Warsaw.
The conflict over Central and Eastern Europe, including the limited nuclear exchange between the United States and the Soviet Union, will be covered in the next chapter of this textbook.
Study Questions:
1) Did the Slovakian Revolution have to occur as it did? What are some other eventualities that could have happened?
2) Many historians have remarked that the Soviets "overreacted" to the Slovakian and Hungarian Revolutions, and that that was due to a "national inferiority complex" after their "poor showing" during the Second World War. Do you agree or disagree with these comments, and why?
3) The admittance of the Czech Republic into NATO in 1951 was contentious at best, given the public Czech policy of reunification with Slovakia. German and French leaders nearly vetoed the Czech Republic's admittance, but eventually backed down under pressure from the United States. Given the events you just read about, do you think allowing the Czech Republic into NATO was the correct choice? Why or why not?