Just Finished Reading: Iron Curtain – The Crushing of Eastern Europe 1944-56 by Anne Applebaum (FP: 2012)

This was a heavy book in more ways than one: heavy subject, heavy times and even physically heavy with just a smidge under 500 pages of text and a further 115 pages of notes, bibliography and detailed index. But one thing this wasn’t was heavy going – well, at least I didn’t find it so though some of my work colleagues thought I was mad reading such a dreary subject. Concentrating on East Germany, Poland and Hungary (though with small forays into other Soviet States as well as Mother Russia herself) the author weaved a tale of destruction, conquest, promise (and promises), hardship, oppression, resistance, terror and hope. Each country had a different tale to tell. Some started out with more hope than others, some resisted more strongly and for much longer – Poland in particular had armed resistance to Soviet occupation long after 1945 – others welcomed the Soviets as liberators only to find that they had exchanged one set of masters for another.

The best historians bring their subject alive by making it personal. Using dairies, recently released official records as well as interviews undertaken by the author the day-to-day life of people high and low in the hierarchies of all three states under review allows the reader to see things from all sides and gives a much clearer picture of what went on (and why) as well as how individuals reacted to events unfolding all across the Soviet Union and in the West beyond the, at first, rather porous curtain. Although plans had been drawn up by Stalin early on the early days of occupation seemed chaotic and, in some ways at least, hopeful. After all the war was over and Germany had been defeated. Then there were the assurances of democratic government and what would become known as Human Rights. Of course, as the victorious Allies should have known, none of this meant much and none of it lasted very long before the various Secret police forces began taking people off the streets and bundling them off the points much further East. No one was safe which tended to encourage other to keep their collective heads down until things blew over – which of course they did – 54 years later. In the meantime watching what you said and who you said it to became a life and death matter.

The author showed throughout how easy it is to imposed a totalitarian form of government on a shattered population – how control, fear and propaganda are used to force compliance on millions of people. The aim was to produce Soviet Man who, so like Orwell’s characters in 1984, could not think outside the Soviet ideological box and would be, therefore, perfect citizens. As we all know by now this project singularly failed to achieve its aim. Despite everything in their rather substantial arsenal the Soviet Union failed to create such a being even in Russia itself. Humanity may be malleable but not as plastic as Soviet social scientists seemed to think.

This was, to use a much over used word, gripping. Some accolades on the back of the book regard it as remarkable and even magisterial. On this occasion I would have to agree. Soviet Eastern Europe is not something I knew a great deal about. I do now – much more that even a few months ago. This fascinating book has certainly prompted me to dig into my History TBR pile and pick out more books on this fascinating lesson from history. If you want to know about modern European history this is a must read for you. Highly recommended.