The countries of Eastern Europe suffered after World War II an enormous influence of the Soviet Empire. Without the economic strength of Western countries and devoid of productive investments, the USSR used its strength war to create a block of allied countries very close to its immense territory, which became known as the “Iron Curtain”, being formed by the USSR, East Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Hungary and Bulgaria. The socialist project of these countries did not respond to the wishes of the majority of their populations, being classified as a organization based on Soviet interests and supported by military groups in favor of centralization. of power. Therefore, Eastern European socialism became known as the 'sovietization' of politics and economics in these countries.
Such commitment was marked by the creation of the military bloc Warsaw Pact, in 1955, which served to homogenize the foreign policy of these countries. The Warsaw Pact was evidently a response to the creation of NATO, a military bloc founded by the US in 1949. But in addition to fighting US expansion, the Soviet military group also served as a coercive instrument against any kind of rebellious act on the part of the nations that belonged to the socialist bloc, this can be clearly seen with the intervention of the Warsaw Pact against the former Czechoslovakia, in 1968, when political demonstrations called for democracy, a fact that became known worldwide as the Spring of Prague.
Just as the USSR itself went through a decline in its socioeconomic aspects at the end of the 1970s, so did the European countries that adopted the socialist system. they began to feel the effects of the low competitiveness of their economies and the increase in popular pressure that at all times challenged the maintenance of socialist and dictatorial. Counting on a greater ethnic unity, a strong degree of education and politicization of society, dissatisfaction popular in these countries was more articulated than in other socialist countries, even than in the USSR Another important component for these transformations was the greater proximity to the rest of Europe, which represented a stimulus for capitalist practices.
Oriental Germany
East Germany was a kind of booty for the Soviets. Its origin is related to the Potsdam Agreement, in July 1945, when several military restrictions and the return of territories conquered during the period of expansionism German. After the defeat of the Nazis at the end of World War II, Germany was subjugated by the other powers, ending up fragmented into four zones of political influence in order to prevent any kind of movement in favor of the return of ultranationalist ideals and militarism as a project of State. In 1949, two administrative divisions were defined: the Federal Republic of Germany or West Germany, under Western capitalist influence, and the German Democratic Republic or East Germany under the influence of USSR In 1961, in order to prevent the mass migration of population from the socialist side towards the capitalist side, the Berlin Wall was built.
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As West Germany began to achieve enormous technological and social progress, comparisons between the two countries pointed to the failure of socialism, as Germany Oriental resembled a satellite state, maintained by a dictatorial regime totally focused on the interests of another nation, or rather, of a group of nations that formed the USSR Presenting several difficulties for the maintenance of the socialist regime, East Germany was gradually integrated with the capitalist, which culminated in the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989, which symbolized the decay of the socialist proposal in East Germany and Eastern Europe, significantly changing conceptions of communism, socialism and popular participation in decisions policies. In the case of Germany, political integration ended up taking place completely in the following year, 1990.
The legacy of the socialist era was more than 8,000 state-owned companies and nearly 4 million unemployed workers, who were enthusiastic about the promises of political and social reforms of the then German Prime Minister Helmut Kohl, who failed, as expected, to quickly change the scenario of backwardness and decline productivity. Modernization has reached the eastern portion of Germany, with the injection of trillions of euros in two decades, but its economy, in highlight the regions of Berlin, Leipzig and Dresden, it still depends on traditional branches such as steel, metallurgy and industry mechanics. Many companies have disappeared, been privatized or pressured by the high cost of maintenance, based on Western standards. Critics of this process believe that the social benefits, albeit timid, were fully extracted in favor of a neoliberal westernization, and that the transition should be gradual and with the active participation of the population and political leaders locations. There is also a feeling of devaluation of the population that lives in this region, which has caused the resurgence of retrograde values, including among the younger people, such as the neo-Nazi movement.
Julio César Lázaro da Silva
Brazil School Collaborator
Graduated in Geography from Universidade Estadual Paulista - UNESP
Master in Human Geography from Universidade Estadual Paulista - UNESP