Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe, 1944-1956 by Anne Applebaum

Jan 18, 2013 James rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

For a while, now, I've been saying, at first as a joke but with ever-increasing earnestness, that librarianship is less a skill than an ideology. So I shouldn't have been that surprised when I found myself closely identifying with the 'reluctant collaborators' that Applebaum portrays in this lucid and thorough history of the 'Stalinization' of Eastern Europe. The Soviet-inspired system she outlines, in which enthusiastic regurgitation of meaningless slogans is 'privileged' over productivity, fel...more

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Apr 21, 2013 GeschiedenisBeleven rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: oorlog-en-geweld, moderne-geschiedenis, twintigste-eeuw, communisme

Hoe ging het er werkelijk aan toe achter het IJzeren Gordijn? Er zijn genoeg boeken voor wie iets wil weten over het communisme en Rusland, echter maar weinig boeken documenteren het dagelijks leven zo goed als Anne Applebaums nieuwste boek: Het IJzeren Gordijn.

Met scherpe pen beschrijft journaliste Applebaum de rauwe werkelijkheid van het dagelijkse leven ten oosten van het IJzeren Gordijn. Centraal staat de Russische inlijving van Oost-Europa tussen 1944 en 1956. Met name de landen Oost-Duitsl...more

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Apr 09, 2013 Roger rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The basic facts of the segregation of Europe after the end of the Second World War are well known - both the Soviet Union and the Western Powers (USA, Britain and France) divided the defeated Germany between them, and spheres of influence over other countries were split approximately along the lines agreed at the Yalta Conference, confirmed by "feet on the ground" at the cessation of hostilities.

And while those of us who are of a certain age or older know what we know about the Warsaw Pact, and...more The basic facts of the segregation of Europe after the end of the Second World War are well known - both the Soviet Union and the Western Powers (USA, Britain and France) divided the defeated Germany between them, and spheres of influence over other countries were split approximately along the lines agreed at the Yalta Conference, confirmed by "feet on the ground" at the cessation of hostilities.

And while those of us who are of a certain age or older know what we know about the Warsaw Pact, and the Cold War, for those of us who had no experience of what it was like to live under the Communist yoke, Anne Applebaum's book is valuable. As a bonus, it is also, for a scholarly book, readable and interesting.

Applebaum has taken the post-war histories of East Germany (GDR), Poland and Hungary as her subject, but by inference many of the things she discusses in these places happened in the other countries of the Eastern Bloc (Romania, Albania, Czechoslovakia and Bulgaria).

From the opening chapter which describes the way the Red Army took control in newly liberated areas, Applebaum devotes each chapter to a certain area of society to show how the local Communist movements, usually under instruction from Moscow, converted all areas of society to their pursuit of power. First the police and security forces, the media, then the electoral process, then education, to then destroying or replacing other non-state groups, from the Church to charity groups such as the Polish Women's League, Applebaum uses a judicious serving of archival material and interviews with residents to describe how this resulted in a total takeover pretty much by the turn of the decade in 1950. Her description of "High Stalinism", with it's emphasis on parades, production quotas, and hagiography of leaders, is particularly compelling.

Also compelling is her description of the bewilderment of the high officials on the occasions the public let them know they weren't as popular than they thought, although their Soviet minders usually had a much better idea than they did of the mood of the country.

Some things she describes are less well known, at least to this reader - the fact that there were anti-communist partisans in Poland until the early 50s , and the revelation that there was a version of the Mods / Rockers clashes in the 50s between the Communist Youth and those young people who chose to show their independence by listening to Jazz and wearing distinctive clothing.

The final part of the book deals with the repercussions from the death of Stalin, which led, via riots in the GDR and Poland to the 1956 revolution in Hungary. What Applebaum emphasises is the lack of preparedness of the hierarchy for such a spontaneous uprising, despite the secret service states they had built. Mentioned in passing are the different responses each country had to the disturbances, which led to some individual flavour in the Communist experience across the region.

Her epilogue is worth quoting at some length (discussing the legacy of these governments)-

"Yet such regimes can and did do an enormous amount of damage. In their drive for power, the Bolsheviks, their Eastern European acolytes, and their imitators farther afield attacked not only their political opponents but also peasants, priests, schoolteachers, traders, journalists, writers, small businessmen, students, and artists, along with institutions such people had built and maintained over centuries. They damaged, undermined, and sometimes eliminated churches, newspapers, literary and educational societies, companies and retail shops, stock markets, banks, sports clubs, and universities. Their success reveals an unpleasant truth about human nature: if enough people are sufficiently determined and if they are backed by adequate resources and force, then they can destroy ancient and apparently permanent legal, political, educational, and religious institutions, sometimes for good. And if civil society could be so deeply damaged in nations as disparate, as historic, and as culturally rich as those of Eastern Europe, then it can be similarly damaged anywhere. If nothing else, the history of postwar Stalinization proves just how fragile civilization can turn out to be."

An erudite and illuminating book, Iron Curtain is well worth reading.(less)

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Mar 20, 2013 Marks54 rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

When Communism went out of business after 1989 and the Cold War ended, one of the common reactions was that it would now be possible to put the odd history of that period on the shelf and move on without needing to deal with the history of Stalinist regimes and their mixture of totalitarian control, mass propaganda, and confrontational foreign affairs. Well, what also happened was that the various state archives of these repressive regimes were opened to researchers, so that the history of this...more When Communism went out of business after 1989 and the Cold War ended, one of the common reactions was that it would now be possible to put the odd history of that period on the shelf and move on without needing to deal with the history of Stalinist regimes and their mixture of totalitarian control, mass propaganda, and confrontational foreign affairs. Well, what also happened was that the various state archives of these repressive regimes were opened to researchers, so that the history of this period can be reexamined in considerable detail and a refreshing change of perspective. With the fall of Communism, we have become able to learn much more about what really happened.

This outstanding book is a comprehensive history of the Communist regimes established in Eastern Europe at the end of WW2 from their initial establishment until 1956, the time of the failed Hungarian Uprising. The focus is thus on the change from initial regime establishment to "High Stalism" to the beginnings of liberalization following the death of Stalin. The book proceeds roughly in chronological sequence through a series of topically focused chapters. Within each chapter, the same topics are covered for East Germany, Poland, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia (now the Czech republic and Slovakia). Other regimes, such as Bulgaria and Rumania, are covered as required.

I had moderate expectations when starting this book. I had already read much about the period and the details of communist regimes are well publicized and generally depressing. I was wrong to have such preconceptions. The author, through meticulous research, takes each topic and in effect writes a mini-exposition for it, one that often stands on its own as a separate story but which is also well linked into the generally narrative that is developed about the Communist "project" in Eastern Europe. The people are shown to be a diverse set of interesting individuals who do their best to cope with the governments. The governments are also shown in much detail as trying to make their way while balancing an unsustainable ideological project with both national needs and pressures from Moscow. The author is not shy in fully fitting in the role of terror, violence, and intellectual and political repression to the broader story. The logic of the story is largely internal to the Soviet Bloc and foreign affairs (and the USA) are mentioned more in passing. That is a helpful focus, since the detailed narrative would become much more complex otherwise.

The writing is very well done and I really regretted finishing the book, which is an odd conclusion given the general topic. This book is important for linking with other literatures, such as on WW2, the Cold War, and the eventual demise of these regimes after 1989.

Overall, it is a spectacular book, one of the best I have read in quite a while. (less)

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Mar 05, 2013 Jill rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Life under Nazi overlords during World War II was horrific for the peoples of Eastern Europe, but it didn’t improve all that much once the Red Army arrived, ostensibly as “liberators.” Anne Applebaum’s Iron Curtain is an account (in great and graphic detail) of how the Soviets imposed their will on Eastern Europe, particularly in Poland, East Germany, and Hungary.

Applebaum is fluent in Polish and Hungarian, and so she has been able to utilize sources inaccessible to most western historians. The...more

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Feb 26, 2013 Jay Cook rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I had looked forward to reading this and was a tad disappointed, but my expectations had been in the wrong direction. I had expected a much more detailed discussion of the policies crafted by Stalin and Zhdanov for the overlordship of their new satrapies.

Instead this concentrated much more on the puppet governments themselves, and on the social movements that fulminated in their respective countries as the USSR felt its way through the first years of occupation, slowly strengthening its grip.

T...more

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Jan 31, 2013 Loring Wirbel rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

If Anne Applebaum had written 'Iron Curtain' at the height of the revisionist '70s and '80s, she'd be dismissed as an acolyte of Richard Pipes. After two decades of opened files in the former Soviet Union and Eastern European satellite states, however, we know that the traditionalist Western view of 'High Stalinism' was more or less correct. Even giving post-war socialist striving its due, the Stalinist form of Central European consolidation was almost as depraved as the commie-hunters of the '...more If Anne Applebaum had written 'Iron Curtain' at the height of the revisionist '70s and '80s, she'd be dismissed as an acolyte of Richard Pipes. After two decades of opened files in the former Soviet Union and Eastern European satellite states, however, we know that the traditionalist Western view of 'High Stalinism' was more or less correct. Even giving post-war socialist striving its due, the Stalinist form of Central European consolidation was almost as depraved as the commie-hunters of the '50s claimed. The problem was not so much the brutality of late-period Stalinism - plenty of people died, to be sure, but only a shadow of the number during the famines and Great Terror of the 1930s. The problem was the constant lying to self and others in trying to believe in the type of state that could never really exist under centrally-planned socialism of the Stalinist variety.

Applebaum is at her best when she gives us the same kind of review of daily life under 1950s Eastern Europe Stalinism that Orlando Figes gave us in 'The Whisperers,' his excellent study of the USSR in the 1930s. There is a direct sense of clinging to the false as a desperate attempt to find something to believe in after the utter devastation of society in World War 2. And the supporters of centralist Stalinism appear at their most devious not in crushing political opponents or in controlling the workplace, but in their fervent desire to crush any type of civil society whatsoever - even chess clubs and YMCA outlets. This is why Stalinism was so similar to Falangist fascism - "All supporting the state, nothing against the state, nothing outside the state" is one of the most depraved concepts of modern government developed in the past century. The notion reaches its most absurd levels when Applebaum relays the lyrics to 'The Party is Always Right,' but of course there is no joke intended in this particular song.

Still, the book can drag a bit in those cultural-life reviews. There are times in the critiques of modern-art formalism and descriptions of 'Homo Sovieticus' when the attention can wander. In general, however, Applebaum is a great writer who makes her analyses come alive.

My bigger complaint is that the book cannot be comprehensive because it chooses to focus on Poland, East Germany, and Hungary. It's understandable that Applebaum wanted to make her subject manageable. Putting aside Yugoslavia may have been necessary because Tito was such a special case. But Romania and Bulgaria are unknowns to many in the West, and a better study of their cultural specifics would have been nice. The bigger loss, though, is Czechoslovakia. The brutal nature of the 1948 coup, and the special circumstances leading up to the 1968 Czech Spring, virtually demand a better coverage of that nation.

Other elements of the book seem hurried. Applebaum spends plenty of time in the 18 months of displaced hell following World War 2, which is very worthy considering the paucity of research in that period. But why breeze over the show trials of 1949-50 so quickly? Why spend so little time looking into the bizarre role played by U.S. citizen Noel Field? A little more balance in what was and was not covered would have made this a better book.

Still, this is a decent analysis about a terrible time in history that is not studied carefully and seriously enough. The holes in Applebaum's study might justify a sequel book to study the Southern European states of Romania, Bulgaria, and Yugoslavia.

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Jan 09, 2013 Ken Clarke rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Because I grew up during the Cold War and was a avid follower of the news by the time I was age 9, I thought I knew something about the Soviets and Eastern Europe. Turns out, I knew very little.

Anne Applebaum's superb book details the Soviet Union's enduring and total brutality, paranoia and intolerance toward the people of Eastern Europe, starting not at the end of World War II, but months, even years, before. The Soviets and their puppet leaders in each country sought nothing less than total c...more Because I grew up during the Cold War and was a avid follower of the news by the time I was age 9, I thought I knew something about the Soviets and Eastern Europe. Turns out, I knew very little.

Anne Applebaum's superb book details the Soviet Union's enduring and total brutality, paranoia and intolerance toward the people of Eastern Europe, starting not at the end of World War II, but months, even years, before. The Soviets and their puppet leaders in each country sought nothing less than total control over every aspect of every citizen's daily life.

Applebaum concentrates on East Germany, Poland and Hungary. She details how, after a period of relative tolerance up to about 1948, the Soviet hammer began to fall heavily and relentlessly. By then it had become obvious to the stunned Communists in Moscow that the people of Eastern Europe were resistant to the idea of Soviet style "socialism." Again and again in multiparty elections, Communist candidates won only 15 to 20 percent of the vote. The Communists had anticipated a proletarian revolution. What they got instead, after some early enthusiasm, was increasing resistance.

Applebaum writes that the Soviet Union and its local allies "had failed to achieve absolute or even adequate control. The number of their followers was shrinking rapidly."

Political parties were banned. Civic groups and clubs were outlawed, including Boy Scouts, theater groups, school groups, charities, church groups. The free press disappeared, replaced by newspapers and radio stations that spread party propaganda. Church leaders were imprisoned. Terror became an essential weapon. Tens of thousands of people were murdered, sent to the Soviet gulags or tossed into prison. Millions of others endured forced relocations, often from towns and villages where their families had lived for centuries. Labor camps were expanded.

Secret police were established in each country along the lines of the Soviet NKVD, the forerunner to the KGB. The most notorious, of course, was the Stasi in East Germany, which monitored the lives of every citizen it considered suspicious for even the slightest of reasons.

As the '40s became the '50s, the economies of Eastern European countries continued to fall behind those of Western Europe. For the citizens of the Soviet bloc, the quality of life failed to improve, despite or because of, detailed economic plans and goals, some of which were ludicrous.

After the death of Stalin in 1953, public protests became more common. One in East Berlin in '53 brought Soviet tanks. Major rebellions followed in Hungary and Poland in 1956. As a result, the Communists moderated their tactics, which continued to fail in a pattern that was repeated until the fall of Communism in 1989.

Applebaum's book isn't for everyone. I'm a history wonk, and I admire the incredibly detailed and deep research that went into her book. Details that I found fascinating, including governments' mind-numbing tactics borne of paranoia, may numb the minds of some readers too. On the other hand, Applebaum often brings the story of the dark era down the personal level, the result of interviews she conducted with people who lived with and finally triumphed over Soviet domination.

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Dec 30, 2012 Peter rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: historical

There are few non-scholarly works who tackle the experience of Soviet occupation from an international comparative perspective. Perhaps this is the first by an anglophone author writing from a Western political perspective.

I was born in East Germany and feel quite knowledgable about the creation period of the GDR, due to education, family history, etc. But reading the sections about Poland and Hungary was quite a revelation and made me realize how East Germans had it (comparatively) good and tha...more

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Dec 09, 2012 Anastasia Fitzgerald-Beaumont rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The Hand of History

There are not many jokes in communism. Actually that’s not quite true. A case could be made that communism itself was a massive joke, except those living under it dared not laugh, or laugh only at their personal peril. All humour in what used to be called the Eastern Bloc was inevitably of a subversive nature. For as George Orwell wrote, a thing is funny when it upsets the established order; that every joke is a tiny revolution. The revolutionaries did not want revolution; th...more

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Jan 10, 2013 Joseph rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: history, political-science

It's really hard to believe that its been twenty-four years since the fall of communism in Eastern Europe. I remember following the news on CNN at the United States Mission in Geneva, Switzerland. A communist Eastern Europe seemed to be a permanent fixture just weeks before.

Applebaum does and excellent job describing the Eastern Europe after WWII. She brings some excellent points to history. Terrorized by the Nazi's then liberated by the Soviets. Why weren't people anxious to go to the West? Pe...more

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Jan 15, 2013 Denise rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: nonfiction

Meticulously researched look at how Stalinist Russia installed totalitarian systems in the Eastern European countries under their influence after the WWII treaties divvied up the world, by a Pulitzer-Prize-winning historian. Their methods included mass arrests of members of the anti-Nazi underground, priests, and local communist leaders, among others, whom they sent to the conveniently empty Nazi concentration camps or to the Russian gulag, or executed; ethnic cleansing, forcing people of German...more

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Mar 09, 2013 Peter Mcloughlin rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: nukes-and-apocalypse, 1890-1950, general-history, european-history

This book explains clearly and succintly the transformation of eastern europe after the Soviet "liberation" after WWII. It goes clearly into how the Soviets snuffed out civil society of eastern europe and made one party stalinist states out of countries like East Germany, Poland, Hungary, Czechoslavakia. The Communists set up secret police, got rid of all competing parties, only permitted communist youth organizations, controlled the media (radio), Education, banned all nonstate enterprises, ja...more

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Feb 03, 2013 Gábor rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Concentrating on Eastern Germany, Poland and Hungary (although with some highlights of events in other "satellite" countries), the author spells out the process of the Soviet Union taking totalitarian control of these countries after World War II. Drawing on recently opened archives, published memoirs, and personal interviews with still alive participants, this book is able to create a very rich feel of the period.
So here is a recipe book on taking control of unwilling countries based on the tab...more

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Oct 20, 2012 Pctrollbreath rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: history

This is a moving descruption of the crushing of Eastern Europe by the Soviets.

The book is written in a dead pan matter of fact style with a grimly dry humour.

It is very easy to get very angry about communist and Soviet evil doing when you read about normal people doing normal things and being executed or sent to the Gulag for it. You need to read the authors book on the Gulag's to get the full impact of flat statements that someone went to the Gulag for several years.

As you get further on into...more

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Mar 13, 2013 H Wesselius rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Superbly written and researched book on the early days of the Iron Curtain. A great description of the power vacuum and how it was filled.

Applebaum begins by describing the process by which the Soviets extended their hold on eastern Europe. For her, the consolidation of power was not a reaction to American moves but a deliberate plan devised prior to "liberation" in 1944-5. Although I have no doubt Stalin and his minions planned to dominate post WWII eastern Europe, we would be amiss not to con...more Superbly written and researched book on the early days of the Iron Curtain. A great description of the power vacuum and how it was filled.

Applebaum begins by describing the process by which the Soviets extended their hold on eastern Europe. For her, the consolidation of power was not a reaction to American moves but a deliberate plan devised prior to "liberation" in 1944-5. Although I have no doubt Stalin and his minions planned to dominate post WWII eastern Europe, we would be amiss not to consider to what extent they planned, what was mere happenstance and taking advantage of circumstance and what was a reaction to American moves. For Applebaum, much of what occurred in the post war era then is described as a part of the plan even when alternate explanations are possible. Ethnic cleansing was for better or worse part of the post-war plan by the allies. Applebaum describes it as a distraction, scapegoating and a process which allowed for a consolidation of power. No doubt it was, but it was also an attempt to establish borders without ethnic entanglement, that had existed prior to WWII. Thus, we have actions undertaken for more than just Soviet power.

Its understandable for reasons of brevity such as it is that she limits herself but I'm left wondering why she didn't examine Czechoslovakia and Austria. The choice of Poland and Germany are understandable, the latter was the vanquished foe and the former possessed the most organized and armed opposition. However, Czechoslovakia would've provided a better look than Hungary at the consolidation of power despite opposition and the extent the Soviets and their allies would undertake. In Austria, Applebaum would've encountered the greatest challenge to her thesis of Soviet aims as the Soviets would eventually leave Vienna and eastern Austria allowing for a neutral Austria. It raises the question of Soviet ambition and to what extent they would cooperate with America.

In the second half of her book, she describes the consolidation of the regimes and their totalitarian nature. At certain points, depending on your interest and attention span, the amount of detail becomes tiresome. However, she gets her point across with both detail and individual stories. The regimes were totalitarian. In the end,she describes the ability how resistance was possible and the initial thaw that followed Stalin's death. Despite her far more right wing viewpoint than mine, I still enjoyed the book.(less)

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Jan 11, 2013 Heather rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Thorough, meticulous, and creepy. Recommended for history buffs, probably not for casual readers of non-fiction. It's quite good. I put myself on the reserve list after Terry Gross interviewed the author on Fresh Air. If you're thinking of reading it, maybe listen to a podcast to get the feel for the material first?

Once, when I was 16, I did a bus tour of East Berlin (that's how old I am!). I commented that one statue we drove by was really ugly. It was this hideous shiny brown marble tiled stat...more

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Jan 25, 2013 Barbara rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: nonfiction, ww2

Applebaum writes insightfully and clearly about the Soviet communism era in three Eastern European countries: Poland, East Germany, and Hungary. The extent of her research is staggering (six years! four languages!), though the writing is far from dry or pedantic. I particularly admire the way she weaves individuals and their stories into the larger canvas of political reality. That made this sometimes painful history of subjugated people easier for me to understand.

I have only to look at the mul...more Applebaum writes insightfully and clearly about the Soviet communism era in three Eastern European countries: Poland, East Germany, and Hungary. The extent of her research is staggering (six years! four languages!), though the writing is far from dry or pedantic. I particularly admire the way she weaves individuals and their stories into the larger canvas of political reality. That made this sometimes painful history of subjugated people easier for me to understand.

I have only to look at the multitude of colorful sticky notes decorating the pages of this book to realize that I cannot, in conscience, give it less than 5 stars. I learned much about Stalinism in Eastern Europe that I either never knew or hadn’t given much thought to: That the bloc was not monolithic, each country had its own national communist party that was instructed by Moscow, there were many cultural differences between East Germany, Poland, and Hungary that usually weren’t taken into consideration or ignored by Mother Russia, the Soviets lost the first elections after WWII thereby causing them to double down on propaganda, brainwashing, and other reforms intended to make workers realize the utopia at hand, collaboration was often reluctant or passive and more a matter of survival than belief, jokes served as a way of defusing propaganda and revealing true feelings, Western music and fashion were always alluring, radio was king, and finally, the unthinkable—revolution-- was proved possible.

“Both communists and anticommunists, with a very few exceptions, had assumed that Soviet methods of indoctrination were invincible; that most people believed in the propaganda without question; that the totalitarian educational system would eliminate dissent; that civic institutions, once destroyed, could not be rebuilt; that history, once rewritten, would be forgotten. . . . They were all wrong. Human beings do not acquire ‘totalitarianism personalities’ with such ease. Even when they seem bewitched by the cult of the leader or the party, appearances can be deceiving. And even when it seems as if they are in full agreement with the most absurd propaganda—even if they are marching in parades, chanting slogans, singing that the party is always right—the spell can be suddenly, unexpectedly, dramatically be broken.” (p.460-61)

The book ends with the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. Although quelled by the Soviets, this brief shaft of light into Eastern Europe foretold more successful efforts years later.

Applebaum leaves readers (politicians, pay attention!) with this warning in the epilogue: “. . . if civil society could be so deeply damaged in nations as disparate, as historic, and as culturally rich as those of Eastern Europe, then it can be similarly damaged anywhere. If nothing else, the history of postwar Stalinization proves just how fragile civilization can turn out to be.” (p.468)

NB, the Youtube video of a squeaky and stationary Mickey Mouse (dressed as Supermouse) singing "Das Lied der Partei" ("The Song of the Party") somehow managed to crash my computer. Coincidence? I'm looking over my shoulder. . .

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Jan 13, 2013 Brandon Abraham added it · review of another edition

Shelves: books-2012

Anne Applebaum's Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe 1944-1956 begins with the Soviet occupation of Eastern Europe and ends, really, with the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. Or the downfall of the Eastern European communist parties in 1989. Or the failure of any political party since 1989 to even attempt to reconstruct the bundle of economic and political decisions required for communist economics, even in the face of some of the more painful aspects of capitalism. You see, communism fail...more Anne Applebaum's Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe 1944-1956 begins with the Soviet occupation of Eastern Europe and ends, really, with the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. Or the downfall of the Eastern European communist parties in 1989. Or the failure of any political party since 1989 to even attempt to reconstruct the bundle of economic and political decisions required for communist economics, even in the face of some of the more painful aspects of capitalism. You see, communism failed so definitively, so essentially, that its amorphous, vaguely-defined legacy produces parody rather than sober awareness. I'm thinking of our willingness to resurrect Che Guevara as an almost obligatory icon for college students, Berlin's ubiquitous ampfellmann, the Homo Sovieticus embodied on a streetcorner, Putin's flirtation with restoring KGB-style secret police, and so forth. Unlike the Nazis, we laugh at the legacy of communism.

Yet Applebaum's analysis ultimately serves to highlight the continuities of post-World War Two Eastern Europe with its experience with Naziism during the war. When we see films such as Mephisto, featuring an unscrupulous actor selling his soul Faustian-style to the Nazis, Applebaum would have us think of Hungarian audiences linking thjs experience from their past with their communist present. We know the names of Treblinka, Ravensbruck, and Auschwitz from the dark legacy of Nazism, but when Applebaum demonstrates their usage after the war as camps housing political prisoners to the new Communist regimes, we cannot help but grasp more fully why these sites are invariably and hopelessly damaged, and still politicized in the present day. Seen as such, we can appreciate the case of Salomon Morel, a postwar labor camp commandant of Zgoba accused of heinous war crimes, yet also a man who had lost his entire family during the Holocaust. Both victim and perpetrator, Morel captures the enigma and the difficulty in designating complex personalities as political symbols. Anne Applebaum successfully untangles these relationships and lays them bare in their difficult, ugly reality.

There are definite flaws in this work. First, Applebaum uses East Germany, Hungary, and Poland as case studies and then proceeds to extrapolate these events to other Eastern European countries. However, if her premise is that the Soviets were successful in implementing a common mold of Stalinism across inherently dissimilar societies is correct, and I believe it is, then more analysis is needed of these other societies. What about Romania? Bulgaria? These get scant attention. Even more importantly, what about Titoist Yugoslavia, a society never successfully integrated into the Eastern Bloc or comfortable with Soviet "assistance" and, therefore, an interesting counterexample? Why did Enver Hoxa's Albania ultimately not fit the mold, seeking far-flung dalliances with Maoist China, instead? These questions remain unanswered.

Second, portions of the work remain, mildly-put, a turgid read. Chapters on East German steel towns transforming into Stalinist potemkin villages and the political machinations involved in the rigging of Polish elections practically beg for concision.

Overall, though, Applebaum's analysis is a necessary corrective to many works which mistakingly pine for a never-existant era in which Eastern Europeans embraced communism, a system which garnered the support it did mainly through its associations with the Red Army, secret police apparatus, and elites trained to rule along the Soviet model. Her analysis of the totalitarian personality-modeled on that of the still-unappreciated Hannah Arendt in The Origins of Totalitarianism-shows the inherent flaws within what had been conceived as the perfect system of control and how surprising and rapid its demise ultimately occurred.(less)

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Mar 31, 2013 Adrian added it · review of another edition

A kind of hidden nook of history- how the Soviet Union took over total control of the eight major countries of eastern Europe after WWII. Author concentrates on Poland, East Germany, and Hungary much less so on the others. The scene is set by describing the chaos of population transfers throughout this region that created tension and chaos. Applebaum charts well the training of secret police from early 1944 which was key in asserting control. Perhaps the most surprising aspect is that Stalin's i...more

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Dec 14, 2012 Gerald Sinstadt rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: history

One needed only the briefest acquaintance of life behind the iron curtain to be struck by the awful dreariness of communist occupation. A visit to the opera in East Berlin left a memory not of an outstanding theatrical experience but of the dreadful cup of coffee in the interval. In that tiny, seemingly insignificant moment, it was apparent that people would not tolerate such a regime without authoritarian oppression. Eventually, of course, it became intolerable and the wall came crashing down -...more

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Feb 27, 2013 Rachel Roberts rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Here's a simple quote written by a blacksmith that I personally found to describe the heart of this book and this period in Eastern Europe:

"How many times have I been obliged to accept the opinion of others, one which I perhaps don't share. As that opinion changes, it's demanded that mine change equally. And that makes me feel sick, sicker than if I'd been beaten. I'm a man, I too. I also have a head which I use to think. And I'm not a child. I'm an adult, who gives his soul, his heart, his yout...more

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Mar 20, 2013 Meg - A Bookish Affair rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I am a total history nerd! I love, love, love reading the history of things that I really don't know much about. I really have not read all that much about the time period just after the end of World War II where the Soviet Union was ingraining itself into what would become almost 50 years of crushing rule over itself and the Soviet bloc countries. So much of what happened just after World War II set up some key pieces of the geopolitical structure of our world (old habits die hard and what not)...more I am a total history nerd! I love, love, love reading the history of things that I really don't know much about. I really have not read all that much about the time period just after the end of World War II where the Soviet Union was ingraining itself into what would become almost 50 years of crushing rule over itself and the Soviet bloc countries. So much of what happened just after World War II set up some key pieces of the geopolitical structure of our world (old habits die hard and what not). In "Iron Curtain," Applebaum gives us a great history of how the Soviet Union gained so much strength in Eastern Europe (under Applebaum's definition for this book, Eastern Europe are those countries in Europe that were under the sphere of Soviet influence such as Hungary, Poland, Czechoslovakia, and East Germany).

The author focuses on different aspects of how the Soviet Union was able to gain such a strong foothold in the various Eastern European countries. It was interesting to see how things played out in each country and how the Soviet Union tweaked its operation within each country in order to get the country to do what it wanted. The book goes into a little bit about the "Little Stalins" of each country, the people who were put in place to do Stalin's bidding. I didn't know much of anything about many of them so it was interesting to learn more about who they were and why Stalin trusted them to be put into place.

There is a great chapter on Soviet architecture, which was super interesting to me. Stalin used architecture in a lot of places to create visual reminders of his rule. Even if you are not an architecture afficianado, you probably can guess what Soviet/ Stalinist architecture looks like. The style is called brutalism, which is wholly appropriate. It's not beautiful and can often look a little bit scary and definitely intimidating. Stalin brought a lot of architects into his fold and had very specific ideas of how the architecture should be done. It was interesting to see architecture used as a form of political persuasion.

I also really enjoyed the information about the various resistances that were occurring in the various countries. This book had a really interesting section on some of the youth rebels who dressed a certain way and listened to certain music (jazz, of all things) in order to try to show their distaste for Soviet rule.

The book starts out a little slowly. The author gives a lot of background on her methodology for the research of her book, which is not all that interesting, especially when you are listening to an audiobook version of the book. But the book really picks up once it starts getting into the meat of the topic at hand.

Now let me mention that I listened to this book through audiobook and I really want to go back and read it. It is a very hefty audiobook and the narrator kind of drones a little bit, which made it a little dry in some parts. Eventually, I may go back and reread the book version of this book as there are some details of the book that I would like to revisit. All in all, history fans will definitely enjoy this book.(less)

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May 14, 2013 David Lowther rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I've been very fortunate recently with reading Antony Beevor's military histories and now this extraordinary catalogue of the suppression of hearts and minds in post-war East Germany, Hungary and Poland.

The research is immense and relevant. The stories are harrowing and a reminder of how desperately sad the citizens of Eastern Europe must have been before the Berlin wall came down in 1989. Anne Applebaum tells the history of these troubled years in clear and concise language with plenty of eye-...more

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Jan 14, 2013 Igor Efimov rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Insightful, well researched book. I grew up in a Siberian "closed" town, which was build by Gulag prisoners before I was born, i spent my childhood behind three rows of barbed wires. My small town produced refined plutonium, spy satellites and engines for intercontinental ballistic missiles. In nearly 30 years I lived in the USSR before moving to the USA, I had no idea what was happening outside USSR, not only in capitalist West, but even in socialist East. We just never had a chance to see the...more

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Mar 09, 2013 Sheri rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Anne Applebaum won a Pulitzer for her last book, Gulag, about the incarceration, torture & death of millions of people in the USSR. She picks up in this book slightly further west, in the countries of Eastern Europe that fell under the control of Russia at the end of WWII, and tells how they were subdued militarily, politically, socially and culturally. Although she covers all of the "Eastern Bloc" countries, she focuses her narrative on three exemplary nations: "East" Germany, Hungary and P...more

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Feb 11, 2013 Alan Draycott rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

So nearly a very fine book. Fascinating subject matter- how did the Communist Parties of the east take over Poland, Czechoslavakia + Hungry. Some fantastic insights, some parellels with our own country too. The book could have been so much better if hadn't been written by someone too often sounding like Ronald Reagan.
If the book had have tried to understand what the communists were trying to achieve and why there actions made sense to so many of them at the time, it would have been more insight...more
So nearly a very fine book. Fascinating subject matter- how did the Communist Parties of the east take over Poland, Czechoslavakia + Hungry. Some fantastic insights, some parellels with our own country too. The book could have been so much better if hadn't been written by someone too often sounding like Ronald Reagan.
If the book had have tried to understand what the communists were trying to achieve and why there actions made sense to so many of them at the time, it would have been more insightful. Also if it had celebrated some of their successes rather than rehearsing old and frankly disappointing views about the purpose of the communist regimes then it may have had more balance. Any conversation with anyone from Eastern Europe over 40 will give you some balance.
The chapters on the two most diappointing aspects of the regimes were fascinating if flawed- the destruction of civil society and the failure of the party to abide by the rule of law. There are reasons why communist parties turn in on themselves- and its not because they are evil- its because all organisations do but the communist parties didn't have adequate means of dealing with that conflict without it becoming bloody. It certainly did them no good- nor their leaders. It was a game played in every organisation that has ever existed- except there is no safe fall back position in the ideology. Also a little more context about how civil society co-existed with the Nazis might have helped understand some of the rigour of the post war activity. The Soviet Union's losses were so massive in the second world war that it is inconceivable that they could act in any other way than being massively protective. To think western powers would not have acted differently if they had been ravaged in the sameway is a mistake.
The author's bias comes out far too much for this to be seen as a good work of history - the very title gives away the author's view. A line about the way teachers were rapidly recruited in post war east Germany/Poland was almost comical when it suggested there were better things that the communist governments should be doing rather than brainwash children with red ways. I'd suggest it was an example of the communist party trying to educate children in reading and writing. A propority for any civilised society.
The most fascinating area of the book was how governments use influence through indirect means to get their way and ideology across to the masses. It still happens today. If you have ever sought a grant from the government/council etc for a sports club or civil group, you had better have the correct policies constituted in your organisation on race, religion, sex, child welfare because if you don't you won't get a penny. When all around get grants you will slowly die if you don't toe the prevailing norms. Follow the government line or perish it was the way of the post war communist governments in the east and is still alive in the west. Is it a bad thing? Well that depends if you support those norms.
Great subject matter , well worth the read and written in a very readable style.

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Feb 27, 2013 McKenzie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This meticulously researched history of Eastern Germany, Poland, and Hungary after WWII details how the Soviet Union took control of previously democratic (and culturally diverse) countries, focusing on political, economic, and social methods of domination. It was really terrifying to learn how easily the secret police took control of the governments of these countries, and how little the Western allies seemed to care about what Stalin was up to, in their eagerness to avoid another world war. I...more This meticulously researched history of Eastern Germany, Poland, and Hungary after WWII details how the Soviet Union took control of previously democratic (and culturally diverse) countries, focusing on political, economic, and social methods of domination. It was really terrifying to learn how easily the secret police took control of the governments of these countries, and how little the Western allies seemed to care about what Stalin was up to, in their eagerness to avoid another world war. I can understand (but still do not agree with) conservatives' intense fear of socialism better after reading this warning that "if enough people are sufficiently determined, and if they are backed by adequate resources and force, then they can destroy ancient and apparently permanent legal, political, educational, and religious institutions, sometimes for good."

I'm only giving Iron Curtain 4 stars because while the subject is interesting and important, the writing style leaves a bit to be desired. Applebaum writes in a very dry academic format, which I am quite used to for graduate school, but I think she could have tried to make it more approachable in order to broaden the audience for this important topic. I kept thinking of how readable Siddhartha Mukherjee's The Emperor of All Maladies (an equally depressing in terms of subject-matter book about cancer), was in comparison to this. Applebaum's structure, focusing on one element of political, economic, or social life in each chapter and detailing how that element differed for each of the three countries, was sometimes repetitive, and especially confusing because I could not keep track of the Eastern Germans as compared to the Polish as compared to the Hungarians, when their names only appeared every 30 or so pages in brief references. I think this book would have been more effective if she'd either focused entirely on one country, or if she'd focused on the whole region but had not insisted on going through each country separately in each chapter.

Overall, an educational read. It definitely takes some determination to get through, but I'd recommend it for serious history buffs. (less)

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Dec 27, 2012 Adrian Buck rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: history

This book is either too long, or two short. It is written in two parts, and 'crushing' seems to apply only to the first. In fact the period only closed out in 1956 to include the Hungarian Uprising, the aftermath of which did include a fair bit of crushing. But its difficult to describe the influence of the Soviet Union on (what I prefer to call) Central Europe during the period between the establishment of the People's Democracies and 1989: intimidating, dispiriting, depressing, cowing? Only im...more This book is either too long, or two short. It is written in two parts, and 'crushing' seems to apply only to the first. In fact the period only closed out in 1956 to include the Hungarian Uprising, the aftermath of which did include a fair bit of crushing. But its difficult to describe the influence of the Soviet Union on (what I prefer to call) Central Europe during the period between the establishment of the People's Democracies and 1989: intimidating, dispiriting, depressing, cowing? Only immediately after the war were the scale of the horrors she narrates in Gulag replicated in Eastern Europe.

The first part is excellent; showing how the occupying Soviet power did indeed crush the emergence of western style liberal democracy in Eastern Europe. Also, how its experiences after the Russian civil war and the occupation of eastern Poland in 1939 enabled it to do so systematically, and generating very little opposition. In fact my reading of Hungarian history still suggests that the creation of the People's Democracy is still not seen here as part of a systematic campaign, but rather as a Soviet reaction to disappointing election results. Much of this was new information to me, and a satisfaction of my wish to have a broader picture of what went on in Eastern Europe after the defeat of Nazi Germany.

Perhaps she should have stopped there: the second part is less compelling. It doesn't benefit from her narrative gifts because it is mostly a description of how the People's Democracies worked in practice. In her epilogue she reflects on their downfall, but this was in 1989 not 1956, and the later date hovers as on the horizon thoughout the second part. It can be glimpsed in the potted histories of what happened next, and in her assessment of why these constitutions ultimately failed. To do this assessment justice she should have written a longer history.

She attributes the failure of the People's Democracies to two causes: the inherent instability of totalitarian forms of Government; and the failure of living standards to keep pace with those in the West. The first argument she makes very persuasively and offers a thesis which is so richly ironic that you want to beleive it: "By trying to control every aspect of society, the regimes had turned every aspect of society into a protest". So much for the internal contradictions of capitalism.

The second argument is not so good. It must be impossible to make an economic argument without recourse to any statistics, but she tries. The fact is the within the People's Democracies there were massive improvements in access to sanitation, health care and education, if not in consumer goods. The economic success of the People's Republic of China and the disappointing performance of Central European economies since 1989 also shows that an argument has to be made, you can't just carry the argument about totalitarianism over into the workplace. As she admits Hungary had the most liberal economy in the Soviet block - but now Hungary is pushing toward the re-nationalisation of its 'strategic' industries.

What was brilliant about Gulag is still brilliant here, a real vision of what happened and a narrative that seems to come out of first hand accounts - this is history writing at its best. On realising that Hungarian writers and historians had not fully grasped the game she argues the Soviet Union was playing in Eastern Europe in the 1940's, I began to nervously reflect on the games it had also been playing in the UK during the political and economic turmoil of the 1970's. But the People's Democracies need an Economic History as good and as full of statistics as The Wages of Destruction. Now, that's the book I want to read.
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Feb 22, 2013 Peter Fulford added it · review of another edition

Great history of the rise of the Iron Curtain, focusing on Poland, Hungary and East Germany from 1944 to 1952. If you didn't despise Stalin already, by the end of the first 100 pages you will. Even the author had to stop periodically and remind the reader that, as bad as Stalin was, Hitler was worse. Covers politics, economics and social angles and then wraps up showing how Stalin's attempt to impose his vision of society failed. As a political aside, I'm seeing some similarities between the tot...more

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Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe, 1944-1956

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