Book Review: Anne Applebaum- Iron Curtain

Conscious that the Western powers were watching Polish politics carefully, in the spring of 1945 Stalin allowed the non-communist politician Stanislaw Mikolajczyk to return to his homeland. Before the war Mikolajczyk had been president of the Polish Peasants Party (PSL) and served as Prime Minister in exile after General Sikorski perished in a plane crash in 1943. Although he was under no illusion about the prospects of establishing genuine democracy in post war Poland, Mikolajczyk thought it possible that Stalin might tolerate pluralistic politics so long as Warsaw remained under Moscow’s yoke. 
 

Upon his return, crowds gathered to greet Mikolajczyk. Indeed, in Krakow excitable supporters carried his car through the streets. The Polish communists, however, were not so impressed. PSL members were soon subject to harassment, arrest and worse. 

Unbowed, Mikolajczyk led a campaign to retain the Polish Senate. Although largely symbolic, the issue of whether or not to abolish the Senate was one of three put to the Polish people in a referendum of 1946. By advocating a No vote, the PSL defied the communists whose slogan ‘Three Times Yes!’ was disseminated on over 84 million posters, leaflets and brochures. 

Yet, in spite of the propaganda (or perhaps because of it) only a quarter of Poles voted as the communists had designed. This prompted the release a falsified set of results and a brief period of introspection. Once over, the communists concluded that the PSL could not be tolerated.

In the parliamentary elections of January 1947, for instance, its candidates were prevented from contesting in ten out of the fifty-two districts. Worse, in the six months between the referendum and the parliamentary ballot, all of PSL’s Krakow leadership was arrested. Soon, fearing for his safety, Mikolajczyk fled the country, leaving the politics of his homeland to Stalinist cronies like Boleslaw Bierut.  

The death of political pluralism in Poland is just one of many depressing tales from this period in Eastern Europe. In her gripping book, Anne Applebaum makes a good fist of recounting most of them as she documents the imposition of Soviet control in Warsaw, Budapest and East Berlin. 

The systematic deconstruction of Polish, Hungarian and German society was aided by the newly established secret police forces, modelled on the Soviet NKVD, which transmitted an anti-democratic mind-set to Eastern Europe. Suddenly, to be classed an ‘enemy’, one needed not to oppose anything; freedom of thought and individual expression were all that was required to attract the attention of the authorities. 

Consequently, in order to preserve their- and their family’s security- individuals compromised with the regime. Whether they believed the propaganda or not, men, women and children bowed their heads and got on with life. For a period truth was replaced by power. 

It is this process, the implementation of totalitarianism, which is so vividly described by the book. Applebaum documents how one set of institutions, already damaged by the Second World War, were deconstructed and replaced by the almighty State. But it was not just the armed forces, the secret police and the media that fell into communist hands, all manner of groupings from the Scouts to jazz clubs were snuffed out because they promoted free association and thinking.  

Ultimately, once Stalin had died and his cult of personality been dented, people began to express themselves once again. The young in particular, who resisted the attempts to create homo sovietics, eventually helped to facilitate the 1956 revolution in Hungary.

In terms of structure and focus, one of the key strengths of the book lies in Applebaum’s ability to synthesise a vast amount of research into various different issues- from art to industrial policy- and presents this in an engaging fashion. And while there is a political purpose to the book- Applebaum seeks to prove that the Soviet takeover was not a by product of American early cold war hostility, and discredit the resulting communist regimes- it does not distract from the scholarship. 

Although a minor detail, it is worth pointing out that this focus- on Poland, Hungary and East Germany- means that strictly speaking the subtitle: ‘The crushing of Eastern Europe’ is slightly misleading, for while Czechoslovakia, Romania and other nations are touched upon, Iron Curtain is essentially a transnational history of three states. 

And, it must be said, a very good one at that. In the first part of the book Applebaum documents how the public sphere fell into communist control. Her argument is that while the Soviets initially used soft power in an attempt to win hearts and minds, when this failed the communists resorted to harsher, more brutal techniques. This led them eventually to target the private lives of all citizens. It is this over-reach that forms the basis of the second half. Applebaum shows how by equating all free thinking with dissent the Soviets sowed the seeds of rebellion; suddenly every joke was in itself a tiny revolution. 

But while the Soviet system was certainly flawed, for those who experienced it this did not always seem the case. Some benefited from communist rule, and many dared not challenge it. Combined this meant a previous way of life was overwhelmed by an aggressive, suffocating force. Iron Curtain shows how precarious norms and institutions really are. It is a lesson we should never forget.