Читать книгу The Danube Cycleway Volume 2. From Budapest to the Black Sea онлайн

14 страница из 45

Iron curtain and communism

Defeat of the Axis powers in the Second World War led to the lower Danube coming under the control of the victorious Allied powers, specifically Soviet Russia. Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania were all forced to adopt communist systems of government with private property expropriated by the state and farms collectivised. Their economies and military capabilities were integrated with that of the Soviet Union under the terms of the Warsaw Pact. The economic and social consequences of this period are still very much in evidence, particularly in Romania. Large estates of poor quality social housing ring most towns and cities, while dilapidated ruins of Soviet era factories abound. The border between Soviet controlled eastern Europe and western Europe was heavily fortified by the Russians with a line of defences described by Winston Churchill as an Iron Curtain. An uprising against communism in Hungary (1956) was viciously put down by Russian troops.

Yugoslavia, now led by Tito, adopted a less rigid communist system and did so without coming under Russian control.