Although popular history makes it seem that the Sovietization of Eastern Europe happened immediately after WWII, it can't be far from the truth. Hopefully, our videos will help in changing this perception - each of these countries had events distinctly different from the others.

The events directly after World War 2 are some of the most important and most ignored topics of the 20th century. These events shaped half of Europe for almost half the century. Thank you for this series

Fun fact Bulgaria was the only nation in the axis powers to keep land it had been awarded during treaties signed during the war

An extremely important part of the history of this time period in Bulgaria that the video doesn’t mention is that the takeover by communists in Bulgaria triggered a red terror that resulted in the brutal slaughter of 10,000+ people who were seen as enemies of the party in one way or another. And many, many more were exiled to labor camps. The impact on society that this purge of some of the most highly skilled and intelligent people in Bulgaria can still be felt to this day. An absolute tragedy.

The king of romania did not abdicate because he was surrounded, but he was threatened with killing thousand of students that were imprisoned after protests in favour of the king.

Fun Fact: Bulgaria’s last King, who’s reign came to an end in 1946, came back from exile and was elected it’s Prime Minister in 2001 with people chanting “We want our King!” As his campaign slogan

Romania and Bulgaria were given over to the USSR by the UK in exchange for the Soviets not interfering in the Greek Civil War, as the UK had high interests in Greece's naval bases

One fact that isn't mentioned is that Yugoslavia invited Bulgaria to join it in a union called the Balkan Federation however this was stopped by the Soviet influence after the breaking of relations between Stalin and Tito. Not exactly the most relevant but its implications meant that Bulgaria would not move away from the Soviets and would project its interests within the Balkans.

Sovietization of Poland Sovietization of Czechoslovakia Sovietization of Hungary Sovietization of Bulgaria Sovietization of Romania Sovietization of YugBITCH YOU THOUGHT

It is literally a shame that this channel has so few subscribers. This channel is one of the most informative channels on this site. Hope that this changes soon

Talk about the Romanian opossition of invasion of Czechoslovakia . Sorry for my english

I come from Romania , sadly this shaped our country for ever , the effects and mentally are to be felt today mostly in rural areas.

Hi David. Respect for this Cold War endeavor, from a Romanian. Having followed through your narrative, there is one aspect I'd like to emphasize - it may seem a detail, though I can assure you it's not -, related to the SovRom type of companies: they weren't 50/50 resource shared, but were one of the official means of the war reparations that the Soviet Union claimed from Romania. Thus, the lion's share was for Moscow, undoubtedly! So, the ratio was way different than what your narrative implies - I consider it safe to be called "pillage", that was done systematically and I'd appreciate your investigation in this direction, if ever. Of course there are other aspects that may shift the story - my support for the benefits of addressing these East Europe (hi)stories prevails, though :)

My great grandad was a rural Romanian during the unfolding of the events between 1944-47. Until the day he died a few years ago, he was a staunch supporter of PNȚ, whom he saw represented the rural folk (of which the majority of the population were). He had to keep his beliefs hushed during the regime until 1989. My great grandmother's family were wealthier sheep hearders who employed others to look after the flock. Their flock and wealth which they built over time was taken away by the communists after 1947, and my great grandma became poor, living in one of the least developed regions of Romania at the time.

My grandparents were both Transylvanian Cooperative farmers. Nobody "received" land, as it used a gridlike system where everyone lived around the edges of a communal plot, however these plots were strictly regulated. Very little of the food ever saw it's was back to the people, especially during the 1970s and 80s. The only food security was the limited wheat on the edges of the field which were considered "surplus" for storage, which would usually be stockpiled and turned to bread later down the line. Transylvania was not a happy place during this time period, as the pre-war conditions really weren't as bad as the communists seemed to make it out. Many people, including the farmers, resisted, as they were POORER after the redistribution than they were beforehand. It was abysmal, as I've seen first hand, and my ancestors who were previously tenant farmers on larger transylvanian farms, were relegated to having less after their former German landowners were killed. They were not the only ones, 10,000 farmers and landowners were killed outright, with many more jailed. I excuse the longwinded comment, but I have no shortage of stories of the hardships and failures of the regime. I will say however, there was a good period in the late Georghiu-dej era.

Romania had it own form of communism, much more brutal than other eastern European communist countries. Ceausescu was like, oh you want communist, ill give you communism and proceed to take examples from North Korea.

As a Romanian, I am learning history from a foreigner. Intresting....

You helped me learn my history lesson faster than my Bulgarian textbook. Thanks dude!

Great video loving this channel so far

It sounded like you said "oppress the bell-button". :P

I think you guys should make a video about Turkish Coup in 1980 made by Kenan Evren, to prevent a civil war between Far Left and Far Right.

Like if you are Romanian like me and watch the video in 2020 big like and respect! I like my country history!

My mom told me about her stories about sending them to cotton fields during her time in primary school from 1st grade to 7th. I mean can you imagine the levels of collectivism here? All of the population from 7 to 77 were all on the work line.

Really loving this channel.

Great video!!! Greetings from Bulgaria!

For the record. Historically, Russian share the bases of their language with Bulgaria. But as we know history can be re-written

Thank you dude. That was great

I'm really enjoying all this content about the Soviet Union and it's adjacent states at the beginnings of the Cold War, but is there any possibility that you could do some episodes that go in depth to the United States, its society, world position, economy and politics at this same time? I know it's a very well worn topic in comparison and overall this stuff is more educational in the truest sense of the word but it would be good to be given some of that context.

He who votes means nothing He who counts the votes means everything

Can you make a video about the Central American Crisis when major civil wars and communist revolutions erupted in various countries in Central America in the midst of the Cold War?

How about a video on the Sovietization of the "stans?"

One of my ancestors lost almost all his land because of the Bulgarian Communist Party

Great video! Just one thing about the ending, no Romania actually was very anti-soviet starting from the 60s and so one, one hint: Ceausescu.

I can't speak about the Romanian part of the video, but the Bulgarian segment is plagued with inaccuracies: the communist communist coup d'Etat date, "military dictatorship" before 1944, "big landowners" in the countryside... just to state a few. On the other hand, great footage research, as I hadn't seen many of these images (Petkov trial, the beginning of collectivization, regent's council) even in documentaries done by Bulgarian National Television.

I'm loving theses videos about Eastern Europe, but I wonder if you will do the same when covering the actions of the USA here in Latin America: detailing the events that happened on each country and how they all fell into US backed dictatorships.

Can you make a video about the Central American Crisis when major civil wars and communist revolutions erupted in various countries in Central America in the midst of the Cold War

Excuse me but I'm curious will u include Africa in your series? I mean Africa was the major battlefield for Cold war Superpowers to fight by proxhy wars, for example South African border war, Rhodesians bush war and my favourite Ogaden war when Somalia was rich and powerful and wanted to create Greater Somalia, keep up the great work sir I would love to see it more often!

Communists persecuting non-communists!? No way.... /s

Actually the communist in Bulgaria took power on 9th of September not 2nd of September after the Red army occupied half of the country.BTW nice vid

I find it interesting that the seizure and distribution of land is cast in a positive light.

If I could mention some very important points you forgot to mention. - First the Communist members were very small and weak. The partisans did not take the power alone. There was no some big spread revolt of the people. This is a myth. - The government which was ruling up to this moment was a legally elected government, it was not a dictatorship. - This elections was just a theater. - In other to come to power the communist power had to sentenced almost 10 000 people ( intellectuals, politicians, military , etc.) with so called people People's Court ( which has nothing to do with people and was unconstitutional. ) People's Court was just a political instrument to remove the opposition. - The communist regime which was installed was just a Stalin puppet.

Stalin's influence extended only as far as his tanks ranged -- and no further.

Romania did not switch sides because of the war effort against the axis, the king was deposed in 1940 and a military junta was created, named the Legionary state of Romania (Iron Guard Romania) and led by field-marshall Antonescu which became head of state, then in 1944 Antonescu was deposed and king and Kingdom of Romania was reinstated, which was always pro-allies

Not as one sided, as described in the video. In the initial years of Bulgaria's Comecon membership, the country benefited from energy prices below world levels, especially for oil, in two ways. The cost of developing otherwise inefficient industries was lower, and reexport of crude and refined oil for hard currency bought Western technology to upgrade the industrial infrastructure. Comecon members paid for their imports through bilateral clearing agreements, with no exchange of hard currency. In the initial stages of Comecon, Bulgaria exported mainly food, the price of which was lower in Comecon than on the world market. Later, however, Bulgaria paid for imported Soviet raw materials largely with machinery that was priced higher than on the world market

So Dimitrov walks in a ba....... *State Security agent comes in and shoots*

I find the parts about Bulgaria to be very inaccurate and vague.

ahead of the central comitee building a man keeps yelling 'we don't have food, heat, electricity' . after a few days the security picks him up. to scare him they close him in a cage and shoot him with blanks then release him. the next day he is in front of the central comitee yelling ' we don't even have bullets'

Wow you really brought out the Monarchists in this one! lol

I wonder if you'll cover the "Anticommunist resistance" subject anytime soon.

There is still the matter of Northern Dobrudja... Part of Bulgaria that is still occupied...

Thanks

You say Bulgarians and Russians share slavic ancestry and language... We don't... Bulgaria was formed in 681 a long time before Russia, we originated the Cyrillic alphabet which Russians adopted, though one could argue the extent of the Second Bulgarian Empire may have influenced development of language and culture. While we are Slavic, Bulgarians consider themselves South Slavs with hardly any relation at all to Russians.

Although with the execution of Nikola Petkov, Georgi M. Dimitrov(not the dictator) and the imprisonment of all connected to the party of the Agricultural Union BZNS, the political opposition was removed, the movement of the Goryani(deriving from forest) was active until 1953. It had more than a 100,000 members or associates and was arguably one of the first and biggest uprising against the communist regimes in Eastern Europe.

european communism didn't last long but it left issues we still deal with today.

The Fatherland front in Bulgaria overthrew the government on September 9th 1944. I wouldn't describe the government as military dictatorship but more like authoritarian monarchy during the rule of Boris III. The military made coup d'etat on May 19th 1934 but soon after that in 1935 Boris III take the initiative and the army went back to the barracks. The same man who made the coup in 1934 then joined the Fatherland front and made the coup in 1944. His name is Kimon Georgiev and he is very interesting person. He made three coups in 1923, in 1934 and in 1944. He was against the communists in 1923 but then he became their ally.

You should do a video about the slavish devotion of the Bulgarian Communist Party under Todor Zhivkov to the USSR's political and economic leads. This devotion clearly involved the Durzhavna Sigurnost carrying out Soviet-sanctioned kidnappings and assassinations abroad, such as Georgi Markov. Perhaps also the 1981 attempt on Pope John Paul II.

The collectivization of agriculture has nothing to do with increasing the food supply. It is solely about starving the regime's enemies.

Is it just me or whenever I hear people's Republic Of ______ it's always the most repressive military regime there is.

What happened to the German POWs in the western Allied countries and in Yugoslavia?

So what's in the tankard?

Why do you make abolishing the monarchy sound like a bad thing?

"The communists got less than half the vote, and the urban areas mostly voted communist." LMAO some things never change...

Do Albania and Yugoslavia next!!

2:10 That number totally wasn't fake or anything! *Sarcasm of Course*

The west turned a blind eye, WHAT A SHOCKER.

And Bulgariаns and Russians don't share common ancestry. The Russians are mixture of East Slavs and mostly Finn tribes. The Bulgarians are mixture of South Slavs and Turkic / Iranian tribes. The Russian and the Bulgarian languages are quite different also. There's old Slavic / Bulgarian influence in the Russian cause the Russians used old Bulgarian books when they became Christians

For those who are interested in this period in this part of Europe and see the word "persecution" and yawn, read a book titled "The Anti-humans". If memory serves it was written by Kenneth Goff in either the late 50s or early 60s.

excelent

Please, please, get your facts together! National "Liberation" Party is, in fact "National Liberal Party"...

5:49 Romania 🇷🇴

Somewhere between 100,000 to 160,000 Romanians died at Stalingrad. Romania lost around 300,000 soldiers and 200,000 civilians, during WW2....

Ever thought of doing one on Ana Pauker? There was a relatively new bio of her which calls into doubt that she was a real Stalinist

1:34 This man looks creeppy af

It would be interested to make video about communist Yugoslavia during cold war.

You got it right, except that land was only taken, not given to peasants by communists. I have never heard about any land being give to peasants, only taken.

National Liberal Party not the National Liberation Party :) (Romania)

Your facts about Bulgaria during and after the WWII are inaccurate. Bulgaria had an autocratic monarchy, not a military dictatorship. In addition, a huge difference between Romania and Bulgaria is that Bulgaria, after being forced to abandon its neutrality in 41, didn't send troops to fight with the Germans. Not only against the Soviet union. Moreover, the communists were weak, not even secondary force in Bulgaria. The Fatherland front didn't overthrow the regime, it was done by the Soviets who already had declared war to Bulgaria and had entered the country and partially occupied it, even if Bulgarian officials said they will not oppose the Soviets. There is more but my message gets very long. My point is that you can verify absolutely everything I said, even on Wikipedia. You lose credibility when you can't be bothered to research even such easily verified facts.

Do you see the diffrens betwen Bulgaria, Romania and Poland. The west Don t care abaut the balkans

Ty for let us down guys I'm Frome Romania

The Soviet occupation forces were more forgiving in Romania than in Bulgaria. The reason for this was that Bulgaria was at the time strong in the Communist Party and weak in Romania.

What happend in Romania then resembles what's hapening in US today btw !

You should make a video about (attempted) sovietization of Yugoslavia. It is not mentioned much, but I guess situation was actually more interesting then in other "normal" communist counties.

sory for the bad english but u have to meik a spehsal for the Belene hard leiber prizon Alkatraz was piknik

For next,will be nice to talk abbaut montain armed resistance from Romania against comunist regime.

1944 😭😭😭

Black days for the Bulgarian long history!!!

I remember hearing something about Bulgaria applying to become a republic of the USSR, but was rejected...

Weird how a lot of things said here are being repeated in the USA. i.e. Communism is popular in the cities. There's others but that one sticks out in mind.

Bulgaria and Russia don't share language, it's like saying Dutch and Norwegians share language because they both have Germanic origins.

Why are so many defending The Soviet Union? Dont you peploe understand what terror and fear is? Not to mention the milions who died within the soviet union?

After finishing reading all of your comments (and opinions...). I understand that some of you guys, don't know some historical facts.... Romanias provinces ,wanted(since 1600's) to finnaly unite(and gather under one flag, after several centuries of staying apart, because some of the major European powers had more to gain if the Romanian speaking provinces were divided). Thus, because the romainian people finnaly wanted to make a single country, they (the political class of that time-witch many of them where just mere puppets of other bigger powers...)tryed to make the unification possible, by making alliances (that was the only way possible, at that point in history... unfortunately)... And after the first World War, Romania was an ally of France (thus an ally of Russia, too)... but because (after begging for support from her allies to help her fight the axis) was mocked, and at gatherings in Paris some of the allied representatives told Romanian prime-minister that his country (or people desire of unity) ISN'T as important as helping Greece(witch gave western allies control over Mediterranean sea, thus say that a united Romania wasn't a priority).... But if they (the western allies) had chose to keep their support for Romania, they would have denied nazi Germany the access to petrol and gas(witch drove the nazi army for so long and fuelled their tanks, warships and U-boats....), thus denying Germany the thrust much-needed for their Blitz campaign (and they couldn't continue to conquer as easily France.... and they had stop after the Poland campaign. But it seems that the colonial ideas(and thinking at the time) were the deciding factor witch made Romainia to "accept" the "proposal" of Germany (and we payed the price for that, not only in lands lost, but in the many lives lost in the war..) . Romania lost as many, if not more soldiers than Italy. Thus making Romania's casualties of war reaching over 1.2 million casualties ,making it second to German's troops lost. But after Romania switched sides, (and shortening the war by an considerable amount, and saving many more casualties of war) the allies (witch whom we begged at first to keep their word as allies....) now because we turned our backs on Nazi Germany (and started to fight them, helping the Russian's), ordered Romania's army(from a number or 600k of soldiers) to send 350k(and the majority of officers) to Siberia, thus sending their own troops to be executed, while the rest of them had to keep fighting towards West, towards Berlin.... Then, as compensation we lost Moldova and the other lands witch now some of you guys say that Romania, stole-but it was the other way around (at that time in history those lands were majority Romanian, and the people just wanted to unite finnaly under one flag as one nation witch spoke the same language....)

Bulgaria has bulgarian language. If we will say - "hm, all of people, who writes with latin letters - speaks one language - so we wonder why there are a problems between them?" - would it be correct? P.s. there is no letters or language, or even appearance - as a ground to make a crimes or begin a war. Greetings fom Ukraine

Naive move (speaking about Groza's promise to the west for free elections in Romania) ... really .. hahhahahahahhaahahhahah ... ever heard about the conference of Yalta ?

Soviet Union was based deal with it haters

I hope you make a video about the fall of Ceaușescu.

When the fatherland front is anti fascist and communist even though Germany is the fatherland and Russia is the motherland. What? Did motherland front not work because it's not alliterative?

You should do documentaries about the democratisation of ex-fascist states such as Germany, Italy, Greece etc.

I feel a little sorry for these two countries. They became something worse that Nazi after WWII. My compliments to all those who made this video a reality.

on paper the cccp had a parliament and voting.

I'd always seen the US as the bad guy of the Cold War before I watched video. Although most people might sympathize with one of the sides, I believe that they were both worse and un-democratic than each other.