The Creation of the World Federation of Democratic Youth

Abstract

The Yalta Conference (4–11 February 1945) laid the foundation for Russia’s postwar domination of Eastern Europe. A few days later, on 13 February, Soviet troops liberated Budapest. In Yugoslavia, where Tito’s partisans had driven out the enemy almost on their own, a National Front government was proclaimed. In Czechoslovakia likewise, liberated by Soviet troops and some Americans, a National Front programme was announced. VE Day, on 8 May, saw the unconditional surrender of the Third Reich. There was a new balance of power in the world, as there was within each country. In Central and Eastern Europe the communists, protected by the Red Army, quietly entered governments. In Hungary the Communist Party collected only 17 per cent of the votes in the elections; but Laszlo Rajk became Minister of the Interior and the Moscow-oriented Peter Gabor took control of the political police: the machinery for a takeover was in place.