I once read the Wikipedia page of a man from the UK named Enoch Powell after finding out about him from alternatehistory.com. Then it got me thinking, what other Cold War political figures from your respective nations were highly controversial? As we’re dealing with controversy here, let’s try to remain civil about this.
6 comments
Franz Josef Strauß who was minister of finance and defence in the 1950s and 60s and later until the 1980s prime minister of Bavaria.
His fans see in him the great moderniser of Bavaria who is responsible for the state’s economic success. His opponents see in him something close to the reincarnation of the nazis.
He run for chancellor in the election in 1980 and this election campaign was said to be one of the toughest and dirtiest ever in post-war Germany.
A few years later, he enabled a huge loan for the already failing GDR which rescued it for some more years even though he himself was a staunch anti communist.
He then died a few years before the fall of the wall quite unexpectedly on a hunting tour.
I’m from the commie side of the iron curtain. Too many controversial figures to say but Todor Zhivkov, the dictator, also known as Big Daddy or “Tato” in Bulgarian, definitely takes the cake.
Ana Pauker, the first woman to become Foreign Affairs Minister in Romania and I think in Europe as well. She was a hardcore communist bred by Stalin and instructed in Moscow, she supported various incredibly harsh and inhumane projects in Romania like the Pitești Experiment, yet when it came to Jews, she refused to obey Stalin and his anti-Zionist policies and despite Moscow’s orders, she decided to allow Jews from Romania to flee to Israel
I wouldn’t say anyone of them are controversial as it is generally universally understood who was pro-Estonian and who was pro-Soviet. The only question might be with the end of the Soviet occupation as different politicians chose different paths for that, for example:
– [Arnold Rüütel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arnold_R%C3%BC%C3%BCtel) – Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Estonian SSR and later of the Supreme Council of Estonia. As with most Estonians in the Communist Party, he was not necessarily pro-Soviet and definitely supported the view that Estonians should secure the majority in the party and not leave it to Russian immigrants. He was cautious with his initial independence movement statements, saying even in 1988 that “There shall be no return to the bourgeois Republic of Estonia”. Well, there was a return and he quickly started to support it when the winds turned. He remained a centre-left politician and even served as the President of Estonia in 2001-2006. I would generally describe him as – harmless.
– [Edgar Savisaar](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_Savisaar) – an economy planning official for the Estonian SSR and was one of the instigators of economic sovereignty and return to capitalism for Estonia. He also founded and led the grassroots Popular Front which was the main pro-independence movement during the Singing Revolution. But it was also the most moderate and it didn’t get along with the more radical movements that were gaining popularity over it. The Popular Front’s lack of decisiveness prolonged many decisions and it even became evident that Savisaar himself was the minority within his own movement. When Estonia restored its full independence in 1991, he turned left-wing populist *quick* and started appeasing the pensioner and Russian minority vote. He remains perhaps *the* most controversial politician of modern Estonia, but distinctly because of his actions after the Cold War. *Very* few ethnic Estonians have any respect for him nowadays.
There are many, but most of all I would say Giulio Andreotti: an exponent of the Christian Democrats, he dominated Italian politics from the 1950s to the 1980s, holding the office of Prime Minister seven times and many more ministries. He remains a very controversial figure; in fact, he was tried for suspected links with the Mafia and certainly had a say in the complicated political manoeuvres of the turbulent 1970s.
[This is the link to Wikipedia.](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giulio_Andreotti)
Olof Palme probably, not that super controversial to us Swedes but probably a bit more controversial to people outside Sweden. Considering his foreign policy literally made the US cut diplomatic ties to Sweden for a while.