In Europe

campaign for political change. Banned in 1981 with the imposition of martial law in Poland, legalised again in 1989, and won a majority in the elections of that year.
    Speer , Albert (1905–81): German architect and high-ranking
Nazi
official. A highly efficient organiser, he became
Hitler
's Minister for Armaments. At
Nuremberg
he was sentenced to twenty years’ imprisonment for his role in the Third Reich. Released in 1966, he wrote two bestselling autobiographical works and died of natural causes in 1981.
    SS (
Schutzstaffel
, ‘protective squadron’):
Nazi
special police force, founded as
Hitler
's personal bodyguard in 1925. Under the leadership of
Heinrich Himmler
from 1929 until its dissolution in 1945, the
SS
provided powerful security forces including the
Gestapo
and operated the concentration camps and the extermination camps.
    Stabilisation Force (SFOR): multinational force deployed by
NATO
in Bosnia and Herzegovina whose key task was to uphold the Dayton Agreement, a peace agreement reached in 1995 to end the war in Bosnia.
    Stalin, Joseph (1879–1953): Soviet statesman and General Secretary of the Russian Communist Party 1922–53. Dictator of the Soviet Union for a quarter of a century, his Five-Year Plans for economic development, rapid industrialisation and enforced collective farming made his country into a major world power. In the 1930s he initiated the ruthless purges of the Communist Party ranks.
    Stasi (
Staatssicherheitsdienst
,‘state security service’): security force and intelligence organisation of the former East Germany. Disbanded in 1989.
    Thatcher , Margaret Hilda , Baroness Thatcher of Kesteven (b. 1925): British Conservative politician and first woman Prime Minister 1979–90. Nicknamed the ‘Iron Lady’, she had unshakeable faith in the power of market mechanisms, entrepreneurialism, privatisation and trade union legislation.
    Tito , born Josip Broz (1892–1980): Yugoslav statesman, effective head of Yugoslavia from 1943 and President 1953–80. Successfully combinedcentral authority with a large degree of autonomy for the six federal republics, providing Yugoslavia with more than three decades of stable leadership.
    Treaty of Rome : treaty which established the
European Union
, signed on 25 March, 1957 by France, West Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg.
    Treaty of Versailles : peace treaty, signed in 1919, which officially ended the
First World War
. It re-divided the territories of the defeated nations, included a ‘war guilt’ clause and reparation terms which Germany considered severe, and created the League of Nations.
    Trotsky , Leon , born Lev Davidovich Bronstein (1879–1940): communist revolutionary and politician. A leader in the
October Revolution
and founder of the Red Army, he lost to
Stalin
in a power struggle to succeed
Lenin
. Was exiled from the Soviet Union and settled in Mexico where he was assassinated.
    Truman , Harry S. (1884–1972): Democratic statesman and President of the United States 1945–53. In 1948 he introduced the Marshall Plan which provided financial, economic and technical assistance to rebuild the war-shattered allied countries of Europe. Also established the
NATO
mililtary alliance in 1949.
    Walesa , Lech (b.1943): Polish politician, President of Poland (1990—5). Chairman of Communist Poland's first independent trade union,
Solidarity
, he was a key figure in establishing the first non-communist government in the Soviet Bloc. Awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1983.
    Warsaw Pact : treaty signed in 1955 which established a mutual defence organisation composed of the communist states of Central and Eastern Europe. Created following the integration of West Germany into
NATO
in the same year and lasted throughout the
Cold War
.
    Wehrmacht (‘defence force’): name given to the armed forces of
Nazi
Germany. The Wehrmacht was abolished in 1945 at the end of the
Second World War
.
    Weizsäcker , Carl Friedrich von (b. 1912): German physicist and philosopher, son of the German diplomat Ernst von Weizsäcker, and brother of former German President Richard von Weizsäcker. During the
Second World War
, he was a member of the team that worked on the development of an atom bomb for
Nazi
Germany.
    Wende (‘change’ or ‘turning point’): term used to refer to the collapse of the communist system, signified by the breach in the Berlin Wall by the East Germans in November 1989.
    Wessi : used in a similar way to
Ossi
as