Editing Marshall Plan (section)

===Szklarska Poręba meeting===
In late September, the Soviet Union called a meeting of nine European communist parties at the resort town of [[Szklarska Poręba]] in southwest Poland.{{sfn|Behrman|2007|p=}} A [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union]] (CPSU) report was read at the outset to set the heavily [[Anti-Western sentiment|anti-Western]] tone, stating now that "international politics is dominated by the ruling clique of the American imperialists" which have embarked upon the "enslavement of the weakened capitalist countries of Europe".{{sfn|Wettig|2008|p=140}}Communist parties were to struggle against the US presence in Europe by any means necessary, including sabotage.{{sfn|Wettig|2008|p=146}} The report further claimed that "reactionary imperialist elements throughout the world, particularly in the United States, in Britain and France, had put particular hope on Germany and Japan, primarily on Hitlerite Germany—first as a force most capable of striking a blow at the Soviet Union".{{sfn|Wettig|2008|p=142}}

Referring to the Eastern Bloc, the report stated that "the Red Army's liberating role was complemented by an upsurge of the freedom-loving peoples' liberation struggle against the fascist predators and their hirelings."{{sfn|Wettig|2008|p=142}}It argued that "the bosses of Wall Street" were "tak[ing] the place of Germany, Japan, and Italy".{{sfn|Wettig|2008|p=142}} The Marshall Plan was described as "the American plan for the enslavement of Europe".{{sfn|Wettig|2008|p=142}} It described the world now breaking down "into basically two camps—the imperialist and antidemocratic camp on the one hand, and the anti-imperialist and democratic camp on the other".{{sfn|Wettig|2008|p=142}}

Although the Eastern Bloc countries, except Czechoslovakia, had immediately rejected Marshall Plan aid, Eastern Bloc communist parties were blamed for permitting even minor influence by non-communists in their respective countries during the run-up to the Marshall Plan.{{sfn|Wettig|2008|p=148}} The meeting's chair, Andrei Zhdanov, who was in permanent radio contact with the Kremlin from whom he received instructions,{{sfn|Wettig|2008|p=140}} also castigated communist parties in France and Italy for collaboration with those countries' domestic agendas.{{sfn|Wettig|2008|p=145}} Zhdanov warned that if they continued to fail to maintain international contact with Moscow to consult on all matters, "extremely harmful consequences for the development of the brother parties' work" would result.{{sfn|Wettig|2008|p=145}}

Party rules prevented Italian and French communist leaders from pointing out that it was Stalin who had directed them not to take opposition stances in 1944.{{sfn|Wettig|2008|p=145}} The French communist party, like others, was then to redirect its mission to "destroy capitalist economy" and that the Soviet Communist Information Bureau ([[Cominform]]) would take control of the French Communist Party's activities to oppose the Marshall Plan.{{sfn|Wettig|2008|p=146}} When they asked Zhdanov if they should prepare for armed revolt when they returned home, he did not answer.{{sfn|Wettig|2008|p=146}} In a follow-up conversation with Stalin, he explained that an armed struggle would be impossible and that the struggle against the Marshall Plan was to be waged under the slogan of national independence.{{sfn|Wettig|2008|p=147}}