6.1 - 1946-55: How did USSR extend control over Eastern Europe Flashcards
What did Stalin want to create in Eastern Europe?
A defensive zone on the Western border of the USSR
How did the USA interpret the actions of the USSR from 1945 to 1948?
To spread communism rather than a desire for protection
What type of tactics did Stalin use to take control?
Salami tactics
THE BALTIC STATES
THE BALTIC STATES
When did the Baltic States first become independent of Russia?
At the end of WW1 with the signing of the Treaty of Brest-Litvosk
What did the USSR tell the foreign ministers of the Baltic States at the start of the WW2?
That they faced invasion unless they signed a treaty of assistance with the Soviet Union
When were the Baltic States occupied by the Red Army?
June 1940
What happened once the Red Army occupied the Baltic States?
Pro-Soviet governments were imposed
What % voted for for the Baltic States to be incorporated into the Soviet Union in a rigged referendum?
90%
What did many in the Baltic States see the Nazis as when Germany invaded in June 1941?
Liberators
When did the Red Army reoccupy the Baltic States?
Summer of 1944
How many people were deported from the Baltic States after the Soviets took over again?
500,000
What was the West’s response to the reoccupation of the Baltic States?
They accepted the takeover with minimal opposition
Where and when did Roosevelt accept Stalin’s assurances that there would be a referendum held in the Baltic States once they were ‘liberated’?
At the Tehran Conference in 1943
When did the referedum take place?
Never happened
When did the Baltic States regain independence?
When the USSR collapsed in 1991
POLAND
POLAND
Why was Poland vital to Soviet security?
It was needed as a buffer to prevent the threat of invasion from a resurgent Germany
What were the two rival governments in Poland?
The London Poles and the communist Lublin poles
What happened to the London poles in March 1945?
16 representatives of the London Poles met for talks, were arrested by the NKVD, tortured and then confessed to collaboration with the Germans at show trials in Moscow
Why did Stalin not hold free elections despite promising them?
The Polish Communist Party was unpopular
What Polish political party did the West support?
The Peasant Party
What % of the vote did the Communist party win in massively rigged elections in January 1947?
80%