Chapter 24 - The transformation of the Soviet Union's international position

Question 1

What years did the Red Army advance into East Central Europe?

Answer 1

1944-45

Question 2

What year did the Yalta and Potsdam summit conferences take place?

Answer 2

1945

Question 3

What year did the US Marshall Plan and ‘Truman Doctrine’ take place?

Answer 3

1947

Question 4

What year did the communist coup in Czechoslovakia start?

Answer 4

1948

Question 5

What year did the Berlin Blockade begin?

Answer 5

1948

Question 6

What year did the Berlin Blockade end?

Answer 6

1949

Question 7

When was there a successful test of the Soviet atom bomb?

Answer 7

August 1949

Question 8

When did Stalin die?

Answer 8

5 March 1953

Question 9

What did the successful test of the atom bomb comfirm about the USSR?

Answer 9

Its status as the world’s only other superpower to rival the USA

Question 10

What were the 5 features of the USSR as a superpower?

Answer 10

• A military-industrial war machine
• Increased territory
• Satellite states
• Atomic power
• UN permanent member

Question 11

Why was the USSR considered a ‘military-industrial war machine’?

Answer 11

It had 7.5 million well-equipped soldiers

Question 12

How had the USSR’s territory increased?

Answer 12

By the end of the war, it controlled the Baltic states and eastern Poland

Question 13

What were satellite states?

Answer 13

A country that is formally independent but under heavy political, economic or military influence/control from another country (in this case they were governed by parties closely linked to the USSR)

Question 14

What were ‘salami tactics’?

Answer 14

Communist parties would join with socialists and liberals to gain power, but then isolate and eliminate their rivals ‘slice by slice’

Question 15

Describe how Poland became a satellite state

Answer 15

Provisional government set up in Lublin in 1945, dominated by pro-Moscow communists

Question 16

Describe how eastern Germany became a satellite state

Answer 16

Became a Soviet zone of occupation in 1945; Moscow-trained communists took political control in 1946

Question 17

Describe how Hungary and Czechoslovakia became satellite states

Answer 17

‘Salami tactics’ enabled pro-Soviet governments to control Hungary in 1947 and Czechoslovakia in 1948

Question 18

Describe how the Baltic States became satellite states

Answer 18

Occupied by the USSR in 1940 under the terms of the Nazi-Soviet Pact

Question 19

Describe how eastern Poland became a satellite state

Answer 19

Annexed by the USSR in 1939 under the terms of the Nazi-Soviet Pact

Question 20

Describe how Yugoslavia became a satellite state

Answer 20

Communists led by Josip Tito gained control in 1945

Question 21

What was agreed at the 1943 Tehran conference?

Answer 21

The Allies agreed to demand unconditional surrender from Germany

Question 22

What were the tensions at the 1943 Tehran conference?

Answer 22

• Ideological differences
• Stalin very critical of his Western allies not opening a ‘Second Front’ to relieve the Red Army

Question 23

When did Stalin and Churchill meet in Moscow?

Answer 23

Late 1944

Question 24

What did Stalin and Churchill disagree about in Moscow in 1944?

Answer 24

The future of Poland

Question 25

What was the February 1945 Yalta conference dominated by?

Answer 25

Conflicting ideas about the post-war borders of Germany and Poland

Question 26

How did the 1945 Potsdam conference end and why?

Answer 26

With no final peace agreement because differences that had been ignored at Yalta became more urgent

Question 27

What was clear by 1945?

Answer 27

How the USSR was asserting political control over the countries it had liberated

Question 28

What were the 3 main stages of the breakdown of East-West relations?

Answer 28

1. 1946
2. 1947-48
3. 1948-49

Question 29

Key aspects of Stage 1 of the breakdown of East-West relations

Answer 29

• The USA and Britain were concerned by Soviet expansionism and the demand for a ‘buffer zone’
• ‘The Long Telegram’
• Churchill’s ‘iron curtain’ speech

Question 30

What was ‘The Long Telegram’?

Answer 30

A report from Moscow by American Diplomat George Kennan in 1946, urging the USA to contain the spread of communism in Europe

Question 31

What was Churchill’s ‘iron curtain’ speech?

Answer 31

Speech from former PM in March 1946, warning of an ‘iron curtain’ dividing Europe, advising that ‘strength’ was needed to deal with the USSR

Question 32

Key aspects of Stage 2 of the breakdown of East-West relations

Answer 32

• Economic decline and instability in Western Europe by 1947
• Strong communist parties in Italy and France
• The Truman Doctrine and the subsequent US policy of containment in 1947
• The Marshall Plan

Question 33

What was the Soviet response to the Marshall Plan and why?

Answer 33

Hostile, Stalin believed it would extend US influence

Question 34

What was the Marshall Plan?

Answer 34

A policy to provide US aid for European economic recovery announced June 1947

Question 35

Key aspects of Stage 3 of the breakdown of East-West relations

Answer 35

• Control of Berlin
• The Berlin Blockade
• NATO
• First successful test of the Soviet atomic bomb
• Victory for the communist party in the Chinese Civil War

Question 36

Why was control over Berlin a contentious topic?

Answer 36

Because it was the capital city but was located in the Soviet zone

Question 37

What happened in the Berlin Blockade of 1948-49?

Answer 37

Stalin cut off all road and rail links between Berlin and the Western zones of Germany, hardening the division of Germany

Question 38

What does NATO stand for?

Answer 38

The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation

Question 39

When was NATO formed?

Answer 39

1949

Question 40

How did the USSR see the establishment of NATO?

Answer 40

As a hostile act

Question 41

Why was NATO set up?

Answer 41

For the defence of Europe

Question 42

Why might Stalin’s inner circle have delayed calling for a doctor after his stroke?

Answer 42

Many felt under threat of a new purge; Stalin’s behaviour was increasingly menacing and unpredictable in early 1953, suggesting a new wave of repression and terror might occur if he recovered

Question 43

What are the 9 elements of Stalin’s legacy at home and abroad?

Answer 43

• He left no clear successor
• Cold War tensions
• Long-term underinvestment in agriculture and consumer goods
• Psychological damage to survivors of terror
• Demographic damage to the USSR from terror and famine
• The spread of Stalinism to Europe and Asia
• National prestige following victory over Germany
• The USSR as a nuclear superpower
• The USSR as an industrial power