Co-Operation Ends And The Cold War Begins

Question 1

describe the characteristics of a capitalist democracy

Answer 1

Free and regular elections where people vote for candidates

freedom of the press and of speech is protected. people are free to disagree with the political system.

Individuals own the different industries. They are free to keep the profits that they make

Question 2

Describe the characteristics of a communist country

Answer 2

Elections (if they are held at all) have no choice - all candidates are for the same party. Only the government party’s ideas are heard

No freedom of speech. The media is only allowed t print and say what the government allows it to.

All industry is under the control of the government. Individuals aren’t allowed to make a profit.

Question 3

Describe the characteristics of a Cold War

Answer 3

Indirect fighting
Rival ideologies (USA= capitalist, USSR=communist)
The arms race
The space race
Propaganda War

Question 4

When did the bolsheviks seize power in Russia, who were they led by and why did this worry other countries?

Answer 4

October 1917
V I Lenin
They believed in communism and wanted to destroy the capitalist system that they operated

Question 5

When did Britain agree to recognise the communist regime as Russia’s government?

Answer 5

1924

Question 6

When did the USA agree to recognise the communist regime as Russia’s government?

Answer 6

1933

Question 7

What did Stalin sign with Hitler in August 1939 and what did it mean?

Answer 7

Non-Aggression Pact

USSR didn’t go to war against the Nazis a month later when WW2 began. This was mainly because USSR wasn’t ready for War

Question 8

When did Germany invade the Soviet Union?

Answer 8

June 1941

Question 9

what went wrong for the USSR when they went into alliance with the allies?

Answer 9

The soviets suffered terribly during the Nazi Invasion. With perhaps as many as 20 million people killed during the war, yet Britain and America ignored Stalin’s pleas to open up a ‘second front’

Question 10

who was the USSR leader in 1945?

Answer 10

Stalin

Question 11

who was the USA leader in 1945?

Answer 11

Franklin D Roosevelt / Harry Truman

Question 12

who was the UK leader in 1945?

Answer 12

Winston Churchill / Clement Atlee

Question 13

What conference was held in February 1945 and what happened?

Answer 13

Yalta conference (Ukraine)
Leaders of the ‘Big Three’ met to reach an agreement on what would happen in post-War Europe.

Question 14

What was Churchill hoping to achieve at the Yalta conference?

Answer 14

Ensure the survival of the British empire

Saw USSR as a danger to the west that needed to be stopped

Question 15

What was Roosevelt hoping to achieve at the Yalta conference?

Answer 15

Not keen on the revival of the British Empire
Sought the creation of a free world that would be protected by the United Nations
Wanted the USSR to join the UN

Question 16

What was Stalin hoping to achieve at the Yalta conference?

Answer 16

Sought the creation of a buffer zone between Western Europe and the USSR as a way of protecting the USSR from attack
Wanted them to be controlled by communist governments so he could ensure they would be friendly towards the USSR

Question 17

What decisions were made at Yalta?

Answer 17

Germany and Berlin would be divided into four zones, occupied by the armies of Britain, France, USSR and USA
Germany would pay reparations
UN would be established to keep the peace
USSR would declare war on Japan in August, 3 months after Germany’s surrender
New borders for Poland
Eastern Europe would come under the influence of the USSR. There would be Democratic elections to allow the people of Eastern Europe to choose their own governments

Question 18

What conference was held in July 1945 and what was it about?

Answer 18

Potsdam Conference, Germany
US and British attitudes towards the USSR were hardening as they watched Germany being stripped of resources and saw puppet governments being set up in several of the countries in Eastern Europe now under Soviet control

Question 19

which leaders attended the Potsdam Conference?

Answer 19

Roosevelt had died in April 1945 and was replaced by Harry Truman, who didn’t like Stalin and was suspicious of the USSR’s aims
Labour’s Clement Atlee replaces Churchill as Britain’s PM
Stalin

Question 20

When did WW2 end?

Answer 20

May 1945

Question 21

What decisions were made at the Potsdam conference?

Answer 21

How Germany was to be divided and occupied
How Austria was to be divided and occupied
Changes to Germany’s border with Poland

Question 22

What were Truman’s worries about defeating Japan?

Answer 22

Japanese fought so much that American Generals feared the invasion and conquest of Japan itself might cost perhaps a million American soldier’s lives
Truman was also alarmed by the idea of Soviet intervention in the Pacific, as had been agreed at Yalta. He feared that the USSR would try to establish Communism in the Pacific as they had already done in Eastern Europe

Question 23

What happened on 21st July 1945 during the Potsdam conference?

Answer 23

Truman received confirmation that an atomic bomb test had been successful. He didn’t directly inform Stalin that the USA had developed an atomic bomb, but observers at the conference noted that Truman’s attitude towards the Soviets became more assertive from that moment

Question 24

What happened on 6th August 1945?

Answer 24

America dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Everything within a 2 mile radius was flattened and people at ground zero were vaporised. Around a quarter of a million people were killed.

Question 25

What happened in 9th August 1945?

Answer 25

Americans dropped a bomb on Nagasaki

Question 26

What happened on 14th August 1945?

Answer 26

Japanese surrendered

Question 27

by what year had the USSR achieved making an atomic bomb?

Answer 27

1949