conflicting ideologies

Question 1

Jan 1945

Answer 1

Most Eastern European states are liberated by the Soviet Union

Question 2

Feb 1945

Answer 2

Yalta Conference

Question 3

April 1945

Answer 3

Roosevelt dies; Hitler commits suicide

Question 4

May 1945

Answer 4

the war in Europe ends

Question 5

July 1945

Answer 5

Churchill is defeated in the General Elections; successful test of the USA’s atomic weapon

Question 6

July / Aug 1945

Answer 6

Potsdam Conference takes place

Question 7

August 1945

Answer 7

2 atomic bombs are dropped on Japan at Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Question 8

Sept 1945

Answer 8

Japan agrees to an unconditional surrender to American forces

Question 9

who were the leading capitalist democracies when WW2 broke out?

Answer 9

the USA and Britain

Question 10

what was the cornerstone of all American capitalist thinking?

Answer 10

the belief in the individual’s fundamental right to liberty

Question 11

how was the fundamental right to liberty be protected?

Answer 11

protected by the government, but only through limited controls

Question 12

what did the fundamental right to liberty mean to Americans?

Answer 12

every citizen should have equal opportunities but not equal outcomes

Question 13

what was liberty based on?

Answer 13

free market economies

Question 14

free market economy definition

Answer 14

an economic system in which the prices of goods are set by the forces of supply and demand, and competition is allowed through minimal interference by the state

Question 15

what does free market economies enable?

Answer 15

competition and the free exchange of goods to take place with minimal government intervention

Question 16

what was the economic emphasis on?

Answer 16

the need for individual freedom, to achieve economic growth and personal happiness, without state control undermining the process

Question 17

what would Western businesses have to do?

Answer 17

compete - this competition benefitted everyone; any individual was free to join the competition if he or she so wished

Question 18

what did capitalist democracies do?

Answer 18

enshrined political freedom in the right of every citizen to have a choice of how the system would be led

Question 19

what did free elections do in Western civilisation?

Answer 19

enabled citizens to select their leaders from a range of candidates and political parties

Question 20

who was the founding father of communist ideology?

Answer 20

Karl Marx

Question 21

what did Karl Marx believe in?

Answer 21

that capitalism led to the exploitation of the proletarian majority by the ruling bourgeoisie to strengthen the bourgeoise’s economic dominance and to enable the bourgeoise to maintain its political control

Question 22

what did the Russian Revolution of 1917 result in?

Answer 22

the creation of the first communist state in the world, led by Lenin

Question 23

what did Lenin do?

Answer 23

modified Marxist thinking by establishing Leninism as the means by which Marxism would be transformed into a practical reality rather than a theory

Question 24

what did Lenin base his thinking on?

Answer 24

the idea that there would be a dictatorship of the proletariat as the first step towards the creation of a socialist society

Question 25

what was Leninism?

Answer 25

authoritarian in that it demanded rule by a relatively small workers’ elite or workers vanguard, exercised by the Community Pary on behalf of the proletariat

Question 26

what did Stalin do once he established his role as leader of the USSR?

Answer 26

modified Leninism to develop to ‘cult of personality’ and promoted himself as the infallible interpreter of communist ideology

Question 27

what did Stalin become obsessed with?

Answer 27

protecting his own power and the machinery of the state that guarded it

Question 28

what did his obsession mean in 1945?

Answer 28

easily translated into a fundamental influence on Stalin’s foreign policy thinking in 1945

Question 29

what was significant about these conflicting ideologies?

Answer 29

the certainty of each side that its ideology should dominate in as many other nations as possible

Question 30

what did both ideas see?

Answer 30

that the expansion of the other was a threat and that they needed to expand their own power

Question 31

what was the expansion quickly translated into?

Answer 31

a global aspiration

Question 32

what became driving obsessions for each side?

Answer 32

ideological conviction and a desire for national security through increased global influence

Question 33

proletarian definition

Answer 33

the proletarian class were the workers, but they owned very little; they were the exploited majority and were able to rise against their oppressors

Question 34

bourgeoisie definition

Answer 34

communists used this term to signify the class in society that controlled the means of production and distribution; this gave them power to exploit the masses of workers

Question 35

Marxism and communism

Answer 35

Marx expressed his political theory in The Communist Manifesto (1848). Marx believed that ultimately capitalism would destroy itself and be replaced by a communist system

Question 36

Joseph Stalin (1879-1953)

Answer 36

born Joseph Djugashvili, but adopted the name Stalin because it meant ‘steel’. He was one of the leaders of the Bolshevik party, but was not considered an intellectual. This made him seem less important in the early days of the Soviet state, but he quietly accumulated power and had succeeded Lenin by 1929.