Developing tensions of the Cold War

Question 1

What is meant by pro-agrarian parties?

Answer 1

many Eastern European states had political parties that focused on representing the interests of the farming communities; the redistribution of land was a political priority for such parties

Question 2

Who was Wladyslaw Gomulka and who was he replaced by?

Answer 2

was a communist who believed in the notion of different national versions of socialism. He worked, after 1945, to crush any opposition to communism in Poland. In 1947 he supported the rigged elections, which succeeded in finally eliminating opposition. He became a victim of the factional rivalry within the Polish communist movement. He supported the so call ‘home’ faction and stood against the pro-Moscow faction. He was expelled from the Polish Communist Party in 1951 as Stalinisation gripped Poland, but in 1956 was seen as a national hero who could deliver change. He was replaced by Bierut after being accused of ‘nationalist deviation’ in 1948

Question 3

When was the Provisional Government of National Unity formed? What was it evidence of?

Answer 3

formed June 1945
evidence of Stalin’s pluralist approach as it contained parties from both ends of the political spectrum
he did not simply impose a pro soviet communist regime on Poland

Question 4

What happened to the Polish Peasant Party in January 1947?

Answer 4

they merged with the communists and the communists became the dominant group within the merger

Question 5

Who was Nikola Petkov?

Answer 5

led the Bulgarian Agrarian Party (biggest political opponents of communists in Bulgaria). Despite winning over 20 per cent of the popular vote in the October elections, Petkov was faced with trumped-up charges and was executed. His party was forcibly absorbed into the Bulgarian communist movement

Question 6

Who was Laszlo Rajk?

Answer 6

the Hungarian Communist leader who was executed in 1949 for ‘anti-soviet’ activities

Question 7

When were all other political parties except the communists banned in Bulgaria?

Answer 7

April 1947

Question 8

Who were the communists’ greatest opponents in Hungary

Answer 8

the Smallholders Party

Question 9

Who was Josip Broz Tito?

Answer 9

was the communist leader of Yugoslavia and one of the founder members of Cominform, but also the first to reject Soviet dominance. His Cold War stance was one of non-alignment with East or West. This enabled Yugoslavia to flourish and it contributed to holding together national unity in a very disparate state

Question 9

Who was Edvard Beneš?

Answer 9

led the Czechoslovak government in exile in London during the war. He was not a communist but he was willing to work with Stalin, having decided that there was more to gain from such cooperation than an alliance with Poland. He returned as Czech president in 1946. He tried, and failed, to resist a communist-dominated government. Beneš resigned in June 1948 and this left the pro-Moscow communists in complete control

Question 10

Who was the Czech Communist Party leader?

Answer 10

Klement Gottwald

Question 11

When was Yugoslavia expelled from Cominform?

Answer 11

June 1948

Question 12

When was Kennan’s Long Telegram?

Answer 12

22 February 1946

Question 13

Who was George Kennan?

Answer 13

the charge d’affaires (a second ranking officer) in the US embassy in Moscow. Is often attributed with the responsibility for persuading Truman to commit the USA to the containment of communism and to controlling the international power of the USSR. He later rejected this link

Question 14

What is meant by economic imperialism?

Answer 14

the idea that a state could use its economic power to ensure that an economically weaker state becomes dependent upon it; this dependency would be used by the stronger state to exercise influence over the weaker one. In September 1946, the Soviet Ambassador in Washington, Nikolai Novikov, concluded that US foreign policy was based on economic imperialismand that the aim of the USA was to use its economic power to make states dependent upon it in order to establish its own global supremacy

Question 15

What is meant by isolationism?

Answer 15

an approach to foreign policy favoured by the USA before its intervention in the Second World War; it was based on minimal involvement in external affairs, beyond those seen to relate to US interests in places geographically close to the USA. Isolationism was not the way to protect the USA’s vital national interests post WW2

Question 16

What was Kennan’s ‘X’ Article?

Answer 16

In this he called for a systematic and focused containment of Soviet expansionist tendencies

Question 17

When was Churchill’s Iron Curtain speech?

Answer 17

6 March 1946

Question 18

When was Cominform formed?

Answer 18

September 1947

Question 19

What is Cominform?

Answer 19

the Communist Information Bureau. Is often regarded as a response to the USA’s introduction of the Marshall Plan in June 1947. The USSR felt that there was a need to consolidate communist states in order to fend off what it saw as the rise of US imperialism through the Marshall Plan

Question 20

Who was Andrei Alexsandrovich Zhdanov?

Answer 20

author of the Zhdanov Doctrine. Was a hard line Stalinist who bought his extremism into his responsibility for Soviet culture. He was responsible for developing Cominform. His restraint in bringing Yugoslavia into line led to his disgrace and dismissal from office in 1948

Question 21

What was the Zhdanov Doctrine?

Answer 21

Zhdanov viewed the world as being divided into two camps: the imperialists led by the USA and the democrats led by the USSR. This thinking was transferred to Soviet cultural policy and it forced artists, writers and intellectuals to reflect this worldview through their work

Question 22

How much was spent on the Truman Doctrine?

Answer 22

$400 Million ($300M to Greece, $100M to Turkey)

Question 23

Paris Peace Conference, 1946

Answer 23

In September and October 1946, leaders from France, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom and the USA met to draw up peace treaties for the defeated European powers: Austria, Bulgaria, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Italy and Romania. Although settlements were not reached for Austria or Germany, treaties were drafted for the other countries and signed in 1947. All treaties included clauses regarding territorial adjustments, reparations and anti-fascist requirements for the post-war governments

Question 24

What was containment?

Answer 24

was a strategy announced by Truman. Its aim was to prevent the spread of communism by aiding those states who might be exposed to it. The USA presented this aid as a necessary defence of freedom and it was available to any state who called upon the USA for it

Question 25

Stalin and the Greek Communists

Answer 25

Stalin had not been aiding the Greek communists and there was no indication that he would start to do so when British aid to anti-communists ended. Stalin was unsympathetic to communist revolutions in independent states because he could not ensure Moscow’s control. Such realities had little impact on Truman

Question 26

When was the Truman Doctrine?

Answer 26

12 March 1947

Question 27

What were some of the motives that may be attributed to Truman’s decision to introduce his Doctrine?

Answer 27

The range includes:
* It was simply a rather blunt piece of diplomacy designed to keep the
Soviet Union from aiding the Greek communist movement, and it had no
relevance to US policy beyond the Greek Civil War.
* It was designed primarily to protect democracy and freedom and there
was no aggressive intent towards any other state. It was a response to
Soviet aggressive political, strategic and ideological expansionism in
Eastern Europe.
* Truman needed to demonise the Soviet Union and communism in the
minds of the American public. He needed to present communism and
the Soviet Union as an enemy of the USA in order to justify his aim of
protecting the USA’s vital national interests and turning the USA into a
global power.
* Truman had to provoke the Soviet Union. His Doctrine was designed to make
the USSR feel threatened by the USA’s power. Truman wanted a Cold War to
start because this would justify the USA’s role as a defender of freedom, but
more importantly it would enable the USA to function as a world power.
* The Doctrine formed an important element of the USA’s aim of developing
its global economic power. By creating an enemy and presenting itself as
the protector against that enemy, the USA would make other states not only
militarily dependent on the USA but also economically dependent. These
states would inevitably form close trade relations with the USA because
they were close political allies.
* The Doctrine was the first step in the creation of containment as the basis
of US post-war foreign policy. The next step came through the Marshall
Plan drawn up by George Marshall and introduced in June 1947, which
was designed to reinforce the Doctrine.