Flashpoints In Europe And The Impact On International Relations

Question 1

What happened in March 1948?

Answer 1

Hoping to economically strengthen the western zones of Germany, USA, Britain and France United Germany into a single economic unit - trizonia

Question 2

What happened in June 1948?

Answer 2

Allies introduce a new currency - the Deutschmark, into the region

Question 3

Why was Stalin worried about the introduction of the Deutschmark?

Answer 3

Stalin wasn’t consulted and saw it as 1st stage in reconstruction of a USSR threatening Germany
Recovery would be obvious to east Berliners and would come to resent the lower living standards in the communist zone

Question 4

What and when was the Berlin blockade? What was Stalin’s aim?

Answer 4

24th June 1948
Ignoring all that had been agreed at Potsdam, Stalin ordered the closure of all road, rail and canal links to West Berlin
Stalin hoped he could force the west to abandon Berlin - only supplies for six weeks

Question 5

What was West Germany’s reaction to the Berlin blockade?

Answer 5

The Berlin airlift - Truman decided because Stalin would be unlikely to shoot planes down, because it would be seen as an act of war

Question 6

When did the blockade end?

Answer 6

12th May 1949

Question 7

Name two organisations formed as a result of the Berlin blockade

Answer 7

NATO - April 1949

Warsaw Pact - May 1955

Question 8

When was east and west Germany created?

Answer 8

May and October 1949

Question 9

What was nato?

Answer 9

North Atlantic treaty organisation, April 1949

Based on principle that an attack on one member is an attack on all

Question 10

When did west Germany join NATO and what reaction did this cause?

Answer 10

1955, caused creation of Warsaw Pact

Question 11

When did Stalin die and who was his successor?

Answer 11

March 1953, Khrushchev

Question 12

What and when was khruschev’s secret speech?

Answer 12

1956
Criticised Stalin, belief that communism and capitalism could live together (peaceful coexistence), USSR wouldn’t abandon communism

Question 13

Give evidence of Khrushchev causing better relations with the west

Answer 13

Met with leaders of the west in Geneva - first such meeting in over a decade
Secret speech - denounced Stalin policies and encouraged peaceful coexistence

Question 14

Give evidence of Khrushchev being a different style of communist leader

Answer 14

Visited Yugoslavia and apologised for how Stalin treated the country
Policy of destabilisation to end Stalin’s influence over the ussr
Ordered the breaking up of cominform

Question 15

how did people react when khruschev seemingly did nothing?

Answer 15

riots in poland and czechoslovakia in July 1956

Question 16

what year was the hungarian uprising?

Answer 16

1956

Question 17

what were the main causes of the hungarian uprising?

Answer 17

poverty - hungary was poor and most o food and goods produced went to soviet union
oppression - stalinist gov included censorship, vicious secret police and control of education
help from yugoslavia - hungarian leader matyas rakosi asked for permission to arrest 400 troublemakers, yugoslavia persuaded khrushchev to replace rakosi instead
promises from the west - hungarians though UN or new pres Dwight D Eisenhower would help
catholic church - communists banned catholicism, put cardina jozsef minszenty, the leader of the catholic church, in prison
nationalism - the hungarians were very patriotic, and hated soviet control

Question 18

what happened on 23rd october in the hungarian uprising?

Answer 18

hungarian students followed the polish example and took to the streets demanding reforms

Question 19

what happened on 24th october in the hungarian uprising?

Answer 19

as unrest grew, imre nagy, a moderate communist, was appointed as leader

Question 20

what happened on 1st november in the hungarian uprising?

Answer 20

nagy announced that hungary would hold free multiparty elections and would withdraw from the warsaw pact

Question 21

what happened on 4th november in the hungarian uprising?

Answer 21

more than 6000 soviet tanks crossed the border to put down the revolt. please were made for the west and UN to intervene

Question 22

why wouldn’t the USSR and khrushchev allow hungary to leave the e bloc?

Answer 22

opening of a gap in an iron curtain leaving USSR exposed to attack
the collapse of the iron curtain - if one country was allowed to break free then all the others might follow suit

Question 23

how did the west react to the hungarian revolt?

Answer 23

USA and UN wouldn’t help hungary as they were already communist - containment applied to countries threatened by communism. if they went to hungary to fight it would be direct
e bloc realised it would be difficult to win changes from USSR. they were stuck in communism

Question 24

when was the hydrogen bomb developed by the USA and USSR?

Answer 24

1950s

Question 25

who led the space race during the 1950s?

Answer 25

USSR
sputnik - 1st satellite in space
gagarin - 1st man to orbit earth (russian)

Question 26

who won the space race?

Answer 26

USA -US astronauts landed on the moon in 1969

Question 27

why did the USSR want to end the movement of east berliners to west berlin and seal them off?

Answer 27

economic motive - a lot of people that left were highly skilled - gov couldn’t afford to lose them
ideological motive - 1000s of germans fleeing communist rule for a better life under capitalism undermined communism generally
political motive - w berlin was a centre for western espionage - west could get more info

Question 28

when did the last death for trying to escape to the west happen?

Answer 28

june 1989

Question 29

how did khrushchev originally hope to pressure the west into leaving berlin?

Answer 29

1958 he attempted to force the west to withdraw by threatening to give east germany control of access points in the city, however he failed

Question 30

what and when was the paris summit?

Answer 30

1960
khrushchev as hoping to persuade the west to leave, but the meeting collapsed when khrushchev revealed that the USSR had shot down a U2 spy plane flying over its territory
the events of the meeting increased tensions even further and a new wave of people fled through west berlin, causing labour shortages in the east of the city

Question 31

when and what was the vienna meeting?

Answer 31

june 1961
new pres john f kennedy
khrushchev demanded that the west hand over west berlin to the soviets
kennedy refused, and the next month increased US spending on weapons by $6.4 billion

Question 32

when did khrushchev order the erection of the berlin wall?

Answer 32

13th august 1961

Question 33

how did the US react to the berlin wall?

Answer 33

public usa protested about it - JFK ich bin ein berliner speech, w berlin june 1963
privately the wall helped the USA as it stopped the city being an ongoing source of tension between east and west

Question 34

what was the short term effect of the berlin wall?

Answer 34

100s of people died trying to cross the wall, people moving from east to wet germany greatly increased

Question 35

what was the long term effect of the berlin wall?

Answer 35

the west used the berlin wall as a powerful propaganda vehicle - became a symbol for the ideological, social and economic divisions that existed between east and west
as hundreds of people died trying to get across, the view of it being something holding people back increased

Question 36

who was khrushchev replaced by as soviet leader?

Answer 36

brezhnev

Question 37

who was novotny replaced by?

Answer 37

dubček

Question 38

what were the czech reforms?

Answer 38

freedom of speech and of the press
less centralised economic control
development of foreign trade
removal of restrictions on travel abroad
reduction in the powers of the secret police

Question 39

what was the reaction to the czech reforms

Answer 39

czech people approved

brezhnev feared that the reforms would be copied by other eastern european countries and would ultimately result in the destruction of the iron curtain

the communist leaders of poland and e germany had similar fears. in july them along with hungary, bulgaria and the ussr wrote to czech to express their concern. dubček answered that he was committed to socialism and guaranteed that czechoslovakia would remain in the warsaw pact

despite these promises, on 20th august 1968, 400,000 mostly russian troops entered czechoslovakia. dubček urged the populationto limit opposition to passive resistance

dubček was summoned to moscow. on his return to prague he announced to the people that the prague spring had ended. he resigned a few months later and was replaced by the more hardline gustav husak

Question 40

when and what was the brezhnev doctrine?

Answer 40

late 1968
brezhnev justified the actions that he took in czechoslovakia. he argued that it was the duty of communist countries to act together to prevent another communist state from being capitalist. it was a declaration that the ussr intended always to control the communist countries behind the iron curtain.

Question 41

how did the prague spring impact cold war relations?

Answer 41

usa wouldnt send help because they had their own problems with war in vietnam and as with hungary, accepted there was no point in intervening in events behind the iron curtain
didn’t want to damage the recent improvement in relations between east and west - became known as detente

Question 42

give examples of communist weakness

Answer 42

reation to hungarian reforms - romanian leader ceauseseu called the invasion a ‘day of shame’ and ‘a grave error’
building of berlin wall
albania leaving the warsaw pact 1968