Foreign policy Flashcards
1
Q
Phase 2 - Foreign involvement in the Russian civil war
A
- 1918 - 1920 Foreign troops stationed in areas of conflict from Baltic to Black sea - No. of troops small and did little fighting
- Motives for foreign intervention = Keep Russia fighting in WW1 and protect armaments that had been sent to Russia by allies
2
Q
Phase 2 - Foreign intervention timeline - 1918
A
- 1918 = Treaty of Brest-Litovsk in March and 9000 troops land at Vladivostok in Aug
3
Q
Phase 2 - Foreign intervention timeline - 1919
A
- Feb = German troops in Latvia to oppose red army
- Mar = Bullitt peace mission gets Lenin to agree to peace terms
- Aug = British naval assault on Soviets at Petrograd
4
Q
Phase 2 - Foreign intervention timeline - 1920
A
- Mar = Defeated white army evacuated by British warships
- June = Polish armies defeated by red army in Ukraine
- Nov = Bolshevik state recognised by Britain
5
Q
Establishment of the Comintern
A
- International socialist organisation promoting Marxism and spreading ‘proletarian revolution’ from Russia to the world
- Chairman = Zinoviev
- Optimistic of worldwide communist revolution
6
Q
2nd Comintern congress
A
- July - August 1920
- Some European delegations broke away from the Comintern
7
Q
3rd Comintern
A
- Summer of 1921
- Realisation that world revolution was not as close as previously hoped
8
Q
Russo-Polish war
A
- Recreation of Polish independence was a commitment of allied powers after WW1
- Lenin saw Poland as a bridge to the west
- Poland advanced and occupied Kiev in May 1920
- Red army launched counter attack and Polish forces abandoned Kiev by Aug 1920
- Polish army on point of defeat but managed o defend Warsaw in battle known as the ‘miracle of the Vistula’ - War turned into stalemate
9
Q
Socialism in one county VS Permanent revolution
A
- Theories of Marxism and Leninism felt it was impossible for revolution to survive in a single country - It would be destroyed
- Trotsky and left felt Soviet Union should commit to permanent revolution
- 1923 Stalin believed there could be ‘socialism in one country’
10
Q
Phase 3 - Rapallo treaty
A
- 1922
- Lenin realised world revolution was postponed
- Bolshevik Russia excluded from league of nations
- Chicherin became foreign minister in 1922 and invited to international economic conference
11
Q
Treaty of Rapallo
A
- Agreed to waive claims for compensation arising from WW1
- Mutual goodwill in commercial and economic relations
- Additional agreement in July 1922 allowed for German army to carry out military training in the USSR
- For all involved this was a way out of unwelcome diplomatic isolation
12
Q
Zinoviev letter
A
- Forgery made by conspirators and led by ‘ace of spies’, Sidney Reilly - British intelligence agent
- Created to influence public opinion against Labour party in 1924 British election
- Affected Britain more than the Soviet Union
13
Q
Treaty of Berlin
A
- 1926
- Litvinov described it as an amplification of treaty of Rapallo - aimed to promote general peace between Germany and the USSR
14
Q
Changes in Comintern
A
- Zinoviev president from 1919 to 1926
- Bukharin then became president but was later forced out and replaced by Molotov
- in 1920s Stalin’s move towards leftist policies denounced SD parties as ‘social fascists’
15
Q
Phase 5
A
- Between 1935-37 there were negotiations on improving economic and political relations with Germany
- ‘collective security’ against facism - working with other states to stop fascist expansion
- Litvnov in favour and Molotov against
16
Q
Western Appeasement
A
- Hitler joins with Austria - against treaty of Versailles
- Munich conference - decision on Sudetenland - Stalin not invited
17
Q
Japanese aggression
A
- wanted to avoid war on two fronts - Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931 was a direct threat to soviet railway
18
Q
Anti-Comintern pact
A
Signed by Germany and Japan in nov 1936
19
Q
Hitlers foreign policy plans in the 1930s
A
- Germany must expand to survive - Austria and Czech Slovakia - wanted a 1000 year reich
20
Q
Hitler’s attitudes towards Czechoslovakia
A
- focused on Sudetenland which is home to German speakers
21
Q
What happened in the Sudetenland and then the rest of Czechoslovakia
A
- People happy when took Sudetenland
- Hacha, the Czech leader, handed over Czechoslovakia after Hitler threatened to invade it
22
Q
What happened in Austria
A
- Had political instability - German troops crossed the border - majority of Austrians celebrated arrival of Nazi’s
- Britain was annoyed that treaty of Versailles had been broken but didn’t want to go to war over it
23
Q
The Munich Agreement
A
- 29th Sept 1938 - Hitler granted Sudetenland as long as that was his last territorial demand - Hitler still felt cheated
24
Q
The Nazi-Soviet pact
A
- Von Ribbentrop (German foreign minister) involved
- 23rd Aug 1939
- Protected Hitler from an attack on two fronts
25
Russo-Finnish war
- 30th Nov - 22nd Dec 1939
- Went badly as the red army had been purged during the terror
- Finnish were outnumbered 3:1
- Finnish used guerrilla warfare
- Jan 1940 a peace treaty was signed - Soviets had lost 10,000 men
- Conscription had to be reintroduced in Russia - army grew from 2 million to 5 million
- Stalin didn't believe he could face Germany until 1943
26
Nazi Soviet pact - Why did Hitler want an agreement with Stalin
- Didn't want to fight against a British - French - Soviet alliance
- Allowed Hitler to invade Poland
- Gave Germany raw materials from Russia on very favourable terms
27
Nazi Soviet pact - Why did Stalin want an agreement with Hitler
- Avoid a war on two fronts against Germany and Japan
- Territorial gains in Poland and the Baltic's
- Allowed Stalin breathing Space to consolidate the economic changes in Russia at the time
28
What did Stalin Miscalculate in the Nazi Soviet pact
- Strength of the French army and nature of modern warfare - Believed the war would be long - as seen in WW1 - France was instead taken over very quickly
- Trusted Hitler - By Oct 1940, Hitler was already planning to invade the USSR in 1941
29
Russo-Finnish war
- Soviet forces invaded in Nov 1939
- Finland only lost 10% of their land in the peace treaty
30
Katyn Massacre
- 22,000 Poles killed by NKVD in 1940 - eliminated Polish nationalists who opposed Communism - It was kept a secret and the Nazi's were blamed
31
Hitler after signing the Nazi Soviet pact
- Invaded Poland 8 days after signing the pact
- Roosevelt elected as president worried Hitler as he was anti-Nazi
- May 1941 - date Hitler wanted to invade Russia - felt the Bolsheviks were Jewish - turned it into a war of extermination
32
Stalin after signing the Nazi Soviet pact
- Believed Hitler was undermining the capitalist system - potentially becoming a communist in Stalin's eyes
- Wasn't loyal to Hitler as he had gone against the Bolsheviks in Mein Kampf
- Feared the strong Nazi army - Russia looked weak after Russo-Finnish war
- Attack on Bukovina (Romania) Angered Hitler as this was Nazi territory under the pact
- Nov 12th 1940 - Molotov offered parts of the British empire to Russia if they helped Hitler defeat Russia
33
Stalin - Operation Barbarossa
- Molotov believed that the Nazi's were too busy Fighting Britain to pose an immediate threat to the USSR
- Stalin prone to believing conspiracy theories - Makes no serious preparations for an invasion
- Stalin doesn't believe the intelligence being sent to him from spies in the German government
- Goes missing after start of Operation Barbarossa - quickly resumed power
- Stalin refers to the pop. as brothers and sisters to try and promote nationalism
- Bring back Zhukov and gives him responsibility
34
Hitler - Operation Barbarossa
- Wated to split the world with Stalin - offered the USSR the middle East and India
- Hitler lies to Stalin and claims Germany will invade Britain - this was an attempt to stop Stalin from preparing for operation Barbarossa
- Saw war with Russia as a war for racial supremacy - wanted Russian soldiers to be exterminated and used it as a war against the Russian Jews - 300,000 Killed before the Nazis reached Minsk
- By endo of 1941, 500,000 had been killed - known as the Holocaust by bullets
- Army lacked winter clothing which led to their defeat later on
35
Course of the Great Patriotic war - June 1941 to Summer 1942
-- KEY EVENTS --
- June 1941 = operation Barbarossa
- Sept 1941 = Siege of Leningrad begins
- Dec 1941 = Battle of Moscow
- 24th June 1942 = Factories vulnerable to German attack moved behind the Ural mountains
-- DETAILS --
- Hitler wanted to get rid of communism
- Stalin allies with Churchill
-- SIGNIFICANCE --
- Between June and Dec the red army lost 2.6 million soldiers
- Areas lost contained 2/5 of the Soviet pop
36
Course of the Great Patriotic war - Summer 1942 to summer 1943
-- KEY EVENTS --
- Nov 1942 = German army surrounded at Stalingrad
- Feb 1943 = Surrender of German army at Stalingrad
- July 1943 = Battle of Kursk
-- DETAILS --
- Stalin issued order 227 = 'Not a step back'
- By end of 1942 the 3rgbgeneration of the red army was emerging
- Lend lease programme by the Americans increased the supply of raw materials
-- SIGNIFICANCE --
- USSR out produced Germany n industrial output
- USA gave USSR 500,000 vehicles under the lend lease programme
37
Course of the Great Patriotic war - Summer 1943 to Summer 1945
-- KEY EVENTS --
- Jan 1944 = End of siege of Leningrad
- 2nd May 1945 = Soviet victory in the battle of Berlin
- 22nd June 1945 = Operation Bagration
-- SIGNIFICANCE --
- At operation Bagration, the 1.2 million strong German army was destroyed in just 68 days
- 2nd May 1945 = Berlin surrendered
38
Siege of Stalingrad
- Oil in the south was keeping the Soviets alive - Hitler sent 2mllion to attack them
- Stalin happy to sacrifice soldiers
- Civilians helped to protect Stalingrad - they were not allowed to leave the city
- 80% Of Soviet reinforcements killed within a week as many sent into battle with no weapons
- Hitler attempted to airlift supplies into the city after the Germans were trapped in the 24th November - this was ineffective
39
Facts from stage 1 of the Great Patriotic war
- Stavka made responsible for all land, sea and air operations - set up on the 2rd June
- 26th June Stalin ordered Beria to contact Berlin about ending the war - was willing to hand over Baltic states, Ukraine and Finnish Territory - the plea never reached Berlin
- 3rd July Stalin addressed the nation via radio and millions were willing to fight
- Soviets lost Crimea and 175,000 men on the 19th May
40
Facts from stage 2 of the Great patriotic war
- Battle of Kursk = the worlds largest tank battle began in July 1943 - Zhukov had planned for the battle well which made the Germans confused
- Kharkiv was liberated on the 22nd August 1943
41
Facts from stage 3 of the Great patriotic war
- Kyiv was taken back by the Russians in Oct 1943
- Red army outnumbered German aircraft 4:1
42
Experiences with total war in Russia - Stalin's personal role in the war
- 80 warnings of a Nazi invasion were ignored
- Believed Germany would not attack USSR until they had defeated Britain
43
Experiences with total war in Russia - The Generals
- Stalin often made decisions against good military advice
- Stalin relied on Vasilevsky, Antonov and Zhukov
44
Experiences with total war in Russia - Industry
- 1942-43 the USSR were outproducing Germany in aircraft, tanks, guns and shells
- Evacuation committee set up after German invasion - managed to move 1523 factories
45
Experiences with total war in Russia - Lend lease
- Made up 5% of Soviets military resources by 1942
- 1/3 of Soviet vehicles came from abroad - generally better quality
46
Experiences with total war in Russia - Agriculture
- 4/5 of collective farmers were women by the end of the war - in 1943 output was only 38% of 1940 levels
- Private trade revived for 1st time since the NEP
47
Experiences with total war in Russia - Women
- 500,000 served in the army but weren't allowed to take part in the Moscow victory parade
- mad up 75% of the pop of Leningrad
- 90% of the workforce in light industry were women
48
Experiences with total war in Russia - Partisans
- Used guerrilla warfare
- Responsible for the largest and most successful guerrilla campaign in the second world war
49
Experiences with total war in Russia - Soviet soldiers
- Threats of disciplinary measures and intimidation motivated the red army
- Only 3% of soldier's born in 1923 would survive until 1945
50
Experiences with total war in Russia - Propaganda
- Over 1000 writers and artists joined the campaign to report on the front - work was controlled by the Sovinformburo
- Konstain's work contributed to the Summer of hate in 1942
- Kukryniksy = collective name for 3 graphic artists who had worked together since the early 1920s
51
Experiences with total war in Russia - Orthodox church
- Despite efforts by the communists, 55% of the population were religious
- Stalin abolished the league of godliness in Sept 1943 allowing for the publication of church literature etc
- 15,000 orthodox churches reopened
52
Life after the great patriotic war notes
- 'Glory to Stalin' as he is celebrated
- Stalin declares war with Japan after Nagasaki
- 25million without homes - agriculture reverts back to human labour
- Ukrainian women who had been held in Germany were sent tot the mines as punishment
- 1946 - drought and crop failure leads to a famine
53
What price did the USSR pay for victory
- 25 million killed and 25 million homeless
- Nationalist groups in Ukraine and Poland didn't want to be part of the USSR any longer
- Peasant's didn't want to go back to the collective farms
54
What did Stalin announce in 1946 and why
Victory had demonstrated the vitality of the Soviet socialist system - 1930s model of soviet society was reimposed
55
What did Stalin do to the army after the Great Patriotic war
- Army was a potential threat to him
- Stalin removed generals who might turn on him e.g. Zhukov
- Order 270. declared red army prisoners of war as traitors and sent them to the gulag's - gulag pop's rose to 2.5 million
56
What were Stalin's attitudes to the Jews after the Great Patriotic war
- 1948 the Jewish anti-fascist committee which had helped send thousands of Russian Jews to fight the Nazis, was shut down
- Jewish writers arrested and synagogues were shut down
- all due to Jews having connections with the West
57
Stalin's policy of anti westernisation after the great patriotic war
- Few foreigners were allowed in
- Internal censorship was more vigorously applied
58
Who was Zhdanov and what was zhdanovschina
- Given the Job of bringing the Russian intelligentsia into line - Hundreds of writers were condemned for 'kow-towing' to the west
- Theatres were attacked because their work supposedly corrupted by bourgeoise values and did not reflect Soviet values
59
What impact was their on science after the great patriotic war
- Physics not affected as they needed this subject to develop the atomic bomb
- Had to adhere to guidelines created by the state
- Lysenko was a biologist in agriculture who believed that crops could be refrigerated to allow the seeds to be sown in colder climates - accepted by the party and slowed the progress of other leading biologists who were arrested for going against him
60
Post war reconstruction - Industry
- 70% of industrial production was lost in western regions
-- MAIN POLICIES --
- Fourth 5 year plan - centrally planned economy was back
- 85% of the investment was into heavy industry
- Workers expected to do 30 hours of overtime monthly
-- PROS --
- Steel production rose from 18 million tonnes in 1940 to 27.3 in 1950
- Dnieper dam in operation by 1947
- 1949 = 1st atomic bomb was created
-- CONS --
- Bottlenecks and shortages of materials was still an issue
61
Post war reconstruction - Agriculture
- 100,000 collective farms stopped functioning
- Peasant's had learnt skills in the army and got jobs in industry = loss of farmers
-- PROS --
- Stalin's central controls were brought in e.g. directives on sowing crop collection
- Ideas of Lysenko were enforced with disastrous effects
-- PROS --
- Private plots kept peasants alive
-- CONS --
- Cities' took 70% of crops which left barely any food for peasants
- Villages not given electricity or building materials and ability to sell surplus grain on the market was stopped in 1948
62
In what ways did Stalin stay the same after the war
- still the all powerful leader but still worried about being deposed
- Still played people off against each other
63
Ways Stalin changed after the war
- Given title of 'Generalissimo'
- His positioned had been strengthened by the war - He was more popular than ever
- The Doctors plot = Jan 1953 the Pravda announced 13 doctors were conspiring with the USA ( was not true )
64
How did the party stay the same after the war
- One party state was still intact
- Leningrad affair - Zhdanov's death led to a savage purge of Leningrad party organisation - was engineered by Beria to gain influence and deal with rivals - Led to insecurity at the top
65
How was the party different after the war
- Zhdanov became Stalin's favourite and was loyal
- NKVD was renamed the MVD in 1949 and exercised large amounts of power
- The party had grown from 4 to 6 million members
66
Beria
- Appointed head of NKVD in 1938
- Stalin disliked him
- Organised the use of workers in Gulags
- 1945 was put in charge of developing the Atomic bomb for the USSR
- Was also the deputy prime minister
67
Stalin's death
- Beria and Malenkov called to his room
- Long delay before doctors were called to see Stalin as the leaders hoped he would die before he could act against them
- Doctor's were reluctant to treat him due to the Doctors plot - Stalin's personal physician was in prison because of this plot
- Suffered a stroke and died 5 march 1953
68
How did the leaders react to Stalin's death
- Politburo members relieved
- Beria appeared radiant as he felt he could become the next leader of the USSR
69
Reaction to Stalin's death in the USSR
- Grief - people went to Moscow to see his body
