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Hostility between the USSR and the West - 1941
There were deep ideological differences
The West feared Russian influence
The USSR resented its exclusion from the diplomacy of the 1930s
The West despised that Nazi Soviet Pact and Russian expansion in Eastern Europe
Capitalism
All industry, business and agriculture should be by private people or by a firm competing between rival factories, shops and farms will cause prices to fall and make firms more efficient. (This is the free market. This ideology is all about materialism and choice.)
Communism
Everything belongs to the state and should be run by the government on behalf of society. A classless society achieved by overthrowing capitalism by revolution. (This ideology is all about having only what you need.)
Karl Marx
Invented communism, he believed that life was unfair because rich people made poorer people work for hardly any money - the exploitation of the poor. He thought communism was inevitable. He published he Communist Manifesto in 1848. He said that conflict between communism and capitalism was unavoidable. It provided a framework of political and economic principles that opposed those held in the west. He believed modern industrial society was divided between workers (proletariat) and the wealthy factory owners (capitalists). He was convinced capitalism would be overthrown by the workers in a revolution which would seize control of factories and banks. It would be replaced by Communist society.
1917 - Russian Communist Revolution
When the USA entered WWI, it was an ally of the Russians
After the revolution in 1917, they made peace with Germany, angering USA due to a civil war
The civil war lasted four years and eventually the whites lost, and the reds won
The whites were supported by Britain, France, USA and Japan because they wonted to prevent the spread of communism into the rest of Europe
US Presidents
George Bush, Roosevelt, Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F Kennedy, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, Gerald Ford, Lyndon B Johnson, Jimmy Carter, Harry Truman
USSR Leaders
Joseph Stalin, Nikita Khrushchev, Leonid Brezhnev, Yuri Andropov, Konstantin Chernenko, Mikhail Gorbachev
Nazi-Soviet Pact
A secret agreement between the Germans and the Russians that said that they would not attack each other
Stalin stunned the West by signing a non-aggression treaty with Germany in August 1939. The two countries agreed not to attack each other and als to divide Poland between them. In theory, Fascism and Communism were polar opposites and implacable enemies. Stalin was concerned about the British coming to an agreement with the Nazis and not helping the USSR in the event of a Nazi invasion. He was also buying time because he knew that the USSR was well short of being able to fight. He had killed many army officials.
The Second Front 1941
The second front is the idea that Britain would re-enter Europe splitting the German forces, ultimately leading to the German defeat. This would take some of the pressure of the Russian attack because the German forces would need to regroup and attack Britain.
The second front increases tensions because the British delayed re-entering Europe until 1943. The Russians wanted to attack in 1941 so that they would have some relief from the German attackers. The Russians believed that the British didn’t want to move on the second front but instead sit back and led Russia and Germany fight until they both collapse.
The Katyn Massacre 1940
Over twenty thousand of Polish POWs killed by order of Joseph Stalin in April and May 1940 after Soviet Union troops had invaded eastern Poland. There was a starvation of Pole deported in a mass ethnic cleansing program imposed on over one million polish citizen carried out by the Soviet occupying authorities who sent them in cattle trucks to Siberia.
The Grand Alliance
Britain, America and USSR (Churchill, Roosevelt, Stalin)
Atlantic Charter
During WWII, the US and Great Britain issued a joint declaration in August 1941 that set out a vision for the post-war world. In January 1942, a group 26 Allied nations pledged their support for this declaration known the Atlantic Charter. The document is considered one of the first key steps towards the establishment of the United Nations in 1945.
US aims - Grand Alliance
The four freedoms: speech, worship, want and fear.
GB aims - Grand Alliance
Churchill did not trust Stalin, he was fearful of Soviet expansion and concerned that Soviet influence would spread in central Europe/eastern Mediterranean where Britain had strategic/economic interests. He tried to secure US commitment to post war Europe.
USSR aims - Grand Alliance
Stalin was obsessed with safeguarding Soviet security
Tehran Conference
First major meeting between the Big Three (United States, Britain, Russia) at which they planned the 1944 assault on France and agreed to divide Germany into zones of occupation after the war
Liberation
The act of setting someone free from imprisonment, slavery or oppression; release
Poland’s significance
Britain had officially gone to war against Germany to uphold Polish independence, therefore its fate was of utmost significance to Britain. Due to its geographical position, Poland was of immense importance for the security of the USSR.
The Home Front Army
The HFA had been with the Soviets recapturing territory but were often arrested later by the NKVD.
Tensions really reached a head when the Soviets reached the outskirts of Warsaw and called on the populace to revolt.
The Germans were now retreating, and the HFA saw an opportunity to seize the city and then later give the London Poles a better chance of control.
They took Warsaw in three days. However, Stalin halted the advance of the Red Army, refused to allow the western allies to supply aide and disarmed Polish untied on their way to help.
Britain and the USA tried to offer aid via Italy, but the Nazis regrouped and crushed the rising.
In October 1944, the Nazis destroyed Warsaw while the Red Army watched on from the River Vistula.
Percentage Agreement
Churchill proposed dividing up South East Europe into distinct spheres of influence. His gave the USSR 90% predominance in Romania and 75% in Bulgaria, whilst Britain would have 90% in Greece. Yugoslavia and Hungary were to be divided equally between the British and Soviet zones of interest.
Yalta Conference - February 1945
Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin meet
Winston Churchill - wants free elections and democratic governments in Eastern Europe
Josef Stalin - wants Soviet influence in Eastern Europe
Franklin Roosevelt - wants Soviet support in war against Japan
Agreements at the Yalta Conference
- Agree that there must be free elections
- Agree to split Germany and Berlin into four zones for the Soviet Union, France, Britain, and the U.S.
The Atomic Bomb
Heat generated by explosion was hotter than the sun
On the 6th August, the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima causing 92,233 death within two weeks
On the 9th August, another bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. Over 40,000 people were killed and 5,000 died within the following three months
On the 14th August, the Japanese agreed unconditional surrender
‘The greatest thing in history’ - Truman
The nuclear bomb gave America a lead which was expected to last at least 5 years. The rapid Russian development of nuclear technology, helped by the work of the ‘atom spies’ was a shock
Potsdam Conference - July 1945
Germany had been defeated, Roosevelt had died and Churchill had lost the 1945 election - so there were open disagreements. Truman came away angry about the size of reparations and the fact that a communist government was being set up in Poland. Truman did not tell Stalin that he had the atomic bomb.
Arguments about the boundaries between the zones continued.
Disagreements about the amount of reparations Russia wanted to take. It was agreed that Russia could take whatever it wanted from the Soviet Zone and 10% of the industrial equipment of the western zones, but Britain and the US thought this was too much.