Origins of the Cold War

Question 1

What is the Cold War?

Answer 1

• Ideological struggle between two superpowers: West and Soviet Bloc
• Cpitalism vs Communism
• Consisted of an arms race, space race and espionage
• 1945 →1990s

Question 2

Why the West mistrusted the East

Tensions before WWII

Answer 2

• Communism threatened western values and ways of life
• They did not believe in the totalitarian policies of Stalin (forced labour, show trials, purges)
• Stalin signed the Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact with Hitler in August 1939

Question 3

Why the East mistrusted the West

Tensions before WWII

Answer 3

• 1930s, Stalin distrusted the policy of Appeasement adopted by Britain and France vs Germany → Stalin suspected that Britain and France saw the Soviet Union as the real enemy
• This view was strengthened when the Soviets were left out of the Munich Conference in 1938
• Convinced Stalin that, to protect his own interests, he should side with Hitler
• 1939 he signs the Non-Aggression Treaty with Germany
• During WWII they set aside their differences and formed an alliance (after Hitler invades the USSR in 1941)
• ‘Grand Alliance’ = Britain, USA and USSR

Question 4

An Uneasy Alliance

Answer 4

• From 1941 the** USSR carried the main burden** in the fight against the Nazis and as a result more Soviets died.
• Two years went by before the USA opened up a second front by invading Normandy, France in 1944.
• Stalin viewed this delay as a deliberate attempt to weaken the USSR
• The USA ended the Lend-Lease Programme that was providing supplies to the USSR.
• Stalin grew more suspicious over Western secrecy around the Atomic Bomb.

Question 5

The Yalta Conference (Feb 1945)

Answer 5

• Germany on the verge of being defeated → West/East ideological differences start to resurface
• Stalin, Churchill and Roosevelt met to discuss what to do about Germany, and the countries they controlled in Eastern Europe, after the Nazi’s defeat
• Agreed that Germany was to be divided into ZONES OF OCCUPATION: Each to be administered by one of the Big Three Allied powers until they were ready for independence
• Eastern Europe should be allowed to hold free elections
• “Allied Declaration on Liberated Europe” - committed the USSR to democracy in Eastern Europe – BUT Stalin was determined to create a large buffer zone against future German aggression
• The USSR agreed to join in the war against Japan after the war in Europe was over.