Origins of the Cold War 1917-45 Flashcards
What form of government does capitalism work well with?
2 details why
Parliamentary democracy
With freedom of speech and civil liberties
What was the socialist economy used by the Soviets known as?
A command economy - centrally planned by the government, top down approach
What did Marxist-Leninists believe determines reality, as opposed to..?
Economic/ material factors
NOT religion
Name the three ‘enemies’ of Marxism-Leninism
- Capitalism
- Liberal Democracy
- Religion
(& Fascism)
How did the future visions of Woodrow Wilson and Lenin diametrically oppose each other?
- Wilson: free, democratic world with free trade and cooperation between nations
- Lenin: World Communist revolution
What were the Riga Axioms?
Calls for US gov. by US ambassadors/nobility to prevent spread of communism
What pre-WW2 event created lasting Soviet distrust for the West?
The backing of the ‘Whites’ in the Russian Civil War from 1919-20 by the West
What event in 1920 determined Soviet foreign policy and aims for post-war Europe settlements?
Poland defeating Russia in a war and extending their border into Russia past the Curzon Line
What might have suggested to the West that Soviet foreign policy was focused on aggressive expansion/ world revolution?
The Comintern encouraging Communist groups in other countries and supporting subversive activities
How and why did US-Soviet links improve in the 1930s?
The Great Depression hit America, and many disillusioned business men and workers saw the great industrialisation of Russia as an opportunity
When did President Roosevelt acknowledge the existence of the USSR for the first time?
1933
What caused a reversal in the sympathetic feeling towards the Soviets from the Americans in the early 1930s?
Stalin’s purges 1934-38
Many Americans forced to leave
What made Stalin start to take a more active role in the West in the 1930s?
Hitler came to power - fascist government swore Communist Russia as enemy and committed to a future invasion
How did Stlain start to take a more active role in the West during the 1930s?
- 1934 - Joined the League of Nations
- 1935 - Signed a pact with France and Czechoslovakia
- 1936 - Intervened in the Spanish Civil War to assist the Republican government against the Nationalists
What did Stalin hope to gain from signing a pact with France and Czechoslovakia in 1935?
Was this achieved?
Hoped it would lead to close military cooperation against Germany
French suspicions of Soviet Communism prevented this
What was Stalin’s view of Britain and France’s appeasement of Hitler’s demands for part of Czechoslovakia in the 1938 Munich Agreement?
Feared they were setting up the Nazis to destroy Communism, especially as he was not invited to attend the conference
Why did Stalin sign the Nazi-Soviet Pact in August 1939?
To buy himself time to get ready to fight Hitler
What did the Nazi-Soviet Pact allow to happen?
The Nazi invasion of Poland in September and WW2
How did Stalin benefit from the Nazi invasion of Poland?
Took back the land they had lost from Poland in 1920, as agreed on with the Nazis
By 1941, where areas other than Poland did the USSR expand into?
- The Baltic states
- Parts of Finland
What triggered the USSR being brought into WW2?
The Nazi invasion of June 1941
What triggered the US’s entry into WW2?
The attack by Japan on Pearl Harbour in December 1941
What were the USSR’s aims for the war?
- The complete defeat of Germany
- An area of direct Soviet control in Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, and Soviet occupied Germany
- An ‘intermediate zone’ of nations with Communist-friendly governments such as Austria, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia
What did democracy mean for Marxist-Leninists?
- Economic equality
- Where there were no extreme class-divides
What did democracy mean to the Western European states and the USA?
- The liberty of the individual
- Equality before the law
- Freedom of speech
- A parliament elected by the people to whom the government is ultimately responsible
What were the USA’s aims for the war?
What were many of these reminiscent of?
- Global free trade
- A United Nations
- Security in the seas against attacks like Pearl Harbour
Wilsonianism
What were Britain’s aims for the war?
- To retain its empire
- Be on friendly terms with the USA and USSR
- To prevent the advance of Communism towards the Suez Canal and the Middle East
Why did Britain want to prevent the advance of Communism towards the Suez Canal and the Middle East?
Because Communism would most likely damage British economic interests there
When was the Atlantic Charter signed?
1943
What was the Atlantic Charter?
Why might it have looked suspiciously like the West ganging up together?
Committed Britain and America to
- The complete defeat of Germany
- The setting up of a democratic order
Stalin and the USSR were not present
When was the Tehran Conference?
Novermber - December 1943
What happened at the Tehran Conference?
Plans drawn up that:
- Allowed the USSR to invade eastern and south-eastern Europe alone and create a sphere of influence there
- British, French, Commonwealth and US troops would invade from France <span>(O</span><span>peration Overlord)</span>
What event and consequent actions by Britain and the US gave Stalin an excuse to exclude the Western allies from Eastern Europe?
When?
Britain and the USA rejected the USSR’s requests to be involved in the organisation of the first signing of an armistice with an Axis power, Italy
1943
How did the delay of the Normandy landings to 1944 feed Stalin’s paranoia?
Suspicious that it was an attempt to weaken the Soviet Union which had been fighting longer
What were ACCs (Allied Control Commissions)?
The occupying forces’ means of setting up order in annexed states
How did US and British ACCs differ to the USSRs’?
- Western ACCs: generally allowed new governments to form
- USSR ACCs: used them to enhance Communism
What controversial event happened in 1944 in Poland?
Why?
The Red Army did not come to the aid of the Polish National Front in the Warsaw Uprising, allowing the rebels to be crushed
Would make it easier for the USSR to take control once Germany defeated
Which Eastern European states fell quickly to Communism?
- Romania
- Bulgaria
- Yugoslavia
- Hungary
Which Eastern European states’ Communist parties were made to cooperate with other democratic groups, forming coalition governments?
Why did the Soviets do this?
- Czechoslovakia
- Hungary
To keep the Allies onside
What trouble did Tito initially cause Stalin?
Established Communist governments in Yugoslavia and Albania on the eve of the Yalta Conference 1945
The governments of which Western-liberated countries set up links with the USSR?
Why?
France and Italy
The Communists had been intrumental in fighting the German occupation, and Stalin was careful to pursue friendly policies in this countries i.e. setting up coalition governments with other left-wing parties
When was the Yalta Confernce?
4 - 11th February 1945
Name the 3 things ‘agreed’ upon at the Yalta conference
- Polish borders
- Need for reparations (USSR)
- Democratic elections across Europe - ‘Declaration on Liberated Europe’
What was the problem with the Yalta Conference agreements?
They were vague (e.g. didn’t define ‘free democracy’) and thus easy for Stalin to manipulate to a Communist agenda
Which American President came to power in April 1945 and how did this change things?
Truman
He was more hostile towards Communism
Who replced Churchill in 1945?
How did this change things?
Clement Atlee
Stalin had gotten on well with Churchill, negotiations became harder without him
What was the mood of the Potsdam Agreement?
Give specific examples
Bad tempered
US: accusing Stalin of not sticking to democratic element of Yalta Agreement and expanding into Eastern Europe
The Potsdam Agreement was a ____ not a ____
What impact did this have?
The Potsdam Agreement was a protocol not a treaty
Weakened the agreements as meant they were not legally binding
What was agreed at Potsdam?
- Germany to be divided into 4 zones
- Germany to be ruled by four High Commissioners from each power
- Reparations should be taken, and USSR to get 25% from other occupied zones as they had been most damaged
- Set up a Council of Ministers to deal with treaties for other defeated powers like Italy
How many casualities were suffered in WWII by:
- USSR
- USA
USSR:
- 11 million soldiers (killed and missing)
- 7 million and 20 million civilians
USA:
- Only 400,000 soldiers
- No civilians
What was not properly decided on at Potsam?
What was the general agreement?
- The question of Polish borders
Accepted that the Soviets were in control and there was little the West could do
- How much control the ACC would have on the whole of Germany
How did Truman try to threaten Stalin a Potsdam?
Result and explain why
- Alluded to a ‘new weapon’ (atomic bomb)
- Stalin already knew about the A-Bomb thanks to his spy network in the US
- This only fed into his suspicion towards the West
- Only served to make Truman less likely to get his demands
What was the Soviet response to the Americans dropping the A-Bomb on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945?
- Made them determined to make one of its own
- Added to Stalin’s distrust of the West
What were the main factors that caused the Cold War?
Long-Trm Ideological Problems
Wartime Disagreements
Personalities
Post War Problems
What evidence is there that personalities contributed to the beginning of the Cold War?
Churchill + Stalin - Percentages agreement
Roosevelt + Stalin - bugging
Churchill loses election 1945
Truman - Missouri Mule Driver
Stalin - Paranoid!
