Origins of the Cold War; Ideological problems Flashcards
Define capitalism
An economic system which promotes democracy, free markets and private enterprise; creation of wealth.
People earn what they ‘deserve’ by working
Define Communism
An economic system which promotes state ownership, dictatorship of the proletariat, shared wealth; creation of equality
People get what they deserve
What does Marxism state?
Marxism states that the proletariat will overthrow the bourgeoisie who own industry in revolution and form a dictatorship of the proletariat before all class boundaries would disappear and form a perfect equal society
What is the Proletariat?
Working Class
What is the Bourgeoisie?
Middle class
Why did the Russian Bolsheviks dislike the West in the early 1920s
The West fought alongside the White in the Russian Civil War to try and remove communism.
This confirms Stalin’s later paranoia
How did the Riga Axioms antagonise West-Russia ties
Post revolution, US officials who worked with the Tsar fled to Riga (Latvia) and denounce Communism - US policy is then anti-Communist
How did the US & USSR clash on world hopes?
The US wants an open door market across all nations which is alien to Lenin / Stalin.
Lenin endorse the Marxist theory that only one of capitalism or communism can survive (founding of Comintern in 1919 for world wide communism)
What does the US refuse to recognise until 1933?
The US refuses to recognise the USSR until Roosevelt comes into power
Is Britain anti-communist?
Basically;
There is a fear about communists in Trade Unions.
Churchill was; urged ‘kill the
Bolshie. Kiss the Hun’
British labour clashes with Russian Bolsheviks
Do relationships between the US & USSR improve at any points and why?
During the Great Depression American workers go to the USSR and companies set up links (booming industrially)
In 1933 Roosevelt formally recognises the USSR as part of the changed US foreign policy
Why did the USSR isolate itself in the early 1920s
The USSR isolate themselves to focus on economy, the civil war left chaos and a famine kills thousands
Why did the US isolate themselves in the early 1920s?
US was in golden twenties & didn’t want foreign ‘entanglement’
What events damage US-USSR ties?
The Moscow Show Trials
Purges
What happened in the Moscow Show Trials
Old Bolshevik party leaders & Soviet Officials are tried for capitalist conspiracies to undermine the USSR.
This reveals the USSR as a police state and the Americans are horrified
