Origins of the Cold War: Longer Term Origins of the Cold War

Question 1

History of Communism: Industrial Revolution

Answer 1

• Late 18th and early 19th century - the Industrial Revolution spread across Europe and America
• Developments in technology and business led to new methods of industrial manufacture e.g steam powered machines
• New era of capitalism - improved many people’s standard of living and widened the range of consumer goods
• Liberalism - new economic changes, new social and political order led to democratic ideas of individual rights and freedom

Question 2

History of Communism: Demographic Changes

Answer 2

• The mass of the poor working population lived in overcrowded unsanitary cities
• Millions lived in slums and had poor health
• In factories, the work was long, dangerous and poorly paid

Question 3

History of Communism: Karl Marx

Answer 3

• Mid 19th century - political activists studied new system and protested against it
• Karl Marx was one of the most influential figures in the movement
• Marx worked in London and analysed the workings of capitalism
• Marx developed ideas that suggested that capitalism should be destroyed and be replaced by a fairer system: communism
• In 1917, the Russian Revolution began and was inspired by Marxist ideas
• The new USSR was set about spreading communism and destroying capitalism

Question 4

Russian Revolution

Answer 4

• During WWI the Russians grew war-weary - army was made of working class and peasants, and they were poorly trained and equipped; food shortages; political opposition to Tsar Nicholas II
• Russian Revolution, October 1917 - Lenin and the Bolshevik Party came to power and ended the war by signing a peace treaty with Germany, ‘The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk’

Question 5

WWI & Russian Civil War

Answer 5

• USA and Russia were allies during WWI until Russia made a separate peace with Germany
• Russian Civil War, 1918 - White Army were fighting against the Bolsheviks and the new communist state (USSR)
• Western nations sent troops and aid to White Army
• Bolsheviks defeated the White Army, but Lenin was unhappy that the west interfered

Question 6

Beginning of WWII

Answer 6

• 23 August 1939 - Hitler and Stalin signed the ‘Nazi-Soviet Pact’
• Promised to not go to war with each other
• Secretly promised to invade Poland and split it between them
• 22 June 1941 - Hitler invades the Soviet Union