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Cold War > Origins of the Cold War to 1945 > Flashcards

Origins of the Cold War to 1945 Flashcards

1
Q

What is the basis of Communism?

A

Marxism

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2
Q

Describe the step-by-step beliefs of Marxist-Lenninists

A
  1. The bourgeoisie who owned industry would be overthrown by the proletariat in revolution
  2. There would be a dictatorship of the proletariat
  3. This would ‘wither away’ and so would class boundaries
  4. A perfect and equal society would emerge with no greed, hatred, etc.
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3
Q

Briefly define capitalism

A

Where the production of goods are based on making a profit

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4
Q

What do capitalists believe?

A

That people should earn what they deserve based on hard work

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5
Q

What form of government does capitalism work well with?

2 details why

A

Parliamentary democracy

With freedom of speech and civil liberties

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6
Q

When did the Bolsheviks seize power?

A

October 1917

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7
Q

What was the socialist economy used by the Soviets known as?

A

A command economy - centrally planned by the government, top down approach

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8
Q

What did Marxist-Leninists believe determines reality, as opposed to..?

A

Economic/ material factors

NOT religion (‘opium of the masses’)

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9
Q

Why does Marxism-Leninism perceive capitalism to be immoral?

A

As it exploits labour

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10
Q

Name the three ‘enemies’ of Marxism-Leninism

A
  1. Capitalism
  2. Liberal Democracy
  3. Religion

(& Fascism)

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11
Q

What do capitalists believe in?

A

Private ownership of land and business

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12
Q

How did the future visions of Woodrow Wilson and Lenin diametrically oppose each other?

A
  • Wilson: free, democratic world with free trade and cooperation between nations
  • Lenin: World Communist revolution
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13
Q

What was the reaction of the US officials who had been working with the Tsars to the Bolshevik revolution?

Why?

A

Horrified - fled to Riga in Latvia

Because they saw the brutal treatment of the Tsars by theBolsheviks - those were people they knew

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14
Q

Who did the US officials who fled to Riga become known as?

How were they significant?

A

The Riga Axioms

They heavily influenced US policy towards the Soviets, and their personal bias against them meant policy was focused on stopping Soviet expansionism

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15
Q

What pre-WW2 event created lasting Soviet distrust for the West?

A

The backing of the Tsarist ‘Whites’ against the Communist ‘Reds’ in the Russian Civil War from 1919-20 by the US, Britain, and France (and Japan until the end in 1922)

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16
Q

What event in 1920 determined Soviet foreign policy and aims for post-war Europe settlements?

A

Poland defeating Russia in a war and extending their border into Russia past the Curzon Line

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17
Q

Was Soviet foreign policy from 1944 onwards predominantly focused on security or world revolution?

A

Security

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18
Q

What might have suggested to the West that Soviet foreign policy was focused on aggressive expansion/ world revolution?

A

The Comintern encouraging Communist groups in other countries and supporting subversive activities

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19
Q

How and why did US-Soviet links improve in the 1930s?

A

The Great Depression hit America, and many disillusioned business men and workers saw the great industrialisation of Russia as an opportunity, and links were made

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20
Q

When did President Roosevelt acknowledge the existence of the USSR for the first time?

A

1933

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21
Q

What caused a reversal in the sympathetic feeling towards the Soviets from the Americans in the early 1930s?

A

Stalin’s purges 1934-38

Many Americans forced to leave, horrified

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22
Q

What made Stalin start to take a more active role in the West in the 1930s?

A

Hitler came to power - fascist government swore Communist Russia as enemy and committed to a future invasion

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23
Q

How did Stlain start to take a more active role in the West during the 1930s?

(3)

A
  1. 1934 - Joined the League of Nations
  2. 1935 - Signed a pact with France and Czechoslovakia
  3. 1936 - Intervened in the Spanish Civil War to assist the Republican government against the Nationalists
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24
Q

What did Stalin hope to gain from signing a pact with France and Czechoslovakia in 1935?

Was this achieved and why?

A

Hoped it would lead to close military cooperation against Germany

French suspicions of Soviet Communism prevented this

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25
Q

What was Stalin’s view of Britain and France’s appeasement of Hitler’s demands for part of Czechoslovakia in the 1938 Munich Agreement?

A

Feared they were setting up the Nazis to destroy Communism, especially as he was not invited to attend the conference

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26
Q

Why did Stalin sign the Nazi-Soviet Pact in August 1939?

A

To buy himself time to get ready to fight Hitler

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27
Q

How did the rest of the world view the Nazi-Soviet Pact?

A

Shocked

28
Q

What did the Nazi-Soviet Pact allow to happen?

A

The Nazi invasion of Poland in September and WW2

29
Q

How did Stalin benefit from the Nazi invasion of Poland?

A

Agreed with Nazis that they would take back the land they had lost from Poland in 1920, as well as:

  • Finland
  • The Baltics
  • Besserabia
30
Q

By 1941, where else other than Poland did the USSR expand into?

(2)

A
  1. The Baltic states
  2. Parts of Finland
31
Q

What triggered the USSR being brought into WW2?

A

The Nazi invasion of June 1941

32
Q

What triggered the US’s entry into WW2?

A

The attack by Japan on Pearl Harbour in December 1941

33
Q

Who was the ‘Grand Alliance’?

A
  1. Britain
  2. USSR
  3. USA
34
Q

Who were the Axis powers?

(3)

A
  1. Germany
  2. Italy
  3. Japan
35
Q

What were the USSR’s aims for the war?

(3)

A
  1. The complete defeat of Germany
  2. An area of direct Soviet control in Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, and Soviet occupied Germany
  3. An ‘intermediate zone’ of nations with Communist-friendly governments such as Austria, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia
36
Q

What did democracy mean for Marxist-Leninists?

(2)

A
  1. Economic equality
  2. Where there were no extreme class-divides
37
Q

What did democracy mean to the Western European states and the USA?

(4)

A
  1. The liberty of the individual
  2. Equality before the law
  3. Freedom of speech
  4. A parliament elected by the people to whom the government is ultimately responsible
38
Q

What were the USA’s aims for the war?

(3)

What were many of these reminiscent of?

A
  1. Global free trade
  2. A United Nations
  3. Security in the seas against attacks like Pearl Harbour

Wilsonianism

39
Q

What were Britain’s aims for the war?

(3)

A
  1. To retain its empire
  2. Be on friendly terms with the USA and USSR
  3. To prevent the advance of Communism towards the Suez Canal and the Middle East
40
Q

Why did Britain want to prevent the advance of Communism towards the Suez Canal and the Middle East?

A

Because Communism would most likely damage British economic interests there

41
Q

When was the Atlantic Charter signed?

A

1941

42
Q

What was the Atlantic Charter?

(2 agreements)

Why might it have looked suspiciously like the West ganging up together?

A

Committed Britain and America to

  1. The complete defeat of Germany
  2. The setting up of a democratic order

Stalin and the USSR were not present

43
Q

When was the Tehran Conference?

A

Novermber - December 1943

44
Q

What happened at the Tehran Conference?

(2)

A

Plans drawn up that:

  1. Allowed the USSR to invade eastern and south-eastern Europe alone and create a sphere of influence there
  2. British, French, Commonwealth and US troops would invade from the Frence <span>(O</span><span>peration Overlord)</span>
45
Q

What event and consequent actions by Britain and the US gave Stalin an excuse to exclude the Western allies from Eastern Europe?

When?

A

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

46
Q

How did the delay of the Normandy landings to 1944 feed Stalin’s paranoia?

A

Suspicious that it was an attempt to weaken the Soviet Union which had been fighting longer

47
Q

What were ACCs (Allied Control Commissions)?

A

The occupying forces’ means of setting up order in annexed states

48
Q

How did US and British ACCs differ to the USSRs’?

A
  • Western ACCs: generally allowed new governments to form
  • USSR ACCs: used them to enhance Communism
49
Q

What controversial event happened in 1944 in Poland?

Why?

A

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

50
Q

What was the response from the West to the lack of Soviet intervention in the Warsaw Uprising?

A

Disgust

51
Q

Which Eastern European states fell quickly to Communism?

(5)

A
  1. Romania
  2. Bulgaria
  3. Yugoslavia
  4. Austria
  5. Hungary
52
Q

Which Eastern European states’ Communist parties were made to cooperate with other democratic groups, forming coalition governments?

Why did the Soviets do this?

A
  1. Czechoslovakia
  2. Hungary

To keep the Allies onside

53
Q

Who did Stalin have trouble controlling?

A

The Yugoslavian leader Tito

54
Q

What trouble did Tito initially cause Stalin?

A

Established Communist governments inYugoslavia and Albania on the eve of the Yalta Conference 1945

55
Q

The governments of which Western-liberated countries set up links with the USSR?

Why?

A

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

56
Q

When was the Yalta Confernce?

A

4 - 11th February 1945

57
Q

Name the 3 things ‘agreed’ upon at the Yalta conference

A
  1. Polish borders
  2. Need for reparations (USSR)
  3. Democratic elections across Europe - ‘Declaration on Liberated Europe’
58
Q

What was the problem with the Yalta Conference agreements?

A

They were vague (e.g. didn’t define ‘free democracy’) and thus easy for Stalin to manipulate to a Communist agenda

59
Q

Which American President came to power in April 1945 and how did this change things?

A

Truman

He was more hostile towards Communism

60
Q

Who replced Churchill in 1945?

How did this change things?

A

Clement Atlee

Stalin had gotten on well with Churchill, so naturally negotiations became harder without him

61
Q

What was the mood of the Potsdam Agreement?

Give specific examples

A

Bad tempered

US: accusing Stalin of not sticking to democratic element of Yalta Agreement and expanding into Eastern Europe

62
Q

The Potsdam Agreement was a ____ not a ____

What impact did this have?

A

The Potsdam Agreement was a protocol not a treaty

Weakened the agreements as meant they were not legally binding

63
Q

What was agreed at Potsdam?

A
  1. Germany to be divided into 4 zones <span>(French, US, British, USSR)</span>
  2. Germany to be ruled by four High Commissioners from each power
  3. Reparations should be taken, and USSR to get 25% from other occupied zones as they had been most damaged
  4. Set up a Council of Ministers to deal with treaties for other defeated powres like Italy
64
Q

How many casualities were suffered in WWII by:

  1. USSR
  2. USA
A

USSR:

  • 27 million
  • 66% civilians

USA:

  • Only 400,000 soldiers
  • No civilians
65
Q

What was not properly decided on at Potsam?

(2)

What was the general agreement?

A
  1. The question of Polish borders

Accepted that the Soviets were in control and there was little the West could do

  1. How much control the ACC would have on the whole of Germany
66
Q

How did Truman try to threaten Stalin a Potsdam?

Result and explain why

A

Alluded to a ‘new weapon’ (atomic bomb)

Stalin a) already knew about the A-Bomb thanks to his spy network in the US and b) this only fed into his suspicion towards the West

Only served to make Truman less likely to get his demands

67
Q

What was the Soviet response to the Americans dropping the A-Bomb on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945?

(2)

A
  1. Made them determined to make one of its own
  2. Added to Stalin’s distrust of the West

Cold War (26 decks)

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