The Great Patriotic War

Question 1

What was Stalin’s ambition before 1941

What changed it

Answer 1

The Soviet Union didn’t want to be a superpower and Stalin’s main ambition was to be left alone, allowing time for the transformation of the Soviet economy to be completed

However during the war, a vast new military industrial war machine was built up

Question 2

What had happened by may 1945

Answer 2

The armed forces of the USSR consisted of 7.5 million well equipped troops and the USSR had increased its territory by absorbing Baltic states and large areas of eastern Poland

Question 3

By may 1945 what had the red army remained in control of

Answer 3

Remained in control of the nation states in east Central Europe it had liberated

Eg Romania, Hungary and Poland

And it had occupied eastern Germany including Berlin

Question 4

What had happened due to other powers in the world

Answer 4

The European great powers had all been seriously weakened by the war

Alongside the other American superpower, the USSR was poised to dominate the post war world

Question 5

How was the rise of the Soviet superpower reflected

Answer 5

In the diplomacy of the grand alliance between the USSR, Britain and the US

Question 6

Once it was clear by the Summer of 1943 that the war would eventually be won, what series of wartime summits took place

Answer 6

Tehran November 1943

Churchill met Stalin in Moscow in October 1944

The big three met at Yalta in February 1945

The three allies met at Potsdam in July 1945

Question 7

What was clear by Potsdam in July 1945

Answer 7

That Britain, exhausted and bankrupted by the war, was an empire in decline and would be overshadowed by the two superpowers

Question 8

What did the US reveal in 1945

Answer 8

That it had developed an atomic bomb- used to end the war against Japan

This places the ussr at an obvious disadvantage in the power stakes and Stalin places Beria in charge of accelerating the development of a soviet atomic bomb

Beria committed huge resources to the project and the first successful test was in august 1949

Question 9

What finally confirmed the Soviet unions super power status

Answer 9

Possession of nuclear weapons

This status was remembered in the United Nations, formed in 1945 in the hope it would be more effective than the League of Nations had proved after 1919.

The USSR was one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council

Question 10

The outcome of WW2 resulted in soviet military domination of eastern and Central Europe. What did this lead to

Answer 10

The formation of a soviet bloc

The territory of the USSR was extended and in the neighbouring national states, the USSR used its military presence and its political influence over local communist parties to encourage the formation of governments that were friendly to the Soviet Union

Question 11

In 1948 what were most of the countries where there was USSR military presence called

Answer 11

Most became satellite states closely linked to the USSR

This creates a zone of buffer states which Stalin hoped would protect the USSR against future invasion from the west

Question 12

What are satellite states

Answer 12

Countries that retained their national identity but had pro soviet governments (sometimes called puppet states)

Question 13

What aim was also applied in 1944 when the red army was ordered to halt its advance to allow time for the Warsaw uprising to be crushed by the nazis

Answer 13

The same aim as used in the Katyn Forest Massacre in 1940 where 22,000 polish army officers were killed by the NKVD to eliminate polish nationalist elements who might oppose communism

Question 14

What and when was the Warsaw uprising

Answer 14

1944

As the advancing red army approached Warsaw, fighters in the AK ( home army) launched an uprising to liberate the city from Germans occupation and to support the nationalist polish underground state

But the soviet forces halted their advance east of the Vistula and did nothing to assist the AK

Over 63 days the uprising was crushed

Warsaw was razed to the ground

Question 15

What was established in several states

Poland? Yugoslavia? Bulgaria? Romania? Eastern Germany?

Answer 15

‘Friendly’ communist regimes were quickly established in several states

From the 1930s exiled communist party groups from European countries had been trained in Moscow ready to infiltrate post war governments after liberation

As soon as the red army entered Poland, a provisional government was set up in Lubin, dominated by pro Moscow communists

In Yugoslavia communist partisans led by Josip Tito gained control of the post war government and Titos regime was expected to be an important part of the soviet bloc

Communist regimes also control Bulgaria and Romania

The eastern region of Germany became a soviet zone of occupation and a group of Moscow trained communists gained political control by 1946

Question 16

How did extending the soviet bloc in east Central Europe take longer than in the likes of Poland, Yugoslavia, Romania ect

Answer 16

In countries where democratic national governments were elected, communist parties were instructed by Moscow to join with non communists, especially socialists and bourgeoisie liberals in order to gain a political foothold that could be slowly built upon.

These salami tactics enabled pro soviet governments to gain power in Hungary in 1947 and Czechoslovakia in 1948 where it was suggested that the communists had even stooped to the murder of the pro western minister, Jan Masaryk

Question 17

What did the creeping expansion of the soviet sphere of influence cause

Answer 17

Caused growing diplomatic tensions and fears of open conflict between the USSR and capitalist west.

Question 18

What were salami tactics

Answer 18

The subverting of bourgeoise parties to gain power from within by small incremental steps.

Sometimes this was quiet infiltration of trade unions, journalism and local government

Sometimes it was targeting individuals by harassment or violence

Question 19

What did the allies agree at Tehran in 1943

Answer 19

Agreed to demand unconditional surrender from Germany, not because Britain and the US thought it was a good idea ( they didn’t) but to prevent any of them making a separate peace with Hitler

Question 20

Why was Stalin critical of his western allies

Answer 20

There were ideological differences and Stalin was critical of his western skies not opening a second front in the European war to relieve the pressure on the red army.

Question 21

What was the meeting between Churchill and Stalin in Moscow 1944 plagued by

Answer 21

Disagreements over the future of Poland

Question 22

What was the yalta conference in 1945 dominated by

Answer 22

Conflicting ideas about the post war borders of Germany and Poland

Question 23

What had the Potsdam conference in 1945 ended with

Answer 23

No final peace agreement

Differences that had been powered over or just delayed at yalta became more urgent

Question 24

What was clear by 1945

Answer 24

It was clear that the USSR was asserting political control over the counties it had liberated.

Stalin was also now the ‘senior partner’ of three allies: Roosevelt had died in April and been replaced as US president by Truman; Churchill had lost lower after the Labour Party won a landslide victory in Britain’s general election.

Question 25

Between 1946 and 1949 conflict between the soviet bloc and the capitalist west turned into what

Answer 25

Cold War confrontation

Question 26

Attempts at diplomatic cooperation between 1946 and 1949 broke down in growing mutual suspicions and hostility over which series of disagreements

Answer 26

• soviet expansionism and the USSR’s demand for recognition of its right to have a safe buffer zone against aggression in the future
• the long telegram: a report sent to Washington from Moscow by the American diplomat George Kennan in February 1946, Urdu ong the US to take action to contain the spread of communism in Europe
• Churchill’s speech at Fulton, Missouri in 1946 warning of the existence of an Iron Curtain dividing
• the announcement of the Truman doctrine in 1947 committing the US to a policy of containment
• the Marshall plan for US aid for European economic recovery and the hostile soviet response to the plan
• the Berlin blockage of 1948 to 1949, hardening the division of Germans
• the formation of the NATO in 1949. The establishment of this Atlantic alliance for the defence of Europe was seen by the USSR as a hostile act. By this time the Cold War was fully formed

Question 27

What is containment

Answer 27

The Truman doctrine in 1947 asserted the need to contain the spread of soviet communist influence

Question 28

What was the Iron Curtain

Answer 28

Winston Churchill’s speech at Fulton in 1946, warning of the extent of soviet power and influence in east Central Europe, used this term to give his earnings maximum dramatic impact

Question 29

What was the long telegram

Answer 29

The us fear of soviet expansionism was exaggerated by a telegram sent to Washington from Moscow in February 1946 by the American diplomat George Keenan, urging the us to take action to contain the spread of communism in Europe

Keenan was a long serving American expert on soviet affairs who had been sent to Moscow after the war

Question 30

What was containment and the Marshall plan

Answer 30

By early 1947 Western Europe was in crisis, with fears of complete economic collapse and of political instability, especially in Italy and France where communist parties were very strong and in Greece wheee there was a civil war

In March 1947 the Truman doctrine asserted the new US policy of containment and rolling back of communism

In June 1947 the US put forward the Marshall plan: a massive injunction of aid to rebuild Europe

The plan was supposedly a generous offer of assistance open to all European countries, east as well as west

Question 31

What did Stalin believe about the Marshall plan

Answer 31

That it was fundamentally hostile to soviet interests, part of a drive towards the economic and political dominance

He expressed particular fears that the US would rebuild the industrial economy of western Germany leading to a resurgence of German power

Soviet bloc countries were pressured to reject Marshall aid

In February 1948, gottwald, leader of the communists in Czechoslovakia, took full control of the government

The west regarded the events in Czechoslovakia as a communist coup backed by the USSR.

For Stalin and the Czech communists it was victorious February, the legitimate success of anti fascist politics

The timing of the coup in Czechoslovakia intensified splits between east and west over the Marshall plan

Question 32

Explain the Berlin blockade and hardening Cold War divisions

Answer 32

The communist take over in Czechoslovakia set the context for the Berlin crisis of 1948

There was clear separation between the soviet zone and the British American French zones in the west. But Berlin was an ‘island’ within the soviet zone and Stalin had always seen Berlin as a single city where soviet interests ought to be paramount.

He was frustrated by the way soviet control of Berlin had slipped since in 1945 and was especially alarmed by the introduction of a separate currency in the western zones in June 1948.

The next day Stalin launched the Berlin blockade, cutting off all road and rail links between Berlin and the west

Question 33

What did Stalin think about the Berlin blockade

Answer 33

He believes it was a trump card. He calculated that the western powers were not willing to risk war. The economic squeeze on West Berlin would force the US into settling the Berlin question on soviet terms. But Stalin’s plan was defeated by the Berlin airlift, coordinated by the us military governor, general Lucius clay.

Question 34

What was the Berlin airlift

Answer 34

A massive operation by allied aircraft

Flew essential supplies into West Berlin throughout the winder of 1948-9

Clay had calculated thag Stalin wouldn’t risk war by shooting allied planes out of the sky.

The population of West Berlin resisted soviet inducements and pressure

After 318 days Stalin called off the blockade in may 1949

Question 35

What did the end of the Berlin blockade in 1949 confirm

Answer 35

The division of Germany and of Berlin

This was the year that the Cold War became fully formed: NATO against soviet aggression

The first successful test of the soviet atomic bomb was announced

In China the long civil war ended with the victory of the Chinese communist revolution.

This caused shock and dismay in the US and hardened anti communist attitudes

Stalin met the Chinese leader, Mao Zedong in Moscow to agree a treaty of alliance.

Conflict between the USSR and its allies against the US and capitalist West had become the established norm; not quite war, not quite peace. It remained that war until 1989

Question 36

What was Stalin like by early 1953

Answer 36

Increasingly unpredictable and menacing, seemingly ready to force through another wave of repression and terror

The backlash against the doctors plot was in full flow.

Since the 1952 party congress, it had been clear that he was planning a purge of the ‘old guard’ with Molotov and mikoyan especially vulnerable but also mounting pressures against Beria.

This atmosphere of fear was the context for the climatic political events arising from the circumstances of Stalin’s death on 5 March

Question 37

Why did the death of Stalin not provide a near ending to high Stalinism

Answer 37

Stalin hadn’t nominated any successor and had deliberately made it difficult for any potential contenders for the leadership.

His death led to a tense power struggle from which Nikita Khrushchev was eventually to emerge as the new soviet leader

Question 38

Why was Stalin’s legacy problematic

Answer 38

The production of consumer goods had been underfunded and agriculture was failing to keep pace with industrial development.

There was also the issue of relations with the west and the violence and repression within the USSR

Change would be all the more difficult given the cult which decreed that all Stalin had done was so perfect it could not possibly need changing

Question 39

What was Stalin’s legacy like in Europe and the world

Answer 39

Abroad Stalin’s legacy included Cold War tensions, a dangerous nuclear arms race and pressure for reform in the satellite states in the soviet bloc

Communist Yugoslavia had already broken with Stalin in 1948: after the 1956 secret speech, unrest spread to east Germany, Poland and Hungary where reform of the communist spilled over into violent revolution in the 1956 Budapest rising.

Stalin’s statue was symbolically demolished; the USSR had to impose massive military force to restore control