world history definitions

Question 1

Teheran conference

Answer 1

1943.
Stalin – Churchill – Roosevelt
discussed 4 issues:
-The issue of the Second Front
– The borders of Poland
– The war against Japan
– The dismemberment of Germany

Question 2

Yalta conference

Answer 2

feb 1945 (Stalin, Churchill, Roosevelt)
• The post-war occupation of Germany
– The first step to the dismemberment of Germany
– Berlin to be divided into four occupation zones
• New borders for Poland
– The Curzon line
– Oder-Neisse line

Question 3

Potsdam conference

Answer 3

july 1945 (Churchill, Stalin, Truman…until Atlee replaced Churchill)

• It confirmed the conclusions of the Yalta conference
• Austria: allied control zones

Question 4

Sovietization of East-Central Europe

Answer 4

-communist dictatorship under a one-party system
-A cult of personality around the omnipotent leader of that party.
-Centralization of the political and economic systems – -forced industrialization
- Grassroots initiatives and organizations were banned in favour of social organizations run from above, with the sole purpose of serving the system.
-Communist and labour-movement festivals were celebrated at mass events.
-secret police
-It became compulsory to adjust all kinds of scientific and scholarly work to the tenets
of communism.

Question 5

Changes after the death of Stalin, 1953

Answer 5

• Kruschev is a bit lighter (better relation with Yugoslavia, slight liberalization of the arts, amnesty)
• uprising in East Germany (against the soviets, raised quotas for production)
• Imre Nagy became prime minister in Hungary

Question 6

Warsaw Pact

Answer 6

• collective defense treaty between Soviet Union and its satellite states
• motivated by Soviet desires to maintain control over military forces in Central and Eastern Europe

Question 7

Suez Crisis

Answer 7

1956

• Egyptian president nationalized the Suez Canal.
• The canal had been owned by the Suez Canal Company, which was controlled by French and British interests.
• France, Britain, and Israel attack Egypt

Question 8

Cominform

Answer 8

1947-1956 (Communist Information Bureau)
• A Soviet-dominated organization of Communist parties
• intended purpose= to coordinate actions between Communist parties under Soviet direction.

Question 9

Comecon

Answer 9

Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (1949)
-Stalin’s goals: to cooperate and strengthen the international socialist relationship at an
economic level.
-The states of Central Europe were increasingly cut off from their traditional markets and suppliers in the rest of Europe.

Question 10

Austrian State Treaty

Answer 10

1955 - re-established Austria as a sovereign state

Question 11

Khrushchev’s secret speech

Answer 11

1956
Khrushchev denounces Stalin
– describes him as a brutal despot.
– A regime of “suspicion, fear, and terror” was built up
– He said he wanted to break the “Stalin cult”.
– He described the purges during the period of 1936-38.
– revealed that many members of the Central
Committee were shot on Stalin’s orders.

Question 12

Gorbachev’s reforms in the USSR: Glasnost and Perestroika

Answer 12

glasnost (means “openness”. it’s policy reform)

-Perestroika allowed more independent actions from various ministries and introduced some market-like reforms