Professional Documents
Culture Documents
The term used to define the tense relationship which developed between us & ussr from 1945 to
1949 and which ended with the dismantlement of the soviet union in 1991.
-human rights
-struggle for a better world based on collective security, political self determination & economic
integration
SELF-INT USA: -the need to establish markets & open doors to free trade
-president truman & most of the post war US administration's belief that what's good for
america is good for the world
-stalin's belief that what's good for the ussr is good for workers of the world
-The system imposed in a soviet union was called Stalinism and it represented Stalin's approach
to communism.
-Stalin used collectivization to take control of the russian territory by passing the land from the
ownership of peasant to ownership of state. This led to the death of millions of agricultural
workers.
-In politics, stalin began the purges of all political opponents as well as civilians, who were
executed or sent to the gulags. (slave labor camps)
Stalinism involved:
6)Military economic and political reasons why the us & ussr were superpowers
MILITARY: -to defeat germany, USA had become the nb one air-force power in the world
-to defeat germany, USSR had become the nb one land-force power in the world
-Fr & Br were inable to defeat germany, therefore became 'second rank' power
-USSR now lacked strong military neighbours therefore became the regional power
ECONOMIC: -USA's economy was strengthened by the war, it was now able to out-produce all
the other powers put together
-USA was committed to more 'open trade'. its politicians and bs ppl wanted to ensure liberal
trade and market competition flourished. the US was willing to play an active role in avoiding the
re-emergence of the disastrous pre-war pattern of trade-blocs and tariffs
-the small eastern european countries created after the 1ww were not economically viable on
their own and needed the support of a stronger neighbour. ussr replaced Gr in this role
POLITICAL: -for the west, the outcome of the 2ww showed that the ideals of democracy and
international collaboration had triumphed oveer fascism. -> the political system of the USA was
the right path for the future
-for the soviet union, it was communism that had triumphed over fascism. indeed, communism
had gained widespread resprect in europe bcs of its part in resisting germans
-ussr's huge losses, and the role of the red army in defeating the nazis, gave stalin a claim to
great influence in forming the post war world
-ussr had political strengthto prevent a return to instability in eastern europe. communism could
fill the political vacuum there
LIBERALISM= Liberals put their main emphasis on the freedom of the individual. economically
they believe in minimal interference by the state, and in foreign policy they promote the ideas of
free trade and co-operation.
->universal suffrage
->independent judiciary
->extreme nationalism
Mao believed:
->revolution could be achieve by the peasants, not necesarily by urban proletariat as marx
envisaged
->class conflict was not as important in revolution as using the human will to make and remake
revolution, hence his use of 'mass movement'
8)Karl Marx's theory of revolution and the stages through which a society must pass
10)What led to the creation of the grand alliance and why did it breakdown?
TEHRAN:
YALTA:
-agreement on the UN
-the big three signing a declaration for liberated europe pledging their support for democratic
gov. it based on free elections in all european countries, including eastern eu
POTSDAM:
-establishment of the UN
13)Why did the big three agree at yalta and disagree at potsdam?
->President Roosevelt died in april 1945 and was replaced by truman, who was to adopt a more
hardline, or get tough, policy towards the soviets
->winston churchill's conservative party lost the 1945 UK general election and churchill was
succeeded as prime minister by the labour party leader, clement atlee
->as the war in europe ended, the soviet red army occupied territory as far west as deep inside
germany
->on the very day after the potsdam conference began, 17 july 1945, the united states
succesfully tested its first atomic bomb
Def= Elimination of the opposition in which an opponent's strength are systematically sliced
away. 'slicing off salami, piece by piece'
->Stage 1: soviets supervised the organization of governments in the eastern european states,
initially establishing a broad alliance of anti-fascists
->Stage 2: each of the parties was sliced off, one after the other
->Stage 3: the communist core was left, and then ultimately the local communists were replaced
with moscow trained ppl
-at tehran conf, it was agreed that br & soviets withdraw troops from iran after the war
-uk did, but stalin left 30,000 troops in north, claiming they were needed to help put down
internal rebellion
-soviet troops encourafed a communist uprising, iran complained to ussr's former allies and br &
usa demanded stalin to remove the troops
-first he refused. he believed that he has as much right to black sea straits and to iranian oil as br
& usa
-4 days later, truman wrote to his secretary of state, james byrnes, sayig that he thought the ussr
was planning an invasion of turkey and the black sea straits. he also said that unless russia is
faced with an iron fist and strong language, war is coming.
-in march, UN had its first crisis to deal with; iran. iran made a formal protest that soviet forces
were still there. under the new pressure, moscow finally pulled its troops out
After ww2, there were anti-imperialist, nationalist and pro communist rebellions in greece and
turkey. The british, and usa, believed that these rebellions were being directed and supported by
the soviets. churchill was annoyed at stalin's apparent disregard for their 'percentages
agreement'
18)Communists in italy & france
Communist parties in both italy and france grew stronger in post-war europe. their membership
increased due to economic deprivations and hardships at the end of the war. USA & br were
suspicious that these new comm parties were receiving encouragement from moscow. there was
concern that italy and france could be weak links in anti communist western eu.
Main ideas:
-the soviets wanted to advance Muscovite Stalinist ideology (not simply marxism)
-the soviet regime was cruel and repressive and justified this by perceiving nothing but evil in the
outside world. that view of a hostile outside environment would sustain the internal stalinist
system
-the ussr was fanatically hostile to the west- but they were not suicidal
IMPORTANCE:
Kennan's logic of force argument helped to harden attitudes in the usa and was to play a key role
in the development of the us policy of containment
20)Iron curtain speech (def, basIs of the speech, soviet reaction & importance)
->In 1946, churchill held the speech in US where he announced the existance of an iron curtain
in europe
->The term iron curtain was used to describe the separation betw the capitalist states of europe
and the soviet dominated communist states of europe
BASIS:
-By 1946, the soviet union that influenced the elections in the countries under their sphere of
influence, not respecting not promise to organize free elections
-Churchill was also bothered by the presence of the red army in the countries liberated from
germany one year after the war
SOVIET REACTION: