KT1 - The origins of the Cold War 1941-58

Question 1

What is a Cold War?

Answer 1

A Cold War is a war that does not consist of any kind of fighting

Question 2

What were the 5 main features of the Cold War?

Answer 2

1) Spying : Both sides spied on each other to find out military developments. They used spy planes that flew at a great height to take photographs without the risk of being shot down. Eg. American U2 spy plane. Flew heigh enough so that they could not get shot down by soviet fighters. (increased rivalry)

2) Propaganda : Both sides used propaganda to paint the worst picture of one another to ensure that the national publics opinion was in favour of the ruling government. Eg. Moscow Olympics (1980) was used to illustrate the superiority of the communist system

3) Arms Race: This was a competition for conventional weapons as well as nuclear weapons. Each side wanted to have bigger better and more weapons than the opposition. An example of this is by the 1960s both sides had enough weapons to destroy one another completely. This was called Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD)

4) Space race: Each side competed to be the first one to launch a satellite, the first people in space and then finally the first man on the moon.

5) Loans and aid: Each side competed to supply aid to LIC’s who had been destroyed by Nazi Germany during WW2. This allowed for extra support in the Cold War for the superpowers

Question 3

Who were the superpowers?

Answer 3

USA & Soviet Union

Question 4

What were the ideological differences (name 2) between the superpower rivalry?

Answer 4

1) When the Bolshevik Revolution happened in 1917, led by Lenin, seized power of the provisional government they set up a communist regime/government who believed in world revolution (spreading communism and overthrowing capitalism) Countries such as Britain , France and the USA feared the spread of communism

2) They intervened in the Russian Civil War 1918-21 giving the opposing team (The Whites) supplies to overthrow Lenin and the communists. This led to Lenin being suspicious of the West

Question 5

What year was the Grand Alliance formed?

Answer 5

1941

Question 6

What was the Grand Alliance?

Answer 6

The Soviet Union allied with Britain and the USA during WW2

(Stalin was forced into this arrangement by the German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941)

Question 7

Why were there strains in Alliance during WW2?

Answer 7

Stalin was annoyed that Britain and the US had delayed opening a second front (They did so only in 1944 on D-Day landings) Stalin was convinced that they wanted the Soviets to be deeply damaged by the German invaders

Churchill was against the Bolshevik Revolution but as a secretary of state for war he was in support of the Russian Civil War (1918-21) He was suspicious of the Russians and was convinced the Soviet Troops stayed in countries they had liberated from the Germans.

Britain had gone to war in September 1939 to maintain independence of Poland following the German invasion on September 1st 1939. However Stalin disagreed with their actions due to his thinking of the fact that Soviet control of Poland was essential for prevention of future invasions

Churchill became even more suspicious when a mass grave was found in Katyn Forest near Smolensk (April 1943) containing a the bodies of 10,000 Polish Officers who had been murdered by the Soviets in 1939.

Finally, in August 1944 Polish resistance was organised for an uprising in the city of Warsaw against German forces occupying the city. The soviets had reached the outskirts of the city but holted its advances and stood by the uprising as it was brutally crushed by the Germans. This allowed for the Poles to be defenceless against Soviet occupation

Question 8

What year and days was the Tehran Conference?

Answer 8

November 28 and December 1, 1943.

Question 9

What were the aims of the Tehran Conference?

Answer 9

1) Improve relations between the superpowers

2) To come up with a plan to end war and stop the Axis Powers

Question 10

What happened during the conference?

Answer 10

During the Conference, the three leaders coordinated their military strategy against Germany and Japan and made a number of important decisions concerning the post World War II era. The most notable achievements of the Conference focused on the next phases of the war against the Axis powers in Europe and Asia.

Stalin got mostly what he wanted due to Roosevelt being ill and siding with Stalin for most of the meeting. Eg. Churchills idea to have an allied invasion through the Balkans which would have prevented the Red Army from taking over East Europe was closed down by the 2.

The main agreements were:

• Britain and the US were to open a second front by invading France in May 1944
• The Soviet Union was to wage war against Japan once the Germans were defeated
• The UN (United Nations) organisation was to be set up after the war
• An area of eastern Poland was to be given to the Soviets along the Oder and Neisse rivers where the borders would be (this was under insistence of Stalin)

Question 11

What year was the Yalta Conference

Answer 11

Feb 1945

Question 12

What were the aims of the Yalta Conference?

Answer 12

The aim of the conference was to shape a postwar peace that represented not only a collective security order, but also a plan to give self-determination to the liberated peoples of Europe.

Question 13

What did happen and what was agreed at the Yalta Conference?

Answer 13

1) This was Roosevelts last meeting and Churchill had lost the general election. Stalin wanted Germany to pay huge reparations but the other superpowers disagreed and did not want to punish Germany too harshly as they wanted no chance of another war

What was agreed:

1) The Soviet Union would enter war against the Japanese once Germany surrendered

2) Germany was to be divided into 4 zones: US, Britain, Soviet and French

3) Berlin also separated into 4

4) To hunt down Nazi war criminals in an international court of Justice

5) To allow liberated countries to have freedom in voting for their new government

6) To join a new United Nations Organisation in order to maintain peace until war had ended

7) That eastern Europe would have a soviet ‘sphere of influence’

Question 14

What did ‘sphere of influence’ mean for the soviets?

Answer 14

Region in the world in which one state is dominated. Meaning the soviets had control of these parts.

Question 15

What disagreements happened at Yalta?

Answer 15

• How much money Germany was to pay (Soviets wanted them to pay lots the others didnt)
• Disagreements over Poland as Stalin wanted closer borders than the western allies and he wanted to Polish government to be friendly so that Russia would have protection from Germany. The western superpowers feared that this would become a soviet-controlled government so they persuaded Stalin to allow for free elections in Poland

Question 16

When was the Potsdam Conference?

Answer 16

July 1945

Question 17

What were the changes that took place in the 5 months between the Yalta & Potsdam conferences?

Answer 17

1) Soviet troops liberated countries in eastern Europe but did not remove their military presence. By July they had occupied Latvia, Lithuania , Estonia, Finland, Czech, Hungary Bulgaria and Romania

2) Stalin had set up a communist government in Poland ignoring the wishes of the Polish (even though he had agreed for free elections at Yalta) He ignored the protests of Britain and the US and ‘insisted’ his presence in eastern Europe was defence for future invasions.

3) Stalin refused to cut down the sheet size of the Red Army after the war and there was demilitarisation (removing all armed forces) in the west.

4) In April 1945 Roosevelt died and Truman took over (Vice president of Roosevelt) and he had a different mindset. He distrusted Stalin and was convinced that he wanted to take over eastern Europe and wanted to stand up to the Soviet leader

5) On the 16th of July 1945 the American Atomic bomb was successfully tested. The soviets were furious

6) Halfway through the election Churchill was defeated in the election and was replaced with Clement Attlee

Question 18

Agreements made in Potsdam

Answer 18

1) Splitting of Berlin and Germany and the Soviets were to have the east and the rest were to be in the west

2) Germany was demilitarised

3) Democracy was to be re-established in Germany including free elections, free press and freedom of speech

4) Germany was to pay reparations via equipment and materials to the allies. Most of this was to go to the soviets and most of the world struggled

5) Nazi party was banned and all Nazi members were banned from positions in the government and to be put on trial at Nuremberg in 1946

6) Full participation in the UN

7) Poland borders to be moved more to the West to the rivers of the Oder and Neisse

Question 19

Disagreements at Potsdam

Answer 19

The leaders could not reach an agreement on what to do with Germany. 20 mil russians died in war and Stalin wanted compensation for that which would have permanently cripple Germany. Truman refused. He did not want a repeat that took place after the Treaty of Versailles when it was signed in 1919

Free elections were promised but Stalin refused creating weakened relationships between the superpowers

Question 20

What were the figures of the percentage deal presented to Stalin by Churchill in 1954?

Answer 20

Romania - USSR 90% others 10%
Greece - Britain 90% USSR 10%
Yugoslavia - 50/50
Hungary - 50/50
Bulgaria - USSR 75% Others 25%

It was agreed by Stalin

Question 21

What were the Long and Novikov telegrams?

Answer 21

George Keenan, Deputy Chief of Mission at the US Embassy in Moscow, sent a telegram in 1946 to Truman stating his worries about Soviet expansion into eastern Europe which greatly influenced Trumans policies in the cold war especially in containment. (Long telegram)

September 1946 the Soviets retaliated by the Novikov telegram which was sent by Nikolai Novikov who was the Soviet in the US to Stalin which changed his attitudes towards the US worsening the relationship.