TOPIC 4 Flashcards
Cominform and Comecon (Moscow)
September 1947: Stalin launched Cominform, the Communist Information Bureau
- The aim was to strengthen links between Communists in Romania, Bulgaria, Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia (and France and Italy)
- It would ensure unity and cooperation between the member parties by exchanging information
- It would also be the means by which the Kremlin would bring about uniformity under Stalin’s control
January 1949: the USSR created Comecon, its own economic bloc of countries
- It was a trading organisation of communist countries
- Countries within it were encouraged to specialise in certain areas and then sell their products to others in the group
- Cuba joined Comecon after Fidel Castro gained power
Orthodox: a way in which Stalin went on to develop the relationships in order to expand this idea and reassert his dominance. They became much stronger through these policies
Revisionist: Stalin wanted to tackle the Marshall Plan which excluded these Soviet states and allow them to develop
Post-revisionist: Stalin answered to the US with this
Post-post-revisionist: they developed a new approach and see it as an expansion of Stalin who desired more control and a tool to operate
Berlin Blockade and Airlift: 24th June 1948 - 12th May 1949
This event meant a direct confrontation between the USA and the USSR and there was a strong possibility of war
The US and GB had no wish to see ordinary Germans suffer after WW2 ended.
- The Americans brought in food to feed the people in their sectors of Germany and Berlin.
- GB introduced the rationing of bread inside its own country to feed the Germans as well.
- The French and Russians took reparations from their zones
January 1947: US and GB merged their sectors to create “Bizone” or “Bizonia”. Later France joined and the “Trizone” was formed.
- Marshall Aid was extended to these three three areas of Berlin and Germany
Stalin accused the Western allies of breaking the Yalta and Potsdam agreements which meant that the decisions for the future of Germany were supposed to be made unanimously through the Allied Control Council
20th March: the C-in-C of the Soviet zone in an ACC meeting in Berlin read a list of accusations against the Western powers and then left
1st April: Soviet troops stopped the regular American, British and French trains on their way to Berlin, pushed them into sidings and left them there for 12 hour
- This was the beginning of a campaign of harassment and delays to western traffic
November/December 1947: the Cold War had broken out
- The council of Foreign Ministers of the four former wartime allies met for the last time on the 5th of December – it ended in failure
20th June 1948: the Western allies decided to abandon the idea of reaching agreements with Stalin and the Soviet Union. They decided elections would be held in the Trizone to elect a constituent assembly
- This body would then prepare a constitution for a new West Germany, which would divide Germany politically
20th June 1948: the Western powers introduced a new currency into their sectors of Germany, because the old German mark was worthless
23rd June 1948: the Soviets introduced a new but different currency in their sector of Germany, which included the whole of Berlin
- The Western allies incorporated the new “Deutschmark” into their sectors of Berlin
- With a new currency and Marshall Aid: Western part of Berlin became a display of successful capitalism surrounded by a sea of communism
o This meant that citizens had to use two types of money, the western and eastern deutschmark
24th June 1948: the Soviet occupation forces halted all rail, road and water traffic between the three western zones of Berlin.
- Electricity supplies to Western Berlin from outside were cut off
- Stalin’s purpose was to get the Western allies to abandon
During the blockade, the USSR blocked access to the Western powers so that they could not use road, rail or water routes to get supplies to Berlin. The power stations in Berlin were also under Soviet control
- They limited how much electricity was available to the people in the zones held by the French, British and Americans
GB, France and the US didn’t anticipate this Soviet move
- 2 million people in the western sectors needed fuel, food and other goods
Stalin communicated that the blockade would be ended if the Western allies agreed to return to joint negotiations to decide the fate of Germany
General Clay, the American military commander, felt they should send tanks in and destroy the blockade – this would have led to war
25th June 1948: General Clay opted to fly supplies into Berlin in an airlift as a temporary measure. An agreement achieved in Potsdam gave the allies access to Berlin by designated air corridors
- British and American planes were used to fly 1,000 trips every day carrying everything that the Berliners needed
o There was a possibility that Stalin would shoot the planes down and trigger war
- The Western allies also stopped paying the USSR reparations from their sectors of Germany
The Berlin Airlift also changed the Western powers’ attitude towards the German, who they were now trying to save and no longer saw as their enemy
- They were forced to work together – Stalin didn’t intend this
12th May 1949: Stalin called off the blockade since it had failed
The Berlin Crisis = Cold War
- US and USSR confronted each other on an issue very important to both of them
- Came to the verge of war but didn’t get to it
Orthodox: this was a clear sign of Soviets acting in a hostile way.
Revisionist: the US was the one who broke the Potsdam and Yalta agreements
Post-revisionist: they took measure to abolish the peace they had possibly both acted in a guilty way and the other only responded to the first one
Post-post-revisionist: Stalin as only wanted to get his way out of the situation even if it meant it threatened peace
