USSR transformation of position

Question 1

Stalin’s prior aims

Answer 1

Before 1941, the Soviet union had not wanted to be a superpower; Stalin’s main ambition was for the Soviet Union to be left alone, allowing time for the transformation of the Soviet economy to be completed., by 1945 the armed forces of the USSR consisted of 7.5 million and had increased its territory, by absorbing the Baltic states and large areas of eastern Poland, the red army remained in control of countries such as Romania, Hungary and Poland.

Question 2

Grand Alliance

Answer 2

• 3 conferences tehran, yalta, potsdam
• In potsdam meeting it was clear that Britain were exhausted and bankrupt by the war, overshadowed by the other 2 superpowers.
• In potsdam, dispute regarding Polish elections that the USSR agreed to in yalta but never maintained, Truman flexes the atomic bomb beginning arms race

Question 3

Formation of a Soviet bloc

Answer 3

-As soon as the Red Army entered Poland, a provisional governemtn was set up in Lublin, dominated by pro-Moscow communists. Communist regimes also controlled Bulgaria and Romania. Eastern region of Germany became a Soviet zone of occupation and a group of Moscow-trained Communists gained political control by 1946. Pro soviet government able to gain power in Hungary in 1947 and Czechoslovakia in 1948, where it was suggested communists had even stooped to the murder of the pro-western minister Jan Masaryk

Question 4

Conflict with the US and the capitalist West

Answer 4

• soviet expansionism and the USSR’s demand for recognition of its right to have a safe ‘buffer zone’ against aggression in the future
• long telegram: urged US to take action to contain the spread of communism
• Winston Churchill Iron curtain speech
• Truman doctrine highlighting need for containment of communism
• Marshall aid rejected from USSR and buffer states
• Berlin blockade of 1948 to 1949
• formation of NATO 1949