Post World War Two

UN attempts to bridge the gap between East and West hemispheres

WWII ends in Europe- May of 1945

Roosevelt dies in April 1945

August 1945- Japan defeated

The Cold War: The Stalin Years- 1945 to 1953

Early 1946 cold war is underway

Stalin dies in 1953 (had come to power in 1927)

Stalin’s policies shift after WWII

Soviet wartime domestic policy

More liberal during the war- total war

Nationalism- were being invaded, so even though ethnically

diverse, they banded together

Ukrainians HATED stalin- had purged a BUNCH of them, that’s

why they like Hitler at first. When learned the Hitler would be
worse, they turned back to Russians

Unity with gov and people

RELAXED DICTATORSHIP

Makes sense that this time would be more free than non-war
time- needed to rally the people. Totalitarianism always needs
an enemy- no longer had to be slavs, it was HITLER

MASSIVE soviet losses (put this info in a pie chart

US loses 418,500

Britain lost 450,000

France lost 562,000

USSR lost 23,200,000

Allied military was 27% of deaths, 15% was Axis military, 5%

was axis civilians, 50% was allied civilians

This was the good time

 Stalin wanted a buffer zone

Demanded satellite nations

Satellite nations: similar to a colony; technically

independent, but are actually puppet states

By 1944, Albania, Hungary, Romania were satellite nations of

Russia

By end of ’44, all had puppet communist govs

Hungary had free elections: Soviets lost, but Hungary had

a soviet police force, so the elections were fixed and the
soviets won.

1945- POLAND!!!

1939 non-aggresion pact with hitler gave stalin about half of

Poland

Roosevelt- agreed to vague interpretation of Stalin’s power in

Poland,

Truman took a harsher stance

1948- Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, finland, Yugoslavia,

Soviets were not completely unpopular, Communists took over

the police force in Chzecoslovakia

Finalnd and Yugoslavia

Finland manages to remain neutral

Sign a treaty of cooperation w/ soviet union,

retained neutrality in respect to foreign policy

Yugoslavia- Tito stands up to Stalin b/c the soviets did

NOT have the Red Army in Yugoslavia

Tito was Stalinist in Nature

Buy weapons from US and Soviet Union

Is a Middle Man during the Cold War

Was a repressive leader

Ethnic groups were silenced under Tito

 Becomes the site of greatest conflict since WWII-
genocide

US takes its position as a superpower

1945- Truman’s response

Cut off Aid to Soviet Union and Eastern Europe (which had been
mostly forced to become communist), includes most
countries in the Balkans

Refusal o recognize the new governments

US was afraid that Stalin was out for World Domination

STALIN WAS NOT OUT FOR world domination

Just wanted to protect Russia’s needs

Our perception was that he was trying to take over,

1946- Stalin gave a series of speeches

“capitalistic imperialism”

Said that US was trying to take over the world

“The war on fascism ends, the war on capitalism begins”

1946- Winston Churchill

No longer Prime minister of England

Spoke in the Us- about a new tyrant in Europe- gives a call

to action to the US.

Churchill afraid we were going to “bury our head in the

sand” again and ignore our responsibilities

“Iron curtain”- comes to dominate Cold War’s ideals

Called Stalin a tyrant, plays on US’s emotions, compared

Stalin to Hitler

UN DID NOT HAVE THE POWER TO OPEN THE IRON CURTAIN-

Security council had veto power

1947- US policy of containment

 Originally proposed by Americna embassador to soviet
Union, George Kennan

Sent the Long telegram- was 500 some words

Whole premise was to advise Truman to have a more

moderate policy

We COULD have taken out the Soviet Union if we had

wanted to- we had nuclear power, they didn’t

Whole point was that we didn’t have to BE aggressive to

Soviet Union, we just had to LOOK aggressive, that would
be enough to keep stalin in check

Truman doctrine- Us would try to prevent communism in

any NEW countries that asked for our help

Most helpful thing is to aid economy

Turkey and Greece were who we worried about

They had warm water ports, soviet Union needed

them BADLY

Received 450million dollars between the two of

them

We were also worried about our allies

1947 Marshall Plan approved by congress

Plan to rebuild Europe after WWII

Did not loan $, we GAVE it, we did not partition it,

we asked what Western Europe needed and that’s
what we gave them

We offered the Marshall plan to the Soviet Union,

on the condition that the Soviet Union started to
incorporate some element(s) of Capitalism

STALIN REFUSED FOR RUSSIA AND THE REST

OF EASTERN EUROPE

Marshall Plan WORKED

Western Europe becomes strong, stable

 Eastern Europe gets very week, Russia still
does well b/c they are taking everything from
Eastern Europe

Was harshest winter Western Europe had seen in a

VERY LONG time

Was a source of positive propaganda, US was seen

as the savior

1948- Occupation zones were meant to be temporary

Very different standards of living in Western and

Eastern Germany

Remember, West was getting Marshall plan

aid whereas East was not

Western Germany was created

Stalin comes to resent US prescence in Berlin

because it’s a little tiny capitalist outpost in the
middle of his buffer zone

1948- Berlin Blockade

Blockaded West Berlin

Technically speaking, a blockade is an act of war

Many people began to believe that US would go to

war against Soviet Union in Berlin

Berlin Airlift, combined effort of England, Fance,

and US

For a period of 11 months, a plane landed every

minute and a half in Western Berlin

Ends when stalin dropped the blockade

Soviets had been BRUTAL in Eastern Berlin

Stories of gang rapes

Operation Viddles

US soldiers came up with it themselves,

 Would create bags of candy and attach
parachutes to them and throw them out the
window for the kids

German Democratic republic- was not democratic, was

arguably a republic

UN was not able to get involved,

We formed NATO as a result

Worked on the premise of all for one and one

for all

Collective security

Said to stalin “mess with our allies, mess

with us”

“Unintentional cupid”- Stalin brought together the

western allies

1949- Soviets develop the Atomic bomb

-1952 we have the Hydrogen bomb- its 100 times more

powerful

Takes soviets 8 months to get this too

Implies they had spies and were catching up

to rest of world industrially

-1957- sputnik

If not for atomic power, Cold war would not have been
that big a deadl

1949- China

UN issue- won’t recognize communist China

Soviet Union Boycotts UN

1949- End of Korean Occupation

1950-1953 Korean War

Cross 38th parallel and invade south Korea, US thinks

Russia’s behind it (they weren’t)
 UN is called upon to defend South Korea, Russia’s not
there to veto

Limited war

MacArthur wanted to drop 50 atomic bombs and create a

radioactive belt

Becomes a stalemate- ends with a truce, not a peace

treaty,

North Koreans still think we are at war

Stalin at Home

Reverts back to old ways

Purges of 1945-1946

Purged the MILITARY

Purged his citizens

Forced Labor Camps

Strict censorship

Zilcho artistic liscence

Goes after the Jews, verbal attacks

Jews had been bankers and capitalist

Second set of 5 year plans

Industry, military

Ultimate downfall of both first and second five year plans was
collectivization

Middle class loses ALL private property

This system gets “exported” to satellite nations