History

• The USA and the USSR were the two major world super powers
• Relations between them rapidly went downhill
• The USA and the USSR became very competitive
• They each wanted to be the strongest and felt threat from one another
• There was an arms race to have the most powerful weapons
• Germany surrendered in May 1945, but the war against Japan Continued
• In August 1945,the USA dropped two atom bombs on Japan, destroying the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
• Between 1945 and 1948, Stalin installed pro-soviet puppet governments in Poland, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Czechoslovakia
• Freedom of speech was suppressed
• Non communist parties were banned and communist parties were controlled by the cominform to consist soley of Russian-style communities.
• Comecon set up in 1949 worked to nationalise the states industries and collectivise agriculture 

• Increasing tensions between the USA and the USSR became known as the 'Cold War'
• It was called the 'Cold War' because there wasn't any direct fighting
• Instead both sides tried to gain the upper hand with alliances and plans
• They were afraid of another war
• Countries in Western Europe tended to support the USA
• Most countries in Eastern Europe were dominated by the USSR

• The USA didn't want the whole world to go communist and were worried about the spread of communism
• Two ways that Truman tried to stop the spread of communism:
• The Marshall Plan
  - Aid was promised to European countries to rebuiled economies
  The Truman Doctrine
  -The USA would support any nation threatened by communist takeover
  
  
• Soviet opposed moves of USA and Britain combining their zones
• Stalin wanted to keep Germany weak, so he decided to blockade Berlin
• Berlin was in East Germany, which was controlled by the USSR so Stalin ordered that all land communication between west berlin and the outside world should be cut off
• Two new states were formed: East and West Germany.
• Western powers formed NATO against the communist threat
• The eastern block formed a Warsaw pact in 1955 - a military treaty designed to prevent NATO 

• Regular protests in Poland
• They didn't try to get rid of the government or challenge the soviet union
• They simply wanted to improve standards of living
• The workers were keenly aware that it would only survive if they could statisfy the Poles
• The membership of solidarity reached its peak at 9.4 million in January 1981, more than 1/3 of all workers in Poland
• Goverment gave into solidarity in 1980
• The union was the strongest in those industries that were the most important to the government: Ship building and heavy indutry. A general strike in these industries would have devestated Poland's economy. 
• In the early stages the union was not seen by its members as an alternative to the communist party: more than one million members (30%) of the communist party joined Solidarity.
• Lech Walesa was very careful: in his negotiations with the government. Behind the scenes he worked with the communist leader to avoid provoking a dispute that may then involve the Soviet Union. 

• 20,000 Hungarians were killed or wounded
• Nagy was arrested and later shot
• Kadar became Prime Minister and ensured loyalty towards USSR
• Western countries didn't come to Hungary's aid
• When Khrushchev first came to power he seemed less harsh than Stalin
• The response to the Hungarian Rising showed that he could be tough

• In 1949, Stalin ended the Berlin Blockade
• Two new states were formed: West Germany and East Germany

  West Germany
  German Federal Republic 

  East Germany
  Communist: German Democratic Republic 

• Signed in June 1919
• Agreement dealt with Germany
• Germany lost a lot of land (especially Alsace and Lorraine)
• Germany wasn't allowed to have troops in the Rhineland as it was close enough to invade France and Belgium from so it was demilitarised
• New countries set up and some contained many different nationalities within their borders
• They were potentially unstable
• Not only did they lose land, they have to take blame for the war 'the war-guilt clause' 
• Reduced armed force numbers and vehicles
• Forced to pay a sum of money in reparations
• Areas around the world that previously belonged to Germany were now called mandates 
• These mandates were run by the league of nations
• The league of nations was set up to keep world peace 

• After world war two the communists quickly gained control of Eastern Europe
• The situations in many of the countries helped the communists
• The soviet leader Stalin helped the communist parties in them to win power through cominform he made these countries follow the same policies as the Soviet Union
  - they became one party states
  - the communist party was the only legal party
  - secret police arrested the communist opponents
  - there was a need to restore law and order
  - provided a good excuse to station soviet troops in each country
  - the goverment followed economic policies of the soviet union to rebuild them
  - they took over all industry
• Workers and farmers were told what to produce through comecon
• Stalin ensured the countries of Eastern Europe traded with the USSR
• He promised aid to countries that co-operated
• He threatened to use the armed forces to crush opposition. 

Soviet Dominated Governments: 

• East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Bulgaria

Com(munist)inform(ation) - COMINFORM
- co ordinates the various communist governments
-runs meetings and sends out instructions to communist governments about what the soviet union wanted them to do

Com(munist)econ(omic assistance)  
- co ordinates the industries and trade of the eastern european countries
- members of comecon traded mostly with one another rather than trading with the west
- comecon favoured the USSR
- set up a bank for socialist countries in 1964 

Some people said the treaty was fair

• the war had caused so much death and damage
• Germany had to be made weaker to reduce threat of war again
• People in France and Britain wanted revenge 

Others said the treaty was too harsh

• The Germans were left weak and resentful, could this lead to more war?
• Politicians listened to them so they could stay in power
• Many of the newer countries were poor
• Germany couldn't afford the reparation
• The peacemakers faced problems and pressure from people at home

• When Stalin died in 1953, Nikiti Khrushchev emerged by 1955
• He seemed very different from Stalin
• He ended long feuds
• He talked of peaceful existence with the west
• He made plans to reduce expenditure on arms
• He wanted to improve living conditions 
• He closed down Cominform
• He released thousands of political prisoners

• Openly spoke negatively of Stalin and undid his actions in a programme
• Invited Tito to Moscow and dismissed Stalin's former foreign minister Molotov
• Denounced him as a wicked tyrant who was an enemy of people and kept all the power to himself