Transcript Stalin and the Cold war

Stalin and the Cold war
The ‘Big Three’
• Stalin met with Winston Churchill and
Franklin Roosevelt at Tehran in 1943, to
discuss the war.
• Stalin demanded that the USSR should
have an influence over Eastern Europe
after the war: this made Churchill and
Roosevelt rather nervous
End of World War Two
• Victory over Hitler was almost certain in
1944, so the ‘Big Three’ met again, at
Yalta.
• They decided that the German capital of
Berlin should be divided into four zones,
administered by USSR, USA, Britain and
France
• The Red Army reached Berlin two weeks
before the British and American forces.
• Germany officially surrendered on 30 April
1945
• Stalin became more determined to create
a buffer zone between the USSR and
capitalist countries
Another 5 year plan!
• Stalin set new targets for the production of
oil, coal, electricity, iron and steel. He told
the Russian people they needed to be
prepared to resist attack the capitalist
countries.
• By 1948, industrial production had
recovered to pre-war levels
Eastern Europe
• Communist governments were set up in
East Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia,
Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria
• Industralisation and collectivisation were
put into place in these countries, to make
sure they produced goods that were
needed in the Soviet Union
The Iron Curtain
• There was a fear that Communist rule
might spread beyond Eastern Europe.
The intense grip Stalin held on this area
was known as ‘The Iron Curtain’
Restrictions in the USSR became even
harder:
1. Foreign visitors were refused entry into
the USSR, and Soviet Citizens were not
allowed out
2. Cultural and Sporting exchanges
ended
3. The frequencies of foreign radio
stations were jammed
4. Soviet scholars were forbidden to
use Western work in their studies
5. All important inventions were claimed
to be Russian!!!
The Berlin Blockade
• West Berlin had become a ‘capitalist
island’ in a Soviet held territory
• In 1948, Stalin blocked all the roads and
rail links with the west, hoping to starve
the people of West Berlin into submission
• For nearly a year, the USA flew in all food
and supplies
• The Cold war had started….
Nuclear Weapons
• When Truman ordered the Atom Bomb to
be dropped on Hiroshima, it prevented
Stalin from having any post-war influence
in Japan.
• It also signaled the strength of America:
they had the ultimate weapon so the world
better watch out
• Within four years, The USSR had
developed their own Atom Bomb: officially
beginning the nuclear arms race
The Domino Theory
• Stalin encouraged communist movements
in Malaya, Indochina, India and Indonesia,
but he didn’t know how to react to the
Communist Government in China
• Stalin was worried that China might be a
future rival to the USSR
• Stalin appeared to put on a united front
with Chinese leader, Mao Zedong
The Korean War
• In 1950, Communist North Korea invaded
South Korea.
• The United Nations voted to drive the
communists out
• Stalin didn’t get a chance to use his power
of veto at the UN council meeting, as the
Soviet Union refused to attend in protest to
the west’s refusal to recognise Communist
China
Stalin dies!
• On 5 March 1953, Joseph Stalin died of a
stroke.
• His body was placed next to Lenin’s, in the
Mausoleum in the Red Square.
• Hundreds of thousands of people filed
past his body.
• In 1961, Stalin’s body was removed from
the Mausoleum. It was cremated and the
ashes were buried in the Kremlin wall.
• The simple inscription on the gravestone
says:
J V Stalin 1879-1953