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Chapter 3: The Cold War Era§2: The Eastern and Western Blocks
The main causes of distrust between east and west since the founding of the Soviet Union:
● In 1918, the Western Allies had sent troops to Russia to bring down the communist
government.
● The Soviet Union had set up the comintern in 1919 with the aim of promoting communist
revolution throughout the world. The western governments were afraid of a communist
revolution.
● In 1939, Stalin and Hitler signed a non-aggressive pact, after which they went to occupy
Poland. These events caused the west to distrust the Soviet Union even more.
The causes for the growing distrust between east and west after World War II:
● Creation of hostile spheres of influence → The Big Three assumed that the countries
which had conquered territory from the Germans or the Japanese, should have the
greatest influence on what happened in these areas.This led to the creation of spheres of
influence. The west wanted to restore democracy in all of the liberated countries. In the
territories liberated or conquered by the Soviet Union, Stalin used the Soviet Army to help
the communist parties gain power.
● Disagreement of the future of Germany → east and west pursued their own separate
policies in their own zones of occupation. Before long, Germany was divided into the
pro-western Federal Republic and the pro-Soviet GDR.
● Civil war in Greece led to the Truman Doctrine → in Greece, the government waged war
against the communist-led opposition. It was then that the US decided to resist every
communist attack of uprising.
● Marshall plan sparks Stalin’s fury → the Marshall plan centered on the US giving financial
aid to the countries of Europe so that they could rebuild their economies. Stalin argued
that the plan was an attempt to make Europe economically and politically dependent on
the US. He prohibited the Eastern European countries under his control from accepting
the plan.
● Communism spreads through Asia → communist governments came to power in
North-Korea and China. The US supported the nationalists in China (later Taiwan)
against the communists.
● The difference between a people’s democracy and a western democracy→ in the view of
Eastern European communist governments, democracy for all was only possible under
the leadership of the communist party. In their people’s democracies, the prescription of
Marxism-Leninism was more important than human rights. It was strictly forbidden to
criticize the communsit party leaders. Western democracy operates on the principle that
all political parties have the same rights and that human rights apply to all citizens.
The iron curtain was the division between east and west.
Two important treaties with the people’s democracies:
● Comecon → economic cooperation (1949).
● Warsaw Pact → military cooperation (1955).
The Soviet UNion sent armed forces to restore order:
● During and uprising in East-Berlin (1953).
● Hungarian uprising (1956).
● The reforms in Czechoslovakia (1968).
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