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AQA A level History Depth Study Notes - Russia: International Relations 1945-53 & The Death of Stalin CA$6.48   Add to cart

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AQA A level History Depth Study Notes - Russia: International Relations 1945-53 & The Death of Stalin

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Great, detailed notes on international relations in the final years of Stalin's reign and his death. Notes include: - The Transformation Of The Soviet Union’s International Position - Formation of a Soviet Bloc - The Breakdown of East-West Relations - Death of Stalin - Problems for Stalin'...

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  • March 16, 2022
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The Transformation Of The Soviet Union’s International Position

1941 – the USSR had been unprepared for war and in danger of being overrun by the German
invasion. By 1945, Stalin presided over a victorious superpower.

Victory in the GPW enabled Stalin to establish a sphere of influence in East Central Europe, but
Soviet expansion led to a breakdown in relations with the West and the onset of the Cold War.

KEY CHRONOLOGY

1944-45 – Advance by the Red Army into East Central Europe

1945 – Summit conferences at Yalta and Potsdam

1947 – US Marshall Plan and ‘Truman Doctrine’

1948 – Communist coup in Czechoslovakia

Start of the Berlin Blockade

1949 - End of the Berlin Blockade

Successful test of the Soviet atom bomb

1953 - Death of Stalin




THE EMERGENCE OF A ‘SUPERPOWER’
By the end of the GPW, the USSR had emerged as a global power. Its status as the world’s only other
superpower (as rival to USA) was confirmed when, in 1949, it successfully tested an atomic bomb.

What made the USSR a superpower?

 Military-industrial war machine
o 7.5 million well-equipped soldiers
 Increased territory
o By the end of the war, the USSR controlled the Baltic States and eastern Poland
 Atomic power
o The USSR had developed an atomic bomb by August 1949
 Satellite States
o Between 1945 and 1948, the Soviet Union consolidated its dominance over East
Germany and the states of East Central Europe
 UN permanent member
o The USSR was one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council
o It was also a member of the conferences at the end of the war
 Potsdam
 Yalta

, FORMATION OF A SOVIET BLOC
 By 1948, most of the Eastern European countries had either been adsorbed into the USSR or
turned into satellite states, governed by parties closely linked to the USSR
 In some cases, this involved ‘salami tactics’, in which communist parties joined with socialists
and liberals to gain power, but then isolated and eliminated their rivals ‘slice by slice’
 Stalin hoped that this buffer zone of satellite state would help to protect the USSR from a
future invasion by the West




CONFLICT WITH THE USA AND THE CAPITALIST WEST
The wartime summit conferences reflected the latent disagreements between the USA, Great Britain
and the USSR:

 Tehran 1943 – the Allies agreed to demand unconditional surrender from Germany
o There were ideological differences, and Stalin was very critical of his Western allies
not opening a ‘Second Front’ in the European war, to relieve the pressure on the
Red Army
 The meeting between Stalin and Churchill in Moscow, late in 1944, was plagued by
disagreements over the future of Poland
o Stalin gained control of 90% of Romania
 Yalta, Feb 1945 – was dominated by conflicting ideas about the post-war borders of
Germany and Poland
 Potsdam, July-August 1945 – ended with no final peace agreement
o Differences that had been papered over, or just delayed, at Yalta became more
urgent
o By this time, it was clear how the USSR was asserting political control over the
countries it had liberated


THE BREAKDOWN OF EAST-WEST RELATIONS

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