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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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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