Brief history of U.S.S.R & Cold War

2011Russia Resurgence Unit

Group discussions

• When did Cold War start? List 2 early events in Europe that led to Cold War.

• List two other major Cold War conflicts that the U.S. was directly involved?

• When did détente start between the U.S. & the Soviets?

• What event in Asia marked an end to détente?

Stalin’s U.S.S.R

• V. Lenin’s ideas of communism are distorted under Joseph Stalin regime 1922-1953.

• Stalin sets up a totalitarian system government based on communist economy.

• General Secretary of Communist Party

WWII - Uncle Joe are ally!

• During WWII, after Hitler invades Russia (breaking Nazi-Soviet non-aggression pact), Russia is allies with U.S. & Britain

• Russian, Red Army, captures Berlin to win WWII in Europe.

• Russians are hero’s of WWII.

• FDR, Stalin & Churchill

End of WWII, Stalin becomes an enemy!

• Germany was divided between allied power; Berlin was also divided- Stalin tries to take all of Berlin- Berlin Airlift

• Stalin breaks the Yalta Treaty and occupies Eastern European countries at end of WWII.

• Stalin seen as a threat!!• Europe divided: Western Europe is “free

democracies” establish NATO, Eastern Europe “communist & controlled” establish Warsaw Pact

Europe is divided during Cold War

What was life like in Soviet Union?

• Isolated to the west; Eastern European countries are also isolated.

• Barbed wire surround the empire;• Winston Churchill calls a division between

Eastern & Western Europe- the Iron Curtain!• Collectivized farms, state ownership of all

property

Propaganda by 1946Joe the Butcher

• Stalin stay’s in Eastern European countries establishes communist “satellite nations”-aggression

• Stalin killed over 20 million of his own people to stay in power!

Kolyma- most notorious region of Gulag Prison camps

Soviets acquire nuclear weapons!

• U.S. increased U.S. military presence in Western Europe

• 1955- 431,000 U.S. troops in Europe

• Over half of our military budget was for defending Europe

• Arms Race begins-400 Nukes ready by 1953

U.S. Response to nuclear Soviet Union under Stalin!

• Air raid drills, bomb shelters in U.S.• Life Magazine runs articles on: “How to

survive a nuclear attack.”• Films, The Day After, nuclear attack in U.S.• A communist killed John F. Kennedy!• Propaganda helps keep America in crisis, fear

makes us irrational!• McCarthy Trials- Fear of communism!

Communist Propaganda

McCarthy Trials & Red Scare

Propaganda in America

Duck & cover drills Bomb Shelters

Was the Soviet Union really a threat!

• Both the U.S. and U.S.S.R had enough bombs to destroy the world many times over!

• The Soviet threat was weak, destroying America would not have benefited the Soviets.

• More of a threat in Europe. Fear against communism in U.S. helps to fund defense budget.

U.S.- Soviet Détente

• Arms race close to nuclear war in Oct. 1962- Cuban Missile Crisis.

• J. F. Kennedy imposed a naval blockade and made a secret deal with the Soviets.

• Vietnam and fight against communism!• By end of 1960’s, U.S. citizens reconsidered our

commitment to fighting communism.• 1972- Nixon visits China and Soviet Union. Salt

agreements- limits nuclear weapons.

Collapse of détente

• 1976- Soviets aim new generation of nuclear missiles towards W. Europe.

• 1979-Soviets invaded Afghanistan.

President Reagan call Soviets “Evil Empire”

What was life like in the Soviet Union?

• A workers paradise, everyone had a job• Equality- only about 3% of population were

elites, but the average Soviet was told that communist leaders lived like the rest of the Soviets!

• Soviet citizens knew nothing about America; isolated from the world

• Ultimately shortages of goods and services, bread lines etc (near collapse of U.S.S.R)

Living Under Soviet Communism

Advantages • Free Healthcare• Jobs for life• Free Education• Housing was

provided• Security

Disadvantages• Lack of Information• No Religion• Government control

of most aspects of life

Collapse of Soviet Union 1989

• If guaranteed a job, nobody is inspired to work• Corruption in system• Emphasis on military and defense spending over

consumer goods- bread lines and food shortages• Soviet Afghan War- economically drains “satellite

nations” country• Supporting “satellite nations” drains economy• Hatred among different nationalities (ethnicities)

in empire.

Mikhail Gorbachev reforms leads to collapse of U.S.S.R

• Glasnost literally openness- “opening to the press”• Whole periods of recorded Soviet history were changed

by glasnost. Stalin, Brezhnev and Cherenko previously great leaders were unmasked as the brutal oppressive murders they really were. Only Lenin remained sacrosanct.

• As the truth came out piece by piece the Soviet people became more and more angry at their Communist rulers.

• Glasnost allowed for the first time the facts to be presented!

Failed Reforms did not help U.S.S.R

• The Soviet economy had been in a period of stagnation for two decades and was in desperate need of reform.

• Gorbachev choose to adjust the old system with a period of perestroika or restructuring in the hope of making it more efficient.

• The reforms while on the right track were not comprehensive enough to overcome the sluggishness in the Soviet economy.

Fall of the Berlin Wall 1989

Commonwealth of Independent States

• 1990, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union agreed to give up its monopoly of power.

• Over the next several weeks, the 15 constituent republics of the USSR held their first competitive elections.

Independence in former U.S.S.R.

• 1989- Communist regimes brought down in Poland, Hungary, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, and Romania

• 1990- West & East Germany reunified after 45 years of division.

• 1990- Lithuania declares independence• 1991- Belarus & Ukraine announced formation

of Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS)