In what ways were Soviet policies responsible for the outbreak and development of the Cold War between 1945 and 1949? Megan Kedzlie 15/11/2013

For both the United States with her allies, and Russia with its satellite states, it’s difficult to understand the rift between West and East that decided politics for the latter half of the twentieth century without understanding the power struggle that spanned the Cold War era. The separation of Communist beliefs and Capitalist ideals caused a societal and political anxiety that would decide the relations between those areas for years to come. The actions of the Soviet Union and its communist allies led the world on a political goose chase, desperate to continue their ideal industrial growth without the influence of the bourgeoisies they despised. The policies and actions of both superpowers in all events leading into the Cold War affected its development, neither being singularly responsible for the tensions.

Even before the Second World War, tensions were brewing on the Soviet side of the conflict. Stalin and his Red Army saw it as crucial to enter a pact with the new Nazi regime to help secure their safety in the upcoming battles. Even with agreements during the aftermath of the Paris Peace Conference, the Soviet Union leaned towards the new German empire being drawn by Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Party, and signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact in order to secure the border between Germany and the Soviets for after the Second World War. This policy aided the development of the Cold War, when the U.S. State Department released the documents in a 1948 collection that they’d recovered from Nazi Germany during the sack of Berlin. This release caused severe anger from the Russian government, which Stalin molded into his piece attacking the West called Falsifiers of History. Both the Soviet decision to aid Nazi Germany in prelude to WWII and the decision of the US to release their documents contributed to the Cold War.

After the original negotiations for the reparations from Germany, the US announced their decision to release a European Recovery Plan, hoping to increase production and industrial growth again in Europe in order to continue trade between the two continents. With this announcement, however, the Soviet Union worried about the U.S.’s intent to “buy the support” of Europe. After many discussions between Stalin and his Foreign Minister Molotov, the Soviet Union declined their integration in the Marshall Plan. But, with large concerns about the Plan’s influence in Eastern Europe, especially with rumors that the countries along the outside of their sphere of influence were planning on attending the meeting. Requesting the appearance of the Prime Minister of Czechoslovakia, Stalin made it primarily clear that he would not allow for any of his puppet governments to attend and accept the “bribes” from the United States. Even with the societal and economic devastation of the Czech nation and

The Soviet policies demanding the Baltic and Poland behind the Curzon Line would cause major tensions soon. The Yalta Conference was the first moment that Stalin announced this demand: the Soviet Union wanted the border between Russia and Poland to follow the Curzon line, meaning that the USSR would keep the territory in East Poland that they had claimed in 1939, and that Poland could compensate by extending into Germany. Stalin announced it by stating “For the Russian people, the question of Poland is not only a question of honor but also a question of security. *…+ It is necessary that Poland should be free, independent in power”. (QUOTE) Even with this bold statement for Polish freedom, Stalin had still instilled a Communist puppet government into the state, which had created large tensions with Churchill, who was firmly backing the creation a coalition between the Soviet-backed Polish Workers’ Party and the Home Army resistance movement, as well as the free elections. This effective Soviet policy allowed for Communists to continue to control of the rebuilding efforts, and design the parliament to the parameters that Stalin believed fitting. With this new power, the Communists effectively monopolized the political power in Poland in favor of Stalin and his subordinates.

One of the last deciding policies that aided the development of the Cold War was the Soviet decision to create the Communist Information Bureau (Cominform), which was commissioned in a conference held in Poland on the 22nd of September, 1947 for the leaders of the communist parties of many European nations. This conference led to the rise of unrest from these groups, hoping to make improvements to low living standards and halt the actions of the Marshall Plans in order to create the change on a national scale. This effort was aimed to bring together all Communist parties of the nations to coordinate activities and movements for change that they were aiming for. This action was the USSR’s way of directly influencing the unrest and political instability in nations that were accepting the aid of the US, whom they stated was trying to “choke democracy” and “eliminate competition on the world market”.Even with the United States addressing this controversy through their creation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the creation of Cominform allowed for the development and connection of communism that not only aided the East, but increased the fear of Communism in the West.

For many of the traditional historians who followed the developments of the Cold War, especially those up until the mid 1960’s, continued this belief that the entirety of the Cold War was decided by the actions and mismanagement of the Soviet Union. (find traditionalist historians from this era) Many wrote that the US’s policy towards Europe and Asia after the Second World War was one of passivity, and they worked as the peacemaker between Britain and the Soviet Union, just as Gaddis explains in his book The Cold War: A New History. This policy did not change until the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan were put into place in order to aid the relief efforts for Europe, which the Soviet Union avoided and disapproved of. But revisionist historians of the 1970s continue with their own claim that the direction of the Cold War was decided by the United State’s hope to limit the sphere of influence that the Soviet Union was

“building”, and halt the spread of the Communist ideals which they detested. These two opposing ideas of the actions of these superpowers can tell us a lot about the social and political landscape of these eras, and the subversive tactics that these governments encountered in order to keep their actions hidden from the public. But post-revisionist studies of Cold War nations shows that it was the deception of both these nations that ultimately led to the dark times of the 1950’s to the 1980’s.