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Tensions in the Wartime
alliance against the Axis PowersBy: Anthony Barragan, Molly
Cros, Sydney Howard, Ryann Puente, Sophia Viteri
The Ideological Background: Communism and Capitalism
CommunismDefinition:
a political theory derived from Karl Marx, advocating class war and leading to a society in which all property is publicly owned and each person works and is paid according to their abilities and needs.
This philosophy is structured upon the common ownership of the means of
production, creating an absence of social classes, money, and the state.
CommunismMarxist theory is dependent on Historical Materialism, which views most non-economic aspects of society, through the lens of economics and material needs.
” Without material production there would be no life and thus no human activity.”- Karl Marx
A large part of Communist theory also involves, the criticism of capitalism, viewing
capitalism as a volatile economic system which will be victim to recessions and depressions, leading to unemployment and misery in the proletariat. However, this misery will lead to proletarian uprising leading to a classless communist society.
CommunismHowever the Stalinist variation of Communism has some notable differences:
1. Dialectal Materialism: that political and historical events result from the conflict of social forces and are interpretable as a series of contradictions
We stand for the withering away of the state. At the same time we stand for the strengthening of the…strongest state power that has ever existed.…Is this “contradictory”? Yes, it is contradictory. But this contradiction…fully reflects Marx’s dialectics.- Stalin
Communism2. Cult of Personality- Stalin became de facto leader, in order to fight against forces which would subjugate the proletariat. Stopping democracy, and elevating Stalin to the status of a universal genius.
3. Socialism in one state- building up the Soviet Union’s military and industrial might, before trying to spread communism abroad. This policy creating the “Iron Curtain” in which Stalin set up communist regimes in eastern Europe, not to spread communism but rather to use them as a buffer to protect the USSR, while they gather military and industrial strength.
CapitalismDefinition:
an economic and political system in which a country's trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit, rather than by the state.
With decision making and investment being determined by the owners of the means of production and prices being and distribution of goods being determined by market competition.
CapitalismMultiple variations of capitalism exist however the one used by the U.S and much of the western world is: Democratic Capitalism
This ideology consists of:
Economic incentives through free markets- I.e Wages
Fiscal Responsibility- Taxes and government spending
A pluralist culture- Allowing for different cultures, giving the people to have different viewpoints. (A traditionalist or socialist society) “imposes a collective sense of what is good and true... exercised by one set of authorities.”- Michael Novak The Spirit of Democratic Capitalism
CapitalismCapitalism and Democracy
The correlation between a country having a democratic government leading to a capitalist economy or vice versa is debatable
Proponents of this correlation will cite how many countries have gained universal male suffrage at the same time as the industrial revolution.
Which justifies the US’s establish democracies during the Cold War as a way to fight the spread of communism.
However, many oppose this ideology with China as an example of a capitalist economy in a authoritarian government.
The Future of GermanyGermany was divided into four zones under the control of the United States, Britain, France and the former Soviet Union after WWII.
In accordance with the Potsdam Conference of 1945, ''there shall be uniformity of treatment of the German population throughout Germany'' and ''certain essential central German administrative departments shall be established.'' What was desired was an economically united Germany rather than a divided one because the country's economic recovery was a prerequisite of the revival of postwar Europe.
However, the postwar development of Germany turned out to be different from the settlement of the Potsdam Conference. The Powers failed to adhere to what they had decided in the conference and began to pursue their own interest in their occupation zones.
The Future of GermanyDifferent policies were carried out in the four zones, so economic unity and inter-zonal agreements had never been achieved. The most serious divergence existed in the US zone and the Russian zone, and consequently frictions developed between them.
The problem of reparations was the focus of dispute. For the Russians, the extraction of the greatest possible amount of reparations from Germany was of primary importance, so equipment was removed from the German factories and products were seized. For the Western Powers, the economic reconstruction of Germany was given priority.
An agreement was reached in March 1946 on an industrial plan, but the Americans withdrew from it after a month because of Russia's insincerity. The conflict over reparations between the Russians and the Western Allies surfaced when General Clay stopped the reparation deliveries to the Russian zone in May 1946.
The Future of GermanyThere was also a disagreement on shaping postwar Germany. The former Soviet Union extended the communist economic and political systems. The government, police, and factories were dominated by communists. Nationalisation and socialisation went on in full swing.
Land was collected and then redistributed to the peasants. Bigger industries and commerce were transferred from the private sectors to state ownership. As a result, the Russian zone developed separately from the Western occupation zones.
In the Western zones, different policies was carried out. The Allies preferred to stop Germany from posing as a menace to the world order by making it a peaceful member of the international community. The United States hoped for a democratic and capitalistic Germany that could become a market and partner of its trade.
The Future of GermanyAfter about a year of unpleasant experience, the Americans realised that they could hardly co-operate with the Russians on the German economic reconstruction and political unification, so they decided to work on their own. In September 1946, the United States announced that the US zone and the British zone would be merged to become the ''Bizonia''. It was the starting point of German division.
The release of the Truman Doctrine in March 1947 ended all the possibility of a US-Soviet co-operation and dashed the hope of German reunification as well. Later that year, one more step was taken to consolidate the unity of a West Germany. France no longer opposed to the creation of a West German state and agreed to combine its zone with Bizonia to form the ''Trizonia''. The merger of the three Western zones was completed by mid-1948.
The Future of GermanyThe Russians reacted by introducing the Ostmark in their occupation zone and the whole of Berlin. They also suspended all land and air traffic to Berlin. This was known as the ''Berlin Blockade''.
The Western Allies had to carry out massive airlift to provide food and other supplies to the West Berliners. The Russians eventually agreed to put an end to the blockade as it was costing more than it was worth, but the fundamental differences between Russia and the Western Powers on Germany could not be reconciled. The Berlin Blockade accelerated the setting up of a separate government in the Western zones.
The Federal German Republic (West Germany) was set up on September 21, 1949. This was followed by the setting up of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) with East Berlin as its capital a month later.
How the war changed the relationship between the USSR and other Allies?
The Beginning ● As late as 1939, it seemed highly improbable that the United States and the Soviet Union
would form an alliance. U.S.-Soviet relations had worsened significantly after Stalin’s decision to sign a non-aggression pact with Nazi Germany in August of 1939.
● The Soviet occupation of eastern Poland in September and the “Winter War” against Finland in December led Roosevelt to condemn the Soviet Union publicly and to impose a “moral embargo” on the export of certain products to the Soviets.
● Nevertheless, in spite of intense pressure to end relations with the Soviet Union, Roosevelt never lost sight of the fact that Nazi Germany, not the Soviet Union, posed the greatest threat to world peace.
● In order to defeat that threat, Roosevelt confided that he “would hold hands with the devil” if necessary.
● Following the Nazi defeat of France in June of 1940, Roosevelt became cautious of the increasing aggression of the Germans and made some diplomatic moves to improve relations with the Soviets.
● Beginning in July of 1940, a series of negotiations took place in Washington between Under-Secretary of State Sumner Welles and Soviet Ambassador Constantine Oumansky. ○ Welles refused to consent to Soviet demands that the United States
recognize the changed borders of the Soviet Union after the Soviet capture of territory in Finland, Poland, and Romania and the reincorporation of the Baltic Republics in August 1940, but the U.S. Government did lift the embargo in January 1941.
● Finally, during the Congressional debate regarding the passage of the Lend-Lease bill in early 1941, Roosevelt blocked attempts to exclude the Soviet Union from receiving U.S. assistance.
Coming together ● The most important factor in influencing the Soviets to form an alliance with the United
States was the Nazi decision to launch its invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941. ○ President Roosevelt responded by sending his trusted aide Harry Lloyd Hopkins to
Moscow in order to assess the Soviet military situation.○ After two one-on-one meetings with Stalin, Hopkins urged Roosevelt to assist the
Soviets.● By the end of October, the first Lend-Lease aid to the Soviet Union was on its way. The
United States entered the war as a belligerent in late 1941 and began coordinating directly with the Soviets, and the British, as allies.
Issues ● Several issues arose during the war that threatened the alliance.● These included the Soviet refusal to aide the Polish Home Army during the Warsaw Uprising of
August 1944, and the decision of British and U.S. officials to exclude the Soviets from secret negotiations with German officers in March of 1945 in an effort to secure the surrender of German troops in Italy.
● The most important disagreement, however, was over the opening of a second front in the West.○ Stalin’s troops struggled to hold the Eastern front against the Nazi forces, and the Soviets
began pleading for a British invasion of France immediately after the Nazi invasion in 1941.● In 1942, Roosevelt foolishly promised the Soviets that the Allies would open the second front that
fall. Although. ○ Stalin only grumbled when the invasion was postponed until 1943, but he exploded the next year
when the invasion was postponed again until May of 1944.○ In retaliation, Stalin recalled his ambassadors from London and Washington and fears soon
arose that the Soviets might seek a separate peace with Germany.
Conclusion ● In spite of these differences, the defeat of Nazi Germany was a joint undertaking that
couldn’t have been accomplished without close cooperation and shared sacrifices.● Militarily, the Soviets fought fearlessly and suffered significant deaths on the Eastern
Front. When Great Britain and the United States finally invaded northern France in 1944, the Allies were finally able to drain Nazi Germany of its strength on two fronts.
● Furthermore, during the wartime conferences at Teheran and Yalta, Roosevelt secured political compromises from Stalin and Soviet participation in the United Nations.
● While President Roosevelt was well aware of what the Soviet’s were doing in Eastern Europe, it was his great hope that if the United States made a sincere effort to meet Soviet security needs in Eastern Europe and Northeast Asia, and to get the USSR to join the UN, the Soviet regime would become an international team player and would become less extreme in its authoritarian regime.
● Unfortunately, soon after the war, the alliance between the United States and the Soviet Union began to unravel as the two nations faced complicated post war decisions.
Teheran Conference
● The Tehran Conference was a strategy meeting of Joseph Stalin, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Winston Churchill from November 28 to December 1, 1943, resulting in the Western Allies' commitment to open a second front against Nazi Germany.
● It was held in the Soviet Union's embassy in Tehran, Iran and was the first World War II conference of the "Big Three" Allied leaders (the Soviet Union, the United States, and the United Kingdom).
● Although the three leaders arrived with differing objectives, the main outcome of the Tehran Conference was the Western Allies' commitment to open a second front against Nazi Germany. The conference also addressed the Allies' relations with Turkey and Iran, operations in Yugoslavia and against Japan, and the envisioned post-war settlement.
● The U.S. and Great Britain wanted to secure the cooperation of the Soviet Union in defeating Germany.
○ Stalin agreed, but at a price: the U.S. and Britain would accept Soviet domination of eastern Europe, support the Yugoslav Partisans, and agree to a westward shift of the border between Poland and the Soviet Union.
● The leaders then turned to the conditions under which the Western Allies would open a new front by invading northern France (Operation Overlord), as Stalin had pressed them to do since 1941.
○ Up to this point Churchill had advocated the expansion of joint operations of British, American, and Commonwealth forces in the Mediterranean, as Overlord in 1943 was physically impossible due to a lack of shipping, which left the Mediterranean and Italy as viable goals for 1943.
○ It was agreed Overlord would occur by May 1944; Stalin agreed to support it by launching a concurrent major offensive on Germany's eastern front to divert German forces from northern France.
● Iran and Turkey were discussed in detail. ○ Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin all agreed to support Iran's government.○ In addition, the Soviet Union was required to pledge support to Turkey if that country
entered the war.○ Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin agreed that it would also be most desirable if Turkey
entered on the Allies' side before the year was over.● Even though Stalin accepted the agreements, Stalin dominated the conference, using the status
of the Soviet victory at the Battle of Kursk to get his way.○ Roosevelt attempted to cope with Stalin's demands, but was able to do little except
satisfy him.○ Churchill argued for the invasion of Italy in 1943, then Overlord in 1944, on the basis that
Overlord was physically impossible in 1943 and it would be unthinkable to do anything major until it could be launched.
● Churchill proposed to Stalin a moving westwards of Poland, which Stalin accepted, giving the Poles industrialized German land to the west and gave up marshlands to the east while providing a territorial buffer to the Soviet Union against invasion.
Decisions● The Yugoslav Partisans should be supported by supplies and equipment and also by commando
operations.● It would be desirable for Turkey to enter war on the side of the Allies before the end of the year.● The leaders took note of Stalin's statement that if Turkey found herself at war with Germany and as
a result Bulgaria declared war on Turkey or attacked her, the Soviet Union would immediately be at war with Bulgaria. The Conference further noted that this could be mentioned in the upcoming negotiations to bring Turkey into the war.
● The cross-channel invasion of France (Operation Overlord) would be launched during May 1944 in conjunction with an operation against southern France. The latter operation would be as strong as the availability of landing-craft allowed.
● The Conference further noted Joseph Stalin's statement that the Soviet forces would launch an offensive at about the same time with a goal of preventing the German forces from transferring from the Eastern to the Western Front.
● The leaders agreed that the military staffs of the Three Powers should keep in close touch with each other in regard to the upcoming operations in Europe. In particular, it was agreed that a cover plan to mislead the enemy about these operations should be arranged between the personnel involved.
Results ● Yugoslav Partisans were given full Allied support, and Allied support to the Yugoslav Chetniks
was halted as they were believed to be cooperating with the occupying Germans rather than fighting them.
● The Communist Partisans took power in Yugoslavia as the Germans retreated from the Balkans. ● Turkey’s president consulted with Roosevelt and Churchill at the Cairo Conference in
November 1943 and promised to enter the war when it was fully armed. ○ By August 1944 Turkey broke off relations with Germany. ○ In February 1945, Turkey declared war on Germany and Japan.
● The invasion of France on June 6, 1944 took place about as planned, and the supporting invasion of Southern France also occurred (Operation Dragoon).
● The Soviet launched a major offensive against the German on June 22, 1944 (Operation Bagration).
What to do about Poland and Eastern Europe?
Videos Regarding Poland after WW2https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=reMFluRR2cc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fnKLydFJIU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rq9pmbeXW_4
Parts of a Documentary
Problems created by the defeat of Germany: what to do about Poland itself?
The territorial changes of Poland immediately after World War II were very extensive. In 1945, after the defeat of Nazi Germany, Poland's borders were redrawn in accordance with the decisions made first by the Allies at the Tehran Conference of 1943 where the Soviet Union demanded the recognition of the military outcome of the top secret Nazi-Soviet Pact of 1939 of which the West was unaware. The same Soviet stance was repeated by Josef Stalin again at the Yalta Conference with Roosevelt and Churchill in February 1945, but a lot more forcefully in the face of the looming German defeat. The new borders were ratified at the Potsdam Conference of August 1945 exactly as proposed by Stalin who already controlled the whole of East-Central Europe.
Outcome of Poland?The prewar eastern Polish territories of Kresy, which the Red Army had overrun during the Nazi-Soviet invasion of Poland in 1939 were permanently annexed by the USSR, and most of their Polish inhabitants expelled. As a result of the Potsdam agreement to which Poland's government-in-exile was not invited, Poland lost 179,000 km2 (45%) of prewar territories in the east, including over 12 million citizens of whom 4,3 million were ethnically the speakers of Polish. Today, these territories are part of sovereign Belarus, Ukraine, and Lithuania.
In turn, postwar Poland was assigned considerably smaller territories to the west including the prewar Free City of Danzig and the former territory of Nazi Germany east of the Oder-Neisse line, consisting of the southern portion of East Prussia and most of Pomerania, Neumark, and German Silesia. The German population fled or was forcibly expelled before these Recovered Territories were repopulated with Poles expelled from the eastern regions and those from central Poland. The small area of Zaolzie, which had been annexed by Poland in late 1938, was returned to Czechoslovakia on Stalin's orders.
Yalta and Potsdam Conference Poland that emerged from the rubble of World War II was reconstituted as a communist state and incorporated within the newly formed Soviet sphere of influence in Eastern Europe. The deciding factor in this outcome was the dominant position gained by the Red Army at the end of the war. At the conferences of Yalta and Potsdam in 1945, United States presidents and Britain's prime minister, Winston Churchill, met with Stalin to determine postwar political conditions, including the makeup of Polish territory occupied by the Red Army.
At Yalta in February, Stalin pledged to permit free elections in Poland and the other Soviet-occupied countries of Eastern Europe. At Potsdam in July-August, the Allies awarded Poland over 100,000 square kilometers of German territory, west to the Oder and Neisse rivers, commonly called the Oder-Neisse Line. In turn, about 3 million Poles were removed from former Polish territory awarded to the Soviet Union and resettled in the former German lands; similarly about 2 million Germans had to move west of the new border.
The Yalta accords sanctioned the formation of a provisional Polish coalition government composed of communists and proponents of Western democracy. From its outset, the Yalta formula favored the communists, who enjoyed the advantages of Soviet support, superior morale, control over crucial ministries, and Moscow's determination to bring Eastern Europe securely under its thumb as a strategic asset in the emerging Cold War.
A New PolandThe first parliamentary election, held in 1947, allowed only opposition candidates of the now-insignificant Polish Peasant Party, which was harassed into ineffectiveness. Under these conditions, the regime's candidates gained 417 of 434 seats in parliament, effectively ending the role of genuine opposition parties. Within the next two years, the communists ensured their ascendancy by restyling the PZPR as holders of a monopoly of power in the Polish People's Republic.
Communist social engineering transformed Poland nearly as much as did the war. In the early years of the new regime, Poland became more urban and industrial as a modern working class came into existence. The Polish People's Republic attained its principal accomplishments in this initial, relatively dynamic phase of its existence. The greatest gains were made in postwar reconstruction and in integration of the territories annexed from Germany. Imposition of the Soviet model on the political, economic, and social aspects of Polish life was generally slower and less traumatic than in the other East European countries following World War II. The PZPR took great care, for example, to limit the pace of agricultural collectivization lest Soviet-style reform antagonize Polish farmers.
PZPR rule grew steadily more totalitarian and developed the full range of Stalinist features then obligatory within the Soviet European empire: ideological regimentation, the police state, strict subordination to the Soviet Union, a rigid command economy, persecution of the Roman Catholic Church, and blatant distortion of history, especially as it concerned the more sensitive aspects of Poland's relations with the Soviet Union. Stringent censorship stifled artistic and intellectual creativity or drove its exponents into exile. At the same time, popular restiveness increased as initial postwar gains gave way to the economic malaise that would become chronic in the party-state.
Poland’s Old and New Borders :1945
Impact of Soviet Union During WW2
How it Began...The Soviet Union signed a non-aggression pact with Nazi Germany on 23 August 1939. In addition to stipulations of non-aggression, the treaty included a secret protocol that divided territories of Romania, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Finland into German and Soviet "spheres of influence", anticipating potential "territorial and political rearrangements" of these countries Stalin and Hitler later traded proposals after a Soviet entry into the Axis Pact. The USSR was promised an eastern part of Poland, then primarily populated by Ukrainians and Belarusians, in case of its dissolution, and Germany recognised Latvia, Estonia and Finland as parts of the Soviet sphere of influence with Lithuania added in a second secret protocol in September 1939.
However, Hitler launched an invasion of the Soviet Union. Stalin was confident that the total Allied war machine would eventually stop Germany, and with Lend Lease (a program under which the United States supplied Free France, the United Kingdom, the Republic of China, and later the Soviet Union and other Allied nations with food, oil, and materiel between 1941 and August 1945) from the West. Over the next four years, the Soviet Union repulsed Axis offensives, such as at the Battle of Stalingrad and Battle of Kursk.
The Price of War: Impact of War on Soviet Union- Economic
WWII had a significant impact on the Soviet Union's Economy and the economic health of its people.The Soviets lost more than 17,000 towns, 70,000 villages, and 32,000 factories due to the war. The lack of men, functioning machinery, livestock, and limited harvest led to food shortages both during and after the war.
After WWII, to fix their economy the Soviets came up with the five year plan which was a plan that took advantage of the men who had just come back from war as well as German prisoners. The Soviet Union forced them to rebuild the country and did not allow choice of jobs. The money spent on the military could have been better used after the war for rebuilding and supplying the people with food and water.
During and after WWII, agricultural output fell far short of the prewar levels, because the government was focusing on the industrial output to increase the Soviet economy but this did not really help individuals. Russia had to pay to rebuild everything that was destroyed in the war, so the economic effect on Russia was very large, but the five year plan worked and Russia became a super-power .
The Soviet Union was so focused on war that they spent 70% of their industrial output on the military during WW II. Because of all the money going towards the military many people were homeless or jobless and many went without food and even starved to death.
The Price of War: Impact of War on Soviet Union- Social
Both during and after WWII, Soviet people had to do different jobs to either work for the military or to make things to use in war and they did not have free choice to do what they wanted. People also had to be put on rations because there wasn't enough food for the population. People were very unhappy and had to do what the government said.
Historians now estimate that about 26.6 million Soviet people died during WWII and over two-thirds of those were actually civilians. The number of people that lost loved ones in this war would be three times the number of deaths. Socially, the country was impacted with a loss of 14% of its prewar population.
The Price of War: Impact of War on Soviet Union-Political
Pre-WWII and during the war, the political system in the Soviet Union was a communist system run by the dictator Joseph Stalin. Stalin and the Soviet government signed an anti-aggression treaty with Germany before the war, but Germany broke that treaty and the Soviets changed alliances to fight the Germans and support the Allied Powers.
Stalin was a harsh dictator who did not hesitate to kill anyone who disagreed with him and he even ordered his own soldiers to kill any troops who retreated or acted as if they would surrender. One interesting fact about the Soviet-era communists under Stalin is that they believed in equality of the sexes. Women were allowed to fight in combat positions and nearly 1 million women fought on the front line in the Eastern Front of WWII.
After WWII the Soviet Union political culture created what was known as the 'Iron Curtain'. The Iron Curtain was a political, military, and ideological border created to block out the Western non-Communist areas and keep in the ones that were Communist.
The Price of War: Impact of War on Soviet Union- Environmental
The environment was one of the most damaged parts of the Soviet Union after WWII. Everything from bombs, to smoke and fire to even bullet holes destroyed the environmental landscape. The smoke from guns and bombs polluted the air while bullet holes and bullet casings covered the ground. Thousands of towns were totally destroyed with nothing left but ashes and burned ground. The animals living in these war regions were killed because of fire, smoke or some other harmful weapons used in war. It took years to recover.
The Price of War: Impact of War on Soviet Union- Overall
WWII shaped modern day Russia greatly. When all the soldiers got back from war the Soviet government took advantage of these jobless men and forced them to rebuild all of the factories and cities. They also forced them to make supplies for war so that if there was another war the Soviet Union would be powerful. This paid off and after the war rebuilding efforts, along with the USA, Russia became known as one of the world’s superpowers.
The Price of War: Impact of War on Soviet Union
Adolph Hitler and the Nazis had a deap-seated hatred for Russian communists. War between Germany and the USSR was probably inevitable. Nevertheless, Stalin used the early years of the war to make territorial gains for himself.
On August 23, 1939, Germany and the USSR signed a secret non-agression pact dividing up Poland. In September, the Soviets invaded eastern Poland.
On November 30, 1939, the Russo-Finnish War began when the USSR invaded Finland. On March 12, 1940, Finland surrendered.
On June 18, 1940, the USSR invaded the Baltic states.
On April 13, 1941, the USSR and Japan signed a neutrality pact.
But Stalin could not avoid war with the Axis powers. On June 22, 1941, Germany invaded Russia, thereby beginning Operation Barbarossa. Italy and Romania then declared war on the USSR. Shortly thereafter, Hungary, Slovakia, and Finland declared war.
On September 15, 1941, Germany began the Siege of Leningrad. It would not end until January 1944.
In October 1941 the U.S. began supplying the USSR under the Lend-Lease Act.
The Price of War: Impact of War on Soviet Union
That same month, Germany began its drive toward Moscow. The USSR was forced to evacuate its seat of government to Kuibyshev. But in December, Germany gave up its attack on Moscow, and the Soviets counterattacked.
On January 31, 1943, over 90,000 German troops at Stalingrad surrendered to the Soviets. This was a significant turning point in the war against Germany.
Late in 1943, Stalin met with Roosevelt and Churchill for the first time -- The Teheran Conference. They agreed that the Western Allies would invade France in June 1944 and that when the invasion began the USSR would launch a new offensive from the east.
In April 1944, the USSR retook Odessa. In May, German troops surrendered in the Crimea. In July, the USSR retook Minsk.
In August, the USSR invaded German-occupied Romania. On August 23, Romania surrendered.
In September, the USSR invaded Bulgaria. Bulgaria made peace with the Soviets and declared war on Germany.
By late September, the USSR also occupied Estonia.
On October 1, 1944, Soviet troops entered Yugoslavia.
The Price of War: Impact of War on Soviet Union
On January 17, 1945, Soviet troops captured Warsaw. In early April they captured Vienna.
On April 23, 1945, Soviet troops reached Berlin -- with over one million men and more than 20,000 pieces of artillery. A few days later, Soviet troops advancing from the East met up with U.S. troops advancing from the west at the Elbe River.
On April 30, as the Soviets were battling through the streets of his city, Adolph Hitler killed himself.
On May 2, 1945, Soviet troops completed the capture of Berlin and all remaining German troops surrendered within a few days. The war in Europe was over.
True to his promise to the Allies (and interested in expanding their Soviet in the East) Stalin broke his non-aggression pact with Japan. Soviet troops invaded Japanese-held Manchuria in August and helped win the war in the Pacific.
The people of the Soviet Union suffered greatly during the war. Well over 20 million men and women were killed -- many of them civilians.
However, the USSR's armed forces remained powerful at the end of the war. The Soviets territorial ambitions created tension with their former Allies. The Cold War began.
A new Germany, well, Half of GermanySoviet authorities were determined to establish regimes in eastern Europe that were friendly or subservient to the Soviet Union. Even before the Germans surrendered, Soviet occupation troops assisted local Communists in installing Communist dictatorships in Romania and Bulgaria. Indigenous Communist movements established dictatorships in Yugoslavia and Albania in 1945. In 1949, the Soviet Union established the Communist German Democratic Republic in its occupation zone of Germany, as the western allies promoted a German Federal Republic in the western zones.
Germany After a Brutal Defeat: Post WW2Potsdam Agreement: After the war Germany was divided into four temporary occupation zones, roughly based on the locations of the Allied armies. The German capital, Berlin, was also divided into four sectors: the French sector, British sector, American sector and the Soviet sector.
The Marshall Plan binds the Allies together: By June 1948 the regions under the care of America, Britain and France had been combined. They used West Berlin as a beacon of the capitalist way of life. The economic support that America was giving to Europe through the Marshall Plan was binding the Allies together.
Soviet state constructs the Eastern bloc: Stalin wanted a buffer from Western states that opposed the Soviet communist ideology. He constructed a bloc of communist states, and wanted a weak Germany on his western border.
Berlin becomes the focal point of growing tension: Berlin quickly became the focal point of both US and Soviet efforts to realign Europe to their respective visions.
Western half of Berlin is isolated in Eastern Germany: Berlin was located 100 miles inside the Soviet occupation zone and there had never been a formal agreement guaranteeing rail and road access through the Soviet zone to the Western-controlled part of Berlin
Germany After a Brutal Defeat: Post WW2Stalin blockaded Berlin: Stalin wanted the Americans to leave Berlin and get rid of the currency. Soviets refused to permit use of the currency as legal tender in Berlin. Stalin believed it would be impossible for the West to supply Berlin if he blockaded the city – stopping supplies from getting in.
Soviet Union soldiers enforce the blockade: Soviet Union soldiers cut off all connections between West Berlin and West Germany on 24 June 1948. They wanted West Berlin to be dependent on the Soviet state for supplies, effectively bringing it under their control.
Aeroplanes are used by the West to transport cargo: In response to the blockade aeroplanes were used to transport goods to three airports in West Berlin. The cargo included food, clothing, medical supplies and even petrol and coal. When the airlift was at its peak, an aeroplane landed every 90 seconds.
Lifting the blockade: The Easter Parade proved the blockade wasn’t working, and prompted negotiations to end it. The Soviet blockade of Berlin was lifted at one minute after midnight on 12 May 1949.
Germany after World War 2 Map
Green: UKBlue: FranceYellow: USARed: USSR
"Raising a flag over the Reichstag" the famous photograph by Yevgeny Khaldei, taken on May 2, 1945. The photo shows Soviet soldiers raising the flag of the Soviet Union on top of the German
Reichstag building following the Battle of Berlin.
British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt and Soviet Premier Josef Stalin sit on the patio of Livadia Palace, Yalta, Crimea, in this February 4, 1945 photo. The three leaders were meeting to discuss the post-war reorganization of Europe, and the fate of post-war
Germany.
Taken from Dresden's town hall of the destroyed Old Town after the allied bombings between February 13 and 15, 1945. Some 3,600 aircraft dropped more than 3,900 tons of high-explosive bombs and
incendiary devices on the German city. The resulting firestorm destroyed 15 square miles of the city center, and killed more than 22,000.
Why did the wartime alliance break down?
The breakdown of the alliance: ● At the beginning of WWII the “Big Three”- United States of America, Britain,
and the Soviet Union-had one main goal; they wanted to bring down Germany.
● At the end of WWII the three main victors were The United States of America, the Soviet Union, and Britain.
● After Germany was defeated the allies met up multiple times, this is where their true motives became known.
The breakdown of the alliance: ● During the war the conflicting sides had to come together and were forced to
cooperate, but as soon as the enemy was defeated the tensions began to rise.
● The East and West had polar opposite ideologies; the west supported capitalism, and the east supported communism.
● Part of the breakdown of the alliance was due to the mistrust dating back to 1918.
The breakdown of the alliance: ● The USSR was not included in it since Russian troops had not fought the
Italians. ● This backfired because it was a huge decision that had nothing to do with
Stalin and led him to believe that the western allies were working against him. ● Since the Soviet Union had taken the biggest hit from Germany. Stalin wanted
to open a second front in western Europe so the USSR would be relieved of dome of the fighting.
The breakdown of the alliance: ● Britain and France refused to let this happen at the time that Stalin was
demanding it to happen. Stalin thought since they were refusing to appease him, that France and Britain were scheming against him and wanted to destroy the USSR.
● The pact that the Nazi’s and the Soviet’s made raised the suspicions from the Western allies. In 1939 the Germans and Russians signed the Nazi and Soviet Aggression Pact.
The breakdown of the alliance: ● The agreement was supposed to last for 10 years, but only lasted for two.
They decided in secret that they would divide Poland between them. The western allies saw this an act of backstabbing.
● Stalin signed this pact because he didn’t think that the western allies were “strong” enough to fight hitler, he hoped that signing the pact would ensure his takeover of the Baltic States in Poland, and he hoped that this pact would delay Germany’s attack on the USSR giving stalin time to prepare.
Tehran Conference ● U.S.A.
○ Roosevelt refused to join any discussions regarding the “Spheres of Influence”. Roosevelt believed that this was old fashioned imperialism and did not fall within his ideas of what the alliance was about.
○ Roosevelt had also refused to launch the attack on Germany until 1944 which is much later than what Stalin had wanted.
Tehran Conference● USSR
○ Stalin was insistent that they should invade Nazi-controlled France as soon as possible, and relieve the pressure that the USSR was under. This is an example of how Stalin was only thinking about the USSR and not the collective good.
○ Throughout the conference, Stalin continued to assume that the U.S.A. and Britain were to secretly working against him.
○ Stalin always saw the Western allies as enemies. ○ He was extremely paranoid and suspected Roosevelt of working against
him. This showed the lack of trust from the very beginning of the alliance.
Short term: ● A short term reason for the breakdown of the alliance was the new
uncompromising attitude the United States had adopted at Potsdam in 1945.
● Now that Germany was defeated and the war was over new issues became priorities.
● President Roosevelt had died in April, and now it was Harry Truman’s job to take his place.
Short term: ● Harry Truman was a less diplomatic leader who openly opposed communism.
Now that one of the allies had publicly voiced their distaste for another country’s ideology, this made Stalin extremely weary of the Americans.
● Another thing that led to the breakdown of the alliance was, at Potsdam Truman had revealed the atomic bomb. This was seen as warning to Russia, since they could no longer defend themselves adequately now that America had access to this weapon.
Yalta: ● At Yalta, the decision of what to do with Poland was a major issue. Each
leader had a different idea of what should be done with Poland. ● Roosevelt wanted to keep things with the USSR amicable, but this could not
be done since he wanted Capitalism throughout Eastern Europe making them a pro-soviet country.
● In contrast to what Stalin wanted, Churchill wanted Poland to become an independent democratic state.
Poland’s future?● With the future of Poland being up in the air, there were two contrasting
groups who had different ideas of what they wanted for Poland, they were the London Poles and the Lublin Poles.
● London Poles: Catholic landowners who were members the government in exile, they were against Stalin and Communism.
● Lublin Poles: were set up with the help of the USSR, so obviously they had the same intentions as Stalin.
Additional reasons: ● Another reason why Britain mistrusted the USSR was because of the Warsaw
Rising in 1944. Polish troops with connections to the London Poles had risen up against the German’s.
● Soviet troops were supposed to help the Poles; however, they had to stop advancing as soon as the made it to the River Vistula right outside of Warsaw, and the Polish were defeated.
● This gave the allies the impression that the USSR was unreliable.
Conclusion: ● All the allies were to blame for the breakdown of the wartime alliance. ● Misjudgment and misassumptions played a huge role in creating betrayal;
The U.S.A. and Britain didn’t trust Stalin, and Stalin didn’t trust Britain and the U.S.A.
● The breakdown of the alliance was inevitable as none of the countries involved had conflicting ideologies.
● As a result, there wasn’t an individual country that was responsible for the breakdown of the alliance. All the countries involved and their inability to compromise added to the inevitable demise of the wartime alliance.
