Wartime tensions between the East and West 1941-45

What are developments in Russia that are seen as threatening to the west?

-1917 Bolshevik revolution of Lenin creating the USSR, alienating former allies

-Stalins’ industrialisation policies leading to severe repression of the people

-Stalin and Hitler’s pact in Aug 1939

-regained lost lands of Baltic States and Poland in 1939

How was the conflict between the USSR and the West by 1941?

-the West feared Russian influence

-the USSR resented its exclusion from diplomacy of 1930s

-the West despised the Nazi-Soviet Pact and Russian expansion in Eastern Europe (Communism is close to Nazism)

What is the impact of the war on USSR-West relations?

-The USSR, Britain and the USA formed the Grand Alliance against the common enemy of the Axis Powers

-USA joined. After Japan launched an attack on Pearl Harbor

-1941 Atlantic Charter only USA and Britain pledged support for democracy, USSR remains a 1 party dictatorship

Why did Russia require a second front in 1941?

-1941 USSR suffered millions of casualties due to a surprise attack, 1942 there was a further attack on Stalingrad

-Invading and creating a second front would threaten Hitler with war on 2 fronts, take a toll on German resources and relieve pressure from USSR

Why was the Second Front not created until 1944, and what is the impact on that on their relations?

-British leaders were convinced that a second front was too risky following the failure of a raid in an occupied French port

-British and US efforts focused on North Africa, Sicily and Italy instead in 1943, where casualties didn’t match heavy losses suffered by the USSR, making the USSR suspicious

What decision did Stalin make in 1943 about Poland alarm the West?

-he decided to not support a Polish uprising in Warsaw 1944 and allowed the Germans to destroy the resistance

-It seems Stalin was happy to see Polish patriots destroyed to make future Soviet control of it easier

-revelation of 1940 Katyn Forest massacre of influential Polish officers and leaders

What development did the USA and Britain keep from the USSR that made it suspicious?

-D-Day 1944: USA Britain joint operation to invade France, though supplies went to USSR, there was no similar joint military operations

-USSR was not notified about the development of atomic bombs until 1945 in struggle against Japan

Why are relations between the wartime alliance strained by 1945?

-USA disliked the idea of the war strengthening Britain, which it distrusted

-Churchill feared Russian expansion and thought the USA didn’t take this threat seriously

-Stalin thought the West didn’t understand how the USSR bore the brunt of the war effort

What is the impact of the redrawing of Polish boundaries and why was it significant Tehran 1943?

-Post-war Poland boundary redrawn to be moved westward, giving Russia territories in eastern Poland that it occupied in 1939-40

-Russia to keep Baltic states

-significant change in British attitude as in 1939 it went to war in defence of Poland boundaries

What else is decided at the Tehran conference?

-invasion of France in May 1944, meeting USSR demand for a second front

-Stalin to declare war on Japan in the future for territories, supporting the USA

How did the 3 powers feel about decisions at Tehran?

-Stalin’s military victories gave him prestige among the other 2 powers, which divided Roosevelt and Churchill

-large areas of Poland to be given to USSR, blowing British prestige as it went to war to defend it from Germany

-Churchill feels slighted by private meetings between Roosevelt and Stalin

What were the aims of the powers in Yalta of 1945?

-Churchill’s concern over growing power of USSR

-Stalin wants the West to accept that Russia’s security required a broad zone of Eastern Europe to be used as a barrier against invasion

-Stalin wants to take Germany food, machinery and goods, to which both western powers disagreed to

-Stalin saw Lublin poles as the true representatives of Poland

-Chruchill feared Stalin wouldn’t allow London poles back in

-Stalin fearful that the UN will be anti-Soviet

What was agreed at Yalta 1945?

-enlarge Lublin government, hold free elections in Poland

-Germany to be divided into 4 zones of occupation, Churchill insisted France to have a zone fearing that the USA would withdraw and leave Britain alone to face USSR

-Stalin demanded more for starting war with Japan: railway rights in China Manchuria, access to Chinese port of Darien to which Roosevelt was forced to agree to

Who became president in the USA that worsened relations between the USSR and USA?

Truman who was more suspicious of Stalin and the UsSR’s ambitions

What are the changes in office in Britain in 1945?

Churchill got voted out of office and the new PM Attlee lacked Churchill’s rapport with Stalin, and Bevin the foreign secretary was hostile to communism

What is cut off by USA in 1945 that worsen relations before Potsdam conference?

Lend-Lease scheme which gives aid to the USSR

How did Stalin show that he doesn’t intend to share power with Poland at Potsdam 1945?

He arrested 16 non communists who had gone back to Warsaw in hope to take part in a free election campaign

What are the decisions made at Potsdam 1945?

-set up Allied Control Commissions made up of military commanders of the 4 zones, Soviets insist in complete control of own zone

-Russia to take reparations from its own zone, and 10% of western zone industrial equipment, showing its motivations of wanting to take the maximum out of Germany compared to USA and British who want to let Germany rebuild its economy