Developing tensions

Developing tensions: the Soviet Union occupation/control of eastern and southern Europe; Kennan's Long Telegram; the Iron Curtain speech; Cominform; the Greek Civil War and the Truman Doctrine on containment

Why was communism attractive?

desperate need for reconstruction after the devastation of the war

Soviet satellite states

* Poland
* Hungary
* Romania
* Bulgaria
* Albania
* Czechslovakia

Yugoslavia was a communist country but not part of the USSR

The Long Telegram, 22 Feb 1946

George **Kennan** (US diplomat)**, stated communism was uncompromising in its ideological threat to the free world and urged USA to adopt proactive role**

= fundamental in shaping US foreign policy to USSR, inspiring the Truman Doctrine 1947 and Marshall Aid 1948

Iron Curtain speech, 6 March 1946

delivered by Churchill, **direct attack on Soviet policies**

= **articulated ideological and metaphorical divide of Europe**

When and what was Stalin’s response to the Iron Curtain speech?

13 March 1949

**responded in Pravda, presented a benign USSR peacefully seeking E European allies in order to reinforce USSR’s security and the West as aggressive**

* called Churchill a ‘warmonger’ and compared them to Nazis

Novikov’s telegram, 27 Sept 1946

Soviet diplomat, **argued US foreign policy was based on economic imperialism and aimed to establish global supremacy**

What and when was Molotov’s ‘equal opportunity’ speech?

10 Oct 1946, during Paris Peace Conference

**accused USA of being an imperialist power and effectively abandoned the Deceleration on a Liberated Europe**

= worsened tensions

Iran Crisis, March 1946

USSR had agreed to withdraw from northern Iran and give it to GB

**USSR’s refusal to comply with this in order to secure supply line of oil from the Persian Gulf, led West to unite in condemnation of USSR’s ‘aggressive imperialist policy’**

**= led to clear division of Grand Alliance**

Greek Civil War

broke in March 1946, between **KKE (communists aided by Tito) and Greek monarchists (given aid by Britain until they couldn’t afford to anymore by Feb 1947)**

= USA now was responsible for preventing communism in Greece leading to Truman Doctrine and Marshall Plan

Truman Doctrine, 12 March 1947

political statement of USA’s commitment to containment to protect ‘will of the majority’

Cominform, Sept 1947

response to the Marshall Plan June 1947, unites and coordinates the communist state as a whole under Moscow leadership

Zhdanov Doctrine

committed to view that USA wanted to establish anti-Soviet empire based on economic dependency

= transferred Soviet cultural ideas to artists, writers and intellectuals

salami tactics in Poland

* established Lublin govt = Stalin’s instrument of control
* June 1945: Provisional Govt of National Unity (coalition of parties from across political spectrum) was formed
* Jan 1947: communists became dominant group
* **1948: Gomulka replaced by pro-Stalinist Boleslaw Bierut**

Salami tactics in Hungary

* 1947: communists became largest single party
* imprisoned opposition politicians, rigged elections and attacked Church leaders
* **1949: Laszlow Rajk, Hungarian leader, executed** for anti Soviet activities after the country began to form close ties with Yugoslavia

Salami tactics in Romania

**communism was popular and the Red Army occupied = very easy**

* 1945: communist was elected PM within a left wing coalition
* 1947: communists abolished monarchy

Salami tactics in Bulgaria

* strongest non-Communist leader executed over falsely accused charges
* 1945: left wing coalition win elections
* communist members executed other party leaders
* Apr 1947: all other parties are banned

Salami tactics in Albania

communists gained power immediately after the war with little opposition

Salami tactics in Yugoslavia

* Tito led wartime resistance against Nazis and was elected President in 1945
* was determined to apply communism in his own way and expelled from Cominform in 1948
* offered aid by USA

Salami tactics in Czechslovakia

* 1945: left wing coalition won elections
* 1946: communists became largest single party
* 1948: banned other parties and made it a communist, one party state

Salami tactics in East Germany

* allies gave USSR control of east Germany at Yalta
* was run by USSR effectively