early tension

• The Grand Alliance was created in 1941. It was a partnership between Britain, the USA and the Soviet Union.
• The Tehran Conference: 1943

  • They agreed to set up an organisation, which would later become NATO
  • The Soviet Union would have more of Poland
  • The Soviet Union would declare war on Japan after Germany was defeated
• Stalin was happy after the Tehran conference but Churchill was not.
• The Yalta Conference: February 1945

  • Germany would be split into 4 areas, with each belonging to Britain, the USA, the Soviet Union and France
  • Germany would be demilitarised
  • Countries which were previously under Nazi rule would have democratic elections
  • The UN (United Nations) would be set up
  • Poland would become part of the Soviet sphere of influence
• The Potsdam Conference: July-August 1945

  • The Nazi Party was banned and war criminals would be prosecuted
  • As well as Germany, Berlin would be split into 4 zones
• After Germany surrendered, the Grand Alliance began to fall apart, as Truman, the new US presidnet, was much more wary of the Soviet Union than Roosevelt was. This increased tension between the Allies.
• Stalin wanted Germany to pay large amounts in reparations.
• The Long Telegram: 1946

  • A report from US ambassador Kennan in Moscow to Truman
  • It said that the Soviet Union saw capitalism as a threat to communism
  • That the Soviet Union was building its military power
  • That peace between a communist USSR and a capitalist USA was not possible
• Novikov's Telegram: 1946

  • A report from Novikov, the Soviet ambassador in the USA
  • It said that the USA wanted world domination and was building its military strength
  • That the USA was preparing its people for war with the Soviet Union
• Bulgaria:

  • A communist government was elected in 1945, and all elected non-communists were executed
• Romania:

  • A communist-led coalition took power
  • By 1947, the communists had taken over and Romania became a one-party state
• Poland:

  • At Yalta, Stalin promised to set up a joint communist/non-communist government
  • He then invited 16 non-communist leader to Moscow and arrested them
  • The communists then 'won' the election
• Hungary:

  • The communists lost the 1945 election, but the communist leader Rakosi took control of the secret police
  • This led to him imprisoning and executing his opponents
  • Hungary then became a communist state
• Czechoslovakia:

  • Edward Benes set up a coalition government
  • Communists still retained control of the army, the radio and the secret police
  • In 1948, they seized power completely, and turned the country into a communist state
• East Germany:

  • The original Soviet-occupied zone in Germany became a communist state in October 1949
• The USA saw Stalins expansion into Eastern Europe as him breaking the agreements made at Yalta.
• Others saw it as a stepping-stone for the Soviet Union to take over Western Europe.
• The Soviet Union argued that it needed its satellite states as a buffer zone to protect itself from the West.