transformation of USSR's international position

• The USSR as a superpower


  • A military-industrial war machine
  • Increased territory
  • Satellite states
  • Atomic power
  • UN permanent members
• The formation of a Soviet bloc


  1. By 1948, most of the Eastern European countries had either been absorbed into the USSR or turned into satellite states, governed by parties closely linked to the USSR

  2. In some cases this involved 'salami tactics', in which communist parties joined with socialists and liberals to gain power, but then isolated and eliminated their rivals 'slice by slice'

  3. Stalin hoped that this buffer zone of satellite states would help to protect the USSR from a future invasion by the West
• Eastern and Southern Europe by 1948


  • A provisional government was set up in Lublin in 1945, dominated by pro-Moscow communists
  • Eastern Germany became Soviet zone of occupation in 1945; Moscow-trained communists took political control in 1946
  • Salami tactics' enabled pro-Soviet governments to control Hungary (1947) and Czechoslovakia (1948)
• The wartime summit conferences reflected the last agreements between the USA, Great Britain and the USSR. There were ideological differences, and Stalin was very critical of his Western allies not opening a 'Second Front' in the European war, to relieve the pressure on the Red Army
• Timeline of breakdown of East-West relations

  • Stage 1: 1946
  • Stage 2: 1947-48
  • Stage 3: 1948-49
• The death of Stalin


  1. Stalin had a massive stroke on 28 February, and died on 5 March

  2. Stalin's inner circle gathered at his bedside, but delayed calling doctors as many felt under threat of a new purge

  3. Stalin's increasingly unpredictable and menacing behaviour in early 1953 suggested a new wave of repression and might be on its way if Stalin recovered

  4. Soviet citizens grieved Stalin's death. His funeral united the country in mourning
• Stalin's legacy at home and abroad

  • USSR as nuclear and industrial power
  • national prestige - defeated Germany
  • spread of Stalinism to Europe and Asia
  • USSR's demographic damage - famine and terror
  • no clear successor
  • Cold War tensions
  • long-term underinvestment in consumer goods
  • psychological damage to survivors of terror
• military-industrial war machine


  7.5 million well-equipped soldier
• satellite states

  1945-48 Soviet dominance over East Germany and states of East Central Europe (Romania, Hungary, Poland)
• increased territory


  USSR controlled Baltic States and Eastern Poland
• atomic power


  August 1949 USSR developed bomb

  • Beria in charge of accelerating development after USA revealed theirs - was used to end war against Japan
• UN permanent member

  USSR as one of the 5 permanent members of UN Security Council
• summits/conferences

  • November 1943: Tehran - Churchill, Roosevelt, Stalin
  • October 1944 Churchill and Stalin at Moscow
  • February 1945: Yalta - Churchill, Roosevelt, Stalin
  • July 1945: Potsdam - Churchill (July 26th replaced by Clement Atlee), Truman, Stalin
• grand alliance


  with Britain and USA - Britain became bankrupted by war and was overshadowed by the other 2 superpowers
• How USSR expanded sphere of influence

  • created a buffer zone - protect future West invasion
  • established friendly communist regimes - infiltrate post-war governments after liberation
  • salami tactics - isolating and eliminating rivals slice by slice
• Soviet blocs

  • 1939 Soviet invasion of eastern Poland - Nazi-Soviet Pact
  • 1940 Soviet occupation of Baltic States - secret protocols of pact
  • April-May 1940 Katyn Forest Massacre - eliminate Polish nationalist elements who might oppose Communism
  • 1 August 1944 Warsaw Uprising - liberate city from German occupation but Soviets left them unassisted
• Katyn Forest Massacre


  under Beria, NKVD killed 22,000 captured Polish army officers and put them into mass graves

  • 1943, graves were discovered by Soviet forces; propaganda blamed the Nazis
• Warsaw Uprising

  AK (home army) launched an uprising to liberate city from German occupation and support nationalist Polish Underground State

  • Soviet allowed uprising to be crushed by Nazis - did nothing to assist the AK
• friendly communist regimes

  • provisional government in Lublin was set up, dominated by pro-Moscow communists
  • Tito led communist partisans who gained control of post-war government
  • communist regimes controlled Bulgaria and Romania
• salami tactics

  pro-Soviet governments gained power in Hungary 1947 and Czechoslovakia 1948
• stage 1: 1946 - long telegram, iron curtain speech

  • February: telegram from Moscow to Washington by American expert diplomat on Soviet affairs, George Kennan - US fear of Soviet expansionism, contain spread of communism
  • March: Churchill advised strength in dealing with USSR, warning of curtain dividing Europe, warning extent of Soviet power,
• Long telegram

  • Soviet leaders portraying outside world as evil, hostile and menacing - needs to be defeated by socialism to create a better world
  • this portrayal is their justification for more military power, isolating themselves from outside world
• breakdown of East-West relations

  • Soviet expansionism and demands for buffer zone rights to be recognised
  • long telegram urge US action against communism spread
  • Churchill's iron curtain speech warning division of Europe
  • March 1947 Truman doctrine; policy of containment
  • Marshall Plan of US aid for European economic recovery
  • 1948-49 Berlin Blockade
  • 1949 NATO; Atlantic Alliance defends Europe
• stage 2: 1947-48; containment, Marshall plan

  • March 1947 Truman Doctrine assert policy of containment
  • June 1947 Marshall Plan by USA - an offer of assistance to rebuild Europe and extend American influence
  • Stalin saw Plan as drive towards US economic and political dominance - feared American rebuilding of Western Germany industrial economy and resurgence of German power
  • bloc countries forbidden from accepting aid
• Marshall Plan - extending American influence


  offer loans for the economic reconstruction of Europe on terms that would provide the USA with access to their markets.
• Berlin Blockade


  • Cut off all road and rail link between Berlin and West
• Separate currency of Western zones (Deutschmark)


  June 1948 - seen as attempt to intrude on USSR's economic prerogative
• NATO


  North Atlantic Treaty Organization
• Soviet-China alliance with Mao Zedong after CCP's conquest in Beijing


  1950 Treaty of Friendship, Alliance and Mutual Assistance
• stage 3: 1948-49


  Stalin frustrated by decline of Soviet-Berlin control

  • Berlin Blockade - would force US into settling the Berlin issue on Soviet terms
  • blockade defeated by Berlin Airlift throughout winter - General Lucius Clay
  • May 1949 blockade called off
  • NATO to defend Western Europe against Soviet aggression
  • 1949 successful test of Soviet atomic bomb
  • Soviet-China alliance
• problems for successors

  • who should take over
  • tackling legacy of terror
  • de-stalinising USSR
  • improving agriculture
  • centrally planning for consumers
  • maintaining people's faith in socialist future
• who should take over

  no clear successor therefore collective responsibility until Khrushchev emerged
• tackling legacy of terror

  Beria executed
• de-stalinising USSR

  February 1956 Khrushchev's Secret Speech denounced Stalin's crimes; people released from gulags but gulags remained
• improving agriculture

  state could pay kolkhozes more - less money for industry or higher prices for food
• centrally planning for consumers

  too complex to meet consumers needs with a command economy
• maintaining people's faith in socialist future

  difficult - new satellite states; unrest in East Germany, Poland, Hungary