Post WWII Years
Author: Linda DeLaine
Publication: Website
Date:
Thursday, March 15, 2007
Summary: After the end of WWII, the Western Allies saw the Soviet Union as a serious common threat. Read about the onset of the Cold War and Stalin's death.
The Allied nations of WWII made for a tenuous
union at best. The main thing that held Britain, the U.S. and the Soviet Union
together was their common enemy, Hitler. Not long after the end of WWII, the
Western allies parted company with the Soviet Union and its leader, Joseph
Stalin.
Stalin attended landmark meetings with the Allies at
Tehran (1943),
Yalta (1945), and
Potsdam
(1945). He became known as a power to be reckoned with; one which intended to
expand Soviet influence throughout Eastern Europe.
After the end of
WWII, Stalin succeeded in dominating many states which his armies had liberated
from the Nazis. Stalin was driven by one overpowering fear; future attack of
his western border. This was not an unfounded fear as there have been numerous
attacks and invasions of Russia and the Soviet Union from the West throughout
history. His collection of captive Eastern European states served as the
barrier or shield he needed and became known as the Iron Curtain. This
isolationist behavior and expansion of Communism fostered distrust on the part
of the West and brought about the Cold War.
Stalin displaced about 1.5 million non-Russian occupants of the new
Soviet republics. Most were Muslims labeled as Nazi sympathizers and, as a
result, a direct threat to the Soviet. A variety of, so called, minorities from
the Crimea, Caucasus, Bulgaria, Armenia and so on, were rounded up and hauled
off to Siberia. The official justifications for these deportations was alleged
collaboration with their former Nazi oppressors and resistance to Soviet
control.
Much to the dismay of the Allies, the nations of Albania,
Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Yugoslavia all had
communist governments by 1948. The Soviet Union controlled the region through
trade agreements, their troops and diplomatic corps. The West did not have
access to the resources of these Eastern European countries and this, coupled
with the Soviet's control of the region, led to feelings of hostility on the
part of the West. They soon figured that they could not stop the Soviets or
have access to the countries behind the Iron Curtain short of another all out
war.
The U.S. presented the Marshall Plan in 1947. This was a plan for economic rehabilitation of European nations. The Soviet Union did not allow the communist controlled Eastern European nations to participate. As a result, Soviet dealings with Western Europe were reduced even further.
Tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union became
especially strained over the division of Germany. At the
Potsdam
Conference of July-August 1945, the Allied Powers confirmed their decision
to divide Germany and the city of Berlin into zones of occupation until the
Allies would permit Germany to establish a central government. The eastern
sector was placed under Soviet administration. This sector included the city of
Berlin which was further divided between communist east and free sectors
of the west. The balance of Germany was divided up into three more sectors each
overseen by the U.S., Britain and France. This division of administrative power
further enhanced the growing schism between the Soviets and their WWII allies.
Disagreements between the Soviet Union and the Western Allies soon arose over their respective occupation policies and the matter of reparations. Any hint of cooperation among the four allies disappeared in 1948 when the Western Allies decided to make currency reforms in their sectors of Germany. This action was in direct violation of their collective agreement that Germany would be dealt with as a single economic entity. The Soviets reacted by implementing their own economic reforms. On June 24,1948, the Soviet Union cut off the West's land access to the American, British, and French sectors of Berlin. Britain and the United States responded with an airlift operation of supplies and food to these sectors which went on until the Soviets lifted their blockade on May 12, 1949.
Following the Berlin Blockade, Germany was divided into two countries; East and West Germany with the East being communist. In time, ground travel was allowed between West Germany and West Berlin. This was relatively short lived when East Germany, with Soviet backing, built the Berlin Wall in 1962. The Wall became the symbol of the Cold War and the threats and hostilities between East and West. The Berlin Wall came down in November 1989, symbolizing the end of the Cold War and beginning of the ongoing thaw between Russia and the West.
Next Page > Onset of the Cold War > Page 1, 2, 3
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