Russia in the Cold War

Russia’s involvement in the Cold War was extremely important since it was one of the main countries who participated in it. This began mainly because of the relationship the Soviet Union and the United States had. The war was to conquer the international affairs and a lot of major crisis that had occurred after the Word War II. It was a period of great tensions and antagonism between those two countries. There was the West vs. East, Capitalism vs Communism, the good vs the bad guys.

It started with two conferences, Yalta and Potsdam. The USA and USSR went back to their hatred because of opposing ideologies, which were: Capitalism vs Communism.

The Yalta Conference was for the big three to meed and decide what will happen after they won World War II. Some of the few things that they decided was to Stalin remain in control of East Europe. Some where against that, however they let him stay since they needed his help to beat Japan. They also came to the conclusion that it was best to divide Germany into 4 and lastly Stalin had agreed to have free elections.

The Potsdam Conference was another agreement between the USA and Great Britain’s deeply distrust USSR, and the feeling among them was mutual. The Soviet Union decided to ‘stay’ in Eastern Europe and make several countries their buffer zone. This was to protect themselves from any further attacks. In addition, they increased their power and their influence. Winston Churchill called this “Iron Curtain”. This was what created a Communist military alliance, Warsaw Pact.

When the Big Four divided Germany they created 4 zones, however, later the Capitalist joined to create only one zone, and the Soviet Union got angry and responded by restricting travel and transit from Communist to Capitalist Germany. But Berlin remained in the Communist zone and got divided too. The USSR got restricted transit as well. In 1949 the Soviet Union blocked Berlin, the United States airlifted food, supplies and resources to people in Berlin and became a hero.

At the beginning the US was the only one who had weapons and this gave them a huge advantage, but in 1949 the USSR built their own nuclear bomb. So now, both were even.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

The Cold War. 2000 - 2011. April 11, 2011. http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/suez.htm

USSR in WWII (Essay)

USSR in WWII

The involvenment of USSR in world war II was very important because of their acts. Adolf Hitler had an aim with Poland and he knew that it wouldn’t easy to invade Poland so he signed a secretly non-agression pact with Stalin called the Nazi-Soviet Pact which stated that both countries Germany and USSR would not attack each other instead they will support each other and dividing up Poland. Also Stalin signed a non agresión pact with Japan on April 13 1941. Afterwards comes the first phase of WWII which was the German invasion of Poland in September 1 1939 and Great Britain and France declared war on Germany and on September 17 1939 USSR according with its secret plan with Germany invades Poland from the East.

Then Germany didnt followed the plan and invades the whole country. June 1941 Germany starts Operation Barbarossa which was the invasion to the Soviet Union and it was supposed to be finished in one single campaign.

 On September 15 1941 Germany started with the Siege of Leningrad and in that same month the US began supplying the USSR according to the Lend-Lease Act. Also in October Germany entered Moscow for the Soviet invasion but winter had already started making the Germans give up on December.

In 1943 Churchill, Stalin and Roosevelt met in the Teheran Conference. They agreed that the Western Allies would invade France in June 1944.

USSR began to conquered many countries. In August USSR invaded Romania and the next month they invaded Bulgaria but Bulgaria was very smart and he made peace with USSR declaring war to Germany. In the next months USSR captured Estonia, Yugoslavia, Warsaw and Vienna.

On April 23, 1945, Soviet troops reached Berlin. The next days the Soviet troops advance from the East and met up with U.S. troops advancing from the west at the Elbe River. On April 30, when the Soviets were fighting on Berlin, Adolph Hitler killed himself. On May 2, 1945, Soviet troops captured of Berlin and all remaining German troops surrendered within a few days. The war in Europe was over.

Stalin broked the non agression pact with the Japanese and the Soviet troops invaded Manchuria and they helped win the war in the Pacific. With this USSR in WWII conclude that the people of the USSR suffered alot and over 20 million men and women were killed although the Soviet troops remain powerful at the end of the war. And the ambition of the Soviet Union created tension with other Allie. Cold War began.

Bibliography

World War II History. 2001. 10 de April de 2011 <http://www.worldwariihistory.info/in/USSR.html>.

Russia in World War II Timeline

ESSAY

Russia is a country that was very involved in many wars and unagreements with other countries. Here we will talk about it’s involvement in the Great Depression, World War II, and in Totalitarian Regimes.

First, Russia’s involvement in World War, it started in 1930 when Stalin ordered a canal to be made in Moscow. The USSR had secret negotiations with Germany and that led that Poland was conquered by those two, USSR and Germany. After that in August 19 the USST signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. In 1940, Finland, after a long time of refusing to surrender, they finally did to USSR. They had lots of power and they invaded the Baltic States. Meanwhile Germany, was preparing to attack the USSR, but they didn’t know that they also had planned that the Red Army was going to attack Germany on July 6 with about 29 million soldiers. In 1942 “The Battle of Stalingrad” began. But Russia’s battle in World War II was not over yet since they were also involved in “The Battle of Kursk”.

During the Great Depression Russia was battling with an economic revolution. However, Stalin established the five year plan which was a a great idea that created infrastructure projects, ship canals, new mines, also vast iron and steel worked and huge industrial companies. The Great Depression had a big effect on the Soviet economy, even though they had great ideas they needed people to maintain and direct the machines. Many people from other countries, for example Germans and Americans came to the USSR in the searching of jobs, since the USA and Europe were hugely affected from the G.D. While the rest of the world was having lots of struggles thanks to the Great Depression, Russia was overachieving in all ways imaginable.

The USSR was the first Totalitarian Regime to reform thanks to Stalin. He was from Russia and created the totalitariam regime of Stalinism. It involved the 5 year plan which helped with the economy grow, hiperpresidencialism, that made Stalin more powerful than the president or any other governor. Also, the Great Purge was a period of time were Stalin killed/disappeared people that didn’t agree with his regime.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

European History: The Great Depression in Russia, rapid industrialization, private stocks. The New York Times Company. 2011. March 14, 2011. http://en.allexperts.com/q/European-History-670/2008/4/Great-Depression-Russia.htm

Localization of Russia

Russia in Russian Revolution

The Russian Revolution was in 1917, just after the WW1, during this time Russia was battling or hosting 2 different wars. They lost a lot of territory and were engaging several economic problems since; most of the money went on weapons and arms to defend. And due to the incredible loses and destruction Russia suffered they had to reconstruct most of it and had to invest a lot of money during that time. Also they had various inequality problems. During this war, Prince Lvov established the provisional government since he was the one in charge. This gave an opportunity for the advancement of the communism. 

Bolsheviks

Czar and the Royal Family