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