- Since 1940s, most historians blamed Stalin for starting the Cold War
- A new group in 1960s believed it may have been the USA
- Here are some arguments of historians about who was to blame for starting the Cold War
Reasons Stalin was to blame
- First of all, historians blamed the nature of communism
- This was because communism was intended to be universal, and had the need to expand its system across the rest of the world
- This meant that communism could not coexist with the other capitalist countries
- Examples of the fact that communism contradicted the interests of other countries include...
- The fact that Stalin did not keep his promises at Yalta for free and fair elections at Poland and set up communist governments in eastern Europe and banned, jailed, and even murdered opposition
- The control of the economy of other countries in the Soviet bloc through COMECON
- The use of terms relating to his own ideology when criticising the western powers
- The creation of COMINFORM, and the fact that it aimed to create communist governments following the model of the USSR and threaten capitalism
- Historians also blamed Stalin' personality
- He was very firm on Soviet foreign policy, causing a more hostile treatment to the West
- He was leader of USSR throughout the whole of the beginning of the Cold War, the only leader of a country in the Cold War that ruled throughout the entire conflict
Reasons Stalin was not to blame
- Historians argue that the USSR acted mostly to secure itself from the fear of invasion by Western powers
- Was scared that a remilitarised Germany would expand eastwards
- The introduction of a new currency and the creation of Bizonia caused Stalin to react through action on Berlin
- This fear was valid, as Western powers...
- Intefered in the Russian Civil War against the Communists
- Had been believed to have allowed Germany to expand to the east in the last 1930s by invading late in WW2 (by Stalin)
- Britain refused sharing information of the German Enigma codes during the war
- The secrecy of the Manhattan Project (development of an atomic bomb) in the US
- The shift of relations with America once Truman came into office with a more anti-USSR approach (involvement with issues of the futures of Germany and Poland, as well as the end of the Lend-Leasse Program for the USSR)
- It was also argued that this system was used for recovery after heavy damage from WW2. This was because...
- USSR had suffered almost a 20 million casualties, while US had only suffered less than a million
- USSR had rejected the Marshall plan, but instead threatened the coutries in the Soviet bloc to provide machinery and raw materials
- 25 million citizens of the USSR were homeless
- Leningrad and Stalingrad were devastated
Reasons the USA was to blame
- Historians blamed the fact that the foreign policy of the United States focused on creating a global free market to consume US goods, which threatened the USSR's communist ideologies
- For example, the Marshall Aid was designed to preserve capitalism and free markets, as well as provide a market for US goods
- The Lend-Leasse plan for the USSR ended in 1945 (as there was no capitalism to be preserved in the USSR)
- Bizonia was created and a new currency was introduced, despite clearly being a violation of the Potsdam agreement
- They argue that this was an attempt to turn Germany into an entirely capitalist country
- Historians also blamed the approach of the USA
- Truman was very firm and aggressive to the USSR
- He believed that the US atomic weapon monopoly could allow it to control the terms of the Potsdam Conference
- The Truman Doctrine and Marshall Aid also seemed to be confrontational and also looked like it aimed to isolate the USSR
Reasons the USA was not to blame
- Stalin's disregard for the Treaty was shown when the London Poles were oppressed
- Western European countries had political freedom
- Truman took 2 years to respond to the USSR
- Truman Doctrine was clearly a defensive measure
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