The COLD WAR, 1945-1991
Part I, 1945-1964
Causes of the Cold War:
1. Sovietization, 1944-48
A. Stalin’s security concerns
B. Ideological goals
2. Truman doctrine, 1947->
A. Containment (announced March 1947)
B. Marshall plan (European Recovery
Program): Total: $13.3 billion
THE SOVIET BLOC
Czechoslovakia
• President Edvard Benes
– May 18, 1945, returns after seven-year exile
• Klement Gottwald, leader of Czechoslovak
Communists
• Red Army occupied the country
• May 26, 1946, the Communist Party of
Czechoslovakia received 2,695,293 votes: 38.7
percent of the total
• Gottwald became premier
• CPC got key ministries, but non-communists had a
majority in parliament
• But non-communists not really united
Czechoslovakia (cont.)
• Stalin insisted that the country refuse the Marshall
Plan
• February 1948: non-communist ministers resign over
communist police forces during election (Gottwald did
not)
• March 10, 1948: Jan Masaryk (Foreign Minister)
found dead at ministry (murder or suicide)
• May 30, 1948: Communists win an absolute majority
• Gottwald new president
• At Stalin’s insistence, Gottwald imposes a Soviet
style constitution
• Communist Party replaced the government
Berlin Blockade and Airlift, 1948-49
Berlin Blockade and Airlift (cont.)
• Western Allies (USA, GB, France) united
their occupation zones
• June 1948: New German mark introduced
• Stalin ordered blockade of roads and rails
• US and GB created airlift:
• To May 1949: 278,228 flights
• 2,326,406 tons of food, coal, other
necessities
1949: Communism
spreading
• Soviets removed opposition in
eastern Europe
• Soviets exploded first atomic bomb
• Chinese revolution
• NATO founded, 1949 to present
The Soviet Bloc
not monolithic
• Josip Broz a.k.a.
TITO (r. 19451980)
• Yugoslavia
• Non-alignment
Korean War, 1950-53
• Two rival governments:
• North: Soviet-supported Kim Il-Sung’s
communist government
• South: US-supported anti-communist,
autocrat Syngman Rhee
• United Nations resolved to allow a
US-led “police action”
Korean War, 1950-53
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36,574 Americans killed
175,000 South Korean soldiers killed
215,000 North Korean soldiers killed
114,000 Chinese soldiers killed
315 Soviet soldiers killed
About two million Korean civilians
killed or wounded
1953: Stalin died
Power struggle, 1953
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Presidium, 1952-1966
“collective leadership”
Lavrentiy Beria, 1899-1953
Vyacheslav Molotov, 18901986
Georgy Malenkov, 1902-88
Nikita Khrushchev, 18941971
June 1953: Beria arrested
1956: Malenkov lost to
Khrushchev
“Virgin Lands” proposal
Nikita Khrushchev (r. 1953-64)
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Enthusiastic
open-minded
mercurial
1956: 20th CPSU Congress
 Peaceful co-existence
 Secret Speech
• “The Thaw” or DeStalinization, 1956-64
• GULAG dismantled
• But… Smashed Hungarian
revolution of 1956:
– 2500 Hungarians killed
– 13,000 wounded
Khrushchev’s internal reforms
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Agriculture: “Virgin Lands”
Housing crisis: Khrushchovka
1957: B. Pasternak, Doktor Zhivago
Nov. 1962: A. Solzhenitsyn, One day in
the Life of Ivan Denisovich
• Persecuted Orthodox Churches, from
15,000 (1951) to 8000 (1963).
• Allowed some displaced peoples to
return, but not Crimean Tatars.
Nikita Khrushchev (r. 1953-64)
• Warsaw Pact formed, 1955
• Sino-Soviet split (1960):
– Mao “Galoshes”
– Nikita the “Bull”
• U-2 incident (May 1960)
– Pilot Gary Powers
• August 1961: Berlin Wall
constructed.
• Oct. 1962: Cuban Missile
Crisis
• June 1963: “hot line”
• Aug. 1963: Partial Test Ban
Treaty (PTBT)
Berlin Wall, 1961-1989