Soviet Union and Satellite Nations
Timeline of Communism in the 20th Century
Communism in the USSR
(1917 – 1989)
Communism in China
(1949 – present)
1910 1920
Communist
Revolution in
Russia (1917)
1930
1940
1950
Communist
Revolution in
China (1949)
1950:
Korean War
“Cold War”
1960
1970
Vietnam
War
1966: China’s
“Cultural
Revolution”
1980
1990
1989:
Fall of
Communism
in the USSR
1989:
Tiananmen
Square in China
Origins of Communism
• Karl Marx: Father of Communism  wrote
Communist Manifesto
• Asked workers (proletariat) of the world to revolt
and take control of the “means of production”
Communism
• Socialism: a type of economic
system in which gov’t runs the
economy for the entire society
• Communism: socialism with
totalitarian dictatorship
• Marxism: communism with
violent radical revolution –
CLASS STRUGGLE
Communism comes to Russia
•
•
•
•
Life under the Czar:
Too many poor peasants
Not enough land or food
Hate being involved in WW1
• Russia remained unindustrialized
No supplies for the troops (not
enough railroads or factories)
• By 1915, many soldiers do not have
weapons or ammunition
Hello!
I FEEL
RIGHT AT
HOME!
MAMMA’S
HAPPY!
Group of nobles
WELCOME TO MY
CRIB !
Prince Felix
Yusupov
moika palace
I’M
FEELING
OK !
I’M
STILL
FEELING
OK !
BAM !
BAM !
BAM !
FUNNY…
MY BACK
IS
ITCHY !
BAM !
POW !
BOOM !
SPLASH !
I DON’T
FEEL SO
HOT…
HELP !!!
!
HELP… I’M
DROWNING !
I’LL BE BACK !
The Provisional Government
• Czar Nicholas II abdicated
(gave up the throne)
• A moderate temporary
gov’t was created
The Bolsheviks
•
•
•
•
Name of the Communist Party in Russia
Began the Communist Revolution
Led by Vladimir Lenin - RADICAL
Offered the poor “Bread, land,
and peace”
1917 Revolution
• Bolsheviks overthrew provisional gov’t
• Created new Communist nation  USSR
Russian Civil War
• Red Army (communists) vs. White Army
(supporters of Czar)
• Red Army won! Killed millions
Cheka (secret police)
Assassination of Czar & family
Lenin’s U.S.S.R.
• The U.S.S.R.
• Union of Soviet Socialist Republics – aka
“Soviet Union”
“The most striking thing was the utter
unexpectedness of it, like a train crash in the
night, like a bridge crumbling beneath your
feet, like a house falling down”
Bye!
Russia lost:
• Most of its land in Europe
•32% of its farmland
•34% of its population
•54% of its industry
89% of its coalmines
• The Russian banks were all nationalized.
• Control of the factories was given to the
soviets.
• Private bank accounts were confiscated.
• The Church's properties (including bank
accounts) were seized.
• Wages were fixed at higher rates than during
the war and a shorter, eight-hour working day
was introduced.
Decree on Land
Private Property
Treatment of the Wealthy
Princess Golitsyn sold homemade pies on
the street
Baroness Wrangel sold knitwear
One baroness sold a diamond broach for
5,000 rubles (the cost of a bag of flour)
=
New Economic Policy
• Lenin’s plan to help the economy
• The gov’t would control only major businesses
• People could control small businesses and
earn profit (limited capitalism)
Stalin’s U.S.S.R.
• Joseph Stalin: Took over after Lenin’s death
• Became a brutal dictator
Totalitarian State:
• Only one political party allowed → the Communist Party
• Controlled all aspects of life
• Put state concerns ahead of your own
Collectivization
• Stalin’s plan to improve farming
• Eliminated small farms – they were “collected” onto large,
state-run farms
• If you refused, you DIED
5-Year Plan
• Stalin’s plan to industrialize
• Focused on heavy industry (military, steel, mining,
farm machines)
• Not on consumer goods (things for people’s lives)
Purges
• Stalin’s attempt to eliminate anyone that could threaten
his control
• Many government officials were imprisoned or executed
Ex. Trotsky exiled and killed
+
=
World War II
• Stalin signed a nonaggression pact with
Hitler
• Germany attacked the
USSR → the USSR
joined the “Allies”
The Cold War
Yeah RIGHT
I’ll help fight Japan
and I’ll totally allow
free elections in
Eastern European
countries soon.
The Cold War
Roots of the Cold War:
• There was a war of ideas between two sides (U.S. and
U.S.S.R.)
• There was a great deal of mistrust after World War II
• The way Europe was divided up after WW II caused an
uneasy tension
Cold War Terms:
• Iron Curtain: name for the imaginary dividing line
between the Democratic Western European nations
and the Communist East European nations
From Stettin in the Baltic
to Trieste in the Adriatic
an "iron curtain" has descended
across the Continent.
Cold War Terms:
• Eastern Bloc: the group of
nations – that were communist
– in Eastern Europe (behind
the “Iron Curtain”)
• “satellites”: Another name for the “Eastern Bloc” nations
• Countries that were “controlled” by and near the USSR
The 2 Sides
Alliance
Leading
Nation
Foreign
Policy
Economic
System
Type of
Government
Command Economy
• “Central Planning”
• State-control of production, quotas,
distribution
All economic decisions made by gov’t
• NO private business  only GOV’T ownership
Containment
Events of the Cold War
• Marshall Plan / Truman
Doctrine:
• U.S. offered billions of $ to
help rebuild European
nations after WW2 as long as
they were NOT communist
Berlin Airlift
You can go,
But I’m not
leaving!
Germany should
stay weak!
• Communists tried a blockade to force the allies
out of Berlin (in East Germany)
No road travel in or
out of West Berlin
Help! We need
food! We’re
starving!
Eventually, I Hope
that Allies will just
give up West Berlin
to the USSR
Operation Little Vittles
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin_airlift#Operation_Little_Vittles
Forcing Stalin to give up the blockade
Fine!
Arms Race:
• a race between 2 “super powers” (U.S. vs.
U.S.S.R.) to gather bigger, better and more
weapons
MAD – Mutually Assured Destruction
Space Race
• A race for national pride mostly
• It began when the Soviets put the first satellite,
“Sputnik” into orbit
Berlin Wall
• The wall became the
symbol of the Cold War
• The Communists put up
a wall to keep East
Berliners from escaping
to West Berlin
Cuban Missile Crisis

The Soviets put nuclear missiles in Cuba

U.S. President JFK ordered a
blockade of Cuba and told
the USSR to remove the
missiles

The closest the
world ever came to
nuclear destruction

The Soviet Union backed down and pulled the missiles out
Brinksmanship
replaced
By détente
• Détente: French noun
– (a) relaxation of a
person;
– release of a spring,
– slackening of a rope,
– easing of relations
A “warming” of tensions between the
U.S. and the U.S.S.R. (1970’s – 1980’s)
Relieves Cold War tension!
President Nixon met with the leaders of
USSR and China
USSR and China
SALT I
(Strategic Arms Limitation Talks)
reduce # of ICBMs and submarine missiles
reduce # of ICBMs and submarine missiles
Helsinki Accords
Treaties were signed that limited nuclear
weapons in each nation (ex. SALT)
Fall of the USSR - CAUSES
• Changing of the Guard
• A new, younger generation leader was chosen – Mikhail
Gorbechev
FALL OF THE USSR
• Fall of the Berlin Wall
(1989) symbol of the
end of the Cold War
Fall of the USSR - CAUSES
• Glasnost: “openness” examples: some
freedom of religion and press
• Perestroika: “restructuring” examples:
allow some capitalism
Failure of the economy:
• Too much sacrificing “butter for guns” (too much
military spending-not consumer!)
• Perestroika weakened an already poor economy
Challenges to the Soviet control of satellite nations
• Began with workers in Poland
• Other “Eastern Bloc” nations did the same
It’s time to
break free!
Break-up of the USSR
• After seeing Warsaw Pact nations end communism,
Soviet citizens wanted the same thing
• Protests were not stopped and the Republics turned
into separate independent nations
Results of the fall of the USSR
• New nations formed:
• Russia became the largest most important
• Some of the Republics formed an economic alliance
called the Commonwealth of Independent States
(CIS)
Results of the fall of the USSR
• Effects on world communism: other Communist
nations suffered (no more support from the U.S.S.R.)
• Ending of the Cold War: no more U.S.S.R., no more
cold war
Latvia
Estonia
Lithuania
Belarus
Ukraine
Georgia
Armenia
Kazakhstan
Azerbaijan
Kyrgyzstan
Tajikistan