SECTION 4 – CAUSES OF THE COLD WAR
Explain why there was an uprising in Hungary in 1956. (12 marks)
There was an uprising in Hungary in 1956 because the people were unhappy. They did not have a successful leader. The people were standing up for themselves and were fighting against communism. They realised ti was weak and they felt the need for change.
Another reason for the uprising in Hungary 1956 was because they had no money. They were discontent with the way they as people were treated. They had no food and there was nothing being done about any of it.
This gained level 1 and 2 marks for making two generalised simple statements.
In 1956 there was an uprising in Hungary due to unhappiness of the communist system. This is extremely significant as Hungarians wanted more freedom to express themselves. They wanted a bit more of a democratic system which alarmed Khrushchev as he was worried that Hungary would turn capitalist, as everything at the time had cooled down. Both USA and the USSR’s sphere of influence were equal and for
Hungary to want to become a bit more democratic was too much for the Soviet leader, so he decided to make an example out of them.
Due to the clash of ideologies, when Hungary demoted their current leader and replaced him with Imre
Nagy, who was democratically voted for. Nagy only had his post for 10 days before being made into a prisoner and executed. Hungarians were reeled back into line, their pleas for help to the West ignored as they had their own problems and could not be bothered to get into a war against the USSR for them.
This gained level 2 and 5 marks. The second half was irrelevant and so was ignored but the first paragraph was well developed and focused.

Hungary was a satellite state of the USSR. One of the reasons that there was an uprising was because it became communist, lost land and all of its coal and oil were shipped to the Soviet Union. Hungarians were angry about this because it was detrimental to their economy. Also, the Hungarians were very patriotic and so they were angry about the fact that the Soviet Union had so much control over them.
Another factor that led to the uprising was that the Soviets made Rakosi a dictator in Hungary. Rakosi jailed
381,000 Hungarians and executed 2,000. This infuriated the Hungarians and made them detest communism.
Khrushchev’s secret speech also led to the uprising. Khrushchev became the Soviet leader in 1953 after
Stalin died. His ‘secret speech’ in 1956 promised to change Stalin’s, who he called a murderer and a tyrant, policies. This was called ‘deStalinisation’. He also promised to relax Soviet controls in satellite states and to have peaceful co-existence with the west. His promises led the Hungarians to riot for change and when Imre
Nagy became the leader in 1956, he proposed reforms. These included leaving the Warsaw Pact and ending communism in Hungary. The US offered 20million dollars of aid to Nagy’s government. However, the USSR feared that Hungary would set a trend and so 200,000 Soviet troops invaded to restore communist control, killing 20,000 Hungarians in the process. The US and UN disapproved but offered no aid.
The main reason as to why there was an uprising in Hungary was because of the fact that the Soviet Union were stripping the Hungarians of their resources and their sovereignty. If they hadn’t been taking all of their resources and destroying their economy, then there wouldn’t have been an uproar in Hungary which led to the Soviets employing a dictator to reprimand opponents of communism. As a result of their destroyed economy and murdered people, the Hungarians rioted for change.
This gained level 3 and 12 marks. It links its points and prioritises most important factors. This was described as an example of a very good answer.

SECTION 5 – THREE COLD WAR CRISES
Explain why Berlin was a Cold War flashpoint in the years 1957 – 63. (12 marks)
Berlin was the capital city of a now war damaged country in Europe. Germany had suffered blame, pain and humiliation from different countries.
However, the biggest blow it received up-to-date, and in my opinion during 1957-63 was the creation of the
Berlin Wall in 1961. The wall was built after Khrushchev realised that 2,000 period a day were leaving.
This gained level 1 and 2 marks for the last two sentences.
One of the main reasons as to why Berlin was an important feature from 1957-63 was because of the unrest between the powers controlling East Berlin and the powers controlling the West. From 1949 to 1961, almost
3 million East Germans fled to the West. This was because the East German government was very unpopular and also because the East Germans wanted the Western freedom, wealth and standard of living. Many of the people who left were young and well-educated and this was known as the ‘brain drain’. This fuelled the
Cold War because the Soviets were losing control of East Berliners to the capitalist West. In 1958, the USSR were embarrassed that the East Germans preferred the West and so Khrushchev said that all of Berlin belonged to East Germany. In an attempt to humiliate the West and demonstrate the power of the Eastern communists, Khrushchev gave the Western powers 6 months to remove their troops from Berlin. President
Eisenhower and Khrushchev agreed to meet to discuss the situation in Berlin and Khrushchev withdrew his ultimatum. They met first in 1959 in Geneva then again at Camp David in the US. They then met again in
Paris in 1960 but couldn’t agree on what to do in Berlin because they both wanted their sphere of influence to prevail there; this was the whole essence of the Cold War. Before the talks, a US spy plane was shot down over the USSR and when President Eisenhower refused to apologise for spying, Khrushchev walked out.
In 1960 in Geneva, Khrushchev met with the new president, Kennedy. Kin the hope of taking advantage of the new president’s inexperience, Khrushchev once gain told the US that they had to remove their troops from Berlin. This fed the Cold War because Kennedy refused to do so as he wanted to secure a capitalist sphere of influence in Berlin and so he started preparing for war. Kennedy spent an extra 3.2 billion on military and 270 million on nuclear fallout shelters.
By 1961, the US had 20 times more nuclear weapons than the USSR and also had B52 planes that could carry nuclear bombs. Khrushchev knew that he could not force the US out of Berlin but he could also not afford war. In this war of ideologies, Khrushchev decided that the only thing he could do to stop communist East
Berliners from defecting to the capitalist West would be to build the Berlin Wall on 12 th August. It was
145km long and stopped East Germans from fleeing to the West.
The Berlin Wall crisis and the follow up to it was relevant to the Cold War because it happened because both sides were trying to secure the place of their ideologies in Berlin.
This gained level 3 and 11 marks. Its different points are linked implicitly. It needed to have its points prioritised in terms of importance to gain full marks.

SECTION 6 – END OF THE COLD WAR (NOT STUDIED THIS QUESTION YET)
Explain why relations between the USA and the Soviet Union changed in the years 1981 – 85. (12 marks)
The relationship between USA and the Soviet Union changed between 1981 and 85 because of many different reasons. One of those reasons was because of trust. The USA and USSR had a lot of trust in each other which had been built up over time through the Detente period. Also because of all the treaties that had been signed they knew nothing dangerous could really be done.
Another reason for the change in relationship was economic, by 81 neither side had any money to be spending on nuclear weapons or building up any other weapons. This lessened the tension between the two sides.
Another factor that improved the relationship was personalities. The leader of the Soviet Union was
Gorbachev at the time and he was able to accept that the USSR had lost the arms race and he began to talk about democracy – this made the USA feel better about their relationship because they knew they were in a higher, more superior position.
Another reason for the change in these two sides relationship was the Atomic bomb. Neither side could use their bomb without guaranteed nuclear war.
This just made its way into level 2 with 4 marks out of 12. It gained this for the content of the 3 rd paragraph.