Q2. Discuss the main causes of the Cold War in 1945

Difference of ideology: Spread of Communism was feared by the capitalist states as it would entail loss of political power and the class division of wealth. This fear translated into conflict of ideologies; both political and economic. Both the camps feared attack from each other.

Discriminatory treatment of Russia: In Russian Civil War (1918), capitalist states sent troops to Russia to help the anti-communist forces which promoted negative sentiments in the communists. This feeling was reinforced by German invasion of Russia in 1941.

During the war also incidents like the delay in launching second front (Invasion of France in 1944) had put enormous pressure on the Russians and consequently they suffered colossal losses.

Americans also did not disclose about the existence of the atomic bomb until shortly before its use on Japan, and they rejected Stalin’s request that Russia should share in the occupation of Japan

Russia’s foreign policies: After the allied victory Russia aggressively tried to acquire maximum German territories and also from countries such as Finland, Poland and Romania. Stalin also promoted communist states in Eastern Europe to make a buffer zone/ zone of influence. The west termed it as Soviet aggression and feared spread of communism to their areas of influence.

This feeling of suspicion lead to mutual distrust and this did a great deal to deepen the Cold War

 

Cold War timeline of some of the major events
1945  Feb	Yalta Conference between USSR, USA and Britain
May	Germany surrenders	1961	Berlin Wall Crisis
Jul/Aug	Potsdam Conferences between USSR, USA and Britain
Aug	Nuclear Attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki
1946	Churchill’s Iron Curtain Speech	1972	Détente between USSR and USA
1947	Truman Doctrine		SALT I Treaty
	Marshall Plan	1975	Helsinki Agreement
	USA takes over from Britain in Greece and Turkey
1948	Czechoslovak coup	1979	SALT II Treaty
	Berlin Airlift Crisis
1949	End of Berlin Airlift; formation of West Germany and East Germany	1980	Solidarity movement begins in Poland
	Creation of NATO	1981	Martial Law in Poland
	USSR explodes ‘A’ bomb	1985	Mikhail Gorbachev becomes Soviet leader
	Korean War begins
1953	Stalin dies	1989	Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia
	Ceasefire in Korea		Political change in Poland
1955	Austrian State Treaty, West Germany joins NATO, Warsaw Pact formed		Berlin Wall comes down
1956	20th Party Congress of CPSU denounces Stalin, Hungarian uprising	1990	Ceauşescu overthrown in Romania
			East and West Germany unite into one country
		1991	Anti-Gorbachev communist takeover prevented
			Gorbachev replaced by Boris Yeltsin