1. The Cold War begins: 1945 -1948
Key issues:
Why did the wartime alliance fall apart?
What were the major differences?
The importance of Yalta and Potsdam conferences.
The roles of Stalin and Truman.

2. Events from the war.
 Major point: The USSR lost around 20 million people in
WW2.
 Stalin was determined to make the USSR secure in the
future.
 By contrast GB lost around 370,000 and the USA lost
297,000 people.

3. The rise of the superpowers
 Before WW2 there were a number of countries which could
have claimed to be superpowers – USA, USSR,GB, France,
Japan, Germany.
 The damage caused by the war to these countries left only
two countries with the military strength, size and resources
to be called superpowers….USA and USSR.

4. What they believed in:
 Don‟t forget USA was capitalist and USSR was communist.
 They had allied against Fascism ….. Now the common
enemy had been defeated the reason for co-operation was
gone.
 Differences were bound to emerge.

5. The Past.
 The Soviet Union could not forget that in 1918 Britain
and the USA had tried to destroy the Russian
Revolution.
 The memory of the Red Scare in the 1920s was not gone
either.
 Stalin also thought that they had not given him enough
help in the Second World War.
 Britain and the USA could not forget that Stalin had
signed the Nazi-Soviet Pact with Germany in 1939.

6. Aims.
 Stalin wanted huge reparations from Germany, and a
„buffer‟ of friendly states to protect the USSR from being
invaded again. He was “suspicious”, think about the
causes of Appeasement!
 Britain and the USA wanted to protect democracy, and
help Germany to recover. They were worried that large
areas of eastern Europe could fall under Soviet control.

7. Europe at the end of WW2
 After the war, who would lead the countries and form new
governments?
 The USSR favoured the communist groups, the USA
favoured the non-communists
 Examples would be Greece and Yugoslavia.
 This was one cause of tension between the superpowers.

8. TASK
 Two conferences were held in 1945 at Yalta and Potsdam
 The aim was to discuss the future.
 What to do with Germany‟s leaders after the war.
 What would happen to the occupied countries after
liberation, especially those of Eastern Europe.
 How to end the war with Japan
 How to build a lasting peace.

9. So, who was to blame?
 Russian historians blamed Churchill (the British Prime Minister)
and Truman (the American president, 1945–1953). They said
Truman and Churchill wanted to destroy the USSR, which was
just defending itself.
 At first, western writers blamed the Soviet Union. They said
Stalin was trying to build up a Soviet empire. Later, however,
some western historians blamed the USA. They said Truman had
not understood how much Russia had suffered in the Second
World War.
 Nowadays, historians think BOTH sides were to blame – that
there were hatreds on both sides and probably an inevitable
conflict once again.