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CHAPTER
17
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Critical Thinking Activity
Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus
The Cold War
The alliance between the United States, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union
quickly unraveled after World War II. While there was a common enemy,
Western democracies and Soviet leaders had overlooked their political, economic, and social differences. After the war, suspicions returned. Soviet expansion into Eastern Europe heightened American fears of communism, a system
in which society as a whole, represented by the Communist party, owns and
controls property and the means of production.
Within months after the end of World War II, the United States and the
Soviet Union entered into a period of intense confrontation and rivalry.
Difficulties over the writing of the treaties and over the government of occupied Germany grew increasingly severe. The Allies’ goal of establishing democratic governments throughout Europe after World War II proved to be
elusive. To former British Prime Minister Churchill and U.S. President
Truman, democracy meant political and economic systems like those in
Great Britain and the United States. But Western democracy was unacceptable to Soviet dictator Stalin, who began to establish Soviet-style communism in Eastern Europe.
When the fighting ended, Soviet troops occupied much of Eastern
Europe. The Soviet leaders, who had promised free elections in these
nations, did not follow through. In Hungary, where free elections were held
in 1945, Communist candidates received only 17 percent of the vote.
Unwilling to lose control, Stalin later suppressed elections in Hungary and
in the other nations of Eastern Europe. Then, under elections supervised by
Soviet troops, voters gave 90 percent of the vote to Communist candidates
in Poland. This pattern was repeated in all Soviet-occupied areas, helping to
establish Communist governments throughout Eastern Europe. By 1947
these nations had become Communist dictatorships. Nations that were held
under Soviet domination came to be called satellite nations because, like
planets circling the Sun, they were dependent upon the Soviet Union. In
matters of both domestic and foreign policy, the satellite countries were subordinate to the Soviet Union.
The satellite nations of Eastern Europe served the Soviet Union. They
were an important market for Soviet products as well as a source of supply
of munitions, oil, and other natural resources and products needed by the
Soviet Union. To restore the devastated Soviet economy, the Soviets removed
entire factories, transportation equipment, and machinery from the satellite
nations back to the Soviet Union. Stalin also ordered purges, or forced
removals, of leaders of satellite nations who were deemed disloyal.
The leaders of Western Europe and the United States watched with grave
concern as the Soviet Union crushed all opposition in the nations of Eastern
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Chapter 17, Critical Thinking Activity, continued
Europe after 1945. Former Prime Minister Winston Churchill identified the
new threat in a speech in March 1946 at Fulton, Missouri. With President
Truman on the platform, Churchill warned of an “iron curtain” descending
across the European continent. Thus the phrase iron curtain would be used
to describe Soviet policy from 1945 to 1989.
In contrast to the Soviet Union, when World War II ended the United
States began to withdraw troops from Europe. This withdrawal left the
Soviet army as the most powerful military force in Europe. As a result of the
German invasion, the Soviet Union had lost 20 million people and suffered
devastation of land, property, and industry. Feeling threatened by Western
powers, the Soviet Union wanted to create a buffer, or safety zone, on its
western border. Soviet troops stationed there ensured that the nations of
Eastern Europe would remain its allies.
The Communists promised to abolish poverty, privilege, and private
property. They guaranteed productive work, shelter, education, health care,
and a classless society in the new “people’s democracies” of war-torn Eastern
Europe. The Americans responded with a policy of containment—preventing the further spread of communism.
American newspaper columnist Walter Lippmann published his newspaper columns on containment in a book called The Cold War. The title, a
term coined by Lippmann to refer to a state of war that did not involve
actual bloodshed, came to be used by nearly everyone. The Cold War was
unlike any other struggle. It required constant military preparedness for
both sides; it called for military support for countries believed to be in danger of a Communist takeover. It had other economic costs, as both the
United States and the Soviet Union tried to “buy” allies with gifts ranging
from food to steel mills.
1. Why was Stalin so determined to develop satellite countries that would constitute a
buffer zone for the Soviet Union?
2. Why did the Soviet Union’s alliance with the allies during World War II disappear so
quickly after the war was over?
3. When and how did the Cold War end? What action is recognized as the culminating
end of the Cold War? What became of the former Soviet Union?
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Activity 17
4. Each nation in Europe bordering the
Rhine could pass legislation which specifies the legal limits of pollutants discharged. Pollution taxes could be imposed
on both individuals and industries. At the
international level there could be cooperation among the countries that share the
Rhine. An alarm system could be installed
to notify officials when pollutants have
exceeded allowable limits. Cooperation
could exist in taking care to conserve and
beautify the area around the Rhine.
1. After the massive losses incurred by the
Soviets during World War II, Stalin was
determined that any future western enemy
would have to wade through several satellite countries before Russia herself could
ever be invaded again.
2. The fact that the Soviet Union had an
alliance with the Allies was more unusual
than the Cold War that followed. The
alliance of the Soviet Union and allies
during WWII was one of necessity, joined
against a common enemy. But with that
common enemy defeated, the Soviet
Union reverted to its historical distrust of
the west and the Cold War ensued.
3. The Cold War ended in 1989 when the
people of the satellite nations of Poland,
Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria,
Romania, and East Germany overthrew
their communist rulers and forced democratic elections. The official act was when
crowds tore down the Berlin Wall that had
divided Germany and symbolized the
“iron curtain” that separated Eastern
Europe and Western Europe. The former
Soviet Union became 15 independent
nations.
Activity 14
1. The map shows Germany striking out to
the northwest; northeast; west; east;
southwest; and southeast. Essentially,
Germany invaded Western Europe from
all directions.
2. Flanders is in Western Belgium.
3. Accept all reasonable responses.
Activity 15
1. The major concentration camps were in
Germany, Poland, Austria, and Yugoslavia.
Germany and Poland had the most.
2. Josef Mengele, was a German doctor who
personally selected nearly half a million
prisoners to die in gas chambers at
Auschwitz. He also became infamous for
his medical experiments on inmates.
3. Accept all reasonable responses. Answers
might include that at night it is dark.
Darkness is often associated with evil.
Activity 18
1. Overall, agriculture has shown the least
growth, as the numbers of workers is
down from 1995 after two years of
increases. The service industry overall has
been the most stable in terms of numbers
of people employed.
2. Health expenditure has decreased
although life expectancy has increased and
mortality has decreased. The number of
doctors has also increased, although the
costs of health care have continued to
climb. So the numbers seem to correlate
somewhat.
3. The huge increases in consumer prices for
1994 are probably due to the change over
to independence. Over the next three years
the increase in prices has come down
considerably as Uzbekistan started to stabilize its economy.
Activity 16
1. The purpose of the 1995 Dayton Peace
Accord was to ensure the safety of all ethnic groups living in the region.
2. Recent examples may include the Jewish
Holocaust in WWII, and the African
Tribes of the Hutus and the Tutsis in the
1990s. Accept all reasonable responses.
3. The assassination of the heir to Austria’s
throne by a Serbian nationalist in 1914
started the chain of events that resulted in
World War I.
4. Accept all reasonable responses.
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Critical Thinking Activities