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Global Studies
The Beginning of the Cold War
Who was Joseph Stalin?
Watch and answer the questions below.
Joseph Stalin, 1942
Image is courtesy of wikimedia commons and is in the public domain
1. What was Stalin’s early life like?
2. What effects did Stalin’s rule have on the Soviet Union?
3. Why was Stalin feared in the Soviet Union?
Command Economy: Five Year Plans
The Russian Civil War and wartime communism had a devastating effect on the country’s
economy. Industrial output in 1922 was 13 percent of the output in 1914. A recovery
followed under Lenin’sNew Economic Policy, which allowed a degree of market flexibility
within the context of socialism, but Stalin stopped the NEP after Lenin’s death.
Under Stalin’s direction, the NEP was replaced by a system called a Command Economy.
In a command economy, all of the economic decisions are made by the central government.
This is another example of Stalin taking total control of the Soviet Union.
Stalin thought that the Soviet Union needed to catch up with the rest of the world’s
industrial output and transportation technology. To do so, he created a series of “Five-Year
Plans” starting in the late 1920s. These plans set high production goals for industries like
mining, railroads, electric plants and manufacturers.
The Five Year plans were successful in increasing the industrial output of the Soviet Union.
The country became a world leader in industrial goods (see chart above).
Source: “Josef Stalin,” NewWorld Encyclopedia,
4. What was the difference between Lenin’s NEP and Stalin’s Command economy?
5. What were the goals of Stalin’s Five Year Plans?
6. Were the Five Year Plans successful?
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Command Economy: Collectivization
Stalin’s government also controlled the agricultural economy. The Five Year Plans used a policy called forced
collectivizationwhich was intended to increase agricultural output from large government-owned farms created
through the integration of smaller private farms. Farm owners and peasants did not have a choice. They had to give
up their land and work on the new collectivized farms. Peasants were required to give up their farming equipment,
livestock, produce, and even their homes to the government. It was meant to bring the peasantry under more direct
political control, to facilitate the collection of taxes and provide more food for people living in Soviet cities, but
collectivization also led to a drastic drop in living standards for many peasants, and caused violent reactions by the
peasantry that was heavily suppressed by the Red Army.
In the first years of collectivization, it was estimated that agricultural production would rise 50 percent, however,
agricultural production actually dropped. Stalin blamed this unanticipated failure on kulaks (rich peasants) who
resisted collectivization. (However, kulaks only made up 4 percent of the peasant population). Therefore those
defined as “kulaks,” “kulak helpers,” and later “ex-kulaks” were ordered by Stalin to be shot, placed into Gulag labor
camps, or deported to remote areas of the country, depending on the charge.
Source: “Josef Stalin,” NewWorld Encyclopedia,
7. What was collectivization?
8. How did collectivization affect peasants?
9. Was collectivization successful? Why?
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1947: The Birth of the Cold War
During the war, the United States and USSR cooperated to defeat Nazi Germany. However, after the war ended, disagreements over reparations and
the emergence of communist governments in Eastern Europe strained the relationship. Many of the enduring ideological and pre-war disagreements
surfaced. Between 1945 and 1947, Stalin went back on his pledge to allow free elections in Eastern Europe and to have coalition governments of both
communist and non-communist leaders. During these two years, communists seized control of many Eastern European nations. This made the
United States nervous because Stalin was defiant and the United States feared the ideological spread of communism. By 1947, the distrust
heightened between the United States and USSR leading to a conflict known as the Cold War. The Cold War was a state of political and military
tension after World War II between powers in the Western Bloc (the United States and its capitalist allies) and powers in the Eastern Bloc (the Soviet
Union and its communist allies). The term “cold” is used because there was no direct fighting between the two sides, however, there were proxy wars
or wars between other nations supported by the two sides.
Source:
10. What action did Stalin take that heightened the tension between the United States and USSR? Why did these actions concern the United
States?
11 What was the Cold War? Why was the Cold War considered “cold”?
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The Cold War: 1945-1991
From 1945 until 1991, two superpowers, the US and USSR, with political and economic differences engaged in the Cold War. The Cold War caused
a series of international incidents that brought the world to the brink of disaster. After World War II ended, both the Soviet Union and the U.S.
wanted to influence Europe with their systems of government and economy. In 1946, former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill declared
that an iron curtain had “descended across the continent” dividing Europe into two hostile camps. The USSR influenced Eastern Europe, while
the U.S.A. influenced Western Europe.
12. What was the iron curtain? What did the iron curtain symbolize about international relations?
The Western Bloc
U.S.A. & NATO allies
Economic System: Capitalism
Political System: Democracy
The United States wanted to contain
communism so they pursued the
policy of containment.
Containment was a strategy of keeping
communism within its existing boundaries and
preventing its further expansion. This policy
meant the United States would support any
nation facing an external or internal communist
threat.
vs.
The Eastern Bloc
Warsaw Pact allies &USSR
Economic System: Command Economy
Political System: Communism
The USSR wanted to promote
communism and spread these ideas to
other countries.
The promotion of communism was a strategy of
expanding communism outside its existing
boundaries. This policy meant the Soviet Union
would support any nation facing external or
internal aggression from the Western bloc.
4
What were the military alliances during the Cold War and which
countries were involved?
Objectives: Identify the military alliances in the Cold War and the countries involved.
Directions: Read through the information and examine the maps below, then answer the questions on the right.
The Truman Doctrine and Containment
In 1947, United States President Harry Truman declared a new foreign policy for the US,
called the Truman Doctrine. The Truman Doctrine stated the United States would provide
political, military and economic assistance to all nations under threat from communist
forces. Before the Truman Doctrine, the US stayed out of regional conflicts that did not
directly involve their country, but the Truman Doctrine made it clear that the US would
actively resist the USSR. In the same year, Truman sent military and economic aid to both
Greece and Turkey to resist communist threats. The Truman Doctrine was motivated by the
idea of containment or limiting communism to the areas already under USSR’s control.
Source:
13. Why did Truman implement the Truman Doctrine?
14. What idea motivated the Truman Doctrine?
15. How would this policy impact the United States’
relationship with the USSR?
The Marshall Plan
The Marshall Plan was a policy used by
the United States to strengthen
democratic governments by providing
food and economic assistance to
war-ravaged European countries to help
them rebuild after the war. The Marshall
Plan was motivated by the idea that
countries recovering from the war were
vulnerable to communist threats. To
ensure that communism did not spread,
the United States provided about $13
billion to Western nations to help rebuild
their economies. Although the USSR was
offered participation, they refused and blocked benefits to Eastern Bloc countries, such as
East Germany and Poland. The USSR saw the Marshall Plan as an attempt to buy the
support of smaller countries.
Source:
16. Why was the Marshall Plan passed?
17. How would this policy impact the United States’
relationship with the USSR?
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Cold War Alliances
North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)
In 1949, the United States, Canada and ten other countries formed
a new military alliance calledNATO or North Atlantic Treaty
Organization. These newly aligned member states agreed to
protect one another if any one of them were attacked.
Source:
18. What was NATO?
19. How might this alliance have impacted the relationship
between the United States and the USSR?
The Warsaw Pact
In 1955, the USSR responded to the formation of NATO by creating
their own alliance called theWarsaw Pact. The USSR had a
number of satellite states. A satellite state is a country that is
formally independent in the world, but under heavy political,
economic and military influence or control from another country.
The Warsaw Pact included the USSR and seven satellite states in
Eastern Europe. While NATO functioned as an alliance, the USSR
used the Warsaw Pact to control their satellite states.
Source:
20. What is a satellite state?
21. What was the Warsaw Pact?
22. How did the Warsaw Pact function differently from NATO?
23. How might this alliance have impacted the relationship
between the United States and the USSR
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