Origins of Cold War

Year Event Significance and key ideas

1917 USSR established
1919-1920 Russian civil war US (Woodrow Wilson) sent 5000 US troops to support the
white army, attempt to destroy the red army
1938 Germany invades Munich agreement: GB, France, Italy and Germany agreed
Czechoslovakia for German annexation of Sudetenland
1939 Nazi-Soviet Pact Non-aggression pact with USSR to invade Poland, start of
WWII
1940 USSR conquers the Baltic Baltic states refer to Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia
states
Jun 1941 Germany invades the USSR
Dec 1941 Attack of Pearl Harbour Start of WWII for USA
1943 Teheran Conference 1) Roosevelt suggests creation of UN led by 4 policemen
2) Agreed that Germany would be divided when defeated
3) Agreed that Poland could annex territory in the West
4) Agreed that USSR could annex Poland in the East
5) Disagreements over whether Poland should be communist
Aug 1944 Warsaw Uprising Nazis crushed the Polish uprising (supported by the allies),
Red army stayed put
Aft Nazis destroyed Polish rebels, Red army took over
Warsaw → made Stalin seem he was taking advantage of the
wartime alliance to pursue USSR’s national interests
Oct 1944 Moscow Meeting Churchill and Stalin secretly agreed on the percentages
agreement (Romania 90% soviet influence, Greece 90% B&A
influence, Yugoslavia&Hungary 50%/50%, Bulgaria 75%
Russian influence)
Eastern Europe to be divided into a Soviet and non-Soviet
zone
Jan 1945 Communist-provisional
government of Poland
established
Feb 1945 Yalta Conference Agreements:
1) territories bordering USSR should be friendly to USSR
2) Coalition govt in Poland to include both London Poles and
communist Poles
3) Recognised USSR required reparations from Germany
4) Declaration of Liberated Europe (free elections) –
misinterpretation of ‘free elections’
5) Stalin to declare war on Japan
6) France to have representation as a major power (despite
being occupied by Nazis)

Disagreements (left vague or postponed to another

conference)
1) division of Germany into 4 zones (postponed as
Roosevelt/Churchill could not agree with Stalin’s huge
amount of war reparations)
2) Stalin wanted Polish/German border to move more west
and Churchill & Roosevelt wanted Stalin to hold free
elections but they could not enforce it
3) ‘Free elections’ in Eastern Europe did not corroborate with
USSR’s post-war aims, agreement during Moscow Meeting
not materialised
Apr 1945 Roosevelt dies and is Truman less friendly to Stalin
replaced by Truman
May 1945 Germany surrenders
Jul-Aug 1945 Potsdam Conference Churchill lost the GE and was replaced by Atlee
1) Truman refused massive reparations from Western-
controlled zones of Germany (came to a compromise) –
lesson from TOV
2) Germany to be de-miliitarised, de-nazified and de-
 industrialised
3) Allied controlled commission compromised to 4 allied
powers with regards to the division of Germany
4) Coalition govt in Poland made out of communists and non-
communists (communists majority)
5) Stalin rejected free elections in Eastern Europe (previously
agreed in Yalta conf) and Truman started a ‘get tough’ policy
to USSR
Aug 1945 Japan surrenders
9 Feb 1946 Bolshoi Theatre Speech
22 Feb 1946 Long Telegram
Mar 1946 Iron curtain speech
Mar 1947 Truman’s Doctrine
Jun 1947 Marshall Plan
Molotov Plan
Sep 1947 Cominform
Jan 1949 Comecon