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The Potsdam Conference, July 1945

PART 2 THE COLD WAR, 1945–75

In May 1945, three months after the Yalta Conference, Allied troops reached
Berlin. Hitler committed suicide. Germany surrendered. The war in Europe
was won.
A second conference of the Allied leaders was arranged for July 1945 in the
Berlin suburb of Potsdam. However, in the five months since Yalta a number
of changes had taken place which would greatly affect relationships
between the leaders.

Changes since Yalta

1 Stalin’s armies were occupying most of eastern Europe
Soviet troops had liberated country after country in eastern Europe, but
instead of withdrawing his troops Stalin had left them there. Refugees were
fleeing out of these countries fearing a communist take-over. Stalin had set
up a communist government in Poland, ignoring the wishes of the majority
of Poles. He insisted that his control of eastern Europe was a defensive
measure against possible future attacks.
2 America had a new president
On 12 April 1945, President Roosevelt died. He was replaced by his vice-
president, Harry Truman. Truman was a very different man from Roosevelt.
He was much more anticommunist than Roosevelt and was very suspicious
of Stalin. Truman and his advisers saw Soviet actions in eastern Europe as
preparations for a Soviet take-over of the rest of Europe.
3 The Allies had tested an atomic bomb
On 16 July 1945 the Americans successfully tested an a to mic b o mb at a desert
site in the USA. At the start of the Po ts d a m Co n fe re n ce , Truman informed
Stalin about it.

SOURCE 10 SOURCE 11
This war is not as in the past; whoever Unless Russia is faced with an iron fist
occupies a territory also imposes on it and strong language another war is
his own social system. Everyone imposes in the making. Only one language do
his own system as far as his army has they understand – ‘how many [army]
power to do so. It cannot be otherwise. divisions have you got?’ … I’m tired of
Stalin speaking soon after the end of the babying the Soviets.
Second World War about the take-over of President Truman, writing to his
eastern Europe. Secretary of State in January 1946.

Stalin v. Truman
The Potsdam Conference finally got under way on 17 July 1945. Not
surprisingly, it did not go as smoothly as Yalta.
To change the situation further still, in July there was an election in
Britain. Winston Churchill was defeated, so half way through the conference
he was replaced by a new prime minister, Clement Attlee. In the absence of
Churchill, the conference was dominated by rivalry and suspicion between
Stalin and Truman. A number of issues arose on which neither side seemed
able to appreciate the other’s point of view (see table on page 87).

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SOURCE 12

4 Who was to blame for the Cold War?

An official publicity photograph of the leaders of the Big Three at the Potsdam
Conference. The new British prime minister Clement Atlee is on the left, new US
president Harry Truman is in the centre and Stalin is on the right.

Disagreements at Potsdam
✗ Germany ✗ Reparations ✗ Eastern Europe
Stalin wanted to Twenty million At Yalta, Stalin had
incapacitate Germany Russians had died won agreement from
completely to protect in the war and the the Allies that he
the USSR against future Soviet Union had been could set up pro-
threats. Truman did devastated. Stalin Soviet governments
not want to repeat the wanted compensation in eastern Europe.
mistake of the Tre a ty o f from Germany. Truman, He said, ‘If the Slav
Ve rs a ille s . however, was once [the majority of east
again determined not European] people are
to repeat the mistakes united, no one will dare
at the end of the First move a finger against
World War and resisted them’. Truman became
this demand. very unhappy about
Russian intentions and
soon adopted a ‘get
tough’ attitude towards
Stalin.

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How did the USSR gain control of eastern

PART 2 THE COLD WAR, 1945–75

Europe by 1948?
The ‘iron curtain’
The Potsdam Conference ended without complete agreement on any of
the disagreements on the previous page. Over the next nine months,
Stalin achieved the domination of eastern Europe that he was seeking. By
1946 Poland, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Albania all had communist
governments which owed their loyalty to Stalin. Churchill described the
border between Soviet-controlled countries and the West as an ‘iron curtain’
(see Source 13). The name stuck.

SOURCE 13 SOURCE 14
A shadow has fallen upon the scenes so lately lighted by the Allied The following circumstances should not be forgotten. The
victory. From Stettin on the Baltic to Trieste on the Adriatic, an iron Germans made their invasion of the USSR through Finland,
curtain has descended. Behind that line lie all the states of central Poland and Romania. The Germans were able to make
and eastern Europe. The Communist parties have been raised to their invasion through these countries because, at the time,
power far beyond their numbers and are seeking everywhere to governments hostile to the Soviet Union existed in these
obtain totalitarian control. This is certainly not the liberated Europe countries. What can there be surprising about the fact that
we fought to build. Nor is it one which allows permanent peace. the Soviet Union, anxious for its future safety, is trying to see to
Winston Churchill speaking in the USA, in the presence of it that governments loyal in their attitude to the Soviet Union
President Truman, March 1946. Letters and telegrams between should exist in these countries?
Truman and Churchill suggest that Truman was aware of what Stalin, replying to Churchill’s speech (Source 13).
Churchill planned to say and approved.

SOURCE 15 SOURCE 16

A Soviet cartoon. Churchill is shown with two flags, the first

A British cartoon commenting on Churchill’s ‘iron curtain’
proclaiming that ‘Anglo-Saxons must rule the world’ and the other
speech, in the Daily Mail, 6 March 1946.
threatening an ‘iron curtain’. Notice who is formed by his shadow!

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Stalin strengthens his grip

4 Who was to blame for the Cold War?

Figure 17 shows how Stalin extended Soviet power across eastern Europe.
With communist governments established throughout eastern Europe, Stalin
gradually tightened his control in each country. The secret police imprisoned
anyone who opposed communist rule.

Cominform
In October 1947, Stalin set up the Communist Information Bureau, or
Cominform, to co-ordinate the work of the communist parties of eastern
Europe. Cominform regularly brought the leaders of each communist party
to Moscow to be briefed by Stalin and his ministers. This also allowed
Stalin to keep a close eye on them. He spotted independent-minded leaders
and replaced them with people who were completely loyal to him. The only
communist leader who escaped this close control was Tito in Yugoslavia. He
resented being controlled by Cominform and was expelled for his hostility
Revision Tip in 1948.
Make sure you
can remember FIGURE 17
two examples
Key
of methods that After the war the Communists joined
Communist-controlled The Allies had given the USSR
the USSR and governments control of the eastern sector of a coalition government, then became N
outright leaders in 1947 when they
the communist Germany. It was run by the USSR
forced the non-communist leader into
Countries which were effectively under Red Army control
parties used to enemies of the USSR until the creation of the German exile.
take power in during the Second World Democratic Republic in 1949.
War Communists became the largest
eastern Europe. single party in the 1947 elections.
They imprisoned opposition
politicians, and attacked Church
GREAT leaders.
BRITAIN

USSR

EAST POLAND
GERMANY In 1945 a communist
was elected Prime
Minister within a
A left-wing coalition won elections in WEST
left-wing coalition. In
1945. In 1946 Communists became GERMANY 1947 the Communists
the largest single party, but still in a CZECHOSLOVAKIA also abolished the
coalition. In 1948, when their position monarchy.
was threatened, they banned other
parties and made Czechoslovakia a
communist, one-party state. AUSTRIA
SWITZERLAND HUNGARY

FRANCE ROMANI A

Black Sea
YUGOSLAVIA

ITALY BULGARIA

SPAIN

ALBANIA
A left-wing coalition won
Both France and Italy had strong elections in 1945. The
communist parties which communist members of the
belonged to Cominform. coalition then executed the
GREECE
leaders of the other parties.

TURKEY

Sicily
Britain and the USA supported
Communists gained power immediately after the war. the royalist side in a civil war
Marshal Tito had led war-time
There was little opposition as during the war communist which defeated the communist
resistance to the Nazis. He was
and nationalist resistance movements had opposed the opposition.
elected President in 1945. However,
The communists he was determined to apply Italian and later German occupation forces. As the war
in eastern Europe, communism in his own way and was ended, the strong communist movement had the backing 0 400 km
expelled from Cominform in 1948. of communist Yugoslavia and the USSR.
1945–48. Scale

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