Ronald Reagan said that not only the modern West, but also the world on our planet was born from Winston Churchill's Fulton speech. It also gave birth to the Cold War. The speech was delivered on March 5, 1946.
Oil factor
One of the main stimuli for writing the Fulton speech was the unresolved issue of Iranian oil by that time. From the end of 1943 - the beginning of 1944, two American oil companies - Standard Vacuum and Sinclair oil, as well as the Dutch-British Royal Dutch Shell, with the support of the US and British embassies and the favorable attitude of the Iranian government, began negotiations in Tehran on granting them oil concessions in southern Iran. , in Balochistan. Moscow in 1944 also began to insist on granting the USSR an oil concession in Northern Iran on terms similar to the British concession in Southern Iran, emphasizing that the development of Iranian oil fields by Britain or the United States near the Soviet border would be considered a threat to the state interests of the USSR.
Iron curtain
In the Fulton speech, Churchill first used the expression "Iron Curtain". Interestingly, this phrase was absent from the official version of the speech. The technology of that time did not allow to immediately make a high-quality audio recording of the performance, to restore the timbre of the voices of Churchill and Truman and clean the recording from extraneous noise, the Audio-Scriptions campaign from New York was involved. Only then was the text of the speech finalized and the "Iron Curtain" entered the political lexicon forever.
"Anglo-Saxon Nazism"
A simple lexical analysis of the Fulton speech suggests that it was important for Churchill not to focus on the participation of Britain in the redivision of the world. The former British prime minister delivered the speech as a private individual, which gave him a serious free hand and gave his speech an almost academic significance. In his speech, Winston Churchill used the words "Britain" and "Great Britain" only once. But "British Commonwealth" and the Empire "- six times, "English-speaking peoples" - six times, "related" - eight. Hitler and his friends to the conclusion that the Germans, as the only full-fledged nation, should dominate other nations. The English racial theory leads Mr. Churchill and his friends to the conclusion that the nations speaking English language, as the only full-fledged ones, should dominate the rest of the nations of the world."
Pair of jacks
On March 4, 1946, Churchill and Truman boarded a special train that was supposed to take them to Fulton. Both were in excellent spirits. Truman was taking the most famous orator in the world to his hometown, Churchill knew that the planned speech would leave him in history. Even then he considered the Fulton speech his masterpiece. On the train, Churchill and Truman played poker. Turning to Truman, Churchill said: "Well, Harry, I'll risk putting a shilling on a pair of jacks," which caused laughter, because the word "knave" means both a jack and a swindler. Churchill also confessed his love for America, which was obviously not just politeness, but a conscious strategic position. But not only in conversations over whiskey and a card game, the time of the trip passed. It was here, on the train, that Churchill once again edited the text of his speech and gave it the title - The Sinews of Peace. This name can be translated into Russian as "Tendons of the World", but the word "Sinews" also has the meaning of physical strength.
For the leadership of the Soviet Union, the Fulton speech did not come as a surprise. Soviet intelligence worked well: Tass ciphers and translation were on the table to Stalin and Molotov the very next day. Two days later, Izvestiya published an article by Academician Tarle "Churchill saber-rattling." On March 8, 1946, Radio Moscow reported on Churchill's speech, "made in an exceptionally aggressive tone." A week later, the newspaper Pravda published an account of Churchill's speech with several quotations from it and with his own commentary. A few days later, an interview with Stalin appeared in it. American newspapers published from Pravda a reverse translation of Churchill's speech, and then the full text of Stalin's interview.
"Unthinkable" and Totality
Great Britain and the USA did not hide their wariness because of the possible military aggression of the USSR. By the time the Fulton speech was read, the Totality plan had already been developed in the United States, and in England, in the spring of 1945, Operation Unthinkable had been prepared. One of the main goals pursued by the Fulton speech was to instill the idea that the USSR is a dangerous aggressor with ambitions to conquer the world. In his speech, Churchill "burned with a verb": "the iron curtain" and its "shadow that has fallen on the continent", "fifth columns" and "police states", "complete obedience" and "unconditional expansion of power." Previously, such epithets were used by politicians only in relation to Nazi Germany.
Provincial triumph
Churchill's trip to Fulton was an extraordinary event. The decisive factor that led Churchill to agree was the personal involvement of US President Truman. On the one hand, Churchill was a private person, on the other hand, he spoke accompanied by the leader of the state, on which he himself staked in geopolitics. Despite great organizational difficulties, Churchill's trip to Westminster College was a successful PR stunt that attracted thousands of people to Fulton. Shops and cafes could not cope with the influx of visitors, a protective tape was stretched along the entire route of the cortege, 15 minutes before the appearance of the British guest, people in the crowd were forbidden to even move. Churchill's appearance was staged with pomp, he himself sat in the car and showed his famous "V" sign. This day was a "finest hour" for the former and future Prime Minister of Great Britain. Initially, his speech was called "World Peace". Churchill filigree played in the field of propaganda. As he left, he shook hands with the president of the college and said, "I hope I have set off a thought that will influence the course of history." And so it happened.
The Cold War, which lasted from 1946 to 1989, was not an ordinary military confrontation. It was a struggle of ideologies, different social systems. The very term "cold war" appeared among journalists, but quickly became popular.
Causes
It seems that the end of the terrible and bloody World War II should have led to world peace, friendship and unity of all peoples. But the contradictions among the allies and the victors only intensified.
The struggle for spheres of influence began. Both the USSR and the Western countries (led by the USA) sought to expand "their territories".
- Westerners were frightened by communist ideology. They could not even imagine that private property would suddenly become state property.
- The United States and the USSR did their best to increase their influence by supporting various regimes (which sometimes led to local wars around the world).
There was no direct confrontation. Everyone was afraid to press the "red button" and launch nuclear warheads.
Main events
Speech in Fulton as the first "swallow" of the war
In March 1946, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill blamed the Soviet Union. Churchill said that he was engaged in active world expansion, violating rights and freedoms. At the same time, the British Prime Minister called on Western countries to repulse the USSR. It is from this moment that historians count the beginning of the Cold War.
The Truman Doctrine and "Containment" Attempts
The United States decided to start "containment" of the Soviet Union after the events in Greece and Turkey. The USSR demanded territories from the Turkish authorities for the subsequent deployment of a military base in the Mediterranean. This immediately alerted the West. The doctrine of the American President Truman marked the complete cessation of cooperation between the former allies in the anti-Hitler coalition.
Creation of military blocs and division of Germany
In 1949, a military alliance of a number of Western countries, NATO, was created. After 6 years (in 1955) the Soviet Union and the countries of Eastern Europe united in the Warsaw Treaty Organization.
Also in 1949, the Federal Republic of Germany appeared on the site of the western zone of occupation of Germany, and the German Democratic Republic appeared on the site of the eastern one.
Chinese Civil War
The civil war in China in 1946–1949 was also a consequence of the ideological struggle between the 2 systems. China after the end of World War II was also divided into 2 parts. The northeast was under the control of the People's Liberation Army of China. The rest were subordinate to Chiang Kai-shek (leader of the Kuomintang Party). When peaceful elections failed, war broke out. The Chinese Communist Party won.
Korean War
Korea also at that time was split into 2 zones of occupation under the control of the USSR and the USA. Their henchmen are Kim Il Sung in the north and Lee Syngman in the south of Korea. Each of them wanted to take over the whole country. A war broke out (1950-1953), which, apart from huge human losses, did not lead to anything. The borders of North and South Korea have not changed much.
Berlin Crisis
The most difficult years of the Cold War - the beginning of the 60s. It was then that the whole world was on the brink of nuclear war. In 1961, Soviet Secretary General Khrushchev demanded that US President Kennedy radically change the status of West Berlin. The Soviet Union was alarmed by the activity of Western intelligence there, as well as the "brain drain" to the West. There was no military clash, but West Berlin was surrounded by a wall - the main symbol of the Cold War. Many German families found themselves on opposite sides of the barricades.
Cuban Crisis
The most intense conflict of the Cold War was the crisis in Cuba in 1962. The USSR, in response to the request of the leaders of the Cuban revolution, agreed to deploy medium-range nuclear missiles on Liberty Island.
As a result, any town in the US could be wiped off the face of the earth in 2-3 seconds. The United States did not like this "neighborhood". I almost got to the “red nuclear button”. But even here the parties managed to agree peacefully. The Soviet Union did not deploy missiles, and the United States guaranteed Cuba not to interfere in their affairs. American missiles were also withdrawn from Turkey.
The policy of "détente"
The Cold War did not always proceed in an acute phase. Sometimes tension was replaced by "detente". During such periods, the US and the USSR entered into important agreements to limit strategic nuclear weapons and missile defense. In 1975, the Helsinki Conference of 2 countries was held, and the Soyuz-Apollo program was launched in space.
A new round of tension
The entry of Soviet troops into Afghanistan in 1979 led to a new round of tension. The United States in 1980-1982 waged a set of economic sanctions against the Soviet Union. The installation of regular American missiles in European countries has begun. Under Andropov, all negotiations with the United States ceased.
Crisis of the socialist countries. perestroika
By the mid-1980s, many socialist countries were on the verge of a crisis. Less and less aid came from the USSR. The needs of the population grew, people sought to travel to the West, where they discovered a lot of new things for themselves. The consciousness of people has changed. They wanted change, a life in a more open and free society. The technical lag of the USSR from the countries of the West was intensifying.
- Understanding this, the General Secretary of the USSR Gorbachev tried to revive the economy through "perestroika", give the people more "glasnost" and move on to "new thinking".
- The communist parties of the socialist camp tried to modernize their ideology and move on to a new economic policy.
- The Berlin Wall, which was the symbol of the Cold War, has fallen. The unification of Germany took place.
- The USSR began to withdraw its troops from European countries.
- In 1991, the Warsaw Pact was dissolved.
- The USSR, which did not survive the deep economic crisis, also collapsed.
Results
Historians argue about whether to link the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the USSR. Nevertheless, the end of this confrontation occurred as early as 1989, when many authoritarian regimes in Eastern Europe ceased to exist. Contradictions on the ideological front were completely removed. Many countries of the former socialist bloc became part of the European Union and the North Atlantic Alliance
The confrontation between the two superpowers, in which their allies also participated, was not a war in the truest sense of the term, the main weapon here was ideology. For the first time, the expression "" was used in his article "You and the Atomic" by the famous British writer George Orwell. In it, he accurately described the confrontation between invincible superpowers that possess atomic weapons, but agreed not to use them, remaining in a state of peace, which, in fact, is not peace.
Post-war prerequisites for the start of the Cold War
After the end of the Second World War, the allied states - members of the Anti-Hitler coalition faced the global question of the upcoming struggle for peace. The United States and Great Britain, concerned about the military power of the USSR, not wanting to lose their leadership positions in global politics, began to perceive the Soviet Union as a future potential adversary. Even before the signing of the official act of surrender of Germany in April 1945, the British government began to develop plans for a possible war with the USSR. In his memoirs, Winston Churchill justified this by saying that at that time Soviet Russia, inspired by a hard and long-awaited victory, had become a deadly threat to the entire free world.
The USSR was well aware that the former Western allies were planning a new aggression. The European part of the Soviet Union was exhausted and destroyed, all resources were involved in the restoration of cities. A possible new war could become even more protracted and require even greater expenses, which the USSR would hardly have coped with, unlike the less affected West. But the country could not show its vulnerability in any way.
Therefore, the authorities of the Soviet Union invested huge funds not only in the reconstruction of the country, but also in the maintenance and development of the communist parties in the West, seeking to expand the influence of socialism. In addition, the Soviet authorities put forward a number of territorial demands, which further intensified the confrontation between the USSR, the USA and Great Britain.
Fulton speech
In March 1946, Churchill, speaking at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri, USA, gave a speech that in the USSR came to be considered a signal to start. In his speech, Churchill unequivocally called on all Western states to unite for the coming fight against the communist threat. It is worth noting the fact that at that time Churchill was not the Prime Minister of England and acted as a private person, but his speech clearly outlined the new foreign policy of the West. It is historically believed that it was Churchill's Fulton speech that gave impetus to the formal beginning of the Cold War - a long confrontation between the USA and the USSR.
Truman Doctrine
A year later, in 1947, US President Harry Truman, in his statement known as the Truman Doctrine, finally formulated the US foreign policy objectives. The Truman Doctrine marked the transition from post-war cooperation between the US and the USSR to open rivalry, which was called in a statement by the American president a conflict of interests between democracy and totalitarianism.
When the last shots of the Second World War died down, it seemed that the world had entered a new era of its development. The worst war is over. After it, the very idea of a new war seemed blasphemous. More than ever, much has been done so that it does not happen again. Germany was not only defeated, it was occupied by the victors, and the revival of German militarism now seemed impossible. Inspired optimism and the degree of cooperation that was established between the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition. Top-level meetings of the Big Three have become regular. Military operations were coordinated, political approaches were coordinated, and broad economic cooperation was carried out.
1.2. Berlin conference
The symbol of these relations was the third meeting of the "Big Three" - the Berlin Conference. It took place from July 17 to August 2, 1954 in Potsdam, a suburb of Berlin. The United States, instead of Franklin Roosevelt, who died in April, was represented by Harry Truman, Great Britain by Winston Churchill. However, the unexpected happened during the conference. In the first post-war parliamentary elections, the Conservatives, led by Churchill, were defeated. For the first time, the majority of the seats were won by the Labor Party, their leader, Clement Attlee, headed the government and arrived in Potsdam. So the "big three" is quite updated compared to the Crimean conference.
The Berlin conference was not a peace conference like the one in Paris. For the simple reason that there was no one to conclude peace with. Germany was occupied, and power on its territory was exercised in four occupation zones by Great Britain, the Soviet Union, the USA and France. The main task of the conference was to work out the policy of the Allied Powers in Germany. It was decided to dissolve all National Socialist organizations; restore previously banned political parties and basic civil liberties; destroy the military industry; disband the cartels that served in Nazi Germany as an instrument for the militarization of industry. The top Nazi leaders who fell into the hands of the Allies were decided to be tried by a special International Tribunal.
1.3. Creation of the un
Somewhat earlier, from April 25 to June 26, 1945, in the spirit of the same desire for cooperation, a conference was held in San Francisco (USA), which completed the work on the creation of the UN. Its charter was approved. It was in many ways reminiscent of the Charter of the League of Nations. The purpose of the new organization was to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations between countries, implement international cooperation in resolving problems of an economic, social and humanitarian nature. The UN was founded on the principle of equality of all members, peaceful settlement of disputes, refraining from threats of the use of force. At the same time, the UN did not have the right to interfere in internal affairs, except when such intervention is required to maintain peace.
1.4. Atomic bomb
In 1945, there was a deep disparity in power and strength between the two main victorious nations. Even before the war, disproportions were shifting in America's favor, especially in the economy. But hostilities pushed the two countries even further in the opposite direction. The war did not touch American soil: the fighting took place far from the coast of America. The economy of the United States, which was the main supplier and financier of the entire victorious coalition, experienced an unprecedented leap between 1939 and 1945. The potential of US industrial capacities grew by 50%, production increased by 2.5 times. 4 times more equipment was produced, 7 times more vehicles. Agricultural production increased by 36%. Wages grew, as did all the incomes of the population.
The contrast between American living conditions and the poverty in which the Soviet people lived was very sharp. There was an obvious gap between the economies of the countries. The production of the Soviet ferrous metallurgy was 16-18% of the American level. The production of chemical products in the USA was 10-20 times higher than in the USSR; production of the textile industry - 6-13 times. The situation was supplemented by the fact that the United States had dominant positions throughout the world. The atomic bomb was born at the very last moment, as if specifically to give the overwhelming American superiority over the USSR an undeniable and threatening character. American leaders hoped that, thanks to their economic and scientific potential, they would be able to maintain a monopoly on the possession of new apocalyptic weapons for a long time. In the context of the rapidly growing deterioration of relations between Moscow and Washington, the bomb should, naturally, inspire concern in the Soviet leaders. The Americans were also the only owners of delivery vehicles - aircraft carriers and long-range bomber aircraft capable of delivering nuclear charges to targets anywhere in the world. The United States was at that time inaccessible and more secure, it was the only country in the post-war years that was able to determine the course of world politics.
In the United States, to a much greater extent than in the USSR, preparations were made to meet the revolutionary changes that the war had brought about in the world. In defining Washington's global policy, there was a desire to reshape the entire outside world at will and, in accordance with its scale of values, was stimulated by the ever-increasing unity of world development, which was the inevitable result of economic growth and the development of modern means of communication.
America refused to understand that changes were taking place in Eastern Europe, determined primarily by internal local causes. The inability of the United States to come to terms with the presence of new revolutionary movements in the model of the world order forced their participants, and, above all, the communists, to turn their gaze to Moscow as the opposite pole of world politics, while the most reactionary forces saw Washington as a protector and leader. Under these conditions, the inevitable difficulties in realizing American claims gave rise to ever-increasing anti-Soviet anger in the United States. Thus, a phenomenon arose that was later called the "cold war", the main reason for which is the global inequality between the USSR and the USA.
Inequality also manifested itself in relation to the possession of nuclear weapons. As is known, until 1949, the only power possessing an atomic bomb was the United States. The Americans made no secret of the fact that they perceived nuclear weapons as an attribute of the might of a great power, as a means of intimidating a potential adversary - the USSR and its allies, as a means of pressure.
Stalin faced a difficult dilemma: whether to repulse the pressure that his former allies, now armed with an atomic bomb, exerted on the USSR in conditions when the country was exhausted. Stalin was convinced that the United States and England would not dare to start a war, and he decided to choose the path of confrontation with the might of the West. This is a fundamental choice, since it predetermined the main features of the future.
The Soviet government decided to speed up work on the manufacture of its own atomic bomb. The work, carried out in strict secrecy, began in full measure from August-September 1945. After Potsdam and Hiroshima, Stalin formed, under the supreme control of Beria, a special committee headed by People's Commissar Vannikov, called upon to direct all activities to create new weapons.
The intensification of confrontation between the Soviet Union and Great Britain and the USA began to stasis as soon as purely military cooperation ceased. 1946 was a year of discussion. Thanks to the agreements reached in December 1945 in Moscow, the diplomatic efforts of the victorious powers were directed to the preparation of peace treaties with the junior allies of Nazi Germany: Italy, Finland, Romania, Bulgaria and Hungary. There were long months of difficult negotiations: first they went on in the Council of Foreign Ministers, then at the peace conference, which was held in Paris in July-October with the participation of representatives of 21 countries, then again in the Council of Ministers. In the end, the treaties were prepared. During the negotiations, the USSR not only defended its right to predominant influence in the countries of Eastern Europe. To make these countries his friends, he fought to satisfy their claims against the great powers of the West. Stalin thus demonstrated his intention under no circumstances to abandon the political positions won in Eastern Europe.
At the peace conference, as well as at the first meeting of the United Nations, the USSR found itself alone whenever it came into conflict with the other two great powers. On his side were only the governments of Eastern Europe. The United States and Great Britain not only acted jointly, but were in a position to oppose it with the vast majority of small countries.
Support for the position of the United States by most countries of the world was combined with their exceptional position as holders of a monopoly on the atomic bomb: the Americans again demonstrated their power by conducting test explosions on the Bikini Atoll in the summer of 1946. Stalin during this period made a number of statements aimed at downplaying the importance of the new weapon. These statements set the tone for all Soviet propaganda. But the behavior of the representatives of the Soviet Union in private showed in reality their great concern. Modern historians admit that because of the disparity in the possession of atomic weapons, the Soviet Union and the world community itself were then going through "a very dangerous and difficult period."
Only the renunciation of the secret of the atomic bomb by the United States could help to avoid the "cold war" and the arms race. Scientists understood this, that is, those people who knew that such a secret could not remain undisclosed for a long time. But the politicians did not have the courage of thinking to give up new weapons just for the sake of appeasing a distant power, to which they felt hostility and distrust, in whose technical and economic capabilities they strongly doubted. American leaders had no desire to sacrifice what they regarded as a solid foundation of their power: they even preferred not to share the technology of creating new weapons with their English friends.
As a result of these contradictory tendencies, a project was born to establish international control over atomic energy, known as the "Baruch Plan", after the American official who was instructed to present it to the UN. In accordance with this plan, everything related to nuclear research and production was to be forcibly concentrated in a few states so that the management of the entire nuclear complex would be carried out by some kind of world power, functioning as a supranational body in which no country would have the right to veto. Only after such a mechanism had been prepared, tested and put into operation, the United States, in the event of renunciation of nuclear weapons, would consider its security sufficiently guaranteed.
The American proposal was met with distrust in Moscow. From the point of view of the USSR, the "Baruch plan" was tantamount to transferring everything related to atomic energy into the hands of the United States and, therefore, it was a form of legalization of the US nuclear monopoly, and possibly its establishment forever. About this Ya.N. Malik, a Soviet diplomat, said at a meeting of the UN Atomic Commission (March 17).
In response, the Soviet Union put forward a counter-project: a proposal for a convention for the prohibition of nuclear weapons, including a commitment to destroy their already existing stocks. With regard to control over the implementation of these measures, Moscow's proposals were initially vague, and when clarifications were made, the American government found them unacceptable, since the implementation of control was to be regulated within the framework of the UN Security Council, where the USSR had the opportunity to use the right of veto. The clash of these two concepts from the very beginning paralyzed efforts to destroy the problem and for many years made fruitless all discussions not only on this issue, but also on all disarmament projects initiated by the USSR since 1946. On the other hand, neither government was ready to conclude an agreement that would guarantee both the prohibition of atomic bombs and the corresponding control over its implementation.
In all the activities carried out by the USSR for its security, two lines were observed.
The first, fundamental, was to, regardless of any costs, concentrate efforts on the creation of Soviet atomic weapons, eliminate the US nuclear monopoly and thereby, if not eliminate, then significantly reduce the threat of an atomic attack on the USSR and its allies. Ultimately, this problem was solved. In a TASS statement published on September 25, 1949, it was recalled that back in November 1947, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the USSR V.M. Molotov made a statement regarding the secret of the atomic bomb, saying that this secret no longer exists. This meant that the Soviet Union had already discovered the secret of atomic weapons and had them at their disposal. In the future, a quantitative increase and improvement of these weapons was carried out.
Another line of the party-state leadership of the USSR on the issue of nuclear weapons was of a propaganda nature. Not possessing an atomic bomb, the USSR began to conduct propaganda against the use of this terrible weapon, which aroused the support of many political circles abroad.
This continued until 1949, that is, until the moment when the American monopoly on nuclear weapons was abolished. After that, the rivalry between the USSR and the USA began in terms of the quantitative ratio of nuclear warheads. But since the superiority of the United States in the number of nuclear charges and their means of delivery was obvious, the publications of Soviet military experts constantly emphasized that the outcome of the war, which might begin between the Soviet Union and the United States, would be decided not so much by atomic bombs as by conventional weapons, numbers and the quality of the troops, the talents of military leaders, the strength of the rear and the morale of the troops and the population, that is, such factors that even during the Great Patriotic War Stalin called permanently acting, determining the outcome of the war.
It follows from the above that atomic weapons played a leading role in the emergence of the Cold War. The American monopoly on nuclear weapons was one of the reasons for the power of the United States. With the US nuclear monopoly, they tried to put into practice those plans and those ideas that were directly beneficial to them. The USSR, which often saw in these plans an infringement of its interests, promoted the prohibition of atomic weapons, but at the same time, very quickly, spending enormous economic resources, created its own atomic bomb, which was done in 1949. The elimination of the United States monopoly on nuclear weapons led both the USSR and the United States to an exhausting arms race. But at the same time, the atomic bomb, as a weapon capable of destroying not only an opponent, but the whole world, was a deterrent to unleashing a hot war.
MINISTRY OF GENERAL AND VOCATIONAL EDUCATION OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION
NOVOSIBIRSK STATE TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY
ESSAY
WHY DID THE COLD WAR BEGIN?
Teacher Pronin Vladimir Ilyich
Student Romanov Oleg Alexandrovich
Group Em - 95
NOVOSIBIRSK - 2000
Bibliography…………………………………………….3
Foreword……………………………………………...4
The concept of the Cold War and its main causes
occurrence……………………………………………4
Expansion of the spheres of influence of the USSR.……………………….5
The desire to expand the borders of the Soviet Union.. 8
Conclusion……………………………………………….11
Notes……………………………………………… 12
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. The latest history of the Fatherland, 20th century : Proc. Allowance for universities : In 2 t. / Ed. A. R. Kifireva, E. M. Shchagina, - M. : Vlados, 1998, 448 p.
2. History of Russia - Utopia in power: Proc. Allowance for universities / ed. M. Geller, A. Nekrich, - M. : Mick, 1996, 924 p.
3. Diving into the bog / Comp. And common. Ed. T.A. Notkin.- M. : Progress, 1991, 704 p.
4. Winston Churchill. "The Second World War". T3. "Voenizdat".1991.
The eyes are envious, the hands are raking. one
Foreword
Why did the cold war start? - I asked many people this question before starting their work and received short answers. But after studying various literature on this topic, I realized that the answer is not at all short, because it is not for nothing that this question serves as the topic of the essay.
The beginning of the abstract (the epigraph) is a Russian folk proverb: the morality of all the causes of the Cold War. Five parts follow. The first - talks about the structure and methods of writing an essay. In the second, the concept of the "cold war" is revealed and the main motives for its initiation are highlighted. The third and fourth detail the causes of the outbreak of war. And the fifth is the conclusion, conclusions on the topic.
In writing the essay, scientific literature, fiction, various newspapers and magazines were used. In order for the abstract to be intended for a wide range of readers, I explained all the historical terms.
The concept of the Cold War and its main causes
occurrence
To begin with, let's figure out where the term "cold war" came from and what it means. The term "cold war" was introduced by Churchill during his speech in Fulton (USA) on March 5, 1946 2 , by the way, it was then that his speech was a symbol of the beginning of the "cold war". This is "the policy of the reactionary circles of the imperialist states, which consists in whipping up tension and hostility in relations with the USSR and other socialist countries" 3 . This is how the Russian linguist S.I. defines this term. Ozhegov. A more modern definition sounds like this: "A stage in the development of East-West relations (1945-1991), characterized by confrontation 4 and increased hostility, distrust towards each other."
After the victorious end of the war, the USSR began to play one of the most important roles on the world stage. Evidence of this is the participation of our country in the creation of the UN, where the USSR was assigned the place of one of the permanent members of the Security Council. There is also mutual distrust between the Soviet Union and the United States:
The CCCP is concerned about the US nuclear monopoly, while the Americans and the British feared the Soviet army, the most powerful in the world. And also the above-mentioned Western countries were concerned that the USSR began to lose the appearance of the enemy. The growth of sympathy for our country increased significantly after the victory in the Great Patriotic War. The increase in expansion 6 gave rise to Stalin's desire to expand the country's borders.
In general, "cold warfare" began from the West. Thus, there are two main reasons for the emergence of the Cold War:
Expansion of spheres of influence of the USSR (doctrine of containment of socialism)
The desire to expand the borders of the Soviet Union (the doctrine of the rejection of socialism).
Expansion of spheres of influence
In the eyes of the world community, the USSR was losing the traditional image of the enemy, because the troops of the Red Army made a decisive contribution to the victory. Finland, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, and also the Balkans have now entered the orbit of Soviet influence. Communism was gradually advancing in Europe. In Greece, there was a civil war, and in France and Italy, local communist parties exerted increasing influence on the domestic political situation. Between 1939 and 1946, the number of communists in Western Europe tripled. In Asia - in China, Indonesia, Burma, the Philippines, Indonesia, India, a powerful movement for independence unfolded. In China, there was a civil war with a margin in favor of the communists. Only Great Britain retained its position, although with a fairly shaken power, and the United States, which emerged from the war as powerful as ever.
The states wanted to help Europe get out of the economic post-war devastation and thereby prevent the development of communism, in this regard, the Marshall Plan 7 was developed. American leaders have declared their intention to contain the spread of communism in every possible way. "The Soviet Union strives for the unlimited expansion of its forces and its doctrines 8 - this was a great danger to the great principles of freedom and human rights" 9 . In February 1947, US President Truman launched a specific program of measures to save Europe from Soviet expansion (the "Truman Doctrine" 10). The "Truman Doctrine" included the creation of the North Atlantic Alliance (NATO), which was formed in 1949 - it is a military-political bloc, which included the United States, England, France, Italy, Canada, Belgium, Holland, Portugal, Denmark, Norway, Iceland , Luxembourg. Greece and Turkey joined NATO in 1952, and Germany in 1955.
The US government invited the Soviet Union and other European countries to take part in the plan for the reconstruction and restoration of Europe, but the USSR and other Eastern European states, under its pressure, abandoned the American position.
The leadership of the USSR was concerned not with uniting the efforts of all countries affected by the war for the speedy restoration of the world economy, but with the creation of its own political and economic sphere, independent of the West, the center of which would be the Soviet Union, surrounded by satellite countries 12 . The economies of these countries in the coming post-war years were increasingly subordinate to the Soviet economy with a tendency to become its appendage. Another source of restoration and strengthening of the economic power of the USSR was to be reparations, 13 as well as industrial equipment exported by the Soviet Union as war booty. But Soviet industry could not use a significant part of the equipment due to mismanagement. The most valuable equipment turned into scrap iron.
A powerful US military strike against the USSR was envisaged: it was planned to drop 300 atomic bombs on 100 cities of our country. As declassified documents testify, American military plans were based on the following provisions: a war with the USSR is a reality if it is not possible to “reject”
world socialism; The USSR and its allies must not reach the level of the USA militarily and economically; The US must be ready to be the first to use nuclear weapons.
In Western historiography, the beginning of the Cold War is associated with the aggressive post-war policy of the Soviet Union. AT recent times supporters of this version appeared in our country. The tale of the aggression of the Soviet people was used in the West for a certain ideological mood of the population.
Speaking in Fulton, Churchill said that the Russians respect only military power and the West should move on to creating a significant preponderance of military power over the USSR. Churchill's speech successfully camouflaged the fact that the military power of Britain and the United States greatly exceeded that of the Soviets. They had 167 aircraft carriers and 7,700 carrier-based aircraft (we didn’t have them at all), 2 times more submarines, 9 more battleships and large cruisers, 19 times more destroyers, as well as 4 air armies of strategic aviation, which included there were bombers with a flight range of 7300 km (the radius of action of Soviet aviation did not exceed 1500-2000 km). In conclusion, Churchill said: “I do not believe that Soviet Russia wants war. She wants the fruits of war and the unlimited expansion of her power and her doctrines."
In 1949, the Chinese Communists were victorious after many years of civil war. This was not a great joy for Stalin, but in the West they believed the opposite. Thus, a huge centralized state appeared on the border of the USSR with a population three times greater than the Soviet population. Stalin wanted to emphasize that the Soviet Union was China's older brother and "more important" than Mao Zedong, and he achieved this effortlessly. Stalin, during Mao Zedong's visit to Moscow in 1950, made him wait several days to receive him.
The arms race, the split in opinions on almost every serious question of international relations, the ever-increasing anti-American campaign in the USSR and the corresponding anti-communist campaign in the USA have radically poisoned the atmosphere of international relations, created an extremely tense and dangerous situation, fraught with military conflicts.
The desire to expand the borders of the Soviet Union
At the Potsdam Conference (July 17 - August 2, 1945), Stalin managed to achieve the establishment of the Polish-German border along the Oder-Neisse and large reparations from Germany (including its western zone).
At the same time, Soviet representatives made proposals to change the regime of the Black Sea straits (including the creation of naval bases there), the return of the Kars and Ardagan districts to the USSR, which were ceded to Turkey in 1921. The Soviet Union was interested in changing the regime of government in Syria, Lebanon, and the former Italian colonies in Africa. And in September 1945, Stalin demanded that the status of a great power be reinforced by the protectorate of the 14th USSR over Libya, which caused great unrest in the West. The desire to establish itself in the Middle East led the USSR to the recognition of the state of Israel. “Now not a single issue of international life should be decided without the participation of the USSR,” Molotov said. Only under severe pressure from the West did Soviet troops leave Iran in 1946.
The policy of the USSR to turn the states of Eastern Europe liberated from fascist occupation into its satellites was simple. The communist parties of these countries, relying on Soviet slogans that controlled the territory of the Eastern European states, carried out coups d'état and took power into their own hands. The mechanism for seizing power was the same almost everywhere. Within three or four years, a bloc of communist satellite countries of Eastern and Southeastern Europe was formed. A world socialist system emerged.
Soviet troops were in Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe, Northeast China, the Kuriles and Sakhalin, and Soviet garrisons were in Vienna and Berlin.
“In recent years, Stalin has become a little arrogant, and in foreign policy I had to demand what Milyukov demanded - the Dardanelles! Stalin: “Come on, press! By joint ownership." I told him: "They won't give it." - "And you demand!"
We needed Libya after the war. Stalin says: “Come on, press!” ... It was difficult to argue. At one of the meetings of the Conference of Ministers of Foreign Affairs, I announced that a national liberation movement had arisen in Libya. But it is still weak, we want to support it and build our military base there.
We had an attempt, besides this, to demand the region adjoining Batumi, because there was once a Georgian population in this Turkish region ... ”Molotov recalls 15 .
Yes, it would be nice to return Alaska, - states Molotov.
Were there such thoughts?
There were, of course, but the time has not yet come for such tasks.
The Truman program ("Truman Doctrine") also included measures that were supposed to force the USSR to withdraw into its borders, this part of the program was called the "doctrine of the rejection of socialism."
In the summer of 1947, Europe was finally divided into allies of the United States and allies of the USSR. Formation of appropriate military and economic alliances was only a matter of time.
Conclusion
In all of the above cases, it did not come to a military clash between the US and the USSR, both sides were reasonable enough that the "cold war" did not turn into a "hot" one, although at times peace between these countries hung in the balance. The well-known statement of V.I. Lenin: "We want a voluntary union of nations - such an alliance that would not allow any violence of one nation over another - such an alliance that would be based on complete trust, on a clear consciousness of fraternal unity, on completely voluntary consent" 17, - sounded like a mockery during the Cold War. The reasons for its occurrence are very weighty in order to start a real bloody war, but this did not happen, and I believe that this is the main conclusion and conclusion from the topic.
"Winning the war with Germany does not yet mean securing lasting peace and reliable security for the peoples in the future" 18 .
Notes
1. V. Dal, Explanatory Dictionary of the Living Great Russian Language, ed. 2nd, p. 560. Russian folk proverb.
2. T.2. M., 1976, p. 127.
3. S.I. Ozhegov, Dictionary of the Russian language, ed. 21st, p. 864.
4. Confrontation - opposition, confrontation. S.I. Ozhegov, Dictionary of the Russian language, ed. 21st, p. 294.
5. Monopoly (here) - the special position of someone compared to others. S.I. Ozhegov, Dictionary of the Russian language, ed. 21st, p. 363.
6. Expansion is the expansion of spheres of influence. A. A. Danilov, L. G. Kosulina, History of Russia. 20th century, Educational book, M. : Enlightenment, 1991, p. 275.
7. FR, 1947, vol. 3, pp. 224 - 225, 237 - 238.
8. Doctrine is a doctrine, scientific or philosophical theory, political system, theoretical principle. Dictionary of foreign words. – M. : Rus.yaz., 1984, p. 173.
9. Harry S. Truman, Public Papers, 1945-1975. T.2. M., 1976, pp. 131-132.
10. Harry S. Truman, Public Papers, 1945-1975. T.2. M., 1976, pp. 134-141.
11. Freundschaft DDR-uDUSSR. Documenten und Materialen, Berlin, 1965.
12. Satellite (here) - a state, formally independent, but actually subordinate to another (stronger). Dictionary of foreign words. – M. : Rus.yaz., 1984, p. 443.
13. Reparation is compensation for the losses caused by the war, paid to the victorious country by the state that is guilty of the war. Dictionary of foreign words. – M. : Rus.yaz., 1984, p. 675.
14. A protectorate is a form of dependence in which a weak country, while formally retaining its state structure and some independence in internal affairs, is actually subordinate to a strong power. Dictionary of foreign words. – M. : Rus.yaz., 1984, p. 622.
15. From the memoirs of V. M. Molotov. A. A. Danilov, L. G. Kosulina, History of Russia. 20th century, Educational book, M. : Enlightenment, 1991, p. 274.
16. From the recording of the conversation between F. Chuev and V. Molotov. June 1981. A. A. Danilov, L. G. Kosulina, History of Russia. 20th century, Educational book, M. : Enlightenment, 1991, p. 275.
17. IN AND. Lenin. Collection of articles and essays, ed. 1st, pp. 345 - 346.
18. I. Stalin. About the Great Patriotic War of the USSR, ed. 5th, pp. 160–161.
