Stalin wanted more power and more land and this was one way he had planned on doing it. In 1949, two republics of Germany were created. The Federal Republic of Germany was West Germany, with Bonn as their capital. The German Democratic Republic was East Germany, with eastern Berlin as their capital.
A mere twenty-one years after the utter devastation of World War I, Nazi Germans invaded Poland, breaking their non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union, and plunging the world into yet another global conflict. The carnage of World War II (WWII) was much more widespread than its predecessor, as the war was fought not only throughout Europe, but also in various locations of the Pacific Ocean. Prior to the Nazi occupation of Poland, at the end of World War I, the winning nations had devised a peace treaty, called the Treaty of Versailles, which forced Germany to take responsibility for the war, and punished the country as such. Germany lost land, was forced to pay $6.6 billion in reparations, and lost a majority of their military. These changes devastated the German
This is demonstrated when Winston Churchill states that if the Allied powers had worked together to protect Czechoslovakia, then that could have prevented World War II (document 6). Churchill’s statement shows that collective security is the way to respond to aggression and that appeasement only provokes a war. The war lasted six years with many different battles between the Allies and the Axis’s. Hitler did not only invaded Poland, but from there fought his way through many other parts of the world such as Greece, France, Britain, and the Soviet Union. The quote, “It is us today.
When Germany found out about the mobilization they warned them to back off and when they did not, Germany declared war on Russia. The Germans also had a military plan called the Schlieffen Plan,
Stalin vs. Mussolini During the 1930s and 1940s, two leaders by the name of Joseph Stalin and Benito Mussolini were in control of the Soviet Union and Italy. Stalin and Mussolini were very similar, but yet so different. Stalin was born on December 18, 1879, and eventually changed his name from Losif Dzhugashvili to Joseph Stalin.
Adapt a speech to a specific audience? (2 points) In this activity, you wrote a speech arguing about whether America should have allied with Stalin against Hitler. You read an article giving perspectives on Stalin and Hitler and drew your own conclusion.
Lee states: “ (...) the pact was not necessary for Russia.” Laqueur, an American historian, argue that “it should not be assumed that without the pact Germany would have attacked Russia.” During 1939 Stalin focused on the Balkan States. In the end of 1939, Stalin launched about 20 Soviet divisions against 15 Finish.
Stalin’s ruthlessness pressed on the Red Army, such as harsh disciplines, role of the NKVD, Orders 227 and 270, strengthened the troops’ loyalty and motivation to fight for their country. Though Stalin’s role as a wartime leader within the Great Patriotic War was evident, the role of his generals, Vasilevsky, Antonov and Zhuvok, were vital to gain military advantage and victory against Nazi Germany. Despite Stalin’s flaws within his decisions and the enormous impact of his military generals that shows Stalin’s lack of role within planning war strategies, Stalin’s leadership was decisive to some extent as a wartime leader which placed a sense of hope and motivation for Soviet’s victory against the Germans to his people and his
Joseph Stalin and Fidel Castro were dictators famous for their communist ideology and violent reigns while totalitarian dictators. Defined by Dictionary.com, Totalitarianism is “absolute control by the state or a governing branch of a highly centralized institution” and a dictator is “a person exercising absolute power, especially a ruler who has absolute, unrestricted control in a government without hereditary succession.” Dictators are usually stern, but passionate in front of the public. Joseph Stalin and Fidel Castro both came to rise in environments that were challenging politically, economically, socially or all of the above. They offered another light that people were desperate to see.
Soon in May of 1941 Stalin began to fear an impending danger of a German invasion. But the fear of the Germans gave Stalin the opportunity to appoint himself chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars. In other words, this made Stalin head of the government. Eventually, the Germans started invading Russia in order to obtain oil and other natural resources. Using the blitzkrieg attack method the Germans advanced heavily into Russian territory.
There were a number of agreements and provisions that largely contributed to the beginning of the Cold War produced at both the Potsdam and Yalta conference, one of which was the divisions and implementation of Germany into four zones of occupation which was agreed upon at the Potsdam conference in 1945. The West sector would be under the control of three major allies – Britain, France and the USA – while the Eastern sector would be under USSR rule. Furthermore the capital of Berlin would be further split into for zones (Source A), split in the same manner as the entirety of Germany. Although Germany and Berlin was divided, it was agreed that regardless of this split, Germany would function as a single economic unit (Source E). The implementation
Germany signed to pay £22 billion in reparations for greatly damaged countries such as France and Belgium. Germany was expected to pay war debt as well as paying for the cost of the war within their own borders. A collection of once German cultures areas were split and separated from the motherland as seen by the introduction of the Polish corridor. John Maynard Keynes, an economist that attended the meeting at Versailles, became frustrated over the harsh conditions placed on Germany and stated that it would inevitably lead to disaster in Germany along with another war as backlash. “I cannot leave this subject as though its just treatment wholly depend either on our own pledges or economic facts.
Stalin believed that while Germany was invading Britain they would not invade Russia, because Hitler had wrote about avoiding a two front war. While Russia has a big army and air force, Stalin’s leadership hindered the country's military strength. Stalin’s purge before the war hurt the Soviet army. “During 1937 and 1938, the NKVD detained 1,548,366 persons, of whom 681,692 were shot – an average of 1,000 executions a day.”
The Soviet Union requested substantial reparations from Germany, but the United States recalled the reason that World War II started was because of post World War I reparations. In March and April 1947, the United States, British, French, and Soviet officials met in Moscow to arrange Germany’s future, but failed. After the conference, the Western Allies unified their German occupation zones to create West Germany. In response to this, Soviets built the Berlin Blockade, cutting off railways, highways, and waterways into West Berlin. To counteract this, the United States airlifted food and supplies to the residents, until Soviets finally realized their blockade was not achieving their goals, and tore it down in May 1949.
At the end of the second world war there was an argument about who was more responsible for the cold war the Soviet Union or United States. Many people thought that the Soviet Union was responsible because the ruling insecure the nation. The Soviet Union wanted to expand and influence the world wide. " Instead of continuing Roosevelt
