History (S4-5) Theme B: Conflicts and Cooperation in the Twentieth-Century World Sub-theme d: Major conflicts and the quest for peace Content focus 2: Major conflicts after WWII and attempts to make peace – origin, features and development of the Cold War Q.1 Study Sources A and B carefully. Source A The following extract is cited from the minutes of a meeting of the British War Cabinet in March 1919. Mr. Churchill, continuing, said that the War Cabinet must face the fact that the North of Russia would be over-run by the Bolsheviks, and many people would be murdered. He was increasingly distressed with the way the situation had developed since the Armistice. Everything was going wrong. The continued disheartening of the Russian forces friendly to us had led to a great falling off in their morale. When firing stopped (at the end of the First World War), the Ukraine was occupied by the Germans. We requested them to withdraw, but we put in no Allied force there, and now that area, rich in food, was in the hands of the Bolsheviks. The Bolsheviks were taking Nicholiev and Kherson, and were advancing on the Black Sea. Odessa might soon be invested [captured]. Four months had passed in a policy of drift, and great potential resources which might have helped us were being dissipated. It was idle to think we should escape by sitting still and doing nothing. Bolshevism was not sitting still. It was advancing, and unless the tide were resisted it would roll over Siberia until it reached the Japanese, and perhaps drive Denikin into the mountains, while the border Baltic states would be attacked and submerged. 1 History (S4-5) Theme B: Conflicts and Cooperation in the Twentieth-Century World Sub-theme d: Major conflicts and the quest for peace Source B The following extract is cited from the minutes of a meeting of the British War Cabinet in March 1919. Mr. Bonar Law (leader of the Conservative Party) said that an effort must be made to distinguish our activities in the Baltic States from the larger Russian policy. We had undertaken to support the Baltic States against the menace of Bolshevism. Mr. Chamberlain (Austen Chamberlain, Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1919) said that we had decided that we were not going to fight the Bolsheviks all along the line. It was beyond the capacity of France and Britain to do so, and the United States would not co-operate. That could be made plain to the General Staff. They should address themselves to the question of what was necessary to prevent the Baltic States from being submerged (taken over by the Bolsheviks). Mr. Churchill said that the General Staff could only proceed on certain hypotheses [in other words, they needed to know what they were likely to be asked to do], and he wished again to impress the War Cabinet that the danger (the threat of Bolshevism) was growing every moment and spreading with extraordinary rapidity. a. Describe the historical background of Sources A and B. Explain your answer with reference to Sources A and B. b. Account for the relationship between Britain and the Soviet Union after the First World War. Explain your answer with reference to Sources A and B. c. How did the relationship between Britain and the Soviet Union you described in (b) affect inter-war development? Explain your answer with concrete historical facts. 2 History (S4-5) Theme B: Conflicts and Cooperation in the Twentieth-Century World Sub-theme d: Major conflicts and the quest for peace Q.2 Study Sources A, B, C and D carefully. Source A The following extract is cited from Stalin’s speech in 1942 on the Anglo-Soviet-American coalition. The programme of action of the Anglo-Soviet-American coalition is: abolition of racial exclusiveness; equality of nations and inviolability of their territories; liberation of enslaved nations and restoration of their sovereign right; the right of every nation to manage its affairs in its own way; economic aid to war-ravaged nations and assistance in establishing their material welfare; restoration of democratic liberalities; destruction of the Hitler’s regime. Source B The following extract is adapted from the Yalta Protocol, the agreement signed by Britain, the United States and the Soviet Union at the Yalta Conference in February 1945. (Section II) The establishment of order in Europe and the rebuilding of national economic life must be achieved by processes which will enable the liberated peoples to destroy the last vestiges of Nazism and Fascism and to create democratic institutions of their own choice. This is a principle of the Atlantic Charter - the right of all people to choose the form of government under which they will live - the restoration of sovereign rights and self-government to those peoples who have been forcibly deprived of them by the aggressor nations. To foster the conditions in which the liberated people may exercise these rights, the three governments will jointly assist the people in any European liberated state or former Axis state in Europe where, in their judgment conditions require, a. to establish conditions of internal peace; b. to carry out emergency relief measures for the relief of distressed peoples; c. to form interim governmental authorities broadly representative of all democratic elements in the population and pledged to the earliest possible establishment through free elections of Governments responsive to the will of the people; and d. to facilitate where necessary the holding of such elections. 3 History (S4-5) Theme B: Conflicts and Cooperation in the Twentieth-Century World Sub-theme d: Major conflicts and the quest for peace Source C The following picture, taken at the Yalta Conference in 1945, shows the “Big Three” – Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of Britain; Franklin Roosevelt, President of the United States; and Joseph Stalin, the Soviet leader in the foreground – sitting in the foreground. Source D The following extract is cited from a telegram Churchill sent to Truman, President of the United States, in May 1945. … Meanwhile what is to happen about Russia? I have always worked for friendship with Russia but, like you, I feel deep anxiety because of their misinterpretation of the Yalta decisions, their attitude towards Poland, their overwhelming influence in the Balkans excepting Greece, the difficulties they make about Vienna, the combination of Russian power and the territories under their control or occupied, coupled with the Communist technique in so many other countries, and above all their power to maintain very large Armies in the field for a long time. What will be the position in a year or two, when the British and American Armies have melted and the French has not yet been formed on any major scale, when we may have a handful of divisions mostly French, and when Russia may choose to keep two or three hundred on active service? 4 History (S4-5) Theme B: Conflicts and Cooperation in the Twentieth-Century World Sub-theme d: Major conflicts and the quest for peace a. Identify three principles by which the British, US and Soviet leaders thought Europe was to be reconstructed. Explain your answer with reference to clues from the Sources. b. Identify the different backgrounds for the issuance / signing of the documents represented by Sources A, B and C. Explain your answer with clues from the Sources. c. Describe Anglo-Soviet relationship in 1945. Explain your answer with reference to Sources C and D and using your own knowledge. 5 History (S4-5) Theme B: Conflicts and Cooperation in the Twentieth-Century World Sub-theme d: Major conflicts and the quest for peace Q.3 Study Sources A and B carefully. Source A The following extract is cited from a speech given by Churchill in the United States in 1946. A shadow has fallen upon the scenes so lately lighted by the Allied victory. Nobody knows what Soviet Russia and its Communist international organization intend to do in the immediate future … … We understand the Russian need to be secure on her western frontiers by the removal of all possibility of German aggression. We welcome Russia to her rightful place among the leading nations of the world … It is my duty however, for I am sure you would wish me to state the facts as I see them to you, to place before you certain facts about the present position in Europe. From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic an iron curtain has descended across the Continent. Behind that line lie all the capitals of the ancient states of Central and Eastern Europe. Source B The following extract is cited from a historical publication. By early 1947 the four-power administration of Germany had broken up. In an effort to resolve the conflict, a Big Four Conference was held in Moscow in March 1947. The Americans and the British insisted on the economic unification of Germany; the French and the Russians were opposed. After six weeks of futile wrangling, the conference adjourned. Its failure together with the proclamation of the Truman Doctrine at the same time, are considered by some to mark the beginning of the Cold War. a. Describe the background of the speech in Source A. Support your answer with clues from the Source. b. Identify Churchill’s attitude towards the USSR, as reflected in Source A. Support your answer with reference to clues from the Source. c. Which source is more objective in helping your to understand which country shall be held responsible for the Cold War? Explain your answer with reference to Sources A and B and using your own knowledge.