- According to George Kennan, why did Stalin order the trials of leading government officials? What effects did these trails have on the Soviet public and the international community?
- By word of Kennan, Stalin ordered the trails of leading government officials because they were found to have undermined communism and the Bolshevik party and to convince the public that there was a conspiracy in which he, Stalin was attempting to resolve. The trials affected the Soviet public and the international community negatively as the Soviet Union was seen as a “police state” not a “workers paradise” because the accused men’s faces were ‘shocked most probably from torture enforcing them to confess’.
- How do the Nazis attempt to split this new alliance? Why do you think Great Britain and the United States “choose to ignore this evidence of Stalin’s methods?”
- The Nazis in attempt to split this new alliance, they dug up corpses of polish officers claiming they were assassinated by Soviet members. Perhaps Great Britain and the United States ‘chose to ignore the evidence of Stalin’s methods’ since they were more concern of Hitler’s preparation and rearmament of his army for war.
- At Tehran what do the Big Three decide to do with postwar Poland, Eastern Germany and the rest of Eastern Europe?
- The Big Three decided to give a ‘slice of Germany’ to Poland and agreed that Eastern Europe to be under Soviet zone influenced.
- What was Churchill’s formula for “carving up Europe”? What do you think of this arrangement?
- Romania 90% Russia 10% Allies
- Greece
- Yugoslavia
- Bulgaria
- How did the battlefield lines affect the diplomat options at Yalta?
- At the time of the conference of Yalte in 1945, the Soviet troops were already only 40 miles from Berlin, and they knew they had successfully defeated most of the Eastern European countries. Stalin knew that the war was won, ad so he was bound to get what he wanted (influence on Easter Europe) in the Yalta conference, because his Red army had already occupied the whole area including Poland.
- What were the results of Yalta? Based on eyewitness accounts, how did each leader interpret the terms of the Declaration on Liberated Europe?
- Yalta resulted in Britain and the United States securing Stalin’s agreement that the Soviets will attack Japan once Germany is defeated. Furthermore, defeat over the Nazi was drawing close and Soviet and U.S. troops met on the Elbe River in April 1945, eliminating Germany.
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Why had the U.S. attitudes changed before the conference at Potsdam? What were U.S. concerns with regard to agreements made at Yalta?
- The U.S. attitudes changed before the conference at Potsdam because agreements were not being followed as the Soviet Union were setting up regimes throughout Europe. The U.S. was concerned with the Soviet’s claim over the attack on Japan and with Japan’s delibrate attack on Pearl Harbor, the West were in a threatening position and wanted to have a counter attack on Japan.
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How do you explain Stalin’s reaction to Truman’s statements regarding a “powerful new weapon”?
- Stalin’s reaction to Truman’s statements regarding the “atomic bomb” was solely “ok” perhaps implying fear, intimidation of the West’s powerful advantages and maybe Stalin understood that the West could attack Japan very severely more than the Soviets therefore he left it to them.
