Alyasia Muhammad-Turner

Ms. Savas
IB History
Origins of The Cold War
October 16, 2015
What were the origins of the Cold War? (Long-Term causes, 1917-41)

Many historians believe the Cold War roots form the rivalry and the hostility
between the US/West and the Soviet Union from the Bolshevik Revolution of
November 1917, this event brought power under the leadership of Lenin and
Trotsky
Great Contest: a term coined by Isaac Deutscher meaning the global conflict
between the two rival social systems of capitalism and socialism, this began as
soon as the Bolsheviks came to power after the November 1917 Revolution.

The Great Contest, 1917-28

Impact of the Bolshevik Revolution, November 1917
Deutscher focused on the essential motives and long-term aspirations of the
USSR and other states, this was mainly in the result of the states different
economic and social systems
The foreign policy of any state was usually intended to protect and further the
economic interests of the dominant social and economic classes
Early Conflicts, 1918-21
Rivalry between two social systems, capitalism and socialism/communism
created many aspects of economic, ideological, territorial, and military.
Throughout 1917, the first leaders of Soviet Russia, Lenin and Trotsky openly
called for a revolution in Europe by creating the Communist International to
stimulate and aid world revolution.
From1918 and 1921 the new Soviet state faced reign military intervention in the
Russian Civil War, the Bolsheviks eventually emerged victorious from the Civil
War, and the US refused to recognize the Soviet government.
In 1918, Woodrow Wilson had already attempt to replace the od European state
system with a new international order under US hegemony, this was the concept
of Wilsons Fourteen Points in January 1918.
Soviet Weakness and Isolation in the 1920s
The general economic backwardness of Russia inherited from its tsarist days,
this had a large impact on WWI, the revolution of 1917, the civil war and
foreign intervention.
In the new Soviet Republic remained isolated after the attempts of socialists
revolutions in Europe by 1923. the earlier military attacks by the West on the

Soviet Republic were replaced after 1921 economic embargoes and bans on
trade.
Antagonism and co-operation, 1929-41

The results of the Bolshevik Revolution were the changing relationship between
the Soviet state and the West combining ideological denunciation, isolation,
coexistence, and co-operation.
Stalins commitment to world revolution was subordinate to his desire tonsure
the security of the USSR by building Socialism in One Country a policy that had
never voiced when Lenin was alive.
From 1933, the threat of European expansion from Nazi Germany, and the
growing power of Japan increased the tension between the USSR and the West.
The US gave official of recognition of the USSR in 1933; in 1934 Stalin became a
member of the League of Nations.
Ideology and Realpolitik
Realpolitik refers to politics and foreign diplomacy based on realities and strategic
material needs, rather than on political principles, ideology or morals.
The placing of Soviet interests about ideology and world revolution became more
marked under Stalin who seized control of the USSR by 1929. In 1939, alliance with
the major capitalist states against Nazi threats failed to emerge; Stalin signed a nonaggression pact with Hitler.
This realpolitik approach to foreign affairs continued after war broke out in Europe in
1939. Stalin remained neutral until the German invasion of the USSR in 1941.
The Riga Axioms
Stalins Great Purge in the USSR had the effect strengthening of hardline attitudes
in the US against the USSR. The US had set up the Division of Russian Affairs
(DRA), which later was responsible for the important Riga Axioms. This name
was given to the views and policies of the US diplomatic experts based in the
Latvian capital, Riga who worked for the DRA during the 1920s to discover
Soviet foreign-policy objectives.
The DRA was headed by Charles Bohelen and George Keenan, and was much
influenced by white Russian exiles opposed to the Bolsheviks, who stressed the
world revolution aims of the new Soviet state.
Co-operation and the Second World War
In the Munich Conference in Sept. 1938, Stalin had continued to urge Britain and
France to join the USSR in taking military steps to stop Hitlers aggressive
foreign policy. After being rejected, Stalin decided to accept German proposals
for a non-aggression pact.
US president Franklin D. Roosevelt believed Nazi Germany to be more
expansionist than the USSR. He believed that a weakened post-war Soviet Union
could be persuaded to drop the idea of world communism in return for security
guarantees and help in economic reconstruction.

The foreign-policy developments of the 1930s, following Hitlers rise to power in

1933, played a large role in the making the USSR and the states opposed to
communism mutually suspicious.
The Grand Alliance
The USSR attacked by Germany in June 1941,