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The Soviet Union was to blame for the Cold War, how far do you agree with this statement? To an extent I do believe that the Soviet Union was to blame for to blame for the cold war, but this was through no fault of their own, as Stalin’s intentions was to demobilize and crush Nazi Germany, and build a buffer of communism around the Soviet Union, due to the threat of another invasion, as Germany had invaded twice with devastating consequences.
The Soviet Union, controlled by Joseph Stalin in this era, was a very left wing, communist superpower, who promoted the idea of Communism as it rejuvenated a country from demoralising times, and times of financial hardship. But this act of promoting Communism was viewed differently by both Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill. Churchill especially, saw every act the Stalin made as suspicious, and with the inclination to create a domino effect with Communism and let it spread throughout Europe.
This caused much tension between the two, and emerged at Potsdam where the conflict was brought out by disagreement over many things. Although Stalin’s aim was not to push Communism further than his ‘sphere of influence’ but it was seen differently, so America used the method of containment to stop the flow of communism. I can understand why this suspicion aroused, but in this paragraph, it clearly states that there are other factors leading to the blame of the Cold War.
Following on, I believe that there were other primary factors, shifting part of the blame from the USSR, although this still doesn’t account for most of it, due to the USSR’s actions in the Cold War, such as the Berlin Blockade, which was a blatant cut of transportation systems for Western Berlin, from Western Germany and Britain. The other factors were, America and Britain both owned a separate part of Germany on the West, but they decided to merge together, calling this, Bizonia.
Bizonia created its own currency which the USSR did not use. Also, when Truman suddenly announced that they were in possession of a working atomic bomb, it was hard to compromise and get along with eachother. This was almost antagonism from America and Britain, and I believe that they knew Stalin’s Soviet Union would react under pressure, due o their belief that Germany should be crippled for less threat of invasion, but America and Britain believed differently, they wanted Germany to rise again and become a trading partner for them. Another factor is the political views that both sides took and were operated by. America and Britain operated under a Capitalist system, which allowed freedom of speech, allowed people to earn money and allow people to be different in all aspects, including the vote.
However the Soviet Union, were the exact opposite of this, they operated under a Communist system with Stalin acting as a dictator almost. They believed in equality, and that the wealth should be equally distributed throughout the country. Of course, you would think, so how did these two countries fight together against Nazi Germany? Simple, Hitler was the ‘glue’ to their relationship, their mutual hate of Hitler kept the Soviet Union, British and Americans together.
Of course when Hitler died, there is nothing that the countries have in common, so you could almost call it inevitable that the Cold War was going to happen. The Soviet Union had a major part to play for the cause of the Cold War, but I believe there were other factors creating tension, suspicion and overall a general mistrust between the two superpowers. You could call it inevitable, but I believe that it could have been stopped if it wasn’t for both sides edging closer and closer, and antagonising each other.