The USSR in the Cold War

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The USSR in the Cold War
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• The Cold War (World War III)
• 1946-1953 Formation of the Cold War system
• 1953-1962 Competitive coexistence
• 1963-1978 Détente
• 1979-1985 Cold War II
• 1985-1991 Collapse of the Cold War system

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• Winston Churchills speech at Fulton, Missouri,
  March 5, 1946
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vxNwrRdWOeUQ

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• The Cold War started unexpectedly early after the
  end of WWII almost without a pause
• It had three dimensions
• Ideological
• Geopolitical
• Military

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• The ideological dimension
• Global conflict between the two
  political-economic systems - capitalism and
  communism
• The Three Worlds of the Cold War
• The capitalist West, the communist East, and the
  Third World (now called the Global South)
• East-West conflict
• Will capitalism survive or will be replaced by
  some forms of socialism or communism?
• In the Third World, massive struggles for
  national independence from Western colonial
  empires

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• The Global Left a broad spectrum of political
  forces which were anything but united - consisted
  of
• Communist states (the Soviet Union, Peoples
  Republic of China, and others)
• Communist parties around the world, most of them
  supported by the USSR (biggest communist parties
  existing in Italy, France, and India)
• Moderate Left forces (social democrats, labour
  movements, movements for democracy, etc.)
• Anti-colonial forces in the 3d world

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• The geopolitical dimension
• Before WWII, there were seven countries which
  were more powerful than the others Britain,
  France, USA, USSR, Germany, Italy, Japan
• The end of WWII saw the rise of two superpowers
• USA and USSR, each with a global mission of its
  own
• A bipolar world something unique in world
  history
• Challenging each other
• Containing each other
• Trying to control other states to follow them

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• But the two superpowers also had to cooperate
  with each other to keep their power
• Each needed the other as The Other
• But both wanted to survive
• This put limits to their confrontation

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• The military dimension
• The 2 giants never engaged each other in a
  significant direct armed conflict between them
• They fought wars by proxy
• But they kept preparing for total military
  confrontation
• Nuclear arms
• Conventional armies and navies
• Military alliances NATO, the Warsaw Pact
• Spy wars
• New structures of militarism on both sides
• The military-industrial complex
• The national security state

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• 1945-49
• Who was on the offensive?
• Who was on the defensive?
• Who felt threatened and insecure?
• Who felt confident and aggressive?

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Red dictators Russias Stalin and Chinas Mao,
1950
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President Harry S. Truman (in office from 1945
to1952)
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George Kennan, American diplomat, architect of
the policy of Containment of Communism
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• Western Fears
• The crisis of global capitalism fear of
  revolution
• The shift to the Left in the politics of Western
  countries socialism on the agenda
• The upsurge of anti-colonial struggles in the
  Third World
• The emergence of the USSR as the most powerful
  state in Eurasia
• The US steps in to contain both Soviet power and
  the growth of the Left in the West and in the
  Third World

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• Soviet Fears
• Enormous human, social, and economic losses from
  the war
• How to control society after the war
• The war as school of citizenship
• Mass exposure to European life
• The population of new territories under Soviet
  control
• The legacy of terror
• Fear of a united Western front against the USSR

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• Factors of Western self-confidence
• The USSR is internally weak
• The US is a powerhouse
• US had enormous advantages in late 1940s
• 50 of global production
• Nuclear monopoly
• Naval and air superiority
• Army on a par with USSR
• The architect of a liberal world order
• Confidence that totalitarianism will be resisted
  by most people the West should promote freedom

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• Factors of Soviet self-confidence
• The Soviet system passed the test of survival and
  strength
• Soviet assets
• Control of territory the dominant power in
  Eurasia
• A totalitarian system associated with progress
• Role in the Global Left, deriving its strength
  from the crisis of capitalism
• Capitalism is in systemic crisis
• The rise of the Global Left - potential Soviet
  allies

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• Stalins worldview after 1945
• Stalinism is fully vindicated
• The USSR is a working model of socialism
• The end of capitalism is near
• Red imperialism promotion of communism by
  military and paramilitary means
• Determination to control and manipulate foreign
  revolutionary forces
• Readiness to make pragmatic deals with Western
  powers economic, diplomatic - putting ideology
  aside
• Massive investment in military power preparation
  for new wars
• Need for total control of society

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Iosip Broz Tito, Yugoslav Communist leader who
challenged Stalin
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• The Global Left the postwar offensive
• EUROPE
• Yugoslavia and Albania Communists have come to
  power on their own
• Greece, Italy, France Communist parties may
  come to power on their own
• Germany, Austria, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria
  defeated states in crisis Soviet presence a
  major boost to local Communists
• Poland Soviet presence assures Communist
  takeover
• Czechoslovakia gradual Communist takeover from
  a strong domestic base, with Soviet help
• Moderate, reformist Left makes major political
  gains in the West

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• The West was primarily concerned about survival
  and rebuilding of capitalism in Western Europe
• USSR was primarily concerned about strategic
  control of Eastern Europe
• The division of Europe, agreed in 1945,
  materialized both sides mostly kept their
  commitments
• The fate of Germany remained the one major bone
  of contention but even there, the lines
  established in 1945 helped stabilize the
  situation
• In Asia, it was an open-ended continental
  struggle but not between Russia and America

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Ho Chi Minh, leader of the Communist Party of
Vietnam
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• ASIA
• Indochina Vietnamese Communists as the main
  anti-colonialist force, proclaim Vietnams
  independence in 1945
• China, 1945-49 Communists defeat Nationalists
• Korea, 1945 Communists control the North with
  Soviet help
• India, 1947 Independence won by nationalists
  supported by communists
• Indonesia, Burma nationalist-communist
  coalitions lead anticolonialist campaigns
• Iran the rise of a Communist-nationalist
  alliance
• Turkey emergence of a strong Communist-led Left
• The Mideast
• The establishment of Israel - with Soviet support
• The rise of Arab nationalism against Western
  colonial rule

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• What was the USSRs role in the Global Lefts
  offensive?
• It set the stage by playing the main role in
  crushing the Global Right in World War II
• It projected the image of successful socialism
• It installed, or helped install, Communist
  regimes in a few countries
• It served as a counterweight to the US
• But Moscow did not control the Global Left,
  except for a few elements

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• The two mirror-image myths of the Cold War
• Western myth of the world communist conspiracy
  directed from Moscow
• Eastern myth of the world struggle for peace and
  socialism led by the Soviet Union
• Stalin could control only a small part of the
  Global Left in Eastern Europe
• He readily betrayed the Left whenever it suited
  his geopolitical goals (Greece as an example)
• And he would try to engineer a left-wing takeover
  of a country whenever he considered it necessary
• The postwar surge of the Global Left offered
  opportunities to Stalin and his regime but also
  posed major challenges

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• US responses to the Global Lefts offensive
• The core dilemma suppression or cooptation? The
  range of options
• Suppression extreme War against the USSR and the
  Global Left
• Cooptation extreme Social-democratic reforms of
  capitalism, cooptation of the Left, accommodation
  with the Soviet Union as a status-quo power badly
  in need of healing.
• A search for the middle ground for effective
  combinations of both
• American elites were split foreign policy was
  heavily politicized and hotly contested the
  strategy evolved from crisis to crisis

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• US strategy of Containment of Communism
• The state-to-state level Containment of the
  USSR. Nuclear deterrence, a chain of anti-Soviet
  alliances (NATO and others), economic attrition
  strategies, propaganda war against Communism,
  subversion
• The transnational level Containment of the
  Global Left. Revival of the global economy, the
  Marshall Plan, use of force, propaganda,
  subversion - and also cooptation, tactical
  alliances with elements of the Global Left on
  anti-Soviet platforms
• A massive, complex, messy, costly, evolving
  strategy

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• First results of containment
• 1. It worked in Europe. Why?
• There was a geopolitical deal between Stalin and
  the West (Yalta)
• Successful cooptation of the moderate Left by the
  US
• Stalins influence on Western Communists and his
  policy of discouraging revolution
• 2. In Asia, these conditions were absent
• No deal
• The US refused to co-opt the Left
• Asian Left-wing forces were mostly out of Soviet
  control Stalin was prepared to gamble (Korea)
• 3. Soviet totalitarianism hardens, a crackdown in
  Eastern Europe

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• By 1950, containment looked like a manifest
  failure
• The USSR rapidly rebuilt its economy (5 years
  instead of expected 15-20 years) and went nuclear
• Eastern Europe was firmly under Soviet control
• China went Communist
• North Korea invaded the South
• The image of Communism on the march aggressive,
  brutal, cunning, unstoppable, winning
• Revolt of the American Right against failing Cold
  War policy charges of treason

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Senator Joe McCarthy (R.- Wisconsin)
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• Winter of 1952-53
• War in Korea a bloody stalemate
• New US President, Dwight Eisenhower, threatens to
  use nuclear weapons to achieve victory in Korea
• Stalin prepares for war with the West, steps up
  repression, launches an anti-Semitic campaign
• The world is inching towards nuclear war
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vtmWBY283o5sfeature
  PlayListpBB41FCAEC0851BA9index13

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• There were several moments when the world was
  within a few steps from nuclear war
• Nuclear weapons can you use them to win a war?
• War-fighting vs. deterrence
• The balance of terror
• The nuclear stalemate
• From an uncontrolled arms race to arms control
  and disarmament
• The era of arms control began in 1963 with the
  US-Soviet-British treaty to ban all, except
  underground, tests of nuclear weapons
• A system of treaties was developed in the
  1960s-1990s to make nuclear war less likely

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• Stalin died on March 5, 1953
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vT-EwVVm89ogfeature
  related

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• Stalinism was unviable
• --Extreme degree of state control over society
  hard to maintain, permanent emergency rule
• --War was no longer on the horizon capitalism
  was stabilizing the challenges of peace and
  prosperity
• --Communist elites needed more normal, stable
  regimes in which they would be secure from
  challenges both from the dictator and from the
  people

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• Following Stalins death, his successors
  (Malenkov, Bulganin, Khrushchev) began to move
  away from the most extreme of Stalins policies
• --Signaled to the West about peaceful
  coexistence and Soviet willingness to bring about
  a truce in Korea
• --Security police was purged and put under Party
  control
• --The anti-Semitic campaign was terminated
• --Release of political prisoners (estimated
  number 1.7 mln.) began the process took over 3
  years
• --It was the beginning of The Thaw (term was
  coined by a Soviet writer who wrote a novel with
  such a title)

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Georgiy Malenkov, Premier, 1953-55
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Survivors (L to R) Foreign Minister Vyacheslav
Molotov, Premier Nikolai Bulganin, Communist
Party Secretary Nikita Khrushchev, Geneva, 1955
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Nikita Khrushchev with Stalin in 1938
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Nikita Khrushchev, top Soviet leader 1953-64
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• 1953-1964 THE THAW
• End of the Great Terror
• Peace overtures to the West
• First steps towards reforms in USSR and Eastern
  Europe
• 1956
• The 20th Congress of the Soviet Communist Party
  Khrushchevs secret speech denounces Stalin
• Upheaval in Poland
• The Hungarian revolution and its suppression
• 1957 Stalinists attempt to overthrow Khrushchev
• 1961 Khrushchev renews his anti-Stalinist
  campaign new Party programme promises the
  beginning of full communism within 20 years
• 1962 The Cuban missile crisis. The Novocherkassk
  massacre
• 1964 Khrushchev is deposed by conservatives

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• Western pop culture seeps in
• http//www.dailymotion.com/video/x6ufqm__shortfilm
  s

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Leonid Brezhnev, top Soviet leader, 1964-82
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• 1964-1985 THE CONSERVATIVE ERA
• 1964 Leonid Brezhnev becomes the head of the
  Soviet Communist Party
• 1965
• Limited market reforms announced in USSR
• First public trials of dissidents
• 1966 Hungary introduces New Economic Mechanism
• 1968
• Protests and repression in Poland
• The Prague Spring and its suppression
• 1969 The Sino-Soviet military conflict
• 1970 In Poland, worker protests lead to the fall
  of Gomulka
• 1971-72 The start of détente between the USSR
  and the West
• 1979 Détente is over the Soviet invasion of
  Afghanistan
• 1980-81 The rise of Polish Solidarity martial
  law is imposed
• 1982 Brezhnevs death
• 1982-85 The leadership succession crisis
• 1985 Mikhail Gorbachev becomes General Secretary

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Detente
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• The term détente was first used by French
  President Charles de Gaulle in the early 1960s
• Relaxation of East-West tensions
• Peaceful coexistence
• The core idea despite the profound differences
  between the capitalist and communist systems, war
  is not inevitable, there are mutual interests
  which can be best served by cooperation in
• Avoiding a major war pursuing arms control and
  disarmament
• Joint approaches to regional conflicts
• Trade and investment

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• In a broad sense, détente started right after
  Stalins death. Several cycles of
  tension-relaxation from 1953 to 1991
• Important threshold the 1963 Test Ban Treaty
• Reached a mature, institutionalized stage in
  1971-75
• 1971 US recognizes the Peoples Republic of
  China
• 1972 Settlement of the German Question
• 1972 The SALT-1 Treaty
• 1973 The US-Soviet trade agreement
• 1975 The Helsinki Final Act on Security and
  Cooperation in Europe

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• The Kitchen Debate US National Exhibition in
  Moscow, summer 1959
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vVPWG1i6YqVofeature
  related

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1961 Khrushchev and Kennedy meet in Vienna
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• Cuban Missile Crisis JFK addresses the nation
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?voM2N8PpyJaI

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• Khrushchev and Kennedy
• Reformers, dynamic leaders who promoted change
  and took risks
• Ideological warriors, optimistic about their
  systems prospects
• Almost went to war in 1962, then laid the
  foundation of the arms control system
• Kennedy was killed in 1963, Khrushchev overthrown
  in 1964
• Brezhnev and Nixon
• Conservatives, preoccupied with order and
  stability
• Less ideological, more pragmatic defensive about
  their systems
• Building on what was achieved in the previous
  decade

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• Changes in the global balance of power
  1950s-1970s
• The nationalism-communism nexus in the Third
  World fuelled decolonization in the 1950s-1970s
• Until the mid-1970s, the US continued to confront
  it as a major global threat in a futile struggle
• America deadlocked, the war and domestic
  upheavals produce a profound political crisis at
  home, loss of influence abroad
• The conservative-led USSR benefits from American
  setbacks by
• Continuing to support radical nationalists in the
  Third World
• Maintaining tight control over Eastern Europe
• Building up Soviet military potential
• And developing détente-type relations with the
  West

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• The Nixon-Kissinger reform of US foreign policy
• Recognize the limits of American power
  retrenchment and maneuvre
• Vietnamization
• Deal with the domestic crisis in the US
• Arrange a new balance of power by recognizing
  Communist China and playing the China card
  against Russia
• Appeal to Soviet conservatism
• treat the USSR as a status-quo force
• offer it incentives for acting like one
• Arms control for containment and stability
• Continued confrontation with the Left in the
  Third World (1973 Chile)

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1972 Nixon in Moscow with Brezhnev
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Brezhnev and Nixon in Crimea, May 1972
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• Things that worked
• Arms control
• Normalization of US relations with China
• European security strengthened
• Failures
• The US-Soviet trade deal was torpedoed by US
  Congress1973
• Nixons authoritarianism ultimately led to his
  defeat and resignation 1974
• US defeat in Vietnam 1975
• Overall impression of a shift in international
  balance of power against the USA

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• Brezhnev felt confident
• Soviet conservatism seemed to work better than US
  conservatism (Nixon lost power)
• USSR seemed to get stronger and more influential
  in world affairs
• High oil prices helped the Kremlin put off
  necessary reforms
• But
• The Soviet system was stagnant and increasingly
  dysfunctional
• The decolonization wave in the Global South was
  coming to an end

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• But the Soviet system was in a state of deepening
  crisis
• The economy, devoid of a market mechanism, run by
  a massive bureaucracy, burdened with colossal
  military spending (at least 25 of the GDP), was
  slowing down
• Incomes stagnated
• Thirst for freedom and the logic of consumer
  society stimulated the rise of dissent throughout
  the USSR and Eastern Europe

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Andrei Sakharov (1921-1989)
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Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (1918-2008)
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• The Carter Presidency (1977-80)
• US tried to regain initiative against the USSR
• Continued adherence to détente, but also
• Raising the issue of human rights as a challenge
  to communist states
• Growing concerns about Soviet military buildup
  and aid to Third World Left
• By the end of 1979, Carters foreign policy was
  in shambles
• The Iranian revolution, Soviet invasion of
  Afghanistan, and conservative revolt in the US
  buried détente. Talk of a Second Cold War

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• Losses in the Cold War (estimates)
• - Over 20 mln. died in local wars, mostly between
  the Global Left and the West
• - Victims of totalitarian regimes in the Soviet
  Union (1929-1953), Communist China (1950s-1970s),
  other communist states
• 60 mln. people died (est.) as a result of
  policies of forced modernization and political
  repression
• Total 80 mln. lives
• At least 80 of the human losses were civilian
• Massive waste of resources
• Unprecedented growth of technologies of
  destruction
• The degradation of natural environment
• Stymied democracy and economic development