cOLDWAR

Teheran Conference

• 28 November to 1 December 1943
• Location: Teheran
• Players: British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, US President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Russian leader Josef Stalin
• Stalin used Teheran to test American and British commitment to the alliance's Second Front.Stalin used Teheran to test American and British commitment to the alliance's Second Front.
• For further reassurance, Stalin requested that a commander be appointed within one week of the conference ending.
• Churchill and Roosevelt agreed, and Roosevelt made the appointment; by 5 December

Yalta conference

• Yalta - February 1945: Germany was not yet defeated, so, although there were tensions about Poland, the big three - Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill
• Germany to be split into four zones.Germany to be split into four zones.
• A government of 'national unity' to be set up in Poland, comprising both communists and non-communistsA government of 'national unity' to be set up in Poland, comprising both communists and non-communists
• Free elections in the countries of eastern Europe. This part of the agreement was called the Declaration of Liberated Europe.Free elections in the countries of eastern Europe. This part of the agreement was called the Declaration of Liberated Europe.
• Russia would help against Japan when Germany was defeated.Russia would help against Japan when Germany was defeated.
• Germany will pay reparations.Germany will pay reparations.

Potsdam conference

• July 1945: Germany had been defeated, Roosevelt had died and Churchill had lost the 1945 election - so there were open disagreements. Truman came away angry about the size of reparations and the fact that a communist government was being set up in Poland. Truman did not tell Stalin that he had the atomic bomb.
• Disagreements about the amount of reparations Russia wanted to take. It was agreed that Russia could take whatever it wanted from the Soviet zone, and 10 per cent of the industrial equipment of the western zones, but Britain and the US thought this was too much.
• America and Britain were alarmed because communists were coming to power in the countries of Eastern Europe.

Soviet expansion

• Soviet expansion in Eastern Europe. Twenty million Russians died during the Second World War, so Stalin said he wanted a buffer zone of friendly states around Russia to make sure that Russia could never be invaded again. Stalin was planning the takeover of Eastern Europe.
• it occupied large areas of Eastern Europe and Churchill in the so-called percentages agreement - agreed that Eastern Europe could be a Soviet "sphere of influence".
• In the countries that the Red Army "liberated", communist-dominated governments took power. The Communists made sure that they controlled the army, set up a secret police force, and began to arrest their opponents. Non-Communists were gradually beaten, murdered, executed and terrified out of power.

Cominform

• Cominform was the Communist Information Bureau that was established in 1947 by Stalin.
• The first Cominform conference rejected Marshall Aid. The Eastern European governments refused to accept it and the Western parties encouraged strikes against the plan. In France 2 Million worker went on strike in protest against Marshall Aid.
• Founder: Joseph Stalin
• Founded: 5 October 1947, Szklarska Poręba, Poland
• Preceded by: Communist International

comecon

• The Council for Mutual Economic Assistance was an economic organization from 1949 to 1991 under the leadership of the Soviet Union that comprised the countries of the Eastern Bloc along with a number of communist states elsewhere in the world.
• Founder: Joseph Stalin
• Founded: 5 January 1949, Moscow, Russia
• Headquarters: Moscow, Russia

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