Please enable JavaScript.
Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.
History Revision:1950s of the Cold War - Coggle Diagram
History Revision:1950s of the Cold War
The 'Thaw'
The idea was that capitalism and communism could exist without conflict, a massive
difference from Stalin’s idea that war was inevitable.
Khrushchev also tried to improve the USSR’s relationship with the USA, calling for “peaceful
coexistence”
with the USA getting Eisenhower as new president in 1953 this seemed like a
possibility.
Khrushchev wanted to change the USSR’s focus to improving life for its citizens and in 1956 he made
a speech criticising Stalin’s policies, which shocked many communists around the world.
He removed many statues of Stalin and reduced the powers of the secret police
Stalin died in 1953 and Nikita Khrushchev became the new leader of the Soviet Union. People
thought that he would aim to improve the relationship between east and west.
Achievements of the Thaw:
• Ending of the Korean War
• 1955 Austrian State Treaty made Austria a reunited country
• Khrushchev’s visits to Britain and the USA
• 1955 summit in Geneva
This led to countries in the Eastern Bloc believing that they could have more freedom both politically and economically.
It made the situation tense as some of these countries had been forced into communism after WW2. There was a minor uprising in Poland and the USSR allowed them to make some changes to how communism operated.
This encouraged other countries like Hungary to consider revolt against the USSR.
After the Second World War the USSR had helped put Mátyás Rákosi, a hard line communist in charge of Hungary. His brutal regime had become increasingly unpopular and in 1956 he was replaced by Erno Gero.
When Gero did not make many changes to how the country was run even with the “Thaw” happening the people of Hungary became increasingly frustrated and mass protests happened in the capital Budapest in October.
The USSR allowed the more liberal Imre Nagy to take over with his promise of reforming Hungary and making it less repressive by dissolving the secret police and improving living conditions.
In November Nagy announced that he wanted to hold free elections and leave the Warsaw Pact making Hungary a neutral country. The USSR was not aware of this plan and Khrushchev would not allow this to happen.
Khrushchev used this as a chance to show his authority and sent in tanks and soldiers to invade Hungary. Over 4000 Hungarians were killed and Nagy was executed and replaced with a strict communist called János Kádár. This showed that the Thaw was not going to make much of a difference to the Cold War.