Iron Curtain Separates Europe

1. What is your overall impression of Source 26 (p. 70) and use extracts from the source to support your view. (No fence sitting; you must choose one but not both)      

• a reasonable assessment of Stalin’s aims based on the facts
• an overreaction to Stalin’s actions based on fear of and prejudice towards the USSR?                

Source 26 expressed how Stalin is irrational because he will not, "co-operate with any non-communist controlled government." This means that Stalin is going to do as he wishes and not listen to anyone else in Europe because the Soviet Union and the countries which it influences is the only communist countries in Europe. Another impression from Source 26 is that the Soviet Union is an extreme threat because of the size of the army and the amount of power that the country has. The Soviet Union wanting to take over the world with a communist rule is an actual threat due to the power they have, which is shown by the title of the report, "The Threat to the Civilization." 


  
2. Source 26 is a British source. Does it seem likely that similar documents were being produced by the American government?    


Similar documents could have been made by the American government because the Soviet Union was also a big threat to the United States. One thing that might be different though is that the United States might not be as worried about the Soviet Union taking over the United States, like the British fear that they would do to Great Britain, because the United States is farther away from the Soviet Unions power. 


3. Study Source 27 (p. 71) and make a list of three different actions that Communists took to achieve power in eastern Europe. AND Explain how each factor helped.   \

- In Hungary the Communist party became the single biggest party in the country and then they imprisoned all politicians that weren't communist and Church leaders. This was a factor that helped the Communist in Hungary because there was no one to go against the Communist rule. 
-  Communists became the outright leaders of Poland in 1947 when they exiled all non- communist leaders. Once again this made it so there is no threat against the Communist leaders because all of the leaders in Poland are communists. 
-In Bulgaria the left wing coalition won the election and the Communist leaders executed all of the the leaders of the other political parties. This not only made it so there was no other threats to the communist rule but it also threatened the people because it showed that if they tried to go against the Communist party they would die.