Origins of the Cold War : Orlando Figes

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Section 1 (Pre-1905)
- Imperial Russia - the Failure of Reform
- Was Nicholas II Fit to Rule?
- The Weakness of Society
- Unstable Pillars
- The Populist Opposition
- The Making of Lenin as a Revolutionary
- What Sort of Marxist Was Lenin?
- The Conditions of the Working Class
- When Does a 'Revolutionary Situation' Start?
- Photos
- Q & A
- Podcast
- Further Reading
Section 2 (1905)
- Why was there a Revolution in 1905?
- Bloody Sunday
- 'There is no Tsar'
- Mass Protests
- The Tsar Reacts
- The Petrograd Soviet
- The October Manifesto
- How Should We Explain the Violence of 1905?
- The Moscow Uprising
- What were the Lessons of the 1905 Revolution?
- Q & A
- Podcast
- Further Reading
Section 3 (1906-14)
- Was Tsarism Reformable?
- Who Was Stolypin and What Did He Stand For?
- The Stolypin Land Reform
- Why Peasants Were Against the 'Wager on the Strong'?
- Authoritarian Reform
- Conservative Opposition to Stolypin
- Stolypin's Fall
- How Stable Was Russia Before 1914?
- Q & A
- Podcast
- Further Reading
Section 4 (1914-17)
- Patriotic Hopes
- Russia's Military Weaknesses
- War as a Revolutionary Force
- The Great Retreat
- The Patriotic Revolution
- 'The Mad Chauffeur' and the Liberal Dilemma
- Rasputin and the Revolutionary Power of Rumours
- From War to Social Revolution
- The Murder of Rasputin
- Q & A
- Podcast
- Further Reading
Section 5 (February 1917)
- The February Days
- The Power of the Streets
- Dual Power
- The Downfall of the Monarchy
- The Symbolic Revolution
- The Provisional Government
- Local Revolutions
- Lenin and The April Theses
- The Summer Collapse
- The July Uprising
- Photos
- Q & A
- Podcast
- Further Reading
Section 6 (October 1917)
- Kerensky and Kornilov
- Lenin and the October Coup
- The Storming of the Winter Palace
- The Mensheviks' Mistake
- How Many People Took Part in the October Insurrection?
- Establishing the Bolshevik Dictatorship
- The Constituent Assembly
- Revolution and Revenge
- Enemies of the People
- Revolutionary War or Peace?
- Q & A
- Podcast
- Further Reading
Section 7 (1917-21)
- Origins of the Civil War
- The Red Army
- War Communism
- A Shortcut to Communism?
- A Dictatorship of the Bureaucracy
- Revolution and Terror
- The Decisive Battles
- The Moscow Directive
- Why did the Reds win the Civil War?
- Bolshevism in Retreat
- The Tenth Party Congress
- Legacies of the Civil War
- Photos
- Q & A
- Podcast
- Further Reading
Section 8 (1921-24)
- Stalin versus Trotsky
- The Triumvirate
- Lenin's Testament
- The Defeat of Trotsky
- The Left Opposition
- When Did Stalin Come to Power?
- The Cult of Lenin
- Leninism and Stalinism
- Q & A
- Podcast
- Further Reading
Section 9 (1924-28)
- Socialism with a Mixed Economy
- Opposition to the NEP
- The Scissors Crisis
- What Did the NEP Do for the Peasants?
- The Communist Vanguard
- Towards a Socialist Society
- Making the New Soviet Man
- What Did Being a 'Soviet Person' Mean?
- The End of the NEP
- Q & A
- Podcast
- Further Reading>
Section 10 (1928-32)
- The Five Year Plan
- Collectivization
- The War against the 'Kulaks'
- The Human Impact of Collectivization
- The Perpetrators
- Collectivization and the Famine
- Was the Ukrainian Famine a Genocide?
- Stalin's Industrial Revolution
- Economic Growth and Living Standards During the 1930s
- Living Standards in the First Five Year Plan
- Living Standards in the Second Five Year Plan
- The Gulag and Economic Growth
- Photos
- Q & A
- Podcast
- Further Reading
Section 11 (1932-36)
- The Crisis of 1932
- The Riutin Platform
- Party Purges
- Origins of the Purges
- The New Stalinist Elites
- The Cult of Stalin
- The Congress of Victors
- Towards the Great Terror
- Q & A
- Podcast
- Further Reading
Section 12 (1937-38)
- Origins of the Great Terror
- The Show Trials
- How the Terror Spread
- Informers and Denunciations
- Mass Operations
- Explaining the Great Terror
- Impact on Human Relations
- Doubts and Disbelief
- Suspending the Terror
- Legacies of 1937
- Q & A
- Podcast
- Further Reading
Section 13 (1917-41)
- Hopes of Revolution in Europe
- The Comintern
- The Long Game
- Stalin and Hitler
- United Front
- The Stalin-Hitler Pact
- Photos
- Q & A
- Podcast
- Further Reading
Section 14 (1941-45)
- Operation Barbarossa
- Stalin's response to the German Invasion
- Leningrad and Moscow
- Explaining the Soviet Fighting Spirit?
- Sacrifice
- The Spirit of Stalingrad
- Reasons for the Soviet Victory
- 'Spontaneous De-Stalinization'
- Popular Hopes of Reform
- The Clampdown of 1945
- War and the Change in Revolutionary Values
- Photos
- Q & A
- Podcast
- Further Reading
Section 15 (1945-53)
- From World War to Cold War
- The Hardening of Positions
- Containment
- Cominformity
- The Post-war Soviet Clampdown
- The Zhdanovshchina
- A Soviet Holocaust?
- Q & A
- Podcast
- Further Reading
Section 16 (1953-64)
- Stalin's Death
- Why Did People Grieve on Stalin's Death?
- The Struggle for Power
- Khrushchev
- Leninist Renewal
- Virgin Lands Campaign
- The Secret Speech
- The Impact of Khrushchev's Speech
- Hungary 1956
- The Thaw
- Economic Promises
- The Soviet Union and the Third World
- Photos
- Q & A
- Podcast
- Further Reading
Section 17 (1964-85)
- The Removal of Khrushchev
- Who Was Brezhnev and What Did He Stand For?
- Economic Stagnation
- The Real Causes of the Soviet Crisis
- Foreign Adventures
- Disenchantment and Dissent
- What Lay Behind the Stability of the Soviet System Before 1985?
- Photos
- Q & A
- Podcast
- Further Reading
Section 18 (1985-91)
- Causes of the Soviet Collapse
- Gorbachev and the Origins of His Reforms
- Perestroika and Glasnost
- The Party Splits
- The Soviet Empire Collapses
- Nationalism in the Soviet Union
- The August Coup and the Collapse of the Soviet regime
- Gorbachev's Achievement
- Q & A
- Podcast
- Further Reading
Teachers Resource

Section 15: Origins of the Cold War

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Intro

This section covers the early years of the Cold War, from 1944 to the death of Stalin in 1953. We will be exploring the origins of the Cold War, and asking how far Soviet and Western policy decisions were to blame. How expansionist were Stalin's aims in Europe after 1945? What was the impact of the Marshall Plan and Western policies of 'containment'? Why did Stalin impose such rigid Soviet control on East European socialist movements? And why did he clamp down on the Soviet Union after 1945? You will find some answers to these questions in this section, which contains extracts from my books, photographs and videos, and a further reading list. Register here to get information on accessing more materials including my responses to exam questions on these themes.

Cold War, Soviet occupation of Berlin, Stalin, 1945

Soviet forces in Berlin

From World War to Cold War

As the Red Army advanced into Eastern Europe during 1944-45, Stalin was already thinking about the post-war situation and about imposing Soviet-style regimes on the liberated territories. Read more...

The Hardening of Positions

Victory in May hardened Stalin's expansionist line. Read more...

Containment

That new policy of 'containment' had its origins in the 'Long Telegram' sent by George Kennan, the deputy head of the US Mission in Moscow, to James Byrnes, the Secretary of State. Read more...

Cominformity

Cominform (the Communist Information Bureau) was the Soviet response to the Marshall Plan. Read more...

The Post-war Soviet Clampdown

The Soviet leadership fought the Cold War by tightening its ideological grip and sealing off the country from Western influence. Read more...

The Zhdanovshchina

It is by his name (the Zhdanovshchina) that the official clampdown against Western ('anti-Soviet') tendencies in all the arts and sciences became known. Read more...

A Soviet Holocaust?

As the Cold War and official xenophobia intensified, Soviet society was gripped by fear of foreigners. Read more...

Q & A

Here are some exam-like questions. Read more...

Podcast

A recording of a lecture/class about these themes using primary documents. Read more...

Further Reading

A list of further reading. Read more...

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