Cold war erupts
The Cold War was between the USSR and the US after WWII ended. There were many reasons for the start of this, anger from the previous war and the thirst for power was also very strong. The USSR had a turning point during this war, there was lots of propaganda and a lot of promotion of the Russian culture among the people.
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Costs of wwiiThe costs of WWII were devastating, however the USSR had the most losses. They had around 10 million deaths and 13 million combat deaths. The closest to them was Germany with 3 million deaths. Japan cam next with 1.5 million combat deaths and 900,000 civilian deaths because of nukes in the cities and the firebombing of Tokyo. The United states only had 300,000 combat deaths and 100,000 other deaths, which was among the lowest. After the war the US, USSR, UK, and France all get a chunk of Germany to prevent another Hitler situation from happening in the future. Berlin was also divided into 4 sections, the Berlin wall was the physical divider of the land between the four countries.
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relations sourOverall the USSR lost around 20 million people. In contrast Great Britain lost around 370,000 people and the US lost around 297,000 people. Joseph Stalin, the USSR's leader, was determined to make the USSR a new superpower and challenge democracy and capitalism around the world. Rumor has it that he was most likely upset with the US because the USSR suffered through way more casualties that the USSR did. To strengthen his power, he had started the Purges or “The Terror” where Stalin would ordered assassinations of countless suspected political enemies. Others were sent to labor camps much like Hitler did with the Jewish. In comparison Stalin killed over 10 million of his own people and Hitler killed around 6 million. Promoted a “Cult of Personality” where he ordered the production and circulation of propaganda material portraying himself as a great national hero and to continue to gain power.
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Cold war beginsThe Cold War happened pretty quickly after WWII ended. This war was between the USSR and the US after their relationship went downhill more than it already was. Stalin wanted to prove that the USSR was just as great as the US and that they could be a superpower also. The reason it was called the Cold War is because there wasn't a shot that was fired directly between the US and the USSR. There also weren't any nukes dropped unlike in the previous war. They had little wars called Proxy Wars instead. This is where they would send certain groups out to fight each other, so they were indirectly fighting. The two main Proxy Wars happened in Vietnam and Korea. The whole goal of this war was to prevent communism from spreading to the rest of the world and to bring capitalism back or allow that freedom of politics in other countries.
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