How far would you agree with the statement that is was purely ideological differences that facilitated the superpower rivalry in the years directly after the cessation of hostilities in WW2?

A small part and I mean a very small part might have been the fact that the Russians having lost 20 million people defeating the nazis felt under appreciated and not thanked enough for their awesome sacrifice.

Also even before ww2 had finished western politicians including churchill were spreading a fear and feeling of suspicion about bolshevism with phrase such as iron curtain etc.

Also - sorry not really my subject but just had an idea. As the western allies terminated the war perhaps quicker than the russians expected (atom and hydrogen bomb) they thought themselves cheated of certain lands etc in the far east that they may have gained if the war had continued along more common avenues.

Churchill didn't make his "iron curtain" speech until 1946.

There were ideological tensions between the west and the Soviet Union before the war began. Not surprisingly the establishment in the US and Europe regarded it as a threat and it was only the need to defeat Hitler that brought them together as allies.

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Originally posted by Holdtheline:
Also - sorry not really my subject but just had an idea. As the western allies terminated the war perhaps quicker than the russians expected (atom and hydrogen bomb) they thought themselves cheated of certain lands etc in the far east that they may have gained if the war had continued along more common avenues.

Not really, the Soviet Union declared war on Japan after the first A-bomb was dropped on Hiiroshima and had a three-week war which has mostly been overlooked in the West but which had enormous implications for the post-war period. The Soviets gained the whole of Manchuria from which they were able to supply Mao Tse-Tung's Communists and thus tipped the balance in the Chinese Civil War enabling Mao to gain power in October 1949. They also gained the Korean peninsula, later dividing it with the US, installing a puppet regime in their occupation half as they had done in Germany and laying the seeds opf the Korean War in 1950, the first "hot" eruption of the Cold War.

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Originally posted by Holdtheline:
A small part and I mean a very small part might have been the fact that the Russians having lost 20 million people defeating the nazis felt under appreciated and not thanked enough for their awesome sacrifice.

They certainly did make awesome sacrifices, however lets not forget that Stalin himself was responsible for the deaths of at least that number of his fellow countrymen during the purges.

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Originally posted by Geor9e:

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Originally posted by Holdtheline:
A small part and I mean a very small part might have been the fact that the Russians having lost 20 million people defeating the nazis felt under appreciated and not thanked enough for their awesome sacrifice.

They certainly did make awesome sacrifices, however lets not forget that Stalin himself was responsible for the deaths of at least that number of his fellow countrymen during the purges.

The fugure of twenty million comes from an interview Stalin gave to Pravda in may 1946. In which he claimed that six million died and fourteen million were injured

yes its lots of things. the russians were also probably pretty annoyed that if the Americans hadnt dropped the bomb russia wouldve invaded Japan. I'm fairly sure this amongst other things and issues mebtioned above led to a communcation breakdown based on ideological differences that existed before the war.

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Originally posted by Morse:

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Originally posted by Geor9e:

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Originally posted by Holdtheline:
A small part and I mean a very small part might have been the fact that the Russians having lost 20 million people defeating the nazis felt under appreciated and not thanked enough for their awesome sacrifice.

They certainly did make awesome sacrifices, however lets not forget that Stalin himself was responsible for the deaths of at least that number of his fellow countrymen during the purges.

The fugure of twenty million comes from an interview Stalin gave to Pravda in may 1946. In which he claimed that six million died and fourteen million were injured

Of course the Nazis' toll of Soviet citizens pales behind that of Stalin himself during his period of control from 1924-53 including during WWII by murder, starvation, forced labour and compulsory relocation. 20 million dead is probably a modest estimate. Even a large part of the Soviet war dead was due to Stalin's failure to take defensive measures against Hitler before Barbarossa was launched and to heed Allied warnings from Churchill, Roosevelt and his own espionage service of the forthcoming attack and his complete disregard of casualties during the war.

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Originally posted by Allan D:

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Originally posted by Morse:

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Originally posted by Geor9e:

quote:

Originally posted by Holdtheline:
A small part and I mean a very small part might have been the fact that the Russians having lost 20 million people defeating the nazis felt under appreciated and not thanked enough for their awesome sacrifice.

They certainly did make awesome sacrifices, however lets not forget that Stalin himself was responsible for the deaths of at least that number of his fellow countrymen during the purges.

The figure of twenty million was produced by the soviet propaganda machine
The fugure of twenty million comes from an interview Stalin gave to Pravda in may 1946. In which he claimed that six million died and fourteen million were injured

Of course the Nazis' toll of Soviet citizens pales behind that of Stalin himself during his period of control from 1924-53 including during WWII by murder, starvation, forced labour and compulsory relocation. 20 million dead is probably a modest estimate. Even a large part of the Soviet war dead was due to Stalin's failure to take defensive measures against Hitler before Barbarossa was launched and to heed Allied warnings from Churchill, Roosevelt and his own espionage service of the forthcoming attack and his complete disregard of casualties during the war.

Ideology was only a part of the reason for the cold war. It was a convenient excuse.
Basically the two most powerfull nations on the planet fought over the rest of us. They both wanted a world where their economic and political system was the only one.
It was mostly about power imo.

In the 1920s, the USSR formed an organisation called the Comintern to spread Communism through the rest of the world. Philby once described himself as an agent of the Comintern (rather than Soviet Intelligence). In Russia, there was a fairly typical Leftist debate about whether it was possible to establish socialism in one country, with many claiming socialism requires a world government. Many Western governments had rightly become alarmed by the activities of the Comintern long before WW2.