Pre-Summit Report: Was Russia or USA the cause of the Cold War?

Poland’s geographical position became a key component that determined the Soviets’ strong political stances in the Cold War. Poland had two forms of government, both communist and democratic, while wrestling control from the Nazis. Josef Stalin, dictator of the Soviet bloc, wanted the communist government to reign supreme whereas the Churchill and Roosevelt disagreed and wanted to give the people the right to choose their own form of government.

This Russian cartoon shows Greece being helped out by America’s “democracy”.
It shows Stalin’s view on the non-communist ideology.

To Stalin, control of the Polish territory was a matter of national security as it was a major gateway for German  invasions. In order to serve as a buffer zone from future acts of war from the West, Stalin was determined to take control of Poland. However, this contradicted the anglo-american values of self determination.

At the Yalta conference in 1945, when the United Nations was created, Stalin insisted that Poland is a “question of life or death for Russia”, and was able to win Churchill and Roosevelt’s acceptance of a communist-dominated provisional government for Poland. Stalin then altered the election results and brought up a communist rule in Poland.

When President Franklin Roosevelt died of an unexpected brain haemorrhage in 1945, his Vice President Harry Truman took over his position as the president. Probably unknowing of the sacrifices made at Yalta, Truman viewed the later interventions of the Soviets into Eastern Europe as violations of the Yalta treaty, defacing Stalin as a liar. He took to blocking out the spread of communism under Stalin’s power craze, turning containment of communism into a dominating component of the American foreign policy. Thus, the Cold War began.

Texts from traditionist American historians during the cold war era would clearly state that the USSR had started the cold war to propagate a communist ideology and rule a world government. Trying to negotiate against an oppressive dictator like Stalin hadn’t worked before, causing a massive world war 2, and it wouldn’t work then. America was forced to enter the cold war to protect their freedoms of democracy and avoid a totalitarian conquest. After the Vietnam War, however, historians were disoriented by the dishonest American government, and told a different tale. Stalin was no longer a sadistic warmonger, but instead a man who wanted to defend the Soviet Union in a world dominated by “Democracy”, and retain his stance of power. It now became clear that the American interest in culling Soviet influence by means such as the atomic bomb were to seek out other economic goals without obstructions from the Soviet bloc, were the main reasons to start the cold war.

“For 40 years we were led to think of the Russians as godless, materialistic and an evil empire. When the Cold War ended, we suddenly discovered that Russia was a poor Third World country. They had not been equipped to take over the world. In fact, they were just trying to improve a miserable standard of oppressive living, and couldn’t. They had to spend too much on arms build-up. We didn’t win the Cold War; we bankrupted the Russians. In effect, it was a big bank exhausting the reserves of a smaller one.” Norman Mailer, 1995

By,
Aditya Katakol
Reporter
SYRIA-PARIS PEACE CONFERENCE

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Pre-Summit Report: Is Russia justified in annexing Crimea?

“They are constantly trying to drive us into a corner because we have an independent position, because we maintain it and because we tell it like it is and don't engage in hypocrisy. But there is a limit to everything. And with Ukraine, our Western partners have crossed the line, playing the bear and acting irresponsibly and unprofessionally.”- Vladimir Putin.

The current crisis of Russia and Ukraine is a rapidly evolving issue. The Crimean peninsula, the main flashpoint in Ukraine's crisis, is a pro-Russia part of Ukraine, separated from the rest of the country geographically, historically and politically. It also hosts Russia's Black Sea Fleet. Ukraine has accused Russia of invading it. Ukraine’s representative described the 16 March referendum in Crimea as “illegitimate” and in violation of his country’s Constitution.

Russia and Crimea have deep historical times. Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a recent speech that “Everything in Crimea speaks of our history and pride”. As, due to this reason that Vladimir Putin has stated, Russia wants Crimea to join them, although I tend to think there is much more to it than that.

There were problems before Ukraine and Russia started fighting over Crimea. Ukrainians were trying to decide whether they should be closer to Russia or to Europe. There were huge protests, and then last month, Ukraine’s president fled to Russia. The country’s new leaders signed an agreement with the European Union last week.

About 2 million people live in Crimea. Around 60 percent see themselves as ethnic Russians and speak Russian. The population also includes ethnic Ukrainians — they tend to feel closer to Ukraine — and a group called the Crimean Tatars. The Tatars, who are mostly Muslim, suffered under Russian rule and were forced to leave Crimea in the 1940s. Some have returned; today there are about 300,000 Tatars in Crimea.

Russia’s parliament voted to admit Crimea last week, and Putin signed a law to complete the process. But Russia had been moving to take the peninsula, and it took control of several Ukrainian military bases. Ukraine is angry about the developments, but I wonder whether it can do anything, seeing that Russia is a superpower, and a much bigger force than Ukraine. Although, The United States of America is siding with Ukraine in the war, the war too has China in a fix, although now China has decided to back Russia. United Kingdom and France has not taken a step to get involved in the current crisis, and most probably will not.

However, I think that, given Crimea's economic underdevelopment and the perception of power in Russia, the seizure of Crimea was done primarily for the political purpose and not for the economic one, because since a major reason why Russia invaded Crimea was not for the economic benefits; instead, it was a way for Vladimir Putin to raise his popularity in Russia. Putin's primary goal is to maintain his power; he is much less concerned about raising the standard of living of the citizens through economic reforms. However, I believe that Russians will realise the annexation of Crimea, will do them no good as there will be high economic costs of the Crimea annexation. Vladimir Putin is only going to be his country’s condition worse by the planning the annexation of Crimea. Russia’ economy already went down after the 2008 crisis. Now, the Crimea annexation might put down Russia economy even more.

“’ If you press the spring too hard, it will snap back’ You must always remember this”- Vladimir Putin, referring to the Russia- Ukraine crisis. 

By, 

Rhea Rehani

Reporter

CHINA-DISEC

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