Introduction: Casting a New Look at the Origins of the Cold War

Abstract

The failure of the Soviet Union, the United States and Great Britain to reach an agreement on the domestic institutions and international status of the countries of Eastern Europe following the Second World War was a primary cause of the breakdown of their wartime alliance and the onset of the Cold War. It was the Soviet suppression of democracy in Eastern Europe and the absorption of the Eastern European states into a Soviet-dominated bloc that convinced American and British policymakers of Moscow’s expansionist ambitions and of the basic incompatibility between liberal democracy and communism. On the Soviet side, Eastern Europe was seen as a vital zone of influence and an area in which the local communists could be expected to play a leading role in the postwar reshaping of the political institutions of their countries. Western refusal to recognize the legitimacy of these aspirations was perceived in Moscow as an indication of the capitalist world’s aggressive intentions towards the Soviet Union.KeywordsCommunist PartyLiberal DemocracyWestern PowerSoviet PolicyPopular FrontThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.