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The Cold War

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What was Joseph Stalin's role in the Cold War?

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Joseph Stalin's role in the Cold War was characterized by a pragmatic approach that often leaned towards realpolitik, while still rooted in Marxist-Leninist ideology. He was instrumental in setting up communist governments in Eastern Europe to serve as a buffer zone for the USSR, and his actions, such as supporting North Korea's invasion of South Korea and violating post-WWII agreements with Allies, significantly escalated Cold War tensions. Stalin's policies were primarily driven by the strategic interests of the Soviet Union rather than a genuine commitment to spread communism worldwide.

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Stalin’s approach to the Cold War alternated between the ideological and the pragmatic, but veered mainly towards the latter. In ideological terms Stalin was committed to the Marxist-Leninist worldview that conflict between the capitalist and communist powers was inevitable and that the latter would ultimately triumph.

On the other hand, Stalin often displayed considerable pragmatism in how he conducted relations with the West during the early years of the Cold War. A notable example of this is his policy in relation to the Korean War. Initially, Stalin was lukewarm to the idea of North Korea invading the South. He was concerned above all to maintain a balance of power in the Far East and didn’t unduly want to antagonize the United States or give the impression that the USSR was reneging on its commitments to the United Nations.

However, once he became convinced that the United States wouldn’t intervene to...

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help South Korea in the event of an invasion, Stalin went along with Kim Il-Sung’s proposals. Yet even here, Stalin was motivated primarily by opportunism rather than revolutionary zeal. And the subsequent low-key involvement of Soviet men and materiel indicates that Stalin was unwilling to take unnecessary risks, while at the same time remaining perfectly happy to reap the benefits of his allies’ recklessness. Indeed, it was this cynical exercise inrealpolitik that angered the much more ideologically driven Chinese, souring Sino-Soviet relations for decades to come.

A similar dynamic can be observed in Stalin’s policy towards Europe. On the face of it, he showed a commitment to the establishment of communist governments in those countries already occupied by Soviet troops. But the main reason for doing so was the defense of the Soviet Union rather than any notion of spreading the communist revolution worldwide. At the same time, an element of political ideology was at play here. Stalin wanted to create a large buffer zone of communist states which he could control and which would be used as a means of defending the USSR in the event of an insurgency by the West as part of the final confrontation between the capitalist and communist powers that he thought both inevitable and desirable.

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Joseph Stalin was one of the most important figures of the Cold War.  He was the leader of the Soviet Union at the beginning of the Cold War, leaving power when he died in 1953.  His actions as leader helped to set up the entire Cold War.

As WWII was ending, Stalin took control over all of Eastern Europe.  He then decided not to allow any of it to be democratic.  By doing this, he helped to make the West worry that the Soviet Union was intent on taking over all of Europe and, eventually, the whole world.

Between then and his death, Stalin took other actions that helped to increase Western suspicions of the Soviet Union.  Perhaps the most famous of these was his decision to blockade Berlin, leading to the Berlin Airlift in 1948 and 1949.  With actions like these, Stalin helped to deepen suspicions and intensify the Cold War.

So, Stalin's role in the Cold War was that of leader of the Soviet Union and major cause of the tensions of the Cold War.

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