The expression "iron curtain" refers to metamorphic, figurative. However, this phrase hides the historical events taking place in real life, and with them hundreds of broken human destinies and tensions that have dragged on for decades.
What is an "iron curtain"?
In the language of journalism, the "Iron Curtain" is the desire of the government of the USSR (totalitarian state) to separate itself from the pernicious and harmful influence from outside. It was believed that everything coming from the West was hostile and subject to the speediest extermination and eradication. For ordinary residents of the Soviet Union, this situation was fraught.
Movement restriction. Only a few lucky ones could get to the West, and more often this happened with the escort of special services agents who disguised themselves as civilians. There were also "friendly countries" at that time. However, after several visits of the inhabitants of the USSR, disappointment overtook. They tried to convince the citizens of those times that socialism was the first step towards the victory of communism. However, the last few years of the USSR were remembered by citizens for empty windows in stores, huge queues for necessary goods and the introduction of coupons.
Who introduced the "Iron Curtain"?
The concept of the "Iron Curtain" became widespread after Winston Churchill delivered his famous Fulton speech in March 1946. It served as a kind of signal for the Cold War, dividing the world into Western democracies and social blocs. The main theses of the Fulton speech are the containment of the "red threat" and the creation of the armed forces. Key phrases of the speech during for long years were the basis of the confrontation between the West and the Soviet Union. At this time, the iron curtain was established.
Causes of the Iron Curtain
The relationship of the Soviet Union with Europe and the United States after 1945 began to deteriorate rapidly. The states had radically different policies and unwillingness to yield to each other. The USSR tried to exert its influence in Europe, and America reacted painfully to this. The conflict situation and tense relations between countries led to the "cold war" and became the main reason why the "iron curtain" fell.
"Iron Curtain" - pros and cons
In 1991, the Soviet Union collapsed. It was the largest country in the world, from which 15 sovereign states emerged. With the collapse of the USSR, the policy of the "Iron Curtain" also collapsed. This determined the further independent development of Russia and affected the economy of other powers. Some historians evaluate the fall of the Iron Curtain negatively, but in other matters this event is characterized on the positive side.
The advantages of politics include the beginning of the development of democratic states and a market economy. Cons - the collapse of enterprises or their transfer to another state. Modern Russia was not ready to independently support the economy of its country without the assistance of subsidiaries. This also affected the emergence of disagreements with the former republics that are part of the USSR.
The Iron Curtain and the Cold War
After 1945, relations between the Soviet Union with Europe and America began to deteriorate rapidly. This situation was caused by different policies and unwillingness to make concessions. The USSR sought to increase its influence in European countries, and the United States reacted painfully to this. The result of the conflict was the Cold War. Its main steps were:
- arms race;
- struggle for dominance in outer space;
- nuclear confrontation between the US and the Soviet Union.
With the beginning of the reign of the USSR by Mikhail Gorbachev, the "Iron Curtain" fell and its consequences led to an economic and political crisis in the Soviet Union. This made it impossible to continue the fight against America and ended with the termination of the Union Treaty and the end of the Cold War. The collapse of the Berlin Wall became a symbol of the fall, and in the USSR a law was adopted on the rules for the departure of the Soviet people abroad.
"Iron Curtain" - the meaning of phraseology
Few people know that the Iron Curtain actually existed. It was used during theatrical performances to protect the audience from the fire that illuminated the stage. " Iron curtain"- a phraseological unit that became widespread after W. Churchill's speech, but was also used before him. The expression is found not only about the mention of the times of the Cold War, but also in Everyday life. For example, about secretive person we can say that he put up an "iron curtain" around him.
The law on the procedure for the entry and exit from the USSR of Soviet citizens, which the allied Supreme Soviet adopted 20 years ago, on May 20, 1991, was the same progressive and revolutionary document as, for example, the 1990 Mass Media Law. But he was not lucky, so to speak, "for technical reasons."
This law could not be put into effect immediately and simultaneously. It was necessary to produce millions of foreign passports, re-profil, re-switch the work of thousands of OVIRs, and much more to be done and prepared. Therefore, a special resolution was issued on the phased introduction of the articles of the law. And the final moment had to be postponed until January 1, 1993.
As is known, by that time Soviet Union no longer left. However, the law on entry and exit from a non-existent state has only just begun to operate in full, albeit with regard to Russian Federation. Then it took another three years to prepare for the introduction of the relevant Russian law and Russian passports.
Nevertheless, until the middle of the 2000s of the 21st century, many citizens of the Russian Federation (including the author of these lines) traveled around foreign countries with a red-skinned and "sickle-and-hammered passport". And European border guards reacted with great surprise to this document. Not, of course, as in Mayakovsky's famous poem: "He takes - like a bomb, takes - like a hedgehog, like a double-edged razor." The place of fear was taken by bewilderment: how is it that the state no longer exists, but its passport remains.
This happens all the time in jurisprudence. This area of activity is very conservative in itself. Moreover, the process of producing more and more new samples of documents does not keep pace with political changes. Which sometimes leads to curious situations, and not only in the legislative sphere.
So, for example, the USSR national team made its way through the qualifying games for the 1992 European Football Championship. But the Union disappeared from political map world, and the tournament featured a team of a non-existent single state, the so-called "CIS team", which included players from Russia, Belarus, Ukraine and - which may seem especially surprising today - Georgia. In the nineties of the last century, many such paradoxical collisions arose.
Be that as it may, the Supreme Soviet of the USSR in May 1991 de jure marked the disappearance of the notorious "Iron Curtain". Although de facto this barrier was eliminated somewhat earlier. And then a series of police-bureaucratic procedures were already unfolding, which brought the formal side into line with reality.
Thus, another argument appears in the endless dispute about who "gave freedom" to our citizens. Under the most progressive law on entry and exit and under the decree on its implementation are the signatures of the President of the USSR Mikhail Gorbachev and the Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR Anatoly Lukyanov. It was they who consecrated with their names the following revolutionary provisions of the first article:
"Every citizen of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics has the right to leave the USSR and enter the USSR. This Law, in accordance with the international treaties of the USSR, guarantees citizens of the USSR the right to leave the USSR and enter the USSR ... A foreign passport is valid for leaving the USSR to all countries of the world ... Citizen The USSR cannot be arbitrarily deprived of the right to enter the USSR..
In the same way, the right to leave was guaranteed to all citizens, except for convicted felons, malicious deceivers and bearers of state secrets, and these restrictions were not observed too strictly. So, the borders of the USSR, and then the Russian Federation, were calmly crossed in both directions by thieves in law and criminal authorities such as the famous Vyacheslav Ivankov-Yaponchik. If they were arrested and prosecuted, then, as a rule, in the countries of the "free world", and not at home.
Well, as they say, freedom requires sacrifice. And this freedom was granted to his fellow citizens by the first and last president of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev. He cannot in any way be responsible for the slowness of the paper-printing mechanism, due to which the possibility of the final and irrevocable realization of these rights and freedoms came only a year after his voluntary resignation and the liquidation of the state he headed.
However, the irony of history is such that as soon as traces of the "Iron Curtain" began to disappear from the Soviet, and then from the Russian side, exactly the same curtain began to rise from the opposite side. Especially and first of all - from the emerging European Union and the United States of America.
And as soon as the last obstacles and difficulties with leaving their native country disappeared for the citizens of the USSR, they immediately had difficulties with entering the most "free" and "democratic" states, which they used to call "capitalist". It was unbearably difficult, almost impossible to leave - it became just as difficult, and sometimes even impossible, to enter there. Where thousands of Soviet citizens rushed.
Such are the laws of dialectics, repeating the formula derived by the great Russian scientist Mikhail Lomonosov: "All changes occurring in nature occur in such a way that if something is added to something, then it is taken away from something else." And, of course, vice versa. Applying political and legal terms, it can be formulated as follows: if in one part of the planet the total volume of human rights and freedoms increases, then in the other part it proportionally decreases.
Iron curtain(Iron Curtain) - an information-political and border barrier between the countries of the socialist and capitalist camps in the 20th century. In Western propaganda, the term "Iron Curtain" was actively used as a symbol of total lack of freedom under socialism, the suppression of basic individual rights, primarily the right to freedom of movement and information. The fall of the Iron Curtain in the late 1980s and early 1990s effectively marked the end of the Cold War period.
As a fire-fighting agent, the iron curtain began to be actually used in European theaters from the end of the 18th century. In the event of a fire on the stage, an iron curtain separated it from the auditorium and allowed the audience to safely leave the theater building. Later, the fire curtain became a mandatory equipment for all major theater buildings. In the 19th century, the expression "iron curtain" began to be used in a figurative sense, denoting the mental isolation of the individual, her indifference to external events. With the outbreak of the First World War, the term was used in political journalism, the warring parties began to accuse each other of erecting an "iron curtain", which meant a set of measures to strengthen the defense capability of countries, in particular, tightening passport control at the borders, the introduction of censorship in the press, the subordination of foreign trade to state interests.
After the October Revolution in Russia, there were calls in the Western press to lower the "Iron Curtain" on the borders with Soviet Russia in order to prevent the spread of "revolutionary fire" in Western Europe. At the end of World War II, Goebbels' propaganda demanded that the Wehrmacht protect Germany from the Red Army with an iron curtain. On the other hand, the practice of socialist construction in one country revealed a tendency towards self-isolation of socialist countries - the introduction of censorship in the open press, the suppression of alternative sources of information, the state monopoly of foreign trade, the ban on free travel abroad, the restriction of communication with foreigners, cultural exchange. The term "Iron Curtain" became widespread after Winston Churchill's speech delivered in Fulton, Missouri in March 1946, in which he figuratively described the division of post-war Europe into spheres of influence: "The Iron Curtain has descended across the entire continent."
The "Iron Curtain" never had an absolute character, and in the conditions of the Cold War between the countries of capitalism and socialism, active foreign trade was carried out, cultural contacts were made. Over time, the Iron Curtain regime weakened, in the second half of the 1950s, marriages with foreigners were allowed in the USSR, and tourist exchanges with other countries began. The policy of perestroika in the second half of the 1980s put an end to the Cold War and, consequently, to the Iron Curtain. The destruction of the Berlin Wall in the fall of 1989 was a symbol of his fall. On May 20, 1991, the USSR adopted a law “On the procedure for leaving the USSR”, which abolished the permitting procedure for registering the departure of Soviet citizens abroad.
Real iron curtains appeared in theaters at the end of the 18th century. The stage was lit mostly by candles, so there was always the possibility of a fire. In the event of a fire, an iron curtain would fall between the stage and the auditorium to block the fire.
But the term "iron curtain" appeared on everyone's lips by no means in connection with safety in Renaissance theaters. This is a political cliche, which is used to describe a difficult period in world history.
"Iron Curtain" in political terminology
The "Iron Curtain" is a political metaphor that means the political, economic and cultural isolation of a country, in this case the USSR, from other states.
Who is the author of the expression?
Mostly Churchill is credited with authorship, but this is not entirely true. To be extremely precise, for the first time this metaphor was used by the Russian philosopher Vasily Rozanov in the book "The Apocalypse of Our Time", written in 1917. He compared events October revolution with a theatrical performance, after which "with a clang, a creak" a bulky iron curtain fell over Russian history. This performance, according to Rozanov, did not bring anything good, on the contrary, the audience, watching all this, suddenly became naked and homeless.
Two years later, French Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau used this expression in his speech. He announced his readiness to erect a huge iron curtain around Bolshevism in order to protect Western civilization from pernicious influence. It is not known whether he borrowed this metaphor from Rozanov or invented it on his own. Be that as it may, this capacious expression came into wide use only almost 30 years after Churchill's speech.
But before that (March 1945) an article called "Year 2000" was written. Realizing the imminence of German defeat, this Nazi propaganda minister wanted to at least quarrel with the allies of that time - the United States and Great Britain - and turn them against the USSR, describing the gloomy prospects for the future if the Germans surrendered. He called the expansion of Russians in the east and southeast of Europe the same term "Iron Curtain". turned out to be prophetic.
A year later, Goebbels' words began to come true little by little. At that time, the British Prime Minister, wishing to warn the United States of the impending danger of Bolshevism, made his famous speech in Fulton, which is considered the starting point of the Cold War. According to him, the "Iron Curtain" is the isolation of the USSR from other states. He announced exactly which countries would fall under socialist influence: Germany, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, Austria, Romania, Yugoslavia. And so it happened.
How did the "iron curtain" in the USSR
Beginning in 1946, Stalin built around the USSR a "sanitary ring" of "friendly" socialist states to prevent a military invasion. Everything that came from the West was declared pernicious and harmful. The world for Soviet citizens was divided into black and white, that is, into capitalism and socialism. And both warring parties.
In addition to the tacit confrontation, the initiators of the conflict formalized their dislike officially by joining opposing alliances. In 1949, the North Atlantic Alliance (NATO) was created, and in 1955, the Warsaw Pact was signed.
A visible symbol of such opposition between the two political systems became erected in 1961 Berlin Wall.
Tensions in the bipolar world affected both trade and economic ties between two blocs of states.
In addition, the Western media created a lot of myths and legends about life in a country where the Iron Curtain has been lowered. Years of isolation have taken their toll.
Life behind the Iron Curtain
How did such isolation affect the lives of ordinary citizens?
First of all, they had a very limited opportunity to get outside the borders of the USSR (trips to "friendly" countries do not count, because everything there was very reminiscent of Soviet reality). Only a few succeeded, but they were always followed by agents of the special services.
In general, the KGB could find out absolutely everything about everyone's life. Citizens with "unreliable" views have always been on the radar of the secret services. If someone had an opinion that was wrong from the point of view of the party, then he could easily be declared an enemy of the people, and in different years it meant either exile or execution.
The inhabitants of the Land of the Soviets were extremely limited in their choice of clothing, equipment, and transport. Then the concept of "deficiency" appeared. To get something worthwhile (real jeans, or even Beatles records) was possible only through a big pull. The "Iron Curtain" in the USSR also influenced the sphere of culture: many European and American films, books, songs were simply banned.
How it was destroyed
The Cold War lasted over 40 years. During this time, both superpowers got tired of. In 1987, an agreement was signed on the destruction by both states of certain types of missiles. Then the USSR withdrew its troops from Afghanistan. The new General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev radically changed the state. In 1989, the Berlin Wall fell. In 1991, the Soviet Union also ceased to exist. Thus, the notorious "Iron Curtain" over the post-Soviet space was finally lifted.
The Iron Curtain is a lesson in history for which many have paid a very high price.
"Now they often say "unipolar world". This expression is absurd, since the word "pole" is inextricably linked with the number two, with the presence of the second pole."
S. Kara-Murza, political scientist.
The history of the Cold War is not only the history of the rivalry of two ideologies, but also the history of the rivalry of two economic systems, which in essence were antipodes to each other. What is remarkable this topic? It illuminates the beginning of what we will all witness in our lifetime.
What am I talking about?
Read between the lines. For he who has eyes, let him see...
Background.
"The Iron Curtain - this expression was given life by a device that was previously used in the theater - an iron curtain, which, in order to protect the auditorium from fire, was lowered onto the stage in the event of a fire on it. This was very advisable in an era when on the stage for its illumination were forced open fire was used - candles, oil lamps, etc. For the first time such an iron curtain began to be used in France - in the city of Lyon in the late 80s - early 90s XVIII in."
Vadim Serov.
It is generally accepted that the well-known "Iron Curtain" descended on the country of the Soviets in the 1920s, roughly speaking, as soon as the USSR was created, they immediately covered it with a curtain so that dirt from the west would not fly. I'm afraid to disappoint some, but it's not.
The Land of the Soviets existed, developed, and there was no self-isolation, and there was no closeness, on the contrary, the Soviet government made every effort to eliminate this closeness. For this, famous writers, artists and other figures from all over the world were invited to the USSR. The purpose of all this was to break the veil of lies that enveloped us in the West, and to give an opportunity to assess what is happening in our country more or less truthfully.
In addition to writers and artists, ordinary people also came to the USSR: some of them were invited as specialists for a large salary, and some came on their own, for ideological reasons (people wanted to build the society of the future with their own hands). Naturally, after some time, returning to their homeland, they all brought with them a baggage of information about the country of the Soviets.
But the Western powers did not attach much importance to this, they no longer saw Russia as a serious adversary for the coming decades, although they did not stop their attempts to snatch an extra piece from us (a campaign of 14 states).
"Russia, which was a civilization of the Western type - the least organized and most shaky of the great powers - is now a modern civilization in extremis (lat. with its last gasp - approx. ed.). ... History knows nothing like the collapse Russia is going through. If this process continues for another year, the collapse will be final. Russia will turn into a country of peasants; the cities will become empty and turn into ruins; railways the last remnants of the central government will disappear."
HG Wells, 1920
However, the explosive growth rates of the USSR greatly frightened the West, showing them that they had greatly miscalculated on our account, even taking into account the insertion of sticks into all our wheels and wheels.
Then, the trump ace of the West, Adolf Hitler, was pulled out of the sleeve (you can read more about this in the article - "Shock USSR. Stakhanov's Chronicles") and a grandiose war was unleashed, hitherto unseen by mankind.
"If the Germans win, then the Russians must be helped, and if things turn out differently, then the Germans must be helped. And let them kill each other as much as possible."
G. Truman, " New York Times", 1941
As they say (they, in the West) - "nothing personal, just business."
Bear trap.
"Who controls the country's money is the absolute master of all industry and commerce."
James Abram Garfield, 20th President of the United States, 1881
In July 1944, at the very height of the war, the international Bretton Woods Conference was held in the United States (New Hampshire). The meaning of this conference boiled down to two main points: the dollar is the only currency that is now allowed to have a gold content, all other countries must refuse to back their currencies with gold, introducing dollar backing instead (buy a dollar to print their currency), and the second point - the dollar becomes the main settlement currency (all international trade must now be conducted only for dollars).
The USSR signs the enslaving Bretton Woods agreement, its ratification (approval) is scheduled for December 1945.
April 12, 1945 Franklin Delano Roosevelt is assassinated. The reason for the murder was his friendly relations with the USSR and Stalin personally. This event shows once again that US presidents are just pawns in a big game.
"We were closest to equal cooperation when Roosevelt was in America, and Stalin was in our country."
S.E. Kurginyan, political scientist.
Here are the words of Roosevelt:
"Under the leadership of Marshal Joseph Stalin, the Russian people showed such an example of love for the motherland, firmness of spirit and self-sacrifice that the world has not yet known. After the war, our country will always be happy to maintain good neighborly relations and sincere friendship with Russia, whose people, saving themselves, help to save the whole world from the Nazi threat."
Personal message to Stalin following the results Tehran Conference (passed: November 28-December 1, 1943):
"I think that the conference was very successful and I am sure that it is historical event confirming our ability not only to wage war, but also to work for the cause of the world to come in perfect harmony."
“To put it simply, I got on very well with Marshal Stalin. This man combines a huge, unbending will and a healthy sense of humor; I think the soul and heart of Russia have their true representative in him. I believe that we will continue to get along well and with him, and with all the Russian people."
"Beginning with last meeting in Tehran, we work in really good cooperation with the Russians, and I think the Russians are quite friendly. They are not trying to swallow all of Europe and the rest of the world."
The quotes speak for themselves.
Exactly 2 hours and 24 minutes after the death of Roosevelt, his place is taken by US Vice President and ardent anti-communist Harry Truman. Literally into Russian, "Truman" is translated as "real man" (English "true man") =)) , but this is a joke.
The first thing Truman does is forbid the execution of any instructions from the previous Roosevelt administration.
"That's enough, we are no longer interested in an alliance with the Russians, and therefore, we may not fulfill the agreements with them. We will solve the problem of Japan without the help of the Russians."
From this moment on, any friendliness can be forgotten.
On the eve of the Potsdam Conference (held: July 17 - August 2, 1945), Truman receives a coded message: " The operation took place this morning. The diagnosis is not yet fully completed, but the results seem satisfactory and already exceed expectations.". This was a message about the successful test of the atomic bomb. And on July 21, US Secretary of War Stimson, who accompanied the conference Truman , receives photographs of the tests carried out and shows them to the president.
And Truman goes on the offensive.
During the conference, he tries to hint to Stalin that the United States has nuclear weapons.
Churchill describes the scene this way: "We stood in twos and threes before dispersing. I was perhaps five yards away and followed this important conversation with keen interest. I knew what the president was going to say. It was extremely important to know what impression this would make on Stalin ".
A little later, Churchill would approach Truman: "How did everything go?" I asked. “He didn’t ask a single question,” the president replied..
And on August 6 and 9, 1945, the United States carries out two nuclear attacks on Japanese cities - on the city of Hiroshima (up to 166 thousand dead) and on the city of Nagasaki (up to 80 thousand dead).
"Military and civilians, men and women, old and young, were killed indiscriminately atmospheric pressure and thermal radiation of the explosion ...
These bombs used by the Americans, in their cruelty and terrifying effects, are far superior to poison gases or any other weapon whose use is prohibited.
Japan protests against the US violation of internationally recognized principles of warfare, violated both by the use of the atomic bomb and by earlier incendiary bombings that killed the elderly, women and children, destroyed and burned Shinto and Buddhist temples, schools, hospitals, residential areas, etc. d..
Now they have used this new bomb, which has a much more destructive effect than any other weapon used hitherto. This is a new crime against humanity and civilization."
According to an American report from 1946, there was no military necessity for the use of atomic bombs:
"Based on a detailed study of all the facts and after interviews with surviving Japanese officials, in the opinion of this Study, definitely before December 31, 1945, and most likely before November 1, 1945, Japan would have surrendered even if the atomic bombs had not been dropped. and the USSR would not have entered the war, and even if the invasion of the Japanese islands had not been planned and prepared.
After Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Americans planned subsequent atomic bombings of Japan, but later decided that it was more expedient not to waste bombs as they were created, but to start accumulating them.
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| Stockpiles of nuclear weapons in the world. |
On September 4, 1945, the United States Joint War Planning Committee prepared memorandum No. 329: " select approximately 20 of the most important targets suitable for strategic atomic bombing of the USSR and in the territory controlled by it"As the arsenal grew, it was planned to increase the number of cities. By that time, the USSR did not have not only such weapons, but even a strategic bomber capable of long-range flights.
December 1945 came. The USSR flatly refused to ratify the Bretton Woods agreement.
But there were no atomic strikes on the USSR. Stalin too well weighed all the pros and cons.
One of the important reasons for the failed attack was the Americans themselves, namely their supply to us under Lend-Lease.
And from the middle of 1944, approximately 2,400 R-63 Kincobra attack fighters were delivered to the USSR, the best American fighters at the end of the war, which were a modification of the aforementioned R-39s. The Kincobras failed to take part in the war with Germany, and practically the same in the war with Japan.
Thus, it turned out that by the end of the war we were armed with a full set of the latest American fighters (I think good relations with Roosevelt played a role here), and all atomic bombs, at that time, were delivered using long-range aviation vulnerable to fighters.
So it turns out that the Americans protected us from themselves.
America did not have the opportunity tofight with us in a fair fight, even joining forces with Europe. The Soviet Union by this time was no longer too tough for them. So the West is beginning to build up its joint military power with all its might in order to bring it down on the USSR as soon as possible. The USSR, however, had only to strengthen its air defense and speed up work on its nuclear program.
The curtain falls.
"The most important thing is to choose the right enemy."Joseph Goebbels.
On March 5, 1946, Winston Churchill, speaking at Westminster College in Fulton (USA), divided the world into two poles: those who are with us and those who are with them, the so-called bipolar world. President Truman also attended the speech.
This speech was the official start of the Cold War.
"Neither the effective prevention of war nor the permanent expansion of the influence of the World Organization can be achieved without the fraternal union of the English-speaking peoples. This means a special relationship between the British Commonwealth and the British Empire and the United States.From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain descended on the continent. On the other side of the curtain, all the capitals of the ancient states of Central and of Eastern Europe- Warsaw, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade, Bucharest, Sofia. All these famous cities and the populations in their districts fell within what I call the Soviet sphere, all of them, in one form or another, not only under Soviet influence, but also under the considerable and increasing control of Moscow.
Almost all of these countries are run by police governments,<...>there is no true democracy in them."
But Churchill was not the one who first introduced the concept of "Iron Curtain" in relation to the Soviet Union. He borrowed this expression from an article by the German Reich Minister for Public Education and Propaganda, Joseph Goebbels:
"If the Germans lay down their arms, the Soviets will occupy, according to the Yalta Conference, all of Eastern and South-Eastern Europe, together with most of the Reich. An Iron Curtain will descend on the entire gigantic territory controlled by the Soviet Union, behind which the peoples will be exterminated.
<...>
All that will be left will be human raw materials, a dumb roaming mass of millions of desperate, proletarian working animals who will know only what the Kremlin will want about the rest of the world.
This article was written by Goebbels on February 25, 1945, immediately after the Yalta Conference, at which the fate of the world was decided.
With his article, Goebbels tried to bring seeds of discord into the ranks of the allies (anti-Hitler, of course) and desperately beg the West for the last chance for salvation, in the face of imminent death: “Now Bolshevism stands on the Oder. Everything depends on the steadfastness of the German soldiers. Whether Bolshevism will be pushed to the East or whether its fury will cover all of Europe.<...>Everything will be decided by us or will not be decided at all. That's all the alternatives."
Goebbels' article had its effect, but only after the fall of Germany and the death of its leadership. It was then that Churchill took the words of Goebbels for his speech in Fulton.
"If Churchill had dug deeper, he would have known that the term 'Iron Curtain' first came into use in Scandinavia, where workers protested in the early 1920s against the desire of their rulers to isolate them from the 'heretical ideas' coming from the East."Valentin Falin, Dr. Sciences.
We were not at war with Hitler in order to transfer power to the Churchills.
Stalin immediately reacted to Fulton's speech:
"It should be noted that Mr. Churchill and his friends are strikingly reminiscent in this respect of Hitler and his friends. Hitler began the work of unleashing the war by proclaiming the racial theory, declaring that only people who speak German represent a complete nation.
Mr. Churchill begins the business of unleashing war also with racial theory, arguing that only nations that speak English language, are full-fledged nations, called to decide the fate of the whole world.
German racial theory led Hitler and his friends to the conclusion that the Germans, as the only complete nation, should dominate other nations. The English racial theory leads Mr. Churchill and his friends to the conclusion that the nations that speak the English language, as the only full-fledged ones, should dominate the rest of the nations of the world.
<...>
In fact, Mr. Churchill and his friends in England and the United States are presenting to the non-English speaking nations something like an ultimatum: accept our domination voluntarily, and then everything will be in order - otherwise war is inevitable.
Parable of the Good Samaritan.
The meaning of the Marshall Plan was to allocate financial assistance to countries affected during the Second World War.
Goodwill gesture, you say. Alas, no, in America "only business." Each of the countries that received aid had to sacrifice part of their sovereignty.
The Truman Doctrine, on the other hand, contained specific measures against the expansion of the Soviet sphere of influence and the spread of communist ideology ("the doctrine of containment" of socialism), as well as aimed at returning the USSR to its former borders ("the doctrine of rejection" of socialism).
The father of the founder of the "doctrine of containment" is considered the American ambassador to Moscow (of that time). It was he who formulated and outlined in his telegram of February 22, 1946, even before Churchill's speech at Fulton, all the main trends of the future Cold War. The telegram was called "long", as it contained about 8,000 words.
Here are excerpts from the telegram:
You can read the full text of the telegram here (link) or at the end of the article, in the additional section. materials.
It was George Kennan who formulated the idea that the Soviet Union should be defeated without entering into a direct military conflict with it. The bet here was on the depletion of the Soviet economy, because the economy of the West was much more powerful (why was it more powerful? Yes, because it developed while we were at war, and ate our gold).
Thus, by the middle of 1947, two types of foreign policy orientation were finally formed on the world map: pro-Soviet and pro-American.
And on April 4, 1949, countries that received economic assistance from the United States under the Marshall Plan sign the North Atlantic Treaty (NATO). Here's a combination in two moves.
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| RDS-1. |
A little about our bomber.
On August 3, 1947, an air parade in Tushino was opened by three Tu-4 aircraft, which was attended by foreign military representatives. At first, foreigners did not believe that Soviet planes were flying in the sky, because only the United States had such bombers, it was their latest development. But, as much as they would not like to admit it, the planes were Soviet. And the reason for the distrust of foreigners was the similarity - the planes were exact copies of the American B-29 "Superfortress" (superfortress).
In 1949, the Tu-4 was put into service and became the first Soviet aircraft to carry nuclear weapons.
Thus, the position of the two forces in the world was relatively equalized. Now, with bare hands, it was no longer possible to take us.
"Began cold war Truman. And he began it out of fear, out of weakness, not out of strength. And why? After the Second World War, capitalism as a system was badly battered. He was discredited in the eyes of millions of people. He created the Great Depression. He gave birth terrible war. He gave rise to fascism and the gas chambers.
The Soviet Union was in this sense a real alternative. And this happened against the background when Europe was in ruins.
The Greek communists are about to come to power.
The Italian communists in 1943 had 7,000 people. In 1945 they had 1.5 million people.
And so Truman and his entourage had a fear that Stalin would take advantage of the opportunities that were opening up before him. Moreover, there was a civil war in China, where the communists won. India continued to fight for independence. There were wars of liberation already in Indonesia and Vietnam, or they were ready for it.
That is, the Soviet Union, as the Americans believed, could take advantage of this situation in order to create a real threat to American capitalism, the American way of life. The Soviet Union had to be stopped. That was the reason why the Americans started the Cold War."A.L. Adamashin, Russian diplomat.
The Soviet system was dangerous for the West not so much from an ideological point of view as from a methodological one. This mainly concerned the economic component.
"Principle public policy(Soviet - ed.) made a permanent, albeit modest, improvement in the well-being of the population. This was expressed, for example, in large and regular price reductions (13 times in 6 years; from 1946 to 1950, bread fell three times, and meat 2.5 times). It was then that specific stereotypes enshrined in the state ideology arose. mass consciousness: confidence in the future and the belief that life can only get better.
The condition for this was the strengthening of the financial system of the state in close connection with planning. To preserve this system, the USSR went to important step: refused to join the IMF and international bank reconstruction and development, and on March 1, 1950, he left the dollar zone altogether, transferring the definition of the ruble exchange rate to a gold basis. Large gold reserves were created in the USSR, the ruble was inconvertible, which made it possible to maintain very low domestic prices.
In each country, there is a certain amount of goods and services (commodity equivalent, TE), the number of these goods and services is constantly growing or decreasing (depending on the situation in the country, but definitely not standing still) and there is a money supply, the purpose of which is to serve the universal equivalent of the exchange (DE - cash equivalent). The money supply is always attached to goods and should approximately correspond to their quantity (that is, TE = DE). If there is more money than goods, this is called inflation ( TE< ДЭ = инфляция ); if there is less money than goods, then this is called deflation ( TE > DE = deflation).
But the Central Bank (in this particular case, I mean the Fed) is constantly printing extra money, in other words, it creates inflation (TE< ДЭ ) и для того, чтобы уровнять соотношение "товар-деньги", цены на товары и услуги растут. Вот и вся математика.
What happened in Stalin's USSR?
And there it was exactly the opposite: the number of goods grew, and the Central Bank, on the contrary, did not print more money, that is, it created deflation (TE > DE), and in order to equalize the "goods-money" ratio, the prices of goods were reduced (i.e. the solvency of money increased).“The essential features and requirements of the basic economic law of socialism could be formulated approximately as follows: ensuring maximum satisfaction of the constantly growing material and cultural needs of the whole society through the continuous growth and improvement of socialist production on the basis of higher technology. Consequently: instead of ensuring maximum profits, - ensuring maximum satisfaction of the material and cultural needs of society; instead of the development of production with interruptions from rise to crisis and from crisis to rise, - continuous growth of production ... "Thomas Jefferson, 3rd President of the United States.
But why did the US choose such an illogical and highly unsustainable financial system? The answer is not complicated - "just business". The Fed is a private company and the inflationary financial system is just a way for this company to make a profit.
"The main features and requirements of the basic economic law of modern capitalism could be formulated approximately as follows: ensuring the maximum capitalist profit through the exploitation, ruin and impoverishment of the majority of the population of a given country..."
And now I will explain what inflation is, as many do not understand the essence of this term.
For example: 10 people live in the country, each of them has 100 rubles (that is, the total turnover of the country is 1000 rubles), but then the Central Bank prints another 1000 rubles. And I have a question for you - how much money did these people have? Yes, they still have all the money, but their price (solvency) has been halved. In other words, the population of the country was simply robbed of 1,000 rubles. This is the inflation system - by producing extra money, the Central Bank simply robs its population. But here again we recall that the Fed is a private office, and therefore it turns out that it is not robbing "its own population", but simply "the population" (and it does not matter which country). " Nothing personal just business".
"Goods and services that could be bought for $1 in 1913 are now worth $21. Let's look at it in terms of the purchasing power of the dollar itself. It's now less than 0.05% of its value in 1913. You could say, that the government and its banking cartel, as a result of the incessant inflationary policy, stole from us 95 cents out of every dollar.Ron Paul, American politician, 2009
With the death of Stalin, the practice of lowering prices in the USSR was discontinued. Khrushchev abolished the gold content of the ruble, transferring the Soviet currency, following the example of all countries, to dollar backing.
“The success of the Soviet system as a form of power within the country has not yet been conclusively proven. It must be clearly demonstrated that it can withstand the decisive test of a successful transfer of power from one individual or group of individuals to another.
Lenin's death was the first such transition, and its consequences had a devastating effect on the Soviet state for 15 years. After the death or resignation of Stalin, there will be a second transition. But even this will not be a decisive test. Due to recent territorial expansion Soviet authority domestically will experience a number additional difficulties who once already severely tested the tsarist regime. Here we are convinced that never since the termination civil war the Russian people were not emotionally as far removed from the doctrines of the Communist Party as they are at present.
In Russia, the party has become a gigantic and now prosperous apparatus of dictatorial rule, but has ceased to be a source of emotional inspiration. Thus, the internal strength and stability of the communist movement cannot yet be considered guaranteed."What was the genius of Stalin? He understood that the ideological component needed to be constantly changed to meet the changing needs of the country, that is, to be flexible, but his followers no longer understood this, which is what Kennan was talking about.
With the collapse of the Soviet Union, many thought that the US emerged victorious in the Cold War, but the collapse of the USSR was not the end of the war, it was only the end of the battle. Today we can observe the information war - a new round, a new battle in one big war - the battle of empires...
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