Tag Archives: Communism
Why did Freikorps kill Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg in 1919?
On the 15th January 1919, Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht were killed by members of the Freikorps.
Brief introduction to the Yalta Conference
Attended by the “Big Three” Allied leaders, the conference saw United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin meet to discuss the government of post-war Europe.
Churchill and the ‘Iron Curtain’ speech
On the 5th March 1946, Winston Churchill described the post-war division of Europe as an “iron curtain” in his “Sinews of Peace” address at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri.
The origin of the ‘Containment’ policy
On the 24th September 1946, Clark Clifford and George Elsey presented a report to President Truman in which they recommended “restraining and confining” Soviet influence.
The end of the Berlin Blockade
This short podcast presents an overview of how and why Stalin chose to end the Berlin Blockade.
The foundation of the German Democratic Republic (DDR)
On the 7th October 1949 the German Democratic Republic, otherwise known as East Germany, was founded in the Soviet occupied zone of Germany.
Overview of Radio Free Europe’s first broadcast on 4th July 1950
On the 4th July 1950, Radio Free Europe – founded the previous year to transmit uncensored information to audiences behind the Iron Curtain – completed its first broadcast.
Why were the Rosenbergs sentenced to death? Overview podcast
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were found guilty of espionage and sentenced to death for their role in passing information about the US nuclear programme to the Soviet Union.
The establishment of the Warsaw Pact: an overview
The USSR and seven other European countries signed the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation, and Mutual Assistance better known as the Warsaw Pact.
Khruschev’s criticism of Stalin in his ‘secret speech’
Shortly after midnight on the 25th February 1956, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev delivered his ‘secret speech’, officially called “On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences”, in a four hour “closed session” at the end of the 20th Party Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
