As communists took control in Eastern Europe, leaders on both sides described the other as expansionist.
Between 1945 and 1948, communist parties backed by the USSR took power across Eastern Europe. They used coalitions at first, then removed rivals step by step. Poland's January 1947 election was rigged. In February 1948 the communists seized full power in Czechoslovakia.
In February 1946, the US diplomat George Kennan sent the "Long Telegram" from Moscow. He argued that the Kremlin's outlook came from a traditional Russian sense of insecurity, dressed in Marxist ideology. Soviet power, he said, would not respond to reason but would retreat in the face of strong resistance.
In March 1946, Churchill told an American audience at Fulton, Missouri, that an "iron curtain" had descended across Europe. Stalin replied by comparing Churchill to Hitler and calling the speech a call to war.
In September 1946, the Soviet ambassador Nikolai Novikov sent his own report to Moscow. He argued that the USA, driven by monopoly capital, was striving for world supremacy through bases and an arms race. Each side's experts were describing the other as the expansionist power.
- Long Telegram
- Kennan, 22 February 1946: Soviet insecurity; yields to strength.
- Iron Curtain speech
- Churchill, Fulton, 5 March 1946.
- Novikov Telegram
- September 1946: USA striving for world supremacy.
- Czechoslovakia
- Communist seizure of power, February 1948.
Worked example: Reading two telegrams together
Kennan in February 1946 and Novikov in September 1946 each analyse the other superpower.
- Similarity: both describe the other side as expansionist and hostile.
- Difference: Kennan explains Soviet behaviour by insecurity and ideology; Novikov by American capitalism and military power.
- Provenance: both were confidential reports to their own governments, so they reveal what leaders were being told, not public propaganda.
Watch out for this
The Long Telegram was a public speech that announced the Cold War.
It was a confidential cable to the State Department. Its ideas shaped officials' thinking and later the policy of containment.
Check your understanding
What did Kennan argue in the Long Telegram?
- Soviet behaviour came from insecurity and ideology, and would yield to firm resistance.
- The USSR was weak and would collapse within a year.
- The USA should withdraw from Europe.