The Seeds of Conflict

1. Define "The West." Make sure you could identify several countries as examples.
The West is the term givent to the capitalist countries of wesern Europe and North America during the Cold War. The USA, Britain, and France were several countries representing the West.

2. Explain the differences in the economic ideology between the West and the USSR.
The West believed that people were entitled to run their own buisnesses and retain the profits, while the USSR believed that the government should sustain and run buisnesses for the benefit of the people.

3. Explain the differences in the political ideology between the West and the USSR.
The USSR believed that political parties were the result of conflicting classes, and so became a single party system. The West valued Democracy, because it granted freedoms such as the freedom to vote, freedom of speech, and free press.

4. What was the Comintern (Communist International) and why did it concern the West.
The Comintern was an organization that was set up by the USSR to aid the collapse of capitalism. Its role was to coordinate communist groups all over the world and support attempts to undermine capitalism by any means nessessary.

5. What occurred during the Russian Civil War (1918-21) that solidified the opposition between the West and the Communists? (Be specific and use key details.)
The Whites (a group of conservative Russians) rebelled against the Bolshevik rule, and Western powers rallied to its aid. They wanted to reverse Lenin's decision to pull out of Germany in WWI, but when WWI ended, support for the Whites died out.