Practice question · Sort into groups
Sort each statement by whether it describes the SOVIET UNION in the 1930s or the WESTERN POWERS.
Groups: The Soviet Union · The western powers
- A non-aggression pact was signed with Germany in August 1939
- Dominion governments were unwilling to back a European war
- Rearmament was constrained by fears about long-run finances
- Collectivisation produced a famine with millions of deaths
Hints
- One set of pressures is internal and self-inflicted; the other is fiscal and imperial.
- Ask what each side believed about the other’s military value and resolve.
Show the answer
The Soviet Union: Collectivisation produced a famine with millions of deaths, A non-aggression pact was signed with Germany in August 1939
The western powers: Rearmament was constrained by fears about long-run finances, Dominion governments were unwilling to back a European war
Why
The two columns explain each other. The Terror made western governments doubt Soviet military capacity, which weakened the case for an alliance; western hesitation over Czechoslovakia made Stalin doubt western resolve. Each side’s reading of the other pushed both towards the arrangement of August 1939.
Practise The Road to the Second World War
The app has 7 more questions on this lesson, and keeps your place in the course. History II is free to start.
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