(Lih) Stalin also carried out repression of cultures. Although he claimed that sectional weakness during the czarist period had ended, the government moved entire national groups, such as the Crimean Tatars, to distant parts of the U.S.S.R. where their influence would be minimized. Anti-Semitism was also rampant in the country. Prime Minister Winston Churchill of Great Britain coined the term "iron curtain" for the domineering policies of the Soviet state to cut itself off from the rest of the world. (Lih) The Soviets demanded friendly relations with their neighbors after the war, and the government interpreted this as a call for control of Eastern Europe. The Red Army installed factions in each of the nations east of Berlin, with the exceptions of Austria and Yugoslavia. All diversity in the region turned into uniform allegiance to Russia. (Lih) Many viewed this as a great foreign policy achievement, but it left Stalin with the problem of creating governments in these nations both loyal to the Soviets and favorable to the local populations. The Katyn Forest incident was a prime example of such a plight. In 1939, about 10,000 Polish officers, imprisoned by the Soviets, were executed. The Polish people were determined to discuss the issue after the war, and the Russian government as determined not to discuss it. This meant that a Polish government could never please both its own people and the Soviets. (Lih) E. The Cold War The Soviet Union formed some powerful allies during World War II. Those alliances faded as the years went by, and the Russians entered the arms buildup known as the Cold War. The U.S.S.R. was recognized as a major power in the world after it helped establish a Communist government in China and the Eastern European nations and detonated atomic bombs. (Lih) Stalin was elevated to a near-godlike status by the "cult of personality", a group of Communists devoted to the Soviet leader. However, the neg...
