The Soviet Union

The pains and dangers they have endured in our defence give them the right to expect it” (46). The arrival of the Great Depression in the 1930s did nothing to lessen this sentiment. Due to the lack of jobs as a result of the Depression, women’s jobs were not seen as a priority, in fact, in a reply to a letter written in 1936 to the National Employment Commission, the Commissioner wrote that “[Women] have a lot of rights in good times, when there is lots of employment,” in an attempt to justify the takeover of women’s jobs (87). Once again, women were being edged out of the workforce. Society ignored the contributions they made during the war and their worth as workers, instead impressing upon them the role of the homemaker that women were trying to move away from. During the 1940s women were sequestered into a role of submissiveness and domesticity, both at home and in the workplace. Post World War II Canada promoted the dream of domestic bliss to boost the economy. Women were expected to be stay-at-home mothers while the men were the breadwinners. The Canadian magazine ‘Chatelaine’

In 1945, one major war ended and another began. After World War II, the United States and its allies and the Soviet Union were involved in what became known as the Cold War, which was a period of mutual fear and distrust. The war was given the name "cold" because the two sides never actually came into direct armed conflict; it was a war of words and ideologies rather than a shooting war (Crawford, 2009, p. 6). The Soviet Union and the United States came out from World War II as the new world superpowers, and despite their common victory with the defeat of their enemies, their primary bond was broken. There were deep-rooted ideological, economic, and political differences between the United States and the Soviet Union prior to the Second World War. Their differences, most notably their political systems and their visions of a postwar Europe, were intensified as a result of their mutual suspicions and during and after the Second World War drove the allied nations into an ideological conflict that lasted for 45 years.

Emerging victoriously from World War II, America became the leader of the free-market capitalist world, and proved to be a military, economic, and political powerhouse. However, as one major war came to a close, another battle was brewing between the democratic United States and the communist Soviet Union. As the Soviet Union expanded farther West into Europe, America as well as its NATO allies worked together in an effort to contain the USSR’s expanding communist party. The Cold War went far beyond a battle between different ideologies. Rather, it developed into a global conflict where espionage, treason, and massive propaganda campaigns were inflicted on all aspects of individuals’ lives internationally. The plausibility of communism seeping into the confinements of the United States caused nation-wide fear to erupt. American businesses feared the idea of a communistic revolution on the basis that it would disturb the very groundwork that holds capitalism together. As a result, the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) was formed to investigate communist and fascist organizations within America. Unfortunately, the controversial tactics used during the HUAC hearings contributed to the fear, blacklisting, and repression that existed from 1940 through the 1950s. In the midst of the Cold War, several American opinions materialized concerning the role of the HUAC, in which Americans either praised the committee for its patriotic ideals, applauded but recognized the

While family structure in the Soviet Union did change significantly during the first two decades of Communist government following the social revolution, there were also many ways in which it did not change, and some ways in which there was a return to traditional family structure during this time. Although there were changes to marriage and divorce laws, the role of women in the workplace, and the social ideas of male and female roles, inequality was still a significant issue. The attempts to create a new model of family life throughout the 1920s and 1930s, without traditional boundaries but with respect for individual rights, was unsuccessful in many ways, as women were still viewed as responsible for household duties and for raising children while men had much more sexual freedom than women. The early 1920s and the revolutionary concepts and laws which it introduced resulted in social disorder, with marriage breakdown, homelessness and poverty leading to a backlash against the changes in gender roles. Rather than blaming the lack of social services, many claimed that women needed to return to traditional roles and supply stability to the family, rather than considering the nation’s economic situation and the lack of social services as being the central issue.

Post World War II, both the United States and the Soviet Union were fearful of fighting each other directly from fear of nuclear weapons and mass destruction (D. Johnson, P. Murray). Instead, they fought each other by participating in wars on separate parts of the world. Cold War tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union constantly fluctuated due to both sides trying to influence political and economic developments around the world (D. Johnson, P. Murray).

During the era of the Cold War, starting in 1947 and definitively ending in 1991, the United States and the Soviet Union faced off in conflicts with each other through smaller states.

“We promised the Europeans freedom. It would be worse than dishonorable not to see they have it.” General George S. Patton believed this and was right to a certain degree. America didn’t declare war on the Soviets but they did play a major role in the collapse of the Soviet Union. The Americans didn’t fire a shot on Russian soil but they pressured them into doing acts that the Russian economy wasn’t capable of doing. Although the Soviet Union was a super power after World War 2, their power was cut short because of the involvement in the space race and arms race.

America and the Soviet Union were on the brink of world destruction. The Cold War was one of the most frightening times in American history but strangely the difference between the cold war and the other major wars was the two superpowers in the United States of America and the Soviet Union never actually fought in any battle or had attacked the other through the long 50 years. It affected many people from the fear of destruction, the wave of patriotism in people for their country, and to the wave of people wanting more from the government and wanting a drastic change. It also forced America to change its ideals on their foreign policies and had America get more involved in foreign affairs and move away from their idea of isolation. The cold war also gave way to the rise of unions and the wave of worker rights. The effect of the Cold War has affected American culture and policies into the system and style of life we live in today.

During the World War 2, women defeated society’s stereotypes by working in professional and hard labor jobs while the men were away winning the war. As the men returned from war, majority of women returned home to face society’s standards and gender roles. Women were expected to be at home mothers that were practically slaves to their family and their appearance in society. Women were expected to be the perfect wife, having the perfect appearance, and have the ideal social life.

about how women were seen in the Soviet Union during this time and how the war changed how

Due to the onset of the Cold War and the early 1960s, the popular and political climate in the United States changed. The relationship between the Soviet Union and the United States was directed by ideological, political and technological factors. The rivalry between the two powers rooted from their contrasting ideological principles since the United States was a democratic republic where the people believed that every citizen had equal representation in the government and the Soviet Union was a communist nation. The US embodied the principles of a democratic nation believing in the ideals of "life, liberty and pursuit of happiness" as well as having an economy that was based on capitalism. In contrast to the ideology of the US, the Soviet Union fell under communist rule during the Russian Revolution of 1917, which was based on the idea that all assets should be owned by the government and then divided among the citizens of the nation. The Soviet Union took communism a step further as the many of the leaders were totalitarian during the 20th century, meaning that "all power was in the hands of the ruler". In 1946, Churchill declared the separation between the east and west by saying that an iron curtain had descended through the middle of Europe (Churchill Delivers Iron Curtain Speech 1). Even though the Soviets and the US fought together in WWII, the eastern communistic ideology had clashed with western democratic principles. Furthermore, the two powers were in a nuclear

Since the end of World War II, long before the earliest events of the Heroes of Catholic Education Series, a strange set of occurrences began to manifest itself as the United States and Soviet Union faced each other as rivals in the subsequent Cold War. The Anomaly Phenomenon, a term denoting the appearance of peculiar formations that defy scientific explanation, made its first appearance in the small period of relative peace-shortly after World War II, but before the Cold War and the formation of NATO and the Warsaw Pact. Most people are unaware of it, sometimes out of ignorance and other times because of government agencies seeking to prevent it from creating unnecessary civil disorder, leaving only a few people who are aware of it.

The emergence of the Cold War with the Soviet Union had far reaching impacts on American society, including hindering the pace of social reform in the United States. While some aspects of the Cold War may have helped promote certain social reforms, the net impact, deterred inevitable social reforms. Tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War induced a fear of communism in Americans that had numerous effects on American policies. McCarthyism, a period of controversial accusations on supposedly “communist” Americans, developed from the panic that communism would overcome the United States’ government, leading to loss of individual freedoms. In addition, social reform, especially the Civil Rights Movement, received inadequate attention as American leaders fixated on defeating communism and preventing it from contaminating the United States. Therefore, the United States’ preoccupation with containing communism throughout the Cold War Era hindered social reform domestically. As a result, social reform successes were limited primarily to those exhibiting visible political value by demonstrating the United States’ belief in equality and democracy to the rest of the world.

At the end of World War II, the Soviet Union and the United States were allies of convenience; they had dissimilar goals, but shared a common enemy (the Axis powers). The Soviet Union 's government was much closer to Germany 's than America 's in ideas and practice, and when the war ended these differences in world view between the countries became seemingly irreconcilable.

During the rule of the Soviet Union from 1922 to 1989, many great and many terrible events occurred that are important and vital to our knowledge of history. The purpose of learning history is so that we as people are well-educated on different governments and ideologies and so that we, in this day and age, can do our very best to not repeat past mistakes. The USSR, while they developed culturally as a country, destroyed millions of lives all across Western Europe with their communist approach to rule and their blinded goal of total power. The history books today give a good insight into how terrible the Soviet Union really was, but these textbooks are written as objectively as possible. The future history textbooks should shed a negative light on all of the wrongdoings of the Soviet Union so that students understand that what happened this century was horrific and should never occur again.