Orthodox+School+of+Thought

=Orthodox School of Thought=

Stalin broke agreements:

 * Broke the Declaration on Liberated Europe (1945) in which he promised to hold free elections in Easter Europe.
 * Instead of free elections he rigged them to have communist-dominated coalition governments. This made him untrustworthy.
 * He also said "we can deal with it in our own way later" to Molotov at Yalta; it shows he never intended to keep his promise of having free elections or democracy in Eastern Europe. This made him untrustworthy and undependable, which would reduce the success of further agreements.

Stalin's personality:

 * Gaddis: as long as Stalin lived, agreement was impossible. He was a totalitarian dictator who could not compromise, and would always want more if appeased.
 * His belief in inevitable war made agreements over Eastern Europe impossible: he believed it was vital for the USSR's security as a buffer zone for Western invasion.

Stalin was expansionist + ruthless:

 * He suppressed all opposition once he installed communist-dominated coalition governments in Eastern Europe.
 * Edwards: Stalin was not given the opportunity to pursue world revolution prior to the Second World War; now that he was a victor and a superpower he could do so.
 * Although Stalin saw his actions as defensive (belief in future war), the USA saw it as expansionist. His actions further worsened relations between the USA and the USSR, and exacerbated tension.

Stalin & Germany:

 * It was agreed at Potsdam that the occupying powers would treat Germany as an economic whole, although they could extract reparations from their respective zones.
 * Stalin stripped his zones from industries and food, failing to hold to the agreement that he would supply food for the Western occupying zones.
 * His actions forced the Western occupiers to merge their zones into Bizona and to introduce a new currency there (1948); in Britain bread was being rationed to feed the Germans, something that they had not had to do during the war.