Soviet Famine of 1947

The peak of the soviet famine began in 1946 and there were some several
conditions that led to it, for example; a drought, the destruction of agricultural
infrastructure during the war years and a severe decline in the size of the workforce,
the long-term result of the decades of war and unrest experienced in the first half of
the 20th century. At the same time, the famine was largely centered in the regions of
Southern Russia, Ukraine and Moldova, over those specific regions between 1.5 and
1.7 million people died during the famine with another 1.7 million people suffering
from dystrophy as a result of starvation. However, the Soviet Union as a whole had
enough grain and resources for feeding the starving people, but tons of grain simply
rotted in storage silos as a result of inefficient and ineffective distribution logistics as
well as a bureaucratic centralized government.

Labor Strike in the USA and Taft-Hartley Act

The Taft-Hartley Act became one of the most pivotal pieces of US Labor Law signed
within the 20th century, and it emerged as a result of the US series of strikes since
the end of World War II. Furthermore, the scale of those strikes had largely come
about as a result of the National Labor Relations Act of 1935. In spite of that, by
1947 both the Senate and the House of Representatives were being controlled by
the Republicans, they decided to move against organized labor. Robert Taft (senator)
and Fred Hartley Jr. (republican congressman) established some measures to limit
activities and practices employed by unions, including requirements to disclose
Union financial and political activities. Truman saw this act as an attack on freedom
of speech and association. The Act came a prohibition on jurisdictional strikes,
wildcat strikes, political strikes, secondary boycotts, and mass picketing, closed
shops and monetary donations by unions to federal political campaigns.

Jackie Robinson, Negro Leagues and MLB

In 1947, Jackie Robinson who was an African-American played Major League

Baseball. Prior to the Second World War in the US, segregation was well in effect
across all major sports and Baseball was not an exception. The Major League was
for whites only, with Black and Latino players relegated to the Negro and Coloured
leagues, with a lack of financial resources and organizational clout amused by the
Majors. Jackie Robinson was kicked out of his Army service in 1944 and joined the
Kansas Monarchs in the Negro League, but he was assigned to the Dodgers farms
team where segregation was constantly so accentuated that made life and sport very
difficult, depite he accomplished to make his Big League debut at first base but in his
ten years in the MLB he would still face racial discrimination.
Moscow’s 800th anniversary

In 1947, there was a celebration of the 800th anniversary of the founding city of
Moscow. Moscow was not only the capital of the Soviet Union but also a country that
had a long and rich history related to Tsarist Russia and Russian identity. During the
1917 Revolution, Russian identity had been downplayed in favor of promotion of the
more-inclusive non-ethic Soviet Man, but this changed during the Great Patriotic
War, where nationalism resurfaced to promote defense of the nation. This new aim
continued after the war as the role of the Russian People in victory was celebrated
with Russians being described as “the leading nation among the family of Soviet
people”. While Moscow’s celebrations were being set up on September 7. A planning
committee was established including a member none other than notorious
party-animal Lavrenty Beria whose focus was the main importance in this
anniversary. Buildings were renovated, streets cleaned and a great effort was shown
to make the city look better, following this; Stalin congratulated the people of Moscow
by pointing out the role the city played as the unifier of the Russian Lands, the
central struggle against foreign attacks and the example for all capital of the world.

Situation in Palestine

In February, Great Britain decided to abolish the Palestinian Mandate and refer the
matter to the United Nations, every side involved had their own expectations of what
they wanted to achieve from this process. Britain was hoping to find a solution that
could meet both the Muslim and Jewish needs for their populations in a single unfied
state, Muslim Palestenians were adamant on the creation of an independent
Palestine with no Jewish state at all to contend with. However, Jewish population
wanted for its own sake a state, free from centuries of persecution and discrimination
and beyond that was the influences and impacts of the Superpowers. Even if Truman
was concerned about losing influential Jewish votes, he decided to throw the weight
of the US behind a partition plan that would create an independent Jewish state but
the UN General Assembly voted in favor of partition. Both the Capital and Socialist
nations voted in favor while the Muslim wold and Greece voted against.

Kalashnikov and history of AK-47

The AK-47 was invented by the Soviet military engineer Mikhail Kalashinov, the full
name of the weapon was also known as Avtomat Kalashnikova 1947 or
Kalashnikov’s Automatic Rifle 1947. The AK-47 and its following variants have
proliferated around the world becoming the single most impactful weapon of the Cold
War; it was easily available as the Soviet Union sold it en-masse to countries that
weren’t able to buy Western armaments, due to any reason. It was also being
supplied at low prices or even for “free” to various insurgent and terrorist
organizations aimed to overthrowing or disrupting Western governance. The AK also
made an ideal weapon for this, because of how cheap it was to produce, easy to
manufacture and extremely durable in rugged conditions. The AK-47 has built an
associated image of revolution in the developing world as a result of its widespread
use in the 20th Century wars of independence and in resistance wars or movements.
The AK is even on national flag of Mozambique as well as the East Timor on the
flags of numerous guerilla and terrorist organizations.

Roswell incident and UFO

In July, a rancher named W.W. “Mac” Brazel found wreckage on his ranch near
Roswell, New Mexico coincidently not far from the Roswell Army Air Field.
Meanwhile, the military made a public statement that one of its units had recovered
debris from the wreck of a “flying disc” coinciding with the local media reporting
sightings of a “flying disc” or “flying saucer” in the Roswell Area. The US government
explained that the craft sighted and the wreckage found were from a device being
designed to help detect and to spy on Soviet nuclear development and it was part of
a larger program named Project Mogul. This situative gave rise to a wide range of
conspiracy theories claiming that the idea Brazel had found the wreckage of an alien
spacecraft, according to Brazel’s statements that the material wreckage he found
was unlike anything he’d ever seen before, gave a wider story that not only was it a
UFO that was recovered but the bodies of alien life forms had been found as well.

Truman Doctrine

In 1947 was a time where the proclamation of the Truman Doctrine began, setting
US foreign policy on a very Cold-War path, by 1947 tensions between the United
States and the Soviet Union were so remarkable that it was predictable that
something would shape global politics for decades to come. The cooperation of the
war years was done as former allies, therefore became opponents. On March 12,
1917 President Harry S. Truman addressed Congress stating that American foreign
policy would be centered on the containment of the communist threat and that
America would financially support any country found under that threat. The US had
launched one of the core planks of a policy as a guide to shape its international
relationships for the next 40 years, finally the Truman Doctrine was born.

US National security act

On July 26 the US National security act was introduced and saw the merger of the
Department of War and the Department of the Navy into the National Military
Establishment in contemplation of supplying more effective cooperation between the
different branches of the military. In 1947, an opportunity emerged for the creation of
the National Security council and the CIA which was an organization focused on
going on to play a huge role in American Cold War Foreign Policy, independent from
any actual guidance from Washington.
Red Scare and Hollywood blacklists

The general anti-communist atmosphere was manifesting itself in the blacklisting of

the Hollywood 10 by the House Committee on Unamerican Activities as the
American government started to looking out for any hint of communism or even
sympathy for the left from Hollywood and other popular social influences.

New Constitution of Japan

The 3rd of May 1947, a new Japan’s constitution appeared; it had been established
by the staff who was the man in charge of the Occupation and one of the most
directly responsible for the US victory in the Pacific; General Douglas
“Megalomaniac” MacArthur. This imposed constitution was also considered to be a
replacement for the one originally proposed by the Japanese, which MacArthur
intended to be too conservative. The main objective was to break Japan free from its
militaristic past and allow it to set a new path focused on democracy, economic
prosperity and technological progress; the Americans created their constitution for
them. MacArthur proposed to keep the Emperor as the “symbol of state and the unity
of the people” but this was only a symbolic role and the country was to be
reestablished as a constitutional monarchy. The Constitution granted universal
suffrage, abolished the peerage, ensured human rights and liberties explicitly
forbidden Japan from making war.

Invention of Transistor

1947 was considered one of the most important years for science and technology,
since American physicist and inventor William Shockley along with John Bardeen
and Walter Brattain developed the transistor. A transistor is an electronic device that
works by controlling the flow of electrical current in a circuit, working as a switch,
turning off the flow of electricity or as an amplifier allowing a small current to be
boosted into a much stronger current. Shockley teamed up with Bardeen and
Brattain at the Bell Labs, the research unit of America Telephone and Telegraph
where these three men and their team achieved successfully to create the first
working transistor on December 23. The transistor is the basis of modern electronics.