23rd May 1949: The Federal Republic of Germany is Established

After NATO, the Soviet reacted using its zone of occupation in Germany with the birth of the German
Democratic Republic. Part of the Eastern Bloc, the country described itself as a socialist state of
workers and peasants. The territory itself was occupied by Soviet forces and acted as a satellite state
of the Soviet Union. Occupied authorities gave administrative authority to now German communist
leaders and the state was in function through the Socialist Unity Party.

Under a communist economy, the country was heavily state-owned and controlled, including the
teaching of Marxism-Leninism in schools becoming compulsory, as well as teaching Russian language
as a vocation. Media in the Eastern Block was administered by the state and the communist party
dictated its censorship as the media was subservient to communist rule.

Through Soviet propaganda, the USSR used Marxist philosophy to attack capitalism, spread through
radio and television, ensuring citizens kept in line with communist ideals.

In opposition, Radio Free Europe imposed by the British Broadcasting Corporation (the BBC) and the
Voice of America, the U.S government funded multimedia agency, created broadcasts aimed at
Central and Eastern Europe to battle against communist propaganda. This was one of the 1949 Cold
War events that proved vital in the demise of the communist system in the Eastern Bloc.

29th August 1949: The Soviets Detonate Their First Atomic Bomb

What event in 1949 caused concern among Americans? There are several, but historians argue the
most terrifying event for the US was the Soviet atomic bomb detonation.

Five days after NATO took effect, the USSR performed its first nuclear test at Semipalatinsk, Kazakh
SSR. A part of the Soviet Atomic Bomb project, the Soviets descended into classified research to
develop nuclear weapons during World War II.

Soviets had long suspected the Allied powers were developing a nuclear power of their own after the
suspicious silence of German, British and American scientists on the subject of nuclear fission
discovered by Russian physicist, Georgy Flyorov. In a letter expressing his concern, Flyorov urged
Stalin to begin the Soviet atomic bomb programme.

Advertising their power, the Soviets detonated the RDS-1, the nuclear bomb used in their first
nuclear weapon test. The response from the West was horror. The US and Britain had suspected
nuclear projects on the Soviet’s part but underestimated the scale of which the project had escalated
until the test in Semipalatinsk.

President Harry S. Truman made this threat known to the public, a move which surprised and
deflated the Soviets who hoped to keep their ongoing atomic programs secret. Truman announced,
“We have evidence that within recent weeks an atomic explosion occurred in the U.S.S.R.”

A turning point in the Cold War, pressure was felt by the United States to pursue and accelerate their
own development of the first hydrogen bomb.

1st October 1949: The Communist Party Under Mao Zedong Establish the People’s Republic of China

What event caused the cold war to escalate in 1949? Most will point to the civil war in China which
consequently led to an alliance between China and the USSR. Mao Zedong’s People’s Liberation Army
fought against Chiang Kai-shek’s Kuomintang, the Nationalist Government of China that was then
backed by the United States.

In the wake of the defeat, the Soviet Union and Mao Zedong became allies. During the Second Sino-
Japanese war, Chiang Kai-shek’s party was weakened, thus giving Mao Zedong’s army the upper hand
in the civil war against Kai-shek. Part of the communists’ triumph was becoming the voice of Chinese
nationalism for peasants and varying groups in China.

The communist revolution fortified the People’s Republic of China coming into power on October 1st,
1949. China and the USSR, two powers of impressive size and military backing, were now united
under communist mutuality.

The American atomic monopoly on the Soviets was at an end. Truman had to act fast on his
containment policy. In order to prevent more counter revolutionary nationalist movements, the US
expanded their containment to Asia, Africa and Latin America.