The Home Front – USA/USSR Lesson starter: What were the main differences between the USA and USSR?

The Home Front – USA/USSR

Lesson starter:What were the main differences between the USA and USSR?

Today we will…

• Understand the key differences between the US and USSR

• After WWII, the USSR had been destroyed by Nazi invasion

• USA lost soldiers but their mainland was largely untouched

• Today we will look at the problems that each of the superpowers had at home

USA• Protests and strikes in car, steel and

manufacturing industries – workers wanted higher wages

• Inflation – prices rising quickly (12 eggs were 33cents in 1940, 72 cents in 1948)

• Unemployment – especially returning soldiers (black soldiers in particular)

• Racial discrimination widespread – protests etc

• Women unhappy – had worked during war years and now were expected to go back to being housewives

Detroit 1940s

USSR• 20 million Russian citizens dead after

WW2 (10% of population)• 2,000 cities and towns destroyed• Farms, factories, villages wrecked• Huge unemployment, homelessness and

starvation• Ruled by dictator Stalin (who was very old)• Opponents of Stalin ‘disappeared’• Secret Police - KGB• Ordinary people forbidden to travel

outside USSR or make contact with anyone outside

BUT….compared to other nations they were in a better

position• Huge amounts of land• Huge populations &

workers• Valuable resources –

water, timber, petrol, iron, coal

• Invested in education –free in USSR, grants given to war veterans in USA

• Both rebuilt their economies (although very differently)

• Both built up huge armies and navies• This was expensive but created jobs –

allowing economy to grow• Each nation developed their own

ideology• CAPITALISM/COMMUNISM• They both used propaganda to ‘prove’

to their people that their way was the best

What did they have in common?

Task• Make a poster with one of the

following titles• ‘The American Way of Life’• ‘Life in the Soviet Union’

Tasks1. Which superpower had the most

problems after WW2? Give reasons for your answer

4 marks

1. What did the USA and USSR have in common after the end of WW2? Give reasons for your answer

4 marks