Question

"After the Second World War, the Soviet Union was considered a superpower of the world." Support the statement with any four arguments.

Hint:

Give four arguments: military and nuclear power, a large planned economy, leadership of the socialist bloc, and ideological and scientific appeal.

Answer 1

Step 1: Understand the claim:
After the Second World War (1945) Europe lay in ruins. Two countries came out far stronger than the rest: the USA and the USSR.
A superpower is a state with great military, economic and political-ideological reach. We must show that the Soviet Union had all these.

Step 2: Argument 1: Military strength:
The Soviet Union had one of the largest armies in the world and a huge stock of modern weapons.
It tested its first atomic bomb in 1949 and so broke the nuclear monopoly of the USA. It later built a vast nuclear arsenal.

Step 3: Argument 2: Strong economy:
The Soviet economy was the second largest in the world after the USA.
It had heavy industry, machinery production, transport networks and rich resources such as oil, iron and steel, and minerals. The state planned all production.

Step 4: Argument 3: Leader of a bloc:
The USSR led the Second World, the socialist or communist bloc of the Cold War. The East European countries joined it and later formed the Warsaw Pact (1955) under its command.
Its military and political power therefore reached far beyond its own borders.

Step 5: Argument 4: Ideology and science:
The Soviet system of socialism offered an alternative to capitalism and attracted many newly independent and poor countries.
The USSR also led in science and technology, for example the space race, and gave its people welfare such as free education, health care and jobs.

Final Answer:
The Soviet Union was a superpower because of its military and nuclear strength, a large planned economy, leadership of the socialist bloc and the Warsaw Pact, and its ideological and scientific appeal.