World in 1947 - Cold War Documentary
1947 is a fundamentally important year in 20th century history from the perspective of this channel by 1947 the cold war between the united states and the soviet union had indisputedly begun the soviet union was stepping up its efforts to consolidate communist regimes in its occupied territories in eastern and central europe while the us stepped up its own efforts to counteract the spread of communism including the establishment of voice of america and the declaration of the truman doctrine as well as the first proposals of the marshall plan but of course this is only a fraction of what happened that year so let's take a look at some of the notable events that happened in the year that was 1947 i'm your host david and this is the cold war let's start by looking at one of the more grim events of the year the history of the soviet union has been plagued with a number of deadly famines with the last one striking its peak in 1947 although we will note that the conditions for the famine had begun in 1946 some of those conditions include 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 the famine was largely centered in the regions of southern russia ukraine and moldova anywhere 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 now despite this famine that was occurring the soviet union continued to export grain to its allies and satellite states in a move that is widely recognized as being done for propaganda purposes it was deemed more important to demonstrate to the world the strength of the soviet union so the famine was covered up while the exports were promoted as if this wasn't enough the soviet union as a whole actually did have enough grain and resources that it could have fed starving but tons of grain simply rotted in storage silos this was the result of inefficient and ineffective distribution logistics coupled with a slow and bureaucratic centralized government this would be a story that would be seen time and time again as the cold war progressed although this was the last such famine that was experienced in the soviet union shifting our attention to the south pacific thor heyerdahl a norwegian ethnographer traveler and adventurer set out on a journey to test the plausibility of one of his theories of human migration herodol suggested that some of the polynesian islands were not settled from east to west but rather from west to east meaning that people from south america had migrated and settled the islands of the pacific he had developed this theory while living in the marquesas islands and wanted to demonstrate its feasibility supported by private donors heredal began building a ship using only technology that would have been available to south americans in the pre-columbian era he used accounts from early spanish colonists as well as locally sourced materials and knowledge setting off from peru on april 28 1947 on his ship the contiki named after the incan creator god herdal and his crew of six men spent 101 days at sea and had covered almost seven thousand kilometers when they struck the reef at rauria in the tuamotus islands in french polynesia although herdal's theories of migration and ethnography have been widely debunked as a result of dna tracing the voyage of the contiki has captured the imaginations of millions around the world not the least of which have been other adventurers and filmmakers who have recreated his trip as well as set out on trips of their own turning from high adventure now to the exciting world of labor law 1947 saw the adoption in the u.s of the taft-hartley act this has actually become one of the most pivotal pieces of u.s labor law signed in the 20th
century as we covered in our recap of 1946 the united states had been racked by a series of strikes since the end of the second world war the scale of those strikes had largely come about as a result of the national labor relations act of 1935 recognized as being highly progressive in its protections to workers by 1947 however with both the senate and the house of representatives being controlled by the republicans the first time this had happened in many years they decided to move against organized labor republican senator robert taft and republican congressman fred hartley jr introduced measures to limit activities and practices employed by unions including requirements to disclose union financial and political activities president truman was against the act considering it an attack on freedom of speech and freedom of association he even went so far as using a presidential veto on the act however the republican control over both houses bolstered by considerable support from the democrats as well overturned the veto and the taft-hartley act came into effect with the act came a prohibition on jurisdictional strikes wildcat strikes political strikes secondary boycotts secondary and mass picketing closed shops and monetary donations by unions to federal political campaigns union officials were also required to sign non-communist affidavits union shops faced heavy restrictions and states were allowed to pass right-to-work legislation and banned agency fees which are union fees paid by non-union members in a unionized environment the taft-hartley act continues to be an influential piece of labor legislation to this day 1947 proved itself to be a milestone year in sports but the milestone was less about sporting achievement and more about racial equality 1947 saw jackie robinson become the first african american to play major league baseball prior to the second world war in the united states segregation was well in effect across all major sports and baseball was no exception the major league was for whites only with black and latino players relegated to the negro and colored leagues which lacked the financial and organizational clout enjoyed by the majors but the end of the war saw the winds of change start to blow as cracks began to appear jackie robinson originally from georgia was discharged from his army service in 1944 and joined the kansas monarchs in the negro league however his break came the next year when he was scouted and signed by the brooklyn dodgers as mlb teams began looking beyond the color barrier for new and better talent he was assigned to the dodgers farm team where various state segregation laws made life and sport very difficult he was often not allowed to stay at the same hotel as the white members of the team and games were even cancelled with padlock stadiums as police moved to prevent a black player from participating in scheduled games however despite this robinson continued to improve his game and got the call up to the dodgers in 1947 making his big league debut in april at first base robinson in his 10 years in the majors would continue to face discrimination both on and off the field and even from his own teammates but he became a trailblazer in north american sport and in the long process of breaking down racial barriers in the united states moving back to the ussr 1947 saw the celebration of the 800th anniversary of the founding of the city of moscow it was not only the capital of the now triumphant soviet union but moscow also had a long and rich history closely tied to tsarist russia and russian identity in the wake of the 1917 revolution russian identity had been downplayed in favor of promotion of the more inclusive non-ethnic soviet man this changed however during the great patriotic war where appeals to russian nationalism resurfaced to promote defense of the nation this refocused continued after the war as the role of the russian people in victory was glorified with russians being referred to as the leading nation among the family of soviet people so this was the background as moscow's birthday party is being planned the date was set for september 7th which for any of you napoleonic war buffs out there you will already have noted is the anniversary of the battle of borudino coincidence i'm sure a planning committee was established which included as a member none other than notorious party animal himself lavrenti beria such was the importance being focused on the anniversary buildings were renovated streets cleaned and an overall effort was made to make the city look better on the day of the jubilee itself stalin congratulated the people of moscow by pointing out the role the city played as the unifier of the russian lands the center of the struggle against foreign attacks and the example for all capitals of the world a foundation for a statue to honor the founder of the city prince yuri dolgoruki was laid at this time something that only a few years earlier would have been unthinkable a communist state officially memorializing a feudal lord and it wasn't just a statue over one and a half million medals were struck bearing dogoruki's image stalin the former georgian seminary student and bank robber was shifting the official position that the soviet union had with regards to its pre-revolutionary past instead of unequivocal criticism towards the old regime the focus was moving towards promoting the glories of the russian state in the world of books 1947 saw the first publication of a wartime diary kept by a teenage girl while she and her family hid from the nazis in an amsterdam attic hecht akhtarhus or the diary of a young girl as it's known in english tells the ultimately heartbreaking story of anne frank a teenage jewish girl and her family as they went into hiding for two years anne and her family hid in the attic of a building from where anne's father otto used to run his business otto had given a diary to anne on her 13th birthday just before going into hiding and she used this for over two years to share her most intimate feelings and observations she wrote about her friends and her romantic interests isolated from the world and forced to hide to ensure her safety and expressed herself through the diary august of 1944 however saw her hiding place betrayed and the nazis captured anne and the frank family all of whom to be sent into the camp system anne would die in belson only weeks before its liberation by allied forces otto was the only member of anne's family to survive the war and upon his return to holland anne's diary and manuscripts were given to him having been found and kept safe by the dutch people who had been protecting the franks before their arrest on the 25th of june 1947 the diary was first published in dutch and the book has gone on to be translated into more than 60 languages this unique memoir of the years of persecution and fear has been consistently ranked as one of the best books of the 20th century and has been adapted for both the stage and film moving along in our year in review 1947 was a turning point in the middle east when in february great britain made the decision to abolish the palestinian mandate and refer the matter to the united nations a complicated issue on a good day every side involved had their own expectations of what they wanted from the process while the british were hopeful that it would be possible to find a solution that could accommodate both the muslim and jewish populations in a single unified state muslim palestinians were adamant on the creation of an independent palestine with no jewish state at all to contend with the jewish population for its part wanted a state free from centuries of persecution and discrimination and then even beyond that was the influences and impacts of the superpowers the united nations was being dealt a tough hand for example president harry truman in the face of losing the highly influential and impactful jewish vote threw the weight of the united states behind a partition plan that would create an independent jewish state on november 29 the u.n general assembly voted in favor of partition the vote in the general assembly fell not along ideological lines but along ethnic and religious ones both the capitalist and socialist nations voted in favor while the muslim world and greece voted against the partition plan as you can imagine while the results were met with joy and celebration by the jews in palestine the arab world remained firmly opposed to the point of not accepting the plan were loomed on the horizon and speaking of war no discussion of 1947 could be complete without mentioning what is possibly the single most iconic and popular firearm in history the ak-47 invented by the self-taught soviet military engineer mikhail krashnekov the full name of the weapon is aftermath kalashnikova 1947 or kalashnikov's automatic rifle 1947. the ak-47 and its later variants the akm and ak-74 have proliferated around the world becoming perhaps the single most impactful weapon of the cold war so what made it so ubiquitous to start it was easily available as the soviet union sold it on mass to countries which weren't able to buy western armaments either due to cost or embargo it was also being supplied sometimes even at the low low price of free to various insurgent and terrorist organizations dedicated to overthrowing or disrupting western governance the ak also made an ideal weapon for this since it was cheap to produce easy to manufacture extremely durable in rugged conditions and deadly even in the hands of the inexperienced 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 in civil wars and in resistance movements the ak is even on the national flag of mozambique the coat of arms of zimbabwe and lee's timor as well as represented on the flags of numerous guerrilla and terrorist organizations the impact this weapon has had on the 20th century is difficult to overestimate now moving from armaments and insurgency to the biggest conspiracy theory of them all 1947 was when the roswell ufo incident supposedly occurred in july of that year a rancher named ww mack brezel found wreckage on his ranch near roswell new mexico coincidentally not far from the roswell army airfield as this was happening the military made a public statement that one of its units had recovered debris from the wreck of a flying disk this also coincided with local media publishing reports of sightings of a flying disc or flying saucer in the roswell area as was explained later by the us government the craft cited and the wreckage found were from a device being developed to help detect and to spy on soviet nuclear development this was part of a larger programmed named project mogul but the story didn't end there instead it gave birth to a wide range of conspiracy theories centered on the idea brazel had found the wreckage of an alien spacecraft since the government had changed its story several times not really unusual when trying to refrain from disclosing any information on nuclear spy technology people already had doubts this coupled with brazil's statements that the material wreckage he found was unlike anything he'd ever seen before sparked a wider story that not only was it a ufo that was recovered but that the bodies of alien life forms have been found as well some people just want to believe okay so let's stay in the united states but move our attention to the halls of government 1947 saw the proclamation of the truman doctrine setting u.s foreign policy on a very cold war path it was clear by 1947 that the tensions between the united states and the soviet union were not going to be a temporary thing but rather something that would shape global politics for decades the cooperation of the warriors was done and dusted as former allies however awkward became opponents on march 12 1947 president truman addressed congress stating that american foreign policy would be focused on the containment of the communist threat and that america would provide support especially financial to any country that was under that threat the u.s had just launched one of its core planks of a policy that would guide and shape its international relations for the next 40 years the truman doctrine was born linked to this new doctrine even just in 1947 new programs and structures were instituted the national security act adopted on july 26th saw the merger of the department of war in the department of the navy into the national military establishment in order to provide more effective cooperation between the different branches of the military 1947 also saw the creation of the national security council as well as the cia an organization which would go on to play a huge role in american cold war foreign policy sometimes totally independent of any actual guidance from washington 1947 also saw the establishment of voice of america broadcasting western narratives propaganda to the soviet union the immediate soviet response of course was to begin jamming the broadcasts back at home the general anti-communist atmosphere was deepening and manifested itself in the blacklisting of the hollywood ten by the house committee on un-american activities as the american government began scrubbing any hint of communism or even sympathy for the left from hollywood and other popular social influences now looking to asia and occupied japan the 3rd of may 1947 saw japan's new constitution come into effect it had been formulated by the staff of none other than the man in charge of the occupation and one of the men most directly responsible for the us victory in the pacific general douglas megalomaniac kirther this imposed constitution was a replacement for the one originally proposed by the japanese which macarthur deemed to be too conservative as the goal was to break japan free from its militaristic past allowing it to set a new path towards democracy economic prosperity anime and technological progress the americans created their constitution for them and as a nod to continue japanese conservatism macarthur proposed to keep the emperor as the symbol of state and the unity of the people but this was to only be a symbolic role and the country was to be re-established as a constitutional monarchy and a parliamentary democracy the constitution granted universal suffrage abolished the peerage ensured human rights and liberties and explicitly prohibited japan from making war in the world of science and technology 1947 can be considered one of the most important well ever this was the year that american physicist and inventor william shockley along with john bardeen and walter bratain developed the transistor a transistor is an electronic device that works by controlling the flow of electrical current in a circuit it can work 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 who had been working for years on the development of the transistor teamed up with bardeen and bertain at the bell labs the research unit of american telephone and telegraph it was there that these three men and their team first successfully demonstrated a working transistor on december 23rd the transistor is the basis of modern electronics allowing for the creation of the transistor radio pocket calculators computers and almost anything with a circuit just think without the transistor none of us would be able to play skyrim on up to almost 800 000 different devices today moving back to the middle east but avoiding politics religion instead 1947 was the year the first dead sea scrolls were discovered bedouin shepherds tending their sheep and goats near qumran on the west bank near the shores of the dead sea entered a cave and found a collection of large clay jars inside seven of the jars were leather and papyrus scrolls which were recovered and eventually sold to antiquity dealers these scrolls would make their way into the hands of the scholarly community where they were deemed to be among the earliest examples of judaic scriptures these findings including the isaiah scroll the habok commentary and the community rule were soon joined by more findings as other caves in the area were explored the scrolls remain important religious and historical documents to this day now we're gonna wrap up our tour of 1947 with a look at the shift in the fashion world this was the year that christian dior the iconic french couturier launched his new look now the second world war had seen the fashion industry take a back seat as utilitarianism and austerity were the order of the day dior was the first to challenge this when his new look was launched on the 12th of february 1947.
dior presented an image of radical femininity marked by tight-fitting jackets with padded hips petite waists and a-line skirts he was looking to restore the glamour of women's clothing after the pragmatism of the previous years of course fashion had been developing in line with increased female emancipation depression and war diora proposed a return to long dresses and corsets which was not particularly popular with everyone especially feminists his proposed glamorous styles could be seen as uncomfortable and impractical for more independent women but set the fashion world on a path emphasizing bourgeois values and traditionalism one that would last for at least a decade and that is a recap of 1947 some new topics some we've already covered but all part of the context of the greater narrative of the cold war period we hope you've enjoyed today's episode and to make sure you don't miss all of our future episodes please make sure you subscribe to our channel and have suppressed the bell button we can be reached via email at thecoldboardchannel gmail.com and we're active on facebook and instagram at thecoldboardtv if you enjoy our work your financial support would be greatly appreciated via patreon at www.patreon.com the cold war or through youtube membership this is the cold war channel and don't forget the trouble with the cold war is that it doesn't take too long before it becomes heated
2021-02-26 02:24
