Unit 17: Paper 2 — The Cold War: Superpower Tensions and Rivalries (20th Century)
Topic 17.3: Cold War crises Questions
Practice 20 exam-style questions for IB History Topic 17.3. Review the question stems below, then unlock the full Question Bank to access markschemes, model answers, and AI grading.
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Which event in 1961 pushed Castro closer to the Soviet Union and made Cuba fear a US attack?
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Along which line was Korea divided in 1945, and to which the front line largely returned by the 1953 armistice?
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Which term best describes Kennedy and Khrushchev pushing the missile crisis to the very edge of war to force the other to back down?
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Which statement best describes the Brezhnev Doctrine of 1968?
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Compare and contrast the reasons for Soviet intervention in Hungary (1956) and Czechoslovakia (1968).
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To what extent was the Berlin airlift responsible for the West's victory in the first Berlin crisis (1948-49)?
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Into which two states was Germany formally divided in 1949 following the first Berlin crisis?
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Examine the causes of the Hungarian Uprising of 1956.
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Why was the Soviet Union unable to veto UN military action in Korea in 1950?
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What was the name given to Dubček's programme of reform in Czechoslovakia in 1968?
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What was the decisive action by Nagy that led the USSR to invade Hungary in November 1956?
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Which Western action in June 1948 most directly alarmed Stalin and preceded the Berlin Blockade?
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Which reformer became prime minister of Hungary during the 1956 uprising?
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How did the Western powers respond to Stalin's blockade of West Berlin in 1948?
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Evaluate the significance of the Brezhnev Doctrine for Soviet control of Eastern Europe.
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Analyse the impact of the Berlin Wall on the Cold War.
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Evaluate the reasons why the Soviet Union used military force to crush the Hungarian Uprising in 1956.
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Discuss the aims and nature of the reforms introduced during the Prague Spring of 1968.
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To what extent was fear that reform would spread the main reason for the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968?
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Analyse the consequences of the Soviet interventions in Hungary (1956) and Czechoslovakia (1968) for the Eastern bloc.
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