Just Finished Reading: 1946 – The Making of the Modern World by Victor Sebestyen (FP: 2014) [382pp] 

The celebrations were short-lived. The war was over but the dying, the hunger, the desperation continued. Across Europe, especially so in Germany, much had been destroyed. Many houses had fallen, power where it existed at all was intermittent at best, sewers had been smashed, hospitals lay in ruins and roads were only slowly becoming passable. As if the populations of central Europe needed any additional suffering, they realised all too well that winter was coming. Meanwhile, in vast areas of the devastated Soviet Union, millions had died and millions more did not know if they would survive to see years end. In the Far East, fighting continued in China in a resurgent Civil War whilst the survivors of defeated Japan struggled with food shortages and the shame of defeat. The global war was over but things, if anything, had gotten worse for many. 

A world war may have ended in 1945 but a new world, the world we live in today, began for many in 1946. With the battered but triumphant Soviet Union taking control of its occupied territories the conditions we now know as the Cold War began to take shape. US President Truman was becoming aware that America falling back into glorious isolation was not an option as the Soviets pushed forward at every opportunity and the Europeans had little power to resist. The US also saw that it could not, and would not, simply abandon Japan to its fate especially with the Soviets and now the Chinese becoming threats to US power projection.  

In the Middle East the Jewish settlements in Palestine were advocating for more say in their future and for unrestricted Jewish immigration especially with the growing realisation of the enormity of the Holocaust. Some groups advocated for independence and were both able and willing to use violence to achieve it. The British, meanwhile, had neither the resources nor the stomach for a fight. Likewise, in India, the British were determined to leave with almost unseemly haste to save money and its shrinking Imperial reputation. Many would die in the process of creating the three nations of Israel, India and Pakistan and the consequences of those fights would still be with us more that 70 years later. 

I had a fair idea that the end of the Second World War was bad and that the recovery was both long and hard. I had little appreciation of the levels of suffering – globally – of SO many people as the political and geographical tectonic plates shifted into a world more recognisably modern. The fact that MILLIONS of people in Europe alone (mostly German) were forced from their homes at gunpoint and at very short notice, pointed towards the border and told to leave or die is enough to give anyone pause. The fact that many thousands of people were housed in the concentration camps they had so far survived in because the Allies had nowhere else to put them again gives you pause. The best thing that could be said is that at least they got better food if not always better conditions and that it was ‘temporary’. The word GRIM just doesn’t do it justice. 

World War Two may have officially ended in 1945 but the suffering continued LONG after the guns finally stopped. The results in Europe, the East, the Middle East and the Far East still live with us today in the memories of those who lived through it and the headlines we see every day. This was an awesome work of modern history. Not only did I learn a great deal (I’ve hardly touched on much of the book) but it reset some of my thinking about the aftermath of the war. I’ll definitely be reading more about the post-1945 period and more by this excellent author. I already own his work on 1956 Hungary and will be collecting his other works too. Very Highly recommended and a highlight of the year. 

[I was going to be jumping ahead to the 1960's next but plans change! so, on to the 1970's....]