Summary: Cold War. What was the science of the Cold War period Features of the development of science during the Cold War

	Planet Earth.
	The collapse of the USSR Decay: CMEA, EEC creation: CIS, EU, CSTO German reunification, Termination of the Warsaw Pact.
Opponents
ATS and CMEA:	NATO and EEC:
Albania (until 1956)
	France (until 1966)
	Germany (since 1955)
Cuba (since 1961)
Angola (since 1975)
Afghanistan (since 1978)
Egypt (1952-1972)
Libya (since 1969)
Ethiopia (since 1974
	Iran (until 1979)
Indonesia (1959-1965)
Nicaragua (1979-1990)
Mali (until 1968)
Cambodia (since 1975)
Commanders
Joseph Stalin	Harry Truman
Georgy Malenkov	Dwight Eisenhower
Nikita Khrushchev	John Kennedy
Leonid Brezhnev	Lyndon Johnson
Yuri Andropov	Richard Nixon
Konstantin Chernenko	Gerald Ford
Mikhail Gorbachev	Jimmy Carter
Gennady Yanaev	Ronald Reagan
Enver Hoxha	George W. Bush
Georgy Dimitrov
Vylko Chervenkov	Elizabeth II
Todor Zhivkov	Clement Attlee
Matthias Rakosi	Winston Churchill
Janos Kadar	Anthony Eden
Wilhelm Peak	Harold Macmillan
Walter Ulbricht	Alexander Douglas-Home
Erich Honecker	Harold Wilson
Boleslav Bierut	Edward Heath
Vladislav Gomulka	James Callaghan
Edward Gierek	Margaret Thatcher
Stanislav Kanya	John Major
Wojciech Jaruzelski	Vincent Auriol
Gheorghe Georgiou-Dej	René Coty
Nicolae Ceausescu	Charles de Gaulle
Klement Gottwald	Konrad Adenauer
Antonin Zapototsky	Ludwig Erhard
Antonin Novotny	Kurt Georg Kiesinger
Ludwik Svoboda	Willy Brandt
Gustav Husak	Helmut Schmidt
Fidel Castro	Helmut Kohl
Raul Castro	Juan Carlos I
Ernesto Che Guevara	Alcide de Gasperi
Mao Zedong	Giuseppe Pella
Kim Il Sung	Amintore Fanfani
Ho Chi Minh	Mario Shelba
	Antonio Segni
Ton Duc Thang	Adone Zoli
Khorlogiin Choibalsan	Fernando Tambroni
Gamal Abdel Nasser	Giovanni Leone
Fawzi Selu	Aldo Moro
Adib ash-Shishakli	Mariano Rumor
Shukri al-Quatli	Emilio Colombo
Nazim al-Qudsi	Giulio Andreotti
Amin al-Hafez	Francesco Cossiga
Nureddin al-Atassi	Arnaldo Forlani
Hafez al-Assad	Giovanni Spadolini
Abdul Salam Aref	Bettino Craxi
Abdul Rahman Aref	Giovanni Goria
Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr	Chiriaco de Mita
Saddam Hussein	Chiang Kai-shek
Muammar Gaddafi	Lee Seung Man
Ahmed Sukarno	Yoon Bo Song
Daniel Ortega	park chung hee
	Choi Gyu Ha
	jung doo hwan
	Ngo Dinh Diem
	Duong Van Minh
	Nguyen Khanh
	Nguyen Van Thieu
	Chan Van Huong
	Chaim Weizmann
	Yitzhak Ben-Zvi
	Zalman Shazar
	Ephraim Katzir
	Yitzhak Navon
	Chaim Herzog
	Mohammed Reza Pahlavi
	Mobutu Sese Seko

A global geopolitical, economic and ideological confrontation between the Soviet Union and its allies, on the one hand, and the United States and its allies, on the other, that lasted from the mid-1940s to the early 1990s.

One of the main components of the confrontation was ideology. The deep contradiction between the capitalist and socialist models is the main cause of the Cold War. The two superpowers - winners in the Second World War - tried to rebuild the world according to their ideological guidelines. Over time, confrontation became an element of the ideology of the two sides and helped the leaders of the military-political blocs to consolidate allies around them "in the face of an external enemy." A new confrontation required the unity of all members of the opposing blocs.

The term "cold war" was first used on April 16, 1947 by Bernard Baruch, adviser to US President Harry Truman, in a speech before the South Carolina House of Representatives.

The internal logic of the confrontation required the parties to participate in conflicts and interfere in the development of events in any part of the world. The efforts of the USA and the USSR were directed, first of all, to dominance in the military sphere. From the very beginning of the confrontation, the process of militarization of the two superpowers unfolded.

The US and the USSR created their own spheres of influence, securing them with military-political blocs - NATO and the Warsaw Pact. Although the United States and the USSR never entered into a direct military confrontation, their rivalry for influence often led to outbreaks of local armed conflicts around the world.

The Cold War was accompanied by a race of conventional and nuclear arms that every now and then threatened to lead to a third world war. The most famous of these cases, when the world was on the brink of disaster, was the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. In this regard, in the 1970s, both sides made efforts to "defeat" international tension and limit arms.

The growing technological backwardness of the USSR, along with the stagnation of the Soviet economy and exorbitant military spending in the late 1970s and early 1980s, forced the Soviet leadership to undertake political and economic reforms. The course of perestroika and glasnost announced by Mikhail Gorbachev in 1985 led to the loss of the leading role of the CPSU, and also contributed to the economic collapse in the USSR. Ultimately, the USSR, burdened by the economic crisis, as well as social and interethnic problems, collapsed in 1991.

In Eastern Europe, communist governments, deprived of Soviet support, were removed even earlier, in 1989-1990. The Warsaw Pact officially ended on July 1, 1991, marking the end of the Cold War.

History

Start of the Cold War

The establishment of Soviet control over the countries of Eastern Europe at the end of World War II, in particular the creation of a pro-Soviet government in Poland in opposition to the Polish government in exile in London, led to the fact that the ruling circles of Great Britain and the United States began to perceive the USSR as a threat.

In April 1945, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill ordered the preparation of a war plan against the USSR. The assignment was preceded by conclusions that Churchill presented in his memoirs:

The plan of operation was prepared by the Joint Planning Staff of the British War Cabinet. The plan gives an assessment of the situation, formulates the goals of the operation, defines the forces involved, the directions of attacks by the troops of the Western allies and their probable results.

The planners came to two main conclusions:

• starting a war with the USSR, it is necessary to be prepared for a long and costly total war, and for a completely possible defeat;
• the numerical superiority of Soviet troops on land makes it extremely doubtful whether one of the parties can achieve victory by a quick route.

It should be pointed out that Churchill pointed out in the comments on the draft plan submitted to him that it was a "precautionary measure" for what he hoped was a "purely hypothetical case."

In 1945, the USSR presented territorial claims to Turkey and demanded a change in the status of the Black Sea straits, including recognition of the USSR's right to establish a naval base in the Dardanelles.

In 1946, the Greek rebels became more active, led by the Communists and fueled by the supply of weapons from Albania, Yugoslavia and Bulgaria, where the Communists were already in power. At the London meeting of foreign ministers, the USSR demanded that it be granted the right to protectorate over Tripolitania (Libya) in order to secure a presence in the Mediterranean.

In France and Italy, the Communist parties became the largest political parties and the Communists entered the governments. After the withdrawal of the bulk of American troops from Europe, the USSR became the dominant military force in continental Europe. Everything favored the establishment of Stalin's complete control over Europe, if he wished it.

Part of the politicians of the West began to advocate the appeasement of the USSR. US Secretary of Commerce Henry Wallace expressed this position most clearly. He considered the claims of the USSR justified and offered to go to a kind of division of the world, recognizing the USSR's right to dominate in a number of regions of Europe and Asia. Churchill took a different view.

The formal beginning of the Cold War is often considered March 5, 1946, when Winston Churchill (at that time no longer holding the post of Prime Minister of Great Britain) delivered his famous speech in Fulton (USA, Missouri), in which he put forward the idea of ​​​​creating a military alliance of the Anglo-Saxon countries with purpose of fighting world communism. In fact, the aggravation of relations between the allies began earlier, but by March 1946 it intensified due to the USSR's refusal to withdraw the occupying troops from Iran (the troops were withdrawn only in May 1946 under pressure from Great Britain and the United States). Churchill's speech outlined a new reality which the retired British leader, after assurances of deep respect and admiration for "the valiant Russian people and my wartime comrade Marshal Stalin", defined as follows:

...From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain stretches across the continent. On the other side of the imaginary line are all the capitals of the ancient states of Central and Eastern Europe. (…) The communist parties, which were very small in all the eastern states of Europe, seized power everywhere and gained unlimited totalitarian control. Police governments predominate almost everywhere, and so far, apart from Czechoslovakia, there is no true democracy anywhere. Turkey and Persia are also deeply alarmed and concerned about the demands that the Muscovite government is making of them. The Russians made an attempt in Berlin to create a quasi-communist party in their zone of occupation of Germany (...) If the Soviet government now tries to separately create a pro-communist Germany in its zone, this will cause serious new difficulties in the British and American zones and divide the defeated Germans between the Soviets and the Western democracies. (…) The facts are as follows: this, of course, is not the liberated Europe for which we fought. This is not what is needed for permanent peace.

Churchill urged not to repeat the mistakes of the 30s and consistently defend the values ​​of freedom, democracy and "Christian civilization" against totalitarianism, for which it is necessary to ensure close unity and rallying of the Anglo-Saxon nations.

A week later, JV Stalin, in an interview with Pravda, put Churchill on a par with Hitler and stated that in his speech he called on the West to go to war with the USSR.

1946-1953: the beginning of the confrontation

On March 12, 1947, US President Harry Truman announced his intention to provide Greece and Turkey with military and economic assistance in the amount of $400 million. At the same time, he formulated the objectives of US policy aimed at helping "free peoples who resist attempts at enslavement by an armed minority and external pressure." Truman in this statement, in addition, defined the content of the beginning rivalry between the US and the USSR as a conflict between democracy and totalitarianism. This is how the Truman Doctrine was born, which became the beginning of the transition from post-war cooperation between the USSR and the USA to rivalry.

In 1947, at the insistence of the USSR, the socialist countries refused to participate in the Marshall Plan, according to which the United States provided economic assistance to countries affected by the war in exchange for the exclusion of the Communists from the government.

The efforts of the USSR, in particular Soviet intelligence, were aimed at eliminating the US monopoly on the possession of nuclear weapons (see the article Creating the Soviet atomic bomb). On August 29, 1949, the first nuclear bomb tests were carried out in the Soviet Union at the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site. American scientists from the Manhattan Project had previously warned that the USSR would eventually develop its own nuclear capability - nevertheless, this nuclear explosion had a stunning effect on US military strategic planning - mainly because US military strategists did not expect that they have to lose their monopoly so soon. At that time, it was not yet known about the successes of Soviet intelligence, which managed to penetrate Los Alamos.

In 1948, the United States adopted the "Vandenberg Resolution" - the official refusal of the United States from the practice of non-alignment with military-political blocs outside the Western Hemisphere in peacetime.

Already on April 4, 1949, NATO was created, and in October 1954 the FRG was admitted to the Western European Union and NATO. This step caused a negative reaction from the USSR. In response, the USSR set about creating a military bloc that would unite the Eastern European countries.

In the late 1940s, repressions against dissidents intensified in the USSR, who, in particular, were accused of “worshiping the West” (see also the article Fighting Cosmopolitanism), and a campaign was launched in the United States to identify communist sympathizers.

Although the USSR now also had a nuclear capability, the United States was far ahead in terms of both the number of charges and the number of bombers. In any conflict, the United States would easily be able to bomb the USSR, while the USSR could hardly retaliate.

The transition to the large-scale use of jet fighter-interceptors somewhat changed this situation in favor of the USSR, reducing the potential effectiveness of American bomber aircraft. In 1949, Curtis LeMay, the new commander of the US Strategic Air Command, signed a program to completely transition bomber aircraft to jet propulsion. In the early 1950s, the B-47 and B-52 bombers began to enter service.

The most acute period of confrontation between the two blocs (the USSR and the USA with their allies) fell on the years of the Korean War.

1953-1962: on the brink of nuclear war

With the onset of Khrushchev's "thaw", the threat of a world war receded - this was especially characteristic of the late 1950s, which culminated in Khrushchev's visit to the United States. However, the events of June 17, 1953 in the GDR, the events of 1956 in Poland, the anti-communist uprising in Hungary, and the Suez crisis fall within the same years.

In response to the numerical increase in Soviet bomber aviation in the 1950s, the United States created a rather strong layered air defense system around large cities, providing for the use of interceptor aircraft, anti-aircraft artillery and ground-to-air missiles. But at the forefront was still the construction of a huge armada of nuclear bombers, which were intended to crush the defensive lines of the USSR - since it was considered impossible to provide effective and reliable protection for such a vast territory.

This approach was firmly rooted in the US strategic plans - it was believed that there was no reason for particular concern as long as the US strategic forces surpassed the overall potential of the Soviet Armed Forces with their power. Moreover, according to American strategists, the Soviet economy, destroyed during the war years, was hardly capable of creating an adequate counterforce potential.

However, the USSR quickly created its own strategic aviation and tested in 1957 an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) R-7 capable of reaching the United States. Since 1959, mass production of ICBMs began in the Soviet Union. (In 1958, the United States also tested its first Atlas ICBM). From the mid-1950s, the United States began to realize that in the event of a nuclear war, the USSR would be able to launch a retaliatory counter-value strike against American cities. Therefore, since the late 1950s, military experts have recognized that an all-out nuclear war between the United States and the USSR is becoming impossible.

The scandal with the American U-2 spy plane (1960) led to a new aggravation of relations between the USSR and the USA, which peaked in the Berlin Crisis of 1961 and the Caribbean Crisis (1962).

1962-1979: "Detente"

The ongoing nuclear arms race, the concentration of control of Western nuclear forces in the hands of the United States, and a number of incidents with nuclear weapons carriers have caused increasing criticism of US nuclear policy. Contradictions in the principles of managing nuclear weapons in the NATO command led to the withdrawal of France in 1966 from participation in the formation of the armed forces of this organization. On January 17, 1966, one of the largest incidents with nuclear weapons occurred: after a collision with a tanker aircraft, a US Air Force B-52 bomber made an emergency release of four thermonuclear bombs over the Spanish village of Palomares. After this incident, Spain refused to condemn the withdrawal of France from NATO and limited the military activities of the US Air Force in the country, suspending the Spanish-American agreement of 1953 on military cooperation; negotiations to renew this treaty in 1968 ended in failure.

Regarding the competition of the two systems in space, Vladimir Bugrov noted that in 1964, Korolev's main opponents managed to create the illusion with Khrushchev that it was possible to land on the moon before the Americans, according to the scientist, if there was a race, then between the chief designers.

In Germany, the coming to power of the Social Democrats led by Willy Brandt was marked by a new "Eastern policy", which resulted in the Moscow Treaty between the USSR and the FRG in 1970, which fixed the inviolability of borders, the rejection of territorial claims and declared the possibility of uniting the FRG and the GDR.

In 1968, attempts at democratic reforms in Czechoslovakia (Prague Spring) caused the military intervention of the USSR and its allies.

However, Brezhnev, unlike Khrushchev, had no penchant for risky adventures outside the well-defined Soviet sphere of influence, nor for extravagant "peaceful" actions; The 1970s passed under the sign of the so-called "détente of international tension", the manifestations of which were the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (Helsinki) and the joint Soviet-American flight into space (the Soyuz-Apollo program); At the same time, treaties on the limitation of strategic arms were signed. This was largely determined by economic reasons, since the USSR already then began to experience an increasingly acute dependence on the purchase of consumer goods and food (for which foreign currency loans were required), while the West, during the years of the oil crisis caused by the Arab-Israeli confrontation, was extremely interested in the Soviet oil. In military terms, the basis of "detente" was the nuclear-missile parity of the blocs that had developed by that time.

On August 17, 1973, US Secretary of Defense James Schlesinger put forward the doctrine of a “blinding” or “decapitating” strike: defeating enemy command posts and communication centers with medium and shorter range missiles, cruise missiles with laser, television and infrared targeting systems. This approach assumed a gain in "flight time" - the defeat of command posts before the enemy had time to decide on a retaliatory strike. The emphasis on deterrence has shifted from the strategic triad to medium and short-range weapons. In 1974, this approach was enshrined in key US nuclear strategy documents. On this basis, the United States and other NATO countries began the modernization of forward base systems (Forward Base Systems) - American tactical nuclear weapons deployed in Western Europe or off its coast. At the same time, the United States began to create a new generation of cruise missiles capable of hitting given targets as accurately as possible.

These moves raised fears in the USSR, since the forward-based US assets, as well as the "independent" nuclear capabilities of Great Britain and France, were capable of hitting targets in the European part of the Soviet Union. In 1976, Dmitry Ustinov became the Minister of Defense of the USSR, who was inclined to take a tough response to US actions. Ustinov advocated not so much for building up the ground grouping of conventional armed forces as for improving the technical park of the Soviet Army. The Soviet Union began to modernize medium and shorter range nuclear weapons delivery vehicles in the European theater of operations.

Under the pretext of modernizing the obsolete RSD-4 and RSD-5 (SS-4 and SS-5) complexes, the USSR began to deploy medium-range RSD-10 Pioneer (SS-20) missiles on the western borders. In December 1976, the missile systems were deployed, and in February 1977 they were put on combat duty in the European part of the USSR. In total, about 300 missiles of this class were deployed, each of which was equipped with three independently targetable multiple warheads. This allowed the USSR to destroy NATO's military infrastructure in Western Europe in a matter of minutes - control centers, command posts and, especially, ports, which, in the event of war, made it impossible for American troops to land in Western Europe. At the same time, the USSR modernized the general-purpose forces deployed in Central Europe - in particular, it modernized the Tu-22M long-range bomber to a strategic level.

The actions of the USSR caused a negative reaction of the NATO countries. On December 12, 1979, a double decision was made by NATO - the deployment of American medium-range and shorter-range missiles in the countries of Western Europe and at the same time the beginning of negotiations with the USSR on the issue of euro-missiles. However, the negotiations stalled.

1979-1986: a new round of confrontation

A new aggravation came in 1979 in connection with the entry of Soviet troops into Afghanistan, which was perceived in the West as a violation of the geopolitical balance and the transition of the USSR to a policy of expansion. The escalation reached a peak in the fall of 1983, when Soviet air defense forces shot down a South Korean civilian airliner with about 300 people on board, according to media reports. It was then that US President Ronald Reagan called the USSR an "evil empire."

In 1983, the United States deployed Pershing-2 medium-range ballistic missiles on the territory of the Federal Republic of Germany, Great Britain, Denmark, Belgium and Italy, 5-7 minutes from targets on the European territory of the USSR, and air-launched cruise missiles. In parallel, in 1981, the United States began the production of neutron weapons - artillery shells and warheads of the Lance short-range missile. Analysts speculated that these weapons could be used to repel the offensive of the Warsaw Pact troops in Central Europe. The US also began developing a space-based missile defense program (the so-called Star Wars program); both of these large-scale programs were extremely disturbing to the Soviet leadership, especially since the USSR, which maintained nuclear-missile parity with great difficulty and stress for the economy, did not have the means to adequately rebuff it in space.

In response, in November 1983, the USSR withdrew from the Geneva talks on Euromissiles. General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU Yuri Andropov announced that the USSR would take a number of countermeasures: it would deploy operational-tactical nuclear launch vehicles on the territory of the GDR and Czechoslovakia and push Soviet nuclear submarines closer to the US coast. In 1983-1986 Soviet nuclear forces and the missile attack warning system were on high alert.

According to available data, in 1981, the Soviet intelligence services (KGB and GRU) launched Operation Nuclear Missile Attack (Operation RYAN) - monitoring the possible preparation of NATO countries for the start of a limited nuclear war in Europe. The alarms of the Soviet leadership were caused by the NATO exercises "Able archer 83" - in the USSR they feared that, under their cover, NATO was preparing to launch "Euromissiles" against targets in the Warsaw Pact countries. Similarly, in 1983-1986. military analysts of the NATO countries feared that the USSR would deliver a preemptive "disarming" strike on the bases of the "Euromissiles".

1987-1991: Gorbachev's "new thinking" and the end of the confrontation

With the coming to power of Mikhail Gorbachev, who proclaimed "socialist pluralism" and "the priority of universal human values ​​over class values", the ideological confrontation quickly lost its sharpness. In the military-political sense, Gorbachev initially tried to pursue a policy in the spirit of the "détente" of the 1970s, proposing programs to limit weapons, but rather hard bargaining over the terms of the treaty (meeting in Reykjavik).

However, the development of the political process in the USSR towards the rejection of communist ideology, as well as the dependence of the USSR economy on Western technologies and loans due to a sharp drop in oil prices, led the USSR to make wide concessions in the foreign policy sphere. It is widely believed that this was also due to the fact that increased military spending as a result of the arms race became unsustainable for the Soviet economy, but a number of researchers argue that the relative level of military spending in the USSR was not excessively high.

In 1988, the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan began. The fall of the communist system in Eastern Europe in 1989-1990. led to the liquidation of the Soviet bloc, and with it - to the actual cessation of the Cold War.

Meanwhile, the Soviet Union itself was in deep crisis. The central authorities began to lose control over the union republics. Ethnic conflicts broke out on the outskirts of the country. In December 1991, the final disintegration of the USSR took place.

Manifestations of the Cold War

• Acute political and ideological confrontation between the communist and Western liberal systems, which engulfed almost the entire world;
• creation of a system of military (NATO, Warsaw Treaty Organization, SEATO, CENTO, ANZUS, ANZUK) and economic (EEC, CMEA, ASEAN, etc.) unions;
• creation of an extensive network of military bases of the USA and the USSR on the territory of foreign states;
• forcing the arms race and military preparations;
• a sharp increase in military spending;
• recurring international crises (Berlin crises, Caribbean crisis, Korean War, Vietnam War, Afghan War);
• the tacit division of the world into “spheres of influence” of the Soviet and Western blocs, within which the possibility of intervention was tacitly allowed in order to maintain a regime pleasing to one or another bloc (Soviet intervention in Hungary, Soviet intervention in Czechoslovakia, the American operation in Guatemala, the overthrow of the anti-Western organized by the United States and Great Britain government in Iran, the US-sponsored invasion of Cuba, the US intervention in the Dominican Republic, the US intervention in Grenada);
• the rise of the national liberation movement in colonial and dependent countries and territories (partly inspired by the USSR), the decolonization of these countries, the formation of the "third world", the Non-Aligned Movement, neo-colonialism;
• waging a massive "psychological war", the purpose of which was to promote their own ideology and way of life, as well as to discredit the official ideology and way of life of the opposite bloc in the eyes of the population of "enemy" countries and the "third world". For this purpose, radio stations were created that broadcast to the territory of the countries of the “ideological enemy” (see the articles Enemy Voices and Foreign Broadcasting), the release of ideologically directed literature and periodicals in foreign languages ​​was financed, and class, racial, national contradictions were actively used. The first main department of the KGB of the USSR carried out the so-called "active measures" - operations to influence foreign public opinion and the policy of foreign states in the interests of the USSR.
• support for anti-government forces abroad - the USSR and its allies provided material support to communist parties and some other leftist parties in Western and developing countries, as well as national liberation movements, including terrorist organizations. Also, the USSR and its allies supported the movement for peace in the countries of the West. In turn, the US and British intelligence agencies supported and took advantage of such anti-Soviet organizations as the People's Labor Union. The US has also secretly provided material assistance to Solidarity in Poland since 1982, and also provided material assistance to the Afghan Mujahideen and the Contras in Nicaragua.

• reduction of economic and humanitarian ties between states with different socio-political systems.
• boycotts of some Olympic Games. For example, the United States and a number of other countries boycotted the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow. In response, the USSR and most socialist countries boycotted the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.

Lessons from the Cold War

Joseph Nye, professor at Harvard University (USA), speaking at the conference “From Fulton to Malta: How the Cold War Began and Ended” (Gorbachev Foundation, March 2005), pointed out the lessons to be learned from the Cold War:

• bloodshed as a means of settling global or regional conflicts is not inevitable;
• a significant deterrent role was played by the fact that the warring parties had nuclear weapons and an understanding of what the world could become after a nuclear conflict;
• the course of development of conflicts is closely related to the personal qualities of specific leaders (Stalin and Harry Truman, Mikhail Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan);
• military power is essential, but not decisive (the US was defeated in Vietnam, and the USSR in Afghanistan); in the era of nationalism and the third industrial (information) revolution, it is impossible to control the hostile population of the occupied country;
• under these conditions, the economic power of the state and the ability of the economic system to adapt to the requirements of modernity, the ability to constantly innovate, acquire a much greater role.
• a significant role is played by the use of soft forms of influence, or soft power, that is, the ability to get what you want from others without forcing (intimidating) them and without buying their consent, but by attracting them to your side. Immediately after the defeat of Nazism, the USSR and communist ideas had serious potential, but most of it was lost after the events in Hungary and Czechoslovakia, and this process continued as the Soviet Union used its military power.

Memories of the Cold War

Museums

• The Cold War Museum is a military history museum and a museum and entertainment complex in Moscow.
• The Cold War Museum (UK) is a military history museum in Shropshire.
• The Cold War Museum (Ukraine) is a naval museum complex in Balaklava.
• The Cold War Museum (USA) is a military history museum in Lorton, Virginia.

Medal "For Victory in the Cold War"

In early April 2007, a bill was introduced in both houses of the US Congress to establish a new military award for participation in the Cold War ( Cold War Service Medal), backed by a group of Democratic senators and congressmen led by current US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. The medal is proposed to be awarded to all those who served in the armed forces or worked in US government departments from September 2, 1945 to December 26, 1991.

As Hillary Clinton stated, “Our victory in the Cold War was only possible because of the willingness of millions of Americans in uniform to repel the threat posed by the Iron Curtain. Our victory in the Cold War was a huge achievement, and the men and women who served at that time deserve to be commended."

Congressman Robert Andrews, who introduced the bill in the House of Representatives, said: “The Cold War was a global military operation, extremely dangerous and sometimes deadly for the brave soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines who participated in this campaign. The millions of American veterans who served around the world to help us win this conflict deserve a unique medal in recognition and respect for their service."

In the United States, there is the Association of Cold War Veterans, which also demanded that the authorities recognize their merits in the victory over the USSR, but only managed to achieve the issuance of certificates from the Ministry of Defense confirming participation in the Cold War. The Veterans Association has issued its own unofficial medal, the design of which was developed by the leading specialist of the US Army Institute of Heraldry, Naidin Russell.

"Science in modern society" - A scientific infrastructure has been created in the modern world. Alferov Zhores Ivanovich Science in the modern world. Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov. Target. Certificate of awarding the Nobel Prize to M.A. Sholokhov. Science in modern society. More than 5 million people are engaged in scientific research in the world. Output. Scientific facts.

"Scientific creativity" - Tasks of European alchemy. Communication patterns of thinking. Rutherford. Elements of the explained process. Basic mistakes of scientific thinking. Science and other forms of knowledge. Scientific creativity. Components of a dialogue. Features of scientific creativity. Problem of Babylonian mathematics. Protoscience. Ancient Egypt.

"Subject of science" - Interrelation, interpenetration of various functions of science. The formation of science as a social institution dates back to the 17th-18th centuries. Commonly significant features of modern science. The science. Theoretical insight into the essence of real phenomena. Plan for studying a new topic. social function. The incompleteness of science contributes to the emergence of various scientific schools.

"Science and knowledge" - A form of knowledge. Science Philosophy. Two types of truth. private knowledge. Verification. N. Copernicus. Postpositivism. Dialogue epistemology. The principle of motion in Aristotle's physics. Scientific and non-scientific knowledge. Falsification. contemplative epistemology. Science and religion. Aristotle's scientific program. Scientific thinking.

"Science about science" - Scientific discipline. Introduction Definition History Purpose What does the science of science study? What do scientists study? The mechanism of adaptive inhibition. Lotka's law 3.3. Evaluation of the efficiency of the work of a scientist and a scientific team. Scientific creativity Status and problems of Russian science (seminar). The law of exponential growth.

"Cognitive Science" - Sciences. Law of technical and humanitarian balance. Cognition is understood as the creation and processing of information. To the history of the issue (a symbolic stage in the development of cognitive science science). On the history of the question (knowledge in philosophy). The nature of man in the cognitive sciences. Philosophical and scientific research programs of human nature.

In total there are 27 presentations in the topic

The main events of international politics in the second half of the 20th century were determined by the cold war between the two superpowers - the USSR and the USA.

Its consequences are felt to this day, and moments of crisis in relations between Russia and the West are often called the echoes of the Cold War.

What started the cold war

The term "cold war" belongs to the pen of the prose writer and publicist George Orwell, who used this phrase in 1945. However, the beginning of the conflict is associated with the speech of the former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, delivered by him in 1946 in the presence of American President Harry Truman.

Churchill declared that an "Iron Curtain" would be erected in the middle of Europe, to the east of which there was no democracy.

Churchill's speech had the following premises:

• the establishment of communist governments in the states liberated by the Red Army from fascism;
• the activation of the left underground in Greece (which led to civil war);
• the strengthening of the communists in such Western European countries as Italy and France.

Soviet diplomacy also took advantage of this, laying claims to the Turkish straits and Libya.

The main signs of the beginning of the cold war

In the first months after the victorious May 1945, in the wake of sympathy for the eastern ally in the anti-Hitler coalition, Soviet films were freely shown in Europe, and the attitude of the press towards the USSR was neutral or benevolent. In the Soviet Union, for a while, they forgot about the stamps that represented the West as the kingdom of the bourgeoisie.

With the onset of the Cold War, cultural contacts were curtailed, and the rhetoric of confrontation prevailed in diplomacy and the media. Briefly and clearly, the peoples were told who their enemy was.

All over the world there were bloody skirmishes of the allies of one side or another, and the Cold War participants themselves unleashed an arms race. This is the name given to the build-up in the arsenals of Soviet and American military weapons of mass destruction, primarily nuclear weapons.

Military spending drained state budgets and slowed down post-war economic recovery.

Causes of the Cold War - briefly and point by point

There were several reasons for this conflict:

1. Ideological - the insolubility of contradictions between societies built on different political foundations.
2. Geopolitical - the parties feared each other's dominance.
3. Economic - the desire of the West and the Communists to use the economic resources of the opposite side.

Stages of the Cold War

The chronology of events is divided into 5 main periods

The first stage - 1946-1955

During the first 9 years, a compromise was still possible between the victors of fascism, which both sides were looking for.

The United States strengthened its position in Europe thanks to the Marshall Plan economic assistance program. Western countries united in NATO in 1949, and the Soviet Union successfully tested nuclear weapons.

In 1950, the war broke out in Korea, where both the USSR and the USA participated to varying degrees. Stalin dies, but the Kremlin's diplomatic position does not change significantly.

The second stage - 1955-1962

Communists face opposition from the populations of Hungary, Poland and the GDR. In 1955, an alternative to the Western Alliance appeared - the Warsaw Pact Organization.

The arms race is moving to the stage of creating intercontinental missiles. A side effect of military developments was space exploration, the launch of the first satellite and the first cosmonaut of the USSR. The Soviet bloc is strengthened at the expense of Cuba, where Fidel Castro comes to power.

Third stage - 1962-1979

After the Caribbean crisis, the parties are trying to curb the military race. In 1963, an agreement was signed to ban atomic tests in air, space and under water. In 1964, the conflict in Vietnam begins, provoked by the desire of the West to defend this country from leftist rebels.

In the early 1970s, the world entered the era of "détente". Its main characteristic is the desire for peaceful coexistence. The parties limit strategic offensive weapons and prohibit biological and chemical weapons.

The peace diplomacy of Leonid Brezhnev in 1975 was crowned with the signing by 33 countries in Helsinki of the Final Act of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe. At the same time, the Soyuz-Apollo joint program was launched with the participation of Soviet cosmonauts and American astronauts.

Fourth stage - 1979-1987

In 1979, the Soviet Union sent an army to Afghanistan to install a puppet government. In the wake of aggravated contradictions, the United States refused to ratify the SALT-2 treaty, signed earlier by Brezhnev and Carter. The West is boycotting the Olympics in Moscow.

President Ronald Reagan showed himself as a tough anti-Soviet politician by launching the SDI program - strategic defense initiatives. American missiles are deployed in close proximity to the territory of the Soviet Union.

Fifth period - 1987-1991

This stage was given the definition of "new political thinking".

The transfer of power to Mikhail Gorbachev and the beginning of perestroika in the USSR meant the renewal of contacts with the West and the gradual abandonment of ideological intransigence.

Crises of the Cold War

The crises of the Cold War in history are called several periods of the greatest aggravation of relations between rival parties. Two of them - the Berlin crises of 1948-1949 and 1961 - associated with the formation of three political entities on the site of the former Reich - the GDR, the FRG and West Berlin.

In 1962, the USSR deployed nuclear missiles in Cuba, threatening the security of the United States - these events were called the Caribbean Crisis. Subsequently, Khrushchev dismantled the missiles in exchange for the Americans withdrawing the missiles from Turkey.

When and how did the Cold War end?

In 1989, the Americans and Russians announced the end of the Cold War. In fact, this meant the dismantling of the socialist regimes of Eastern Europe, right up to Moscow itself. Germany united, the Department of Internal Affairs collapsed, and then the USSR itself.

Who won the cold war

In January 1992, George W. Bush declared: "With the help of the Lord God, America won the Cold War!" His jubilation at the end of the confrontation was not shared by many residents of the countries of the former USSR, where a time of economic upheaval and criminal chaos began.

In 2007, a bill was submitted to the US Congress establishing a medal for participation in the Cold War. For the American establishment, the theme of the victory over communism remains an important element of political propaganda.

Results

Why the socialist camp turned out to be weaker than the capitalist one and what was its significance for humanity are the main final questions of the Cold War. The consequences of these events are being felt even in the 21st century. The collapse of the left forces led to economic growth, democratic reforms, a surge of nationalism and religious intolerance in the world.

Along with this, the armaments accumulated during these years are preserved, and the governments of Russia and Western countries act largely on the basis of the concepts and stereotypes learned during the armed confrontation.

The Cold War, which lasted 45 years, is for historians the most important process of the second half of the twentieth century, which determined the outlines of the modern world.

COLD WAR- a world confrontation between two military-political blocs led by the USSR and the USA, which did not reach an open military clash. The concept of "cold war" appeared in journalism in 1945-1947 and gradually became fixed in the political vocabulary.

On the other hand, the Western countries suffered important defeats in the colonial wars - France lost the war in Vietnam 1946-1954, and the Netherlands - in Indonesia in 1947-1949.

The Cold War led to the fact that in both "camps" repressions unfolded against dissidents and people who advocated cooperation and rapprochement between the two systems. In the USSR and Eastern European countries, people were arrested on charges of “cosmopolitanism” (lack of patriotism, cooperation with the West), “low worship of the West” and “Titoism” (connections with Tito). In the United States, a “witch hunt” began, during which secret communists and “agents” of the USSR were “exposed”. The American "witch hunt", unlike the Stalinist repressions, did not lead to mass repressions, but it also had its victims caused by spy mania. Soviet intelligence was active in the United States, as was American intelligence in the USSR, but the American intelligence services decided to publicly show that they were able to expose Soviet spies. Julius Rosenberg, a civil servant, was chosen for the role of "chief spy". He did indeed render minor services to Soviet intelligence. It was announced that Rosenberg and his wife Ethel "stole America's atomic secrets". Subsequently, it turned out that Ethel did not even know about her husband's cooperation with Soviet intelligence, but despite this, both spouses were sentenced to death and executed in June 1953.

The execution of the Rosenbergs was the last serious act of the first stage of the Cold War. In March 1953, Stalin died, and the new Soviet leadership, headed by Nikita Khrushchev, began to look for ways to normalize relations with the West.

In 1953-1954 the wars in Korea and Vietnam were stopped. In 1955 the USSR established equal relations with Yugoslavia and the FRG. The great powers also agreed to grant a neutral status to Austria occupied by them and to withdraw their troops from the country.

In 1956, the situation in the world worsened again due to unrest in the socialist countries and attempts by Great Britain, France and Israel to seize the Suez Canal in Egypt. But this time both "superpowers" - the USSR and the USA - made efforts to ensure that the conflicts did not grow. In 1959, Khrushchev during this period was not interested in increasing the confrontation. In 1959 Khrushchev came to the USA, it was the first ever visit of a Soviet leader to America. American society made a great impression on him, he was especially struck by the success of agriculture, much more efficient than in the USSR.

However, by this time, the USSR could also impress the United States and the whole world with its successes in the field of high technologies, and above all in space exploration. The system of state socialism made it possible to concentrate large resources on solving one problem at the expense of others. On October 4, 1957, the first artificial earth satellite was launched in the Soviet Union. From now on, the Soviet rocket could deliver cargo to any point on the planet, including a nuclear device. In 1958, the Americans launched their satellite and began mass production of rockets. The USSR continued to lead, although the achievement and preservation of nuclear-missile parity in the 60s required the exertion of all the forces of the country.

Successes in space exploration were also of great propaganda importance - they showed what kind of social system is capable of achieving great scientific and technical successes. On April 12, 1961, the USSR launched a spacecraft with a man on board. Yuri Gagarin became the first cosmonaut. The Americans were on the heels - the rocket with their first astronaut Alanon Shepard launched on May 5, 1961, but the device did not go into space, having made only a suborbital flight.

In 1960, relations between the USSR and the USA worsened again. On May 1, shortly before the Soviet-American summit, the United States sent a U-2 reconnaissance aircraft flying over the territory of the USSR. He flew at altitudes inaccessible to Soviet fighters, but was shot down by a rocket right during the May Day demonstration in Moscow. A scandal erupted. At the summit meeting, Khrushchev waited for an apology from Eisenhower. Not having received them, he interrupted the meeting with the President.

As a result of the crisis, which brought the world to the brink of a nuclear missile catastrophe, a compromise was reached: the USSR removed its missiles from Cuba, and the United States withdrew its missiles from Turkey and guaranteed military non-intervention to Cuba.

The Caribbean crisis taught both the Soviet and American leadership a lot. The leaders of the superpowers realized that they could lead humanity to destruction. Having approached a dangerous line, the Cold War began to decline. The USSR and the USA for the first time started talking about limiting the arms race. On August 15, 1963, an agreement was signed banning nuclear weapons tests in three environments: in the atmosphere, space, and water.

The conclusion of the 1963 treaty did not mean the end of the Cold War. The very next year, after the death of President Kennedy, the rivalry between the two blocs intensified. But now it has been pushed away from the borders of the USSR and the USA - to southeast Asia, where the war in Indochina unfolded in the 60s and the first half of the 70s.

In the 1960s, the international situation changed radically. Both superpowers faced great difficulties: the United States was bogged down in Indochina, and the USSR was drawn into conflict with China. As a result, both superpowers preferred to move from the "cold war" to a policy of gradual détente ("détente").

During the period of détente, important agreements were signed to limit the arms race, including treaties to limit anti-missile defense (ABM) and strategic nuclear weapons (SALT-1 and SALT-2). However, the SALT treaties had a significant drawback. While limiting the total volume of nuclear weapons and missile technology, it almost did not touch upon the deployment of nuclear weapons. Meanwhile, adversaries could concentrate a large number of nuclear missiles in the most dangerous parts of the world without even violating the agreed total volumes of nuclear weapons.

In 1976, the USSR began modernizing its medium-range missiles in Europe. They could quickly reach the goal in Western Europe. As a result of this modernization, the balance of nuclear forces on the continent was disturbed. In December 1979, the NATO bloc decided to deploy the latest American Pershing-2 and Tomahawk missiles in Western Europe. In the event of a war, these missiles could destroy the largest cities of the USSR in a matter of minutes, while the territory of the United States would remain invulnerable for a while. The security of the Soviet Union was threatened, and he launched a campaign against the deployment of new American missiles. A wave of rallies against the deployment of missiles began in the countries of Western Europe, since in the event of a first strike by the Americans, Europe, and not America, would become the target of a Soviet retaliatory strike. New US President Ronald Reagan proposed in 1981 the so-called "zero option" - the withdrawal of all Soviet and American medium-range nuclear missiles from Europe. But in this case, British and French missiles aimed at the USSR would remain here. Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev rejected this "zero option".

Detente was finally buried by the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. The Cold War resumed. In 1980–1982, the United States imposed a series of economic sanctions against the USSR. In 1983, US President Reagan called the USSR an "evil empire." The installation of new American missiles in Europe has begun. In response, the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU, Yuri Andropov, stopped all negotiations with the United States.

By the mid-1980s, the countries of "socialism" entered a period of crisis. The bureaucratic economy could no longer meet the growing needs of the population, wasteful spending of resources led to their significant reduction, the level of people's social consciousness grew so much that they began to understand the need for change. It was becoming increasingly difficult for the country to bear the burden of the Cold War, support allied regimes around the world, and wage war in Afghanistan. The technical backwardness of the USSR from the capitalist countries was more and more noticeable and dangerous.

Under these conditions, the US President decided to "push" the USSR to weaken. According to Western financial circles, the USSR's foreign exchange reserves amounted to 25-30 billion dollars. In order to undermine the economy of the USSR, the Americans had to inflict "unscheduled" damage to the Soviet economy on the same scale - otherwise the difficulties associated with the economic war would have been smoothed out by a currency "cushion" of a fair thickness. It was necessary to act quickly - in the second half of the 80s, the USSR was to receive additional financial injections from the Urengoy gas pipeline - Western Europe. In December 1981, in response to the suppression of the labor movement in Poland, Reagan announced a series of sanctions against Poland and its ally, the USSR. The events in Poland were used as an excuse, because this time, unlike the situation in Afghanistan, the norms of international law were not violated by the Soviet Union. The United States announced the cessation of supplies of oil and gas equipment, which should have disrupted the construction of the Urengoy gas pipeline - Western Europe. However, the European allies, interested in economic cooperation with the USSR, did not immediately support the United States, and the Soviet industry managed to independently manufacture pipes that the USSR had planned to purchase from the West earlier. Reagan's campaign against the pipeline failed.

In 1983, US President Ronald Reagan put forward the idea of ​​the "Strategic Defense Initiative" (SDI), or "star wars" - space systems that could protect the United States from a nuclear strike. This program was carried out in circumvention of the ABM treaty. The USSR did not have the technical capabilities to create the same system. Although the US was also far from successful in this area and the idea of ​​SDI was intended to force the USSR to waste resources, the Soviet leaders took it seriously. At the cost of great effort, the Buran space system was created, capable of neutralizing SDI elements.

Together with external, internal factors significantly undermined the system of socialism. The economic crisis in which the USSR found itself put the question of "savings on foreign policy" on the agenda. Despite the fact that the possibilities of such savings were exaggerated, the reforms that began in the USSR led to the end of the Cold War in 1987-1990.

In March 1985, the new General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU, Mikhail Gorbachev, came to power in the USSR. In 1985–1986 he proclaimed a policy of sweeping change known as "perestroika". It was also envisaged to improve relations with the capitalist countries on the basis of equality and openness (“new thinking”).

In November 1985, Gorbachev met with Reagan in Geneva and proposed a significant reduction in nuclear weapons in Europe. It was still impossible to solve the problem, because Gorbachev demanded the abolition of SDI, and Reagan did not concede. The American president promised that when the research was successful, the US would "open its laboratories to the Soviets," but Gorbachev did not believe him. “They say, believe us, that if the Americans are the first to implement SDI, they will share it with the Soviet Union. I said then: Mr. President, I urge you, believe us, we have already declared this, that we will not be the first to use nuclear weapons and we will not be the first to attack the United States of America. Why are you, while maintaining all the offensive potential on land and under water, are still going to launch an arms race in space? You don't believe us? Turns out you don't believe me. And why should we trust you more than you trust us?” Despite the fact that no significant progress was achieved at this meeting, the two presidents got to know each other better, which helped them to agree in the future.

However, after the meeting in Geneva, relations between the USSR and the USA deteriorated again. The USSR supported Libya in its conflict with the United States. The United States refused to comply with the SALT agreements, which were carried out even during the confrontation years of 1980-1984. This was the last wave of the Cold War. The "cooling" in international relations dealt a blow to the plans of Gorbachev, who put forward a large-scale disarmament program and seriously counted on the economic effect of the conversion, which, as it later became clear, dealt a huge lesson to the country's defense capability. Already in the summer, both sides began to probe the possibilities for holding a "second Geneva", which took place in October 1986 in Reykjavik. Here, Gorbachev tried to call Reagan for reciprocal concessions by proposing large-scale reductions in nuclear weapons, but “in a package” with the rejection of SDI, but the American president refused to cancel SDI and even feigned indignation at the linkage of the two problems: “Already after all, or almost all, as it seemed to me, it was decided, Gorbachev threw a feint. With a smile on his face, he said: “But it all depends, of course, on whether you give up SDI.” In the end, the meeting in Reykjavik actually ended in nothing. But Reagan realized that improving international relations could not be achieved by pressing on USSR, but with the help of mutual concessions.Gorbachev's strategy was crowned with the illusion of success - the United States agreed to freeze the non-existent SDI until the end of the century.

In 1986, the US administration abandoned the frontal offensive against the USSR, which ended in failure. However, the financial pressure on the USSR was increased, the United States, in exchange for various concessions, persuaded the authorities of Saudi Arabia to sharply increase oil production and reduce world oil prices. The income of the Soviet Union depended on oil prices, which began to fall sharply in 1986. The Chernobyl disaster further undermined the financial balance of the USSR. This made it difficult to reform the country "from above" and made it more active to stimulate the initiative from below. Gradually, authoritarian modernization was replaced by a civil revolution. Already in 1987-1988, "perestroika" led to a rapid increase in social activity, the world was in full swing towards ending the "cold war".

After an unsuccessful meeting in Reykjavik in 1986, the two presidents finally reached an agreement in Washington in December 1987 that would withdraw US and Soviet intermediate-range missiles from Europe. The "new thinking" has triumphed. The major crisis that led to the resumption of the Cold War in 1979 is a thing of the past. It was followed by other "fronts" of the Cold War, including the main one - the European one.

The example of Soviet "perestroika" activated anti-socialist movements in Eastern Europe. In 1989, the reforms carried out by the communists in Eastern Europe escalated into revolutions. Together with the communist regime in the GDR, the Berlin Wall was also destroyed, which became a symbol of the end of the division of Europe. By that time, faced with severe economic problems, the USSR could no longer support the communist regimes, the socialist camp collapsed.

In December 1988, Gorbachev announced to the UN about the unilateral reduction of the army. In February 1989, Soviet troops were withdrawn from Afghanistan, where the war continued already between the Mujahideen and the government of Najibullah.

In December 1989, off the coast of Malta, Gorbachev and the new US President George W. Bush were able to discuss the situation of actually ending the Cold War. Bush promised to make efforts to extend the most favored nation treatment in US trade to the USSR, which would not have been possible if the Cold War had continued. Despite the persistence of disagreements over the situation in some countries, including the Baltics, the atmosphere of the Cold War is a thing of the past. Explaining the principles of the “new thinking” to Bush, Gorbachev said: “The main principle that we have adopted and follow within the framework of the new thinking is the right of each country to a free choice, including the right to revise or change the choice originally made. It is very painful, but it is a fundamental right. The right to choose without outside interference.”

But by this time, the methods of pressure on the USSR had already changed. In 1990, supporters of the fastest "Westernization", that is, the restructuring of society according to Western models, came to power in most countries of Eastern Europe. Reforms based on "neoliberal" ideas, close to Western neo-conservatism and neo-globalism, began. The reforms were carried out hastily, without a plan and preparation, which led to a painful breakdown of society. They were called "shock therapy" because it was believed that after a short "shock" relief would come. Western countries provided some financial support for these reforms, as a result, Eastern Europe managed to create a market economy on the Western model. Entrepreneurs, the middle strata, part of the youth benefited from these transformations, but a significant part of society - workers, employees, pensioners - lost, and the Eastern European countries found themselves financially dependent on the West.

The new governments of the countries of Eastern Europe demanded the speedy withdrawal of Soviet troops from their territory. The USSR by that time had neither the opportunity nor the desire to maintain its military presence there. In 1990, the withdrawal of troops began, in July 1991 the Warsaw Pact and the Comecon were dissolved. NATO remains the only powerful military force in Europe. The USSR did not long survive the military bloc it created. In August 1991, as a result of an unsuccessful attempt by the leaders of the USSR to establish an authoritarian regime (the so-called GKChP), real power passed from Gorbachev to the President of the Russian Federation Boris Yeltsin and the leaders of the republics of the USSR. The Baltic States withdrew from the Union. In December 1991, in order to consolidate their success in the struggle for power, the leaders of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus signed an agreement in Belovezhskaya Pushcha on the dissolution of the USSR.

The almost exact coincidence of the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union has sparked a worldwide debate about the connection between these phenomena. Perhaps the end of the Cold War is the result of the collapse of the USSR and, therefore, the United States won this "war". However, by the time of the collapse of the USSR, the Cold War had already ended - a few years before this event. Considering that the missile crisis was resolved in 1987, an agreement on Afghanistan was concluded in 1988, and Soviet troops were withdrawn from this country in February 1989, and socialist governments disappeared in 1989 in almost all countries of Eastern Europe, then we can talk about the continuation of the Cold War after 1990 is not necessary. The problems that caused the aggravation of international tension not only in 1979-1980, but also in 1946-1947 were removed. Already in 1990, the level of relations between the USSR and Western countries returned to the state before the Cold War, and it was remembered only in order to proclaim its end, as President D. Bush did when he announced victory in the Cold War after the collapse of the USSR and Presidents B. Yeltsin and D. Bush, announcing its termination in 1992. These propaganda statements do not remove the fact that in 1990-1991 the signs of the Cold War had already disappeared. The end of the Cold War and the collapse of the USSR have a common cause - the crisis of state socialism in the USSR.

Alexander Shubin



In history, the term cold war" is used to refer to the period of time 1946 - 1991, which was marked by the confrontation between the "superpowers": the USSR and the USA.

The rivalry of these states eventually developed into confrontations in many areas:

• economic,
• social,
• political,
• ideological.

Causes of the Cold War.

The difference in the ideological program of the States and the Union - capitalism and socialism - led to the fact that after the defeat of Nazi Germany, followers of both powers appeared around the world. The territory of the United States, unlike the Union Republics, did not suffer from the Nazis.

After the war, the States became a creditor to the states of Western Europe. Under the program of economic assistance "Marshal's Plan", signed in 1948 by 16 states, the United States transferred 17 billion dollars to Europe.

Beginning of the Cold War.

The beginning of the conflict associated with the spring of 1946, when W. Churchill delivered the famous Fullton speech - anti-communist propaganda began in the West. One of the conditions for granting loans was the withdrawal of representatives of the Communist Party from the governments of European states.

The countries of Eastern Europe did not accept the Marshall Plan. The USSR and its allies threw all their efforts into restoring the economy, undermined by the war. The development of nuclear weapons was a great achievement, after which the United States lost its nuclear monopoly.

Cold War events.

In the spring of 1949, the United States created the NATO military bloc, which was caused by the need to resist the Soviet Union.

Alliance includes:

• Holland,
• France,
• Belgium,
• Luxembourg,
• Great Britain,
• Iceland,
• Portugal,
• Italy,
• Norway,
• Denmark,
• Canada.

In response, in 1955, the Union created the Warsaw Pact Organization, which included:

• Albania,
• Bulgaria,
• Hungary,
• Poland,
• Romania,
• USSR,
• Czechoslovakia.

During this period, there is an increase in the military forces of both states. Military-political blocs have entered into a confrontation for spheres of influence across the planet in such a way as not to avoid direct clashes.

Since 1950, the US and the USSR have been indirectly involved in the following military conflicts:

• Korean War 1950-1953
• Vietnam War 1957-1975
• Arab-Israeli Wars
• Afghan war 1979-1989

Cold War conflicts.

Conflicts remained indirect, because the outcome of any open military confrontation was unpredictable due to the presence of nuclear weapons in the superpowers.

The number of weapons created was such that, if used, they could destroy the entire Earth. So there could be no winners in such a conflict.

The nuclear era of the development of the planet also provoked "information wars", which are designed to create a coup d'état in the enemy country.

End of the Cold War.

The end of the Cold War came with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. There is only one superpower left on the planet.