The expression “Cold War” was first used by the famous English writer George Orwell on October 19, 1945 in the article “You and the Atomic Bomb” in the British weekly Tribune. In an official setting, this definition was first voiced by US President Harry Truman's adviser Bernard Baruch, speaking before the South Carolina House of Representatives on April 16, 1947. Since that time, the concept of “Cold War” began to be used in journalism and gradually entered the political lexicon.
Strengthening influence
After the end of World War II, the political situation in Europe and Asia changed dramatically. Former allies in the fight against Nazi Germany - the USSR and the USA - had different views on the further structure of the world. The leadership of the Soviet Union provided serious assistance to the liberated countries of Eastern Europe, where communists came to power: Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia. Many Europeans believed that replacing the capitalist system, which was going through difficult times, with a socialist one, would help quickly restore the economy and return to normal life. In most Western European countries, the share of votes cast for communists during elections ranged from 10 to 20 percent. This happened even in countries such as Belgium, Holland, Denmark and Sweden that were alien to socialist slogans. In France and Italy, the communist parties were the largest among other parties, the communists were part of the governments, and they were supported by about a third of the population. In the USSR they saw not the Stalinist regime, but, first of all, the force that defeated the “invincible” Nazism.
The USSR also considered it necessary to support the countries of Asia and Africa that had freed themselves from colonial dependence and taken the path of building socialism. As a result, the Soviet sphere of influence on the world map expanded rapidly.
Disagreement
The United States and its allies viewed further world development completely differently; they were irritated by the growing importance of the USSR on the world stage. The United States believed that only their country - the only power in the world at that time that possessed nuclear weapons - could dictate its terms to other states, and therefore they were not happy that the Soviets sought to strengthen and expand the so-called “socialist camp.”
Thus, at the end of the war, the interests of the two largest world powers came into irreconcilable conflict, each country sought to extend its influence to more states. A struggle began in all directions: in ideology, to attract as many supporters as possible to one’s side; in the arms race, to speak to opponents from a position of strength; in economics - to show the superiority of their social system, and even in such a seemingly peaceful area as sports.
It should be noted that at the initial stage the forces that entered into confrontation were not equal. The Soviet Union, which bore the brunt of the war on its shoulders, emerged from it economically weakened. The United States, on the contrary, largely thanks to the war, became a superpower - economically and militarily. During the Second World War, the United States increased industrial capacity by 50% and agricultural production by 36%. The industrial production of the United States, excluding the USSR, exceeded the production of all other countries of the world combined. In such conditions, the United States considered pressure on its opponents completely justified.
Thus, the world was actually divided in two according to social systems: one side led by the USSR, the other led by the USA. The “Cold War” began between these military-political blocs: a global confrontation, which, fortunately, did not lead to an open military clash, but constantly provoked local military conflicts in various countries.
Churchill's Fulton speech
The starting point or signal for the beginning of the Cold War is considered to be the famous speech of former British Prime Minister W. Churchill in Fulton (Missouri, USA). On March 5, 1946, speaking in the presence of US President Henry Truman, Churchill announced that “the United States is at the pinnacle of world power and faces only two enemies - “war and tyranny.” Analyzing the situation in Europe and Asia, Churchill stated that the Soviet Union was the cause of "international difficulties" because "no one knows what Soviet Russia and its international communist organization intend to do in the near future, or whether there are any limits to their expansion." . True, the prime minister paid tribute to the merits of the Russian people and personally to his “military comrade Stalin,” and even understood with understanding that “Russia needs to secure its western borders and eliminate all possibilities of German aggression.” Describing the current situation in the world, Churchill used the term “iron curtain”, which fell “from Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, across the entire continent.” The countries to its east, in Churchill's words, became objects not only of Soviet influence, but also of Moscow's growing control... The small Communist parties in all these Eastern European states "have grown to a position and power far superior to their numbers, and they are trying to achieve totalitarian control in everything.” Churchill spoke of the dangers of communism and that “in a large number of countries communist “fifth columns” have been created who work in complete unity and absolute obedience in carrying out the directives received from the communist center.”
Churchill understood that the Soviet Union was not interested in another war, but noted that the Russians "lust for the fruits of war and the unlimited expansion of their power and ideology." He called on the “fraternal association of English-speaking peoples,” that is, the USA, Great Britain and their allies to repel the USSR, not only in the political but also in the military sphere. He further noted: “From what I saw during the war in our Russian friends and comrades, I conclude that there is nothing they admire more than strength, and nothing they respect less than weakness, especially military weakness. Therefore, the old doctrine of the balance of power is now unfounded.”
At the same time, speaking about the lessons of the past war, Churchill noted that “there has never been a war in history that was easier to prevent by timely action than the one that has just devastated a huge area on the planet. Such a mistake cannot be repeated. And for this it is necessary, under the auspices of the United Nations and on the basis of the military strength of the English-speaking community, to find mutual understanding with Russia. The maintenance of such relations for many, many years of peace must be ensured not only by the authority of the UN, but also by the entire power of the USA, Great Britain and other English-speaking countries, and their allies.”
This was outright hypocrisy, since Churchill, back in the spring of 1945, ordered the preparation of the military operation “Unthinkable,” which was a war plan in the event of a military conflict between Western states and the USSR. These developments were met with skepticism by the British military; They weren’t even shown to the Americans. In comments on the draft presented to him, Churchill stated that the plan represented “a preliminary sketch of what I hope is still a purely hypothetical possibility.”
In the USSR, the text of Churchill's Fulton speech was not fully translated, but was retold in detail on March 11, 1946 in a TASS message.
I. Stalin learned the content of Churchill’s speech literally the next day, but he, as often happened, chose to pause, waiting to see what kind of reaction to this speech would follow from abroad. Stalin gave his answer in an interview with the Pravda newspaper only on March 14, 1946. He accused his opponent of calling the West to war with the USSR: “In essence, Mr. Churchill and his friends in England and the USA are presenting nations that do not speak in English, something like an ultimatum: recognize our dominance voluntarily, and then everything will be in order - otherwise war is inevitable." Stalin put W. Churchill on a par with Hitler, accusing him of racism: “Hitler began the business of starting a war by proclaiming a racial theory, declaring that only people who speak the German language represent a full-fledged nation. Mr. Churchill begins the work of starting a war also with a racial theory, arguing that only nations that speak English are full-fledged nations called upon to decide the destinies of the whole world.”
Truman Doctrine
In 1946–1947 The USSR increased pressure on Turkey. From Turkey, the USSR sought to change the status of the Black Sea straits and provide territory for placing its naval base near the Dardanelles Strait to ensure security and unimpeded access to the Mediterranean Sea. Also, until the spring of 1946, the USSR was in no hurry to withdraw its troops from Iranian territory. An uncertain situation also developed in Greece, where there was a civil war, and Albanian, Bulgarian and Yugoslav communists tried to help the Greek communists.
All this caused extreme dissatisfaction with the United States. President G. Truman believed that only America is capable of promoting progress, freedom and democracy in the world, and the Russians, in his opinion, “do not know how to behave. They are like a bull in a china shop."
Speaking on March 12, 1947 in the American Congress, Harry Truman announced the need to provide military assistance to Greece and Turkey. In fact, in his speech he announced a new US foreign policy doctrine, which sanctioned US intervention in the internal affairs of other countries. The basis for such intervention was the need to resist “Soviet expansion.”
The Truman Doctrine envisioned the “containment” of the USSR throughout the world and meant the end of cooperation between the former allies who defeated fascism.
Marshall Plan
At the same time, the “Cold War front” lay not only between countries, but also within them. The success of the left in Europe was obvious. To prevent the spread of communist ideas, in June 1947, US Secretary of State George Marshall presented a plan to help European countries restore their destroyed economies. This plan was called the “Marshall Plan” (the official name of the European Recovery Program is “European Recovery Program”) and became an integral part of the new US foreign policy.
In July 1947, representatives of 16 Western European countries met in Paris to discuss the amount of aid for each country separately. Along with representatives of Western Europe, representatives of the USSR and Eastern European states were also invited to these negotiations. And although Marshall declared that “our policy is not directed against any country or doctrine, but against hunger, misery, despair and chaos,” the help, as it turned out, was not selfless. In exchange for American supplies and loans, European countries pledged to provide the United States with information about their economies, supply strategic raw materials, and prevent the sale of “strategic goods” to socialist states.
For the USSR, such conditions were unacceptable, and it refused to participate in the negotiations, prohibiting the leaders of Eastern European countries from doing so, promising them, in turn, preferential loans on their part.
The Marshall Plan began to be implemented in April 1948, when the US Congress passed the Economic Cooperation Act, which provided for a four-year (from April 1948 to December 1951) program of economic assistance to Europe. 17 countries received assistance, including West Germany. The total amount allocated was about $17 billion. The main share went to England (2.8 billion), France (2.5 billion), Italy (1.3 billion), West Germany (1.3 billion) and Holland (1.1 billion). Financial assistance to West Germany under the Marshall Plan was provided simultaneously with the collection of indemnity (reparations) from it for material damage caused to the victorious countries in World War II.
Education CMEA
Eastern European countries that did not participate in the Marshall Plan formed a group of states of the socialist system (except for Yugoslavia, which occupied an independent position). In January 1949, six countries of Eastern Europe (Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania, the USSR and Czechoslovakia) united into an economic union - the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (CMEA). One of the main reasons for the creation of CMEA was the Western countries' boycott of trade relations with socialist states. In February, Albania joined the CMEA (withdrew in 1961), in 1950 - the GDR, in 1962 - Mongolia and in 1972 - Cuba.
Creation of NATO
A kind of continuation of Truman’s foreign policy course was the creation in April 1949 of a military-political alliance - the North Atlantic bloc (NATO), led by the United States. Initially, NATO included the USA, Canada and the countries of Western Europe: Belgium, Great Britain, Denmark, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal and France (withdrew from the military structures of the bloc in 1966, returned in 2009). Later, Greece and Turkey (1952), the Federal Republic of Germany (1955) and Spain (1982) joined the alliance. The main task of NATO was to strengthen stability in the North Atlantic region and counter the “communist threat.” (The Soviet Union and the countries of Eastern Europe created their own military alliance - the Warsaw Pact Organization (WTO) - only six years later, in 1955). Thus, Europe found itself divided into two opposing parts.
German question
The division of Europe had a particularly hard impact on the fate of Germany. At the Yalta Conference in 1945, a plan for the post-war occupation of Germany was agreed upon between the victorious countries, to which, at the insistence of the USSR, France joined. According to this plan, after the end of the war, the east of Germany was occupied by the USSR, the west by the USA, Great Britain and France. The capital of Germany, Berlin, was also divided into four zones.
West Germany was included in the Marshall Plan in 1948. Thus, the unification of the country became impossible, since different economic systems emerged in different parts of the country. In June 1948, the Western Allies unilaterally carried out monetary reform in West Germany and West Berlin, abolishing the old-style money. The entire mass of old Reichsmarks poured into East Germany, which forced the USSR to close its borders. West Berlin was completely surrounded. The first serious conflict arose between the former allies, called the Berlin Crisis. Stalin wanted to use the blockade of West Berlin to occupy the entire German capital and extract concessions from the United States. But the USA and Great Britain organized an air bridge to connect Berlin with the western sectors and broke the blockade of the city. In May 1949, the territories located in the western zone of occupation were united into the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG), whose capital was Bonn. West Berlin became an autonomous self-governing city associated with the Federal Republic of Germany. In October 1949, another German state was created in the Soviet zone of occupation - the German Democratic Republic (GDR), whose capital became East Berlin.
The end of the US nuclear monopoly
The Soviet leadership understood that the United States, which had nuclear weapons, could afford to speak to it from a position of strength. Moreover, unlike the United States, the Soviet Union emerged from the war economically weakened and, therefore, vulnerable. Therefore, the USSR carried out accelerated work to create its own nuclear weapons. In 1948, a nuclear center was created in the Chelyabinsk region, where a plutonium production reactor was built. In August 1949, the Soviet Union successfully tested a nuclear weapon. The United States lost its monopoly on atomic weapons, which sharply tempered the ardor of American strategists. The famous German researcher Otto Hahn, who discovered the process of nuclear fission, upon learning about the test of the first Soviet atomic bomb, remarked: “This is good news, since the danger of war has now decreased significantly.”
It must be admitted that the USSR was forced to allocate colossal funds to achieve this goal, which caused serious damage to the production of consumer goods, agricultural production and the socio-cultural development of the country.
Dropshot plan
Despite the creation of atomic weapons in the USSR, the West did not abandon plans to launch nuclear strikes on the USSR. Such plans were developed in the USA and Great Britain immediately after the end of the war. But only after the formation of NATO in 1949 did the United States have a real opportunity to implement them and they proposed another, more large-scale plan.
On December 19, 1949, NATO approved the Dropshot plan "to counter the proposed Soviet invasion of Western Europe, the Middle East and Japan." In 1977, its text was declassified in the USA. According to the document, on January 1, 1957, a large-scale war of the North Atlantic Alliance forces against the USSR was supposed to begin. Naturally, “due to an act of aggression on the part of the USSR and its satellites.” In accordance with this plan, 300 atomic bombs and 250 thousand tons of conventional explosives were to be dropped on the USSR. As a result of the first bombing, 85% of industrial facilities were to be destroyed. The second stage of the war was to be followed by occupation. NATO strategists divided the territory of the USSR into 4 parts: the Western part of the USSR, Ukraine - the Caucasus, the Urals - Western Siberia - Turkestan, Eastern Siberia - Transbaikalia - Primorye. All these zones were divided into 22 subareas of responsibility, where NATO military contingents were to be deployed.
Expansion of the socialist camp
Immediately after the start of the Cold War, the countries of the Asia-Pacific region turned into an arena of fierce struggle between supporters of the communist and capitalist paths of development. On October 1, 1949, the People's Republic of China was proclaimed in the capital of China, Beijing.
With the creation of the PRC, the military-political situation in the world changed radically, since the communists won in one of the most populous states in the world. The socialist camp advanced significantly to the east, and the West could not help but reckon with the vast territory and powerful military potential of socialism, including Soviet nuclear missile weapons. However, subsequent events showed that there was no clear certainty in the alignment of military-political forces in the Asia-Pacific region. For many years, China has become the “favorite card” in the global game of the two superpowers for dominance in the world.
Growing confrontation
At the end of the 1940s, despite the difficult economic situation of the USSR, the rivalry between the capitalist and communist blocs continued and led to a further build-up of armaments.
The warring parties sought to achieve superiority both in the field of nuclear weapons and in the means of their delivery. These means, in addition to bombers, were missiles. A nuclear missile arms race began, which led to extreme strain on the economies of both blocs. Enormous funds were spent on defense needs, and the best scientific personnel worked. Powerful associations of state, industrial and military structures were created - military-industrial complexes (MIC), where the most modern equipment was produced, which worked primarily for the arms race.
In November 1952, the United States tested the world's first thermonuclear charge, the explosion power of which was many times greater than that of an atomic one. In response to this, in August 1953, the world's first hydrogen bomb was exploded in the USSR at the Semipalatinsk test site. Unlike the American model, the Soviet bomb was ready for practical use. From that moment until the 1960s. The USA was ahead of the USSR only in the number of weapons.
Korean War 1950-1953
The USSR and the USA realized the danger of war between them, which forced them not to go into direct confrontation, but to act “bypassing”, fighting for world resources outside their countries. In 1950, shortly after the Communist victory in China, the Korean War began, which became the first military clash between socialism and capitalism, bringing the world to the brink of nuclear conflict.
Korea was occupied by Japan in 1905. In August 1945, at the final stage of World War II, in connection with the victory over Japan and its surrender, the United States and the USSR agreed to divide Korea along the 38th parallel, assuming that the Japanese north of it the troops will surrender to the Red Army, and American troops to the south will accept the surrender. Thus, the peninsula was divided into northern, Soviet, and southern, American parts. The countries of the anti-Hitler coalition believed that after some time Korea should reunite, but under the conditions of the Cold War, the 38th parallel essentially turned into a border - the “Iron Curtain” between North and South Korea. By 1949, the USSR and the USA withdrew their troops from Korean territory.
Governments were formed in both parts of the Korean Peninsula, northern and southern. In the south of the peninsula, with UN support, the United States held elections that elected a government led by Syngman Rhee. In the north, Soviet troops handed over power to the communist government led by Kim Il Sung.
In 1950, the leadership of North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea - DPRK), citing the fact that South Korean troops had invaded the DPRK, crossed the 38th parallel. The Chinese armed forces (called “Chinese volunteers”) fought on the side of the DPRK. The USSR provided direct assistance to North Korea, supplying the Korean army and “Chinese volunteers” with weapons, ammunition, aircraft, fuel, food and medicine. A small contingent of Soviet troops also took part in the fighting: pilots and anti-aircraft gunners.
In turn, the United States passed a resolution through the UN Security Council calling for the necessary assistance to South Korea and sent its troops there under the UN flag. In addition to the Americans, contingents from Great Britain (more than 60 thousand people), Canada (more than 20 thousand), Turkey (5 thousand) and other states fought under the UN flag.
In 1951, US President Henry Truman threatened to use atomic weapons against China in response to Chinese assistance to North Korea. The Soviet Union also did not want to give in. The conflict was resolved diplomatically only after the death of Stalin in 1953. In 1954, at a meeting in Geneva, the division of Korea into two states - North Korea and South Korea - was confirmed. At the same time, Vietnam was divided. These sections became unique symbols of the split of the world into two systems on the Asian continent.
The next stage of the Cold War is 1953-1962. Some warming, both in the country and in international relations, did not affect the military-political confrontation. Moreover, it was at this time that the world repeatedly stood on the verge of nuclear war. The arms race, the Berlin and Caribbean crises, events in Poland and Hungary, ballistic missile tests... This decade was one of the most tense in the twentieth century.
What was the reason for such a long “cold” confrontation between the West and the East? There were deep and intractable differences between the model of society represented by the United States of America and the system of socialism led by the Soviet Union.
Both world powers wanted to strengthen their economic and political influence and become the undisputed leaders of the world community.
The United States was extremely unhappy that the USSR had established its influence in a number of Eastern Europe. Now the communist movement has come to dominate there. Reactionary circles in the West feared that communist ideas would penetrate further into the West, and that the resulting socialist camp would be able to seriously compete with the capitalist world in the economic and sphere.
Historians consider the beginning of the Cold War to be the speech of the leading English politician Winston Churchill, which he delivered in Fulton in March 1946. In his speech, Churchill warned the Western world against mistakes, directly speaking about the impending communist danger, in the face of which it is necessary to unite. The provisions expressed in this speech became an actual call for unleashing a “cold war” against the USSR.
Progress of the Cold War
"Cold" had several climaxes. Some of them were the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty by a number of Western states, the Korean War and the testing of nuclear weapons in the USSR. And in the early 60s, the world watched with alarm the development of the so-called Cuban Missile Crisis, which showed that the two superpowers had such powerful weapons that there would be no winners in a possible confrontation.
Awareness of this fact led politicians to the idea that political confrontation and arms build-up should be brought under control. The desire of the USSR and the USA to strengthen their military power led to enormous budget expenditures and undermined the economies of both powers. Statistics suggested that both economies could not continue to maintain the pace of the arms race, so the governments of the United States and the Soviet Union eventually entered into a nuclear arsenal treaty.
But the Cold War was far from over. It continued in the information space. Both states actively used their ideological apparatuses to undermine each other's political power. Provocations and subversive activities were used. Each side tried to present the advantages of its social system in a favorable light, while simultaneously belittling the achievements of the enemy.
The end of the Cold War and its results
As a result of the harmful effects of external and internal factors, by the mid-80s of the last century, the Soviet Union found itself in a deep economic and political crisis. The process of perestroika began in the country, which was essentially a course of socialism through capitalist relations.
These processes were actively supported by foreign opponents of communism. The socialist camp began. The culmination was the collapse of the Soviet Union, which broke up into several independent states in 1991. The goal of the opponents of the USSR, which they set several decades earlier, was achieved.
The West won an unconditional victory in the Cold War with the USSR, and the United States remained the world's only superpower. This was the main result of the “cold” confrontation.
Still, some analysts believe that the collapse of the communist regime did not lead to a complete end to the Cold War. Russia, which has nuclear weapons, although it has taken the capitalist path of development, still remains an annoying obstacle to the implementation of the aggressive plans of the United States, striving for complete world domination. The ruling American circles are particularly irritated by the desire of the renewed Russia to pursue an independent foreign policy.
The Cold War is a stage in the development of USSR-US relations, which is characterized as confrontation and increased hostility of countries towards each other. This is a huge period in the formation of Soviet-American relations, lasting almost 50 years.
Historians consider Churchill's speech in March 1946 to be the official start of the Cold War, in which he proposed that all Western countries declare war on communism.
After Churchill's speech, Stalin openly warned US President Truman about the dangers of such statements and the possible consequences.
Expanding the influence of the USSR on Europe and third world countries
Perhaps the emergence of this kind of war was associated with the strengthening of the role of the USSR on the continent and in the world after the victory in World War II. The USSR at that moment actively participated in the UN Security Council, on which they had great influence. All countries witnessed the strength of the Soviet army and the magnitude of the spirit of the Russian people. The American government saw how the sympathy of many countries for the Soviet Union was growing, how they bowed their heads to the merits of its army. The USSR, in turn, did not trust the United States because of the nuclear threat.Historians believe that the main root cause of the Cold War was the US desire to crush the growing power of the USSR. Thanks to the increasing sphere of influence of the Soviet Union, communism slowly but surely spread across Europe. Even in Italy and France, communist parties began to gain more influence and support. The economic devastation in European countries mainly made people think about the correctness of the positions of communism, about the equal distribution of benefits.
This is precisely what horrified powerful America: they emerged the most powerful and richest from World War II, so why are they not asking for help from the United States? Therefore, politicians first developed the Marshall Plan, then the Truman Doctrine, which were supposed to help free countries from communist parties and devastation. The struggle for European countries is one of the reasons for waging the Cold War.
Not only was Europe the goal of the two powers, their Cold War also affected the interests of third world countries that did not openly side with either country. The second prerequisite for the Cold War is the struggle for influence in African countries.
Arms race
The arms race is another reason and then one of the stages of the Cold War. The United States hatched a plan to drop 300 atomic bombs on the Union - its main weapon. The USSR, not willing to submit to the United States, already had its own nuclear weapons by the 1950s. It was then that they left no chance for the Americans to use their nuclear power.In 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev came to power in the USSR and sought to end the Cold War. Thanks to his actions, the Cold War was ended.
In the 60s, the USSR and the USA signed agreements on the renunciation of weapons testing, on the creation of nuclear-free spaces, etc.
Among the various military and political conflicts of the 20th century, the Cold War stands out. It lasted more than 40 years and covered almost all corners of the globe. And to understand the history of the second half of the 20th century, it is necessary to find out what this confrontation was.
Definition of the Cold War
The expression “cold war” itself appeared in the second half of the forties, when it became clear that the contradictions between the recent allies in the war against fascism had become insurmountable. This described the specific situation of confrontation between the socialist bloc and Western democracies led by the United States.
The Cold War was called because there were no full-scale military operations between the armies of the USSR and the USA. This confrontation was accompanied by indirect military conflicts outside the territories of the USSR and the USA, and the USSR tried to hide the participation of its troops in such military operations.
The question of the authorship of the term “Cold War” still remains controversial among historians.
Propaganda, in which all information channels were involved, was important during the Cold War. Another method of struggle between opponents was economic rivalry - the USSR and the USA expanded the circle of their allies by providing significant financial assistance to other states.
Progress of the Cold War
The period commonly called the Cold War began shortly after the end of World War II. Having defeated the common cause, the USSR and the USA lost the need for cooperation, which revived old contradictions. The United States was frightened by the trend of establishing communist regimes in Europe and Asia.
As a result, already at the end of the forties, Europe was divided into two parts - the western part of the continent accepted the so-called Marshall Plan - economic assistance from the United States, and the eastern part moved into the zone of influence of the USSR. Germany, as a result of contradictions between the former allies, was eventually divided into the socialist GDR and the pro-American West Germany.
The struggle for influence also took place in Africa - in particular, the USSR managed to establish contacts with the Arab states of the Southern Mediterranean, for example with Egypt.
In Asia, the conflict between the USSR and the USA for world domination entered the military phase. The Korean War divided the state into northern and southern parts. Later, the Vietnam War began, which resulted in the defeat of the United States and the establishment of socialist rule in the country. China also came under the influence of the USSR, but not for long - although the Communist Party remained in power in China, it began to pursue an independent policy, entering into confrontation with both the USSR and the USA.
In the early sixties, the world was closer than ever to a new world war - the Cuban Missile Crisis began. In the end, Kennedy and Khrushchev managed to agree on non-aggression, since a conflict of this scale with the use of nuclear weapons could lead to the complete destruction of humanity.
In the early eighties, the period of “détente” began - the normalization of Soviet-American relations. However, the Cold War only ended with the collapse of the USSR.
COLD WAR global confrontation between two military-political blocs led by the USSR and the USA, which did not lead to an open military clash between them. The concept of the “Cold War” appeared in journalism in 1945-1947 and gradually became entrenched in the political vocabulary.After Second World War the world was effectively divided into spheres of influence between two blocs with different social systems. The USSR sought to expand the “socialist camp,” led from a single center modeled on the Soviet command-administrative system. In its sphere of influence, the USSR sought the introduction of state ownership of the main means of production and the political dominance of the communists. This system was supposed to control resources that had previously been in the hands of private capital and capitalist states. The United States, in turn, sought to restructure the world in a way that would create favorable conditions for the activities of private corporations and increased influence in the world. Despite this difference between the two systems, their conflict was based on common features. Both systems were based on the principles of an industrial society, which required industrial growth, and therefore increased consumption of resources. Planetary struggle for resources of two systems with different
principles of regulation of industrial relations could not but lead to clashes. But the approximate equality of forces between the blocs, and then the threat of nuclear missile destruction of the world in the event of a war between the USSR and the USA, kept the rulers of the superpowers from a direct clash. Thus, the phenomenon of the “Cold War” arose, which never resulted in a world war, although it constantly led to wars in individual countries and regions (local wars).The immediate beginning of the Cold War was associated with conflicts in Europe and Asia. War-ravaged Europeans were very interested in the experience of accelerated industrial development in the USSR. Information about the Soviet Union was idealized, and millions of people hoped that replacing the capitalist system, which had fallen on hard times, with a socialist one could quickly restore the economy and normal life. The peoples of Asia and Africa had an even greater interest in the communist experience and assistance of the USSR. who fought for independence and hoped to catch up with the West just as the USSR did. As a result, the Soviet sphere of influence began to rapidly expand, which aroused fears among the leaders of Western countries - the former allies of the USSR in the Anti-Hitler coalition.
On March 5, 1946, speaking in the presence of US President Truman in Fulton, W. Churchill accused the USSR of unleashing global expansion and of attacking the territory of the “free world.” Churchill called on the “Anglo-Saxon world,” that is, the USA, Great Britain and their allies to repel the USSR. The Fulton speech became a kind of declaration of the Cold War.
In 1946–1947, the USSR increased pressure on Greece and Turkey. There was a civil war in Greece, and the USSR demanded that Turkey provide territory for a military base in the Mediterranean, which could be a prelude to the seizure of the country. Under these conditions, Truman declared his readiness to “contain” the USSR throughout the world. This position was called the “Truman Doctrine” and meant the end of cooperation between the victors of fascism. The Cold War has begun.
But the front of the Cold War lay not between countries, but within them. About a third of the population of France and Italy supported the Communist parties. The poverty of war-ravaged Europeans was the breeding ground for communist success. In 1947, US Secretary of State George Marshall announced that the United States was ready to provide European countries with material assistance to restore their economies. Initially, even the USSR joined in the negotiations for assistance, but it soon became clear that American assistance would not be provided to countries ruled by communists. The United States demanded political concessions: the Europeans had to maintain capitalist relations and remove the communists from their governments. Under US pressure, communists were expelled from the governments of France and Italy, and in April 1948, 16 countries signed the Marshall Plan
on providing them with assistance of 17 billion dollars in 1948-1952. Pro-communist governments in Eastern European countries did not participate in the plan. In the context of the intensification of the struggle for Europe, multi-party governments of “people's democracy” in these countries were replaced by totalitarian regimes clearly subordinate to Moscow (only the Yugoslav communist regime of I. Tito broke from obedience to Stalin in 1948 and took an independent position). In January 1949, most countries of Eastern Europe united into an economic union Council for Mutual Economic Assistance.These events cemented the division of Europe. In April 1949, the USA, Canada and most Western European countries created a military alliance North Atlantic bloc (NATO). The USSR and the countries of Eastern Europe responded to this only in 1955 by creating their own military alliance - the Warsaw Pact Organization.
The division of Europe had a particularly hard impact on the fate of Germany; the split line ran through the territory of the country. The east of Germany was occupied by the USSR, the west by the USA, Great Britain and France. The western part of Berlin was also in their hands. In 1948, western Germany was included in the Marshall Plan, but eastern Germany was not. Different parts of the country developed different economic systems, making it difficult to unite the country. In June
In 1948, the Western allies carried out unilateral monetary reform, abolishing the old-style money. The entire money supply of the old Reichsmarks poured into East Germany, which was partly the reason why the Soviet occupation authorities were forced to close the borders. West Berlin was completely surrounded. Stalin decided to use the situation to blockade it, hoping to capture the entire German capital and extract concessions from the United States. But the Americans organized an “air bridge” to Berlin and broke the blockade of the city, which was lifted in 1949. In May 1949, the lands located in the western zone of occupation united into the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG). West Berlin became an autonomous self-governing city associated with the Federal Republic of Germany. In October 1949 in the SovietThe German Democratic Republic (GDR) was created in the occupation zone.The rivalry between the USSR and the USA inevitably led to a build-up of armaments by both blocs. Opponents sought to achieve superiority in the field of atomic and then nuclear weapons, as well as in the means of their delivery. Soon, in addition to bombers, missiles became such means. A “race” of nuclear missile weapons began, which led to extreme tension in the economies of both blocs. To meet the needs of defense, powerful associations of state, industrial and military structures were created - military-industrial complexes (MIC). Enormous material resources and the best scientific forces were spent on their needs. The military-industrial complex created the most modern equipment, which was used primarily for the needs of the arms race. Initially, the leader in the “race” was the United States, which had atomic weapons. The USSR made every effort to create its own atomic bomb. Soviet scientists and intelligence officers worked on this task. Some engineering solutions were obtained through intelligence channels from secret American agencies, but this data could not have been used if Soviet scientists had not come close to creating atomic weapons on their own. The creation of atomic weapons in the USSR was a matter of time, but this time did not exist, so intelligence data was of great importance. In 1949, the USSR tested its own atomic bomb. The presence of the bomb in the USSR kept the United States from using atomic weapons in Korea, although this possibility was discussed by high-ranking American military officials.
In 1952, the United States tested a thermonuclear device in which an atomic bomb played the role of a fuse, and the power of the explosion was many times greater than that of an atomic bomb. In 1953, the USSR tested a thermonuclear bomb. From that time on, the United States until the 60s overtook the USSR only in the number of bombs and bombers, that is, in quantity, but not in quality; the USSR had any weapon that the United States had.
The danger of war between the USSR and the USA forced them to act “bypass”, fighting for the resources of the world far from Europe. Immediately after the start of the Cold War, the countries of the Far East turned into an arena of fierce struggle between supporters of communist ideas and the pro-Western path of development. The significance of this struggle was very great, since the Pacific region contained enormous human and raw material resources. The stability of the capitalist system largely depended on control of this region.
The first collision of the two systems occurred in China, the largest country in the world by population. After World War II, northeast China, occupied by the Soviet army, was handed over to the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA), subordinate to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The PLA received Japanese weapons captured by Soviet troops. The rest of the country was subject to the internationally recognized Kuomintang government led by Chiang Kai-shek. Initially, national elections were planned to be held in China, which would decide who would rule the country. But both sides were not confident of victory, and instead of elections, a civil war broke out in China in 1946-1949. It was won by the CCP led by Mao Zedong.
The second major collision of two systems in Asia occurred in Korea. After World War II, this country was split into two zones of occupation: Soviet and American. In 1948, they withdrew their troops from the country, leaving the regimes of their proteges, the pro-Soviet Kim Il Sung in the north and the pro-American Syngman Rhee in the south, to rule. Each of them sought to take over the entire country. In June 1950, the Korean War began, in which the United States, China and small units of other countries were involved. Soviet pilots “crossed swords” with American ones in the skies over China. Despite heavy casualties on both sides, the war ended in almost the same positions where it began ( see also KOREAN WAR).
But Western countries suffered important defeats in colonial wars: France lost the war in Vietnam in 1946-1954, and the Netherlands in Indonesia in 1947-1949.
The Cold War led to repression in both “camps” against dissidents and people who advocated cooperation and rapprochement between the two systems. In the USSR and Eastern European countries, people were arrested and often shot on charges of “cosmopolitanism” (lack of patriotism, cooperation with the West), “adulation of the West” and “Titoism” (ties with Tito). A “witch hunt” began in the United States, during which secret communists and “agents” of the USSR were “exposed.” The American “witch hunt,” unlike Stalin’s repressions, did not lead to mass terror. But she also had her victims caused by spy mania. Soviet intelligence actually worked in the United States, and American intelligence agencies decided to show that they were able to expose Soviet spies. Employee Julius Rosenberg was chosen to play the role of “chief spy”. He really provided minor services to Soviet intelligence. It was announced that Rosenberg and his wife Ethel had "stolen America's atomic secrets." It subsequently turned out that Ethel did not know about her husband’s collaboration with intelligence. Despite this, both spouses were sentenced to death and, despite a solidarity campaign
with them in America and Europe, 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, led by Nikita Khrushchev began to look for ways to improve relations with the West.
The wars in Korea and Vietnam were ended in 1953-1954. In 1955, the USSR established equal relations with Yugoslavia and Germany. The Great Powers also agreed to grant neutral status to Austria, which they occupied, and to withdraw their troops from the country.
In 1956, the world situation deteriorated again due to unrest in 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 conflicts did not escalate. Khrushchev during this period was not interested in intensifying confrontation. In 1959 he came to the USA. This was the first-ever visit by a leader of our country to America. American society made a great impression on Khrushchev. He was especially struck
agricultural successes much more efficient than in the USSR.However, by this time, the USSR could also impress the United States with its successes in the field of high technology, and above all in space exploration. The system of state socialism made it possible to concentrate large resources to solve 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 anywhere on the planet. Including
and nuclear device. In 1958, the Americans launched their satellite and began mass production of rockets. The USSR did not lag behind, although achieving and maintaining nuclear missile parity in the 60s required the exertion of all the country's forces. In the late 50s and early 60s, a wave of workers' protests swept across the USSR, which were brutally suppressed. see also NUCLEAR WEAPON.The rockets were built in a hurry, often neglecting safety precautions. In 1960, while preparing a rocket for launch, an explosion occurred. Dozens of people died, including the commander-in-chief of the USSR missile forces, Marshal Nedelin. But the race continued at the same pace.
Successes in space exploration also had enormous propaganda significance - they showed what kind of social system was capable of achieving great scientific and technical successes. On April 12, 1961, the USSR launched a ship into space with a person on board. The first cosmonaut was Yuri Gagarin. The Americans were hot on their heels; their first cosmonaut, Alan Shepard, was in space on May 5, 1961.
In 1960, relations between the USSR and the USA deteriorated again. The Americans sent a U-2 reconnaissance aircraft into flight over the territory of the USSR. He was flying at altitudes inaccessible to fighters, but was shot down by a missile. A scandal broke out. Khrushchev expected an apology from Eisenhower at the upcoming summit. Having not received them, Khrushchev abruptly interrupted the meeting with the president. In general, Khrushchev behaved more and more irritably and willfully in the presence of Western leaders. He banged his shoe on the table at a meeting of the UN General Assembly and uttered frightening phrases, for example: “We will bury you.” All this created the impression of unpredictability of Soviet policy.
The new US President John Kennedy attempted to overthrow the pro-communist regime of Fidel Castro in Cuba. This operation was prepared by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the main US intelligence service, under Eisenhower. The Americans hoped to overthrow Castro with the hands of the Cubans themselves, but the landing of counter-revolutionaries in Cuba failed.
Before Kennedy had time to recover from this defeat, a new crisis overtook him. At the first meeting with the new American president in April 1961, Khrushchev demanded a change in the status of West Berlin. Berlin was used for Western intelligence work, and cultural exchanges uncontrolled by the Communists took place through its territory. People could cross the border between the “two worlds” almost freely. This led to a “brain drain”: specialists who received a cheap education in the GDR then fled to West Berlin, where their work was better paid.
Kennedy refused to make concessions to the USSR and the GDR, which led to the Berlin Crisis. Khrushchev did not dare to engage in military conflict. The GDR authorities simply surrounded West Berlin with a wall in August 1961. This wall became a symbol of the division of Europe and Germany into two hostile parts, a symbol of the Cold War.
In the Berlin crisis, neither side gained obvious advantages, but the conflict did not lead to significant losses. Both sides were preparing for a new test of strength.
The Soviet Union was surrounded on all sides by American military bases containing nuclear weapons. While vacationing in Crimea, Khrushchev noticed that even his beach was within direct reach of American missiles in Turkey. The Soviet leader decided to put America in the same position. Taking advantage of what Cuban leaders have repeatedly asked
USSR to protect them from a possible US attack, the Soviet leadership decided to install medium-range nuclear missiles in Cuba. Now any US city could be wiped off the face of the earth in a matter of minutes. In October 1962 this led to the Caribbeancrisis ( see also CUBAN CRISIS).As a result of the crisis that brought the world closest to the brink of nuclear missile disaster, a compromise was reached: the USSR removes missiles from Cuba, and the United States guarantees Cuba from military intervention and withdraws its missiles from Turkey.
The Cuban missile crisis taught both the Soviet and American leadership a lot. The leaders of the superpowers realized that they could lead humanity to destruction. Having reached a dangerous point, the Cold War began to decline. The USSR and the USA agreed for the first time to limit the arms race.
1 On August 5, 1963, a treaty was concluded banning nuclear weapons tests in three environments: 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 in the 60s and first half of the 70s. The war broke out in Indochina.
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 chose to move from the Cold War to a policy of gradual détente (détente).
During the period of “détente,” important agreements were concluded to limit the arms race, including treaties to limit missile defense (ABM) and strategic nuclear weapons (SALT-1 and SALT-2). However, the SALT treaties had a significant drawback. While limiting the overall volumes of nuclear weapons and missile technology, he barely touched upon the deployment of nuclear weapons. Meanwhile, adversaries could concentrate large numbers of nuclear missiles in the most dangerous places in 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 their target in Western Europe. As a result of this modernization, the balance of nuclear forces in Europe was temporarily disrupted. This worried the leaders of Western Europe, who feared that America would not be able to help them against the growing nuclear power of the USSR. In December 1979, NATO decided to deploy the latest American Pershing-2 and Tomahawk missiles in Western Europe. If war broke out, these missiles could destroy the largest cities of the USSR in a matter of minutes, while US territory would remain invulnerable for a time. The security of the Soviet Union was under threat, and it launched a campaign against the deployment of new American missiles and was even ready to make concessions, dismantling some of its nuclear weapons in Europe. A wave of rallies against the deployment of missiles began in Western European countries, since in the event of a first strike by the Americans, Europe, and not America, would become the target of a retaliatory strike by the USSR. The 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. Brezhnev abandoned the “zero option”.
The detente was finally buried by the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. The Cold War resumed. In 1980–1982, the United States carried out 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 to this, General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee Yuri Andropov stopped all negotiations with the United States.
By the mid-80s, the countries of “real socialism” entered a period of crisis. The bureaucratic economy could no longer meet the growing needs of the population, the wasteful use of resources led to their significant reduction, the level of social consciousness of people grew so much that they began to understand their lack of rights, the need
change. It was becoming increasingly difficult for the country to bear the burden of the Cold War, support allied regimes around the world, and fight the war in Afghanistan. The USSR's technical lag behind the capitalist countries was becoming increasingly 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 2530 billion dollars. In order to undermine the economy of the USSR, the Americans needed to inflict “unplanned” damage to the Soviet economy on such a scale; otherwise, the “temporary difficulties” associated with the economic war would be smoothed out by a currency “cushion” of considerable thickness. It was necessary to act quickly in the second half of the 80s. The USSR was supposed to receive additional financial injections from the Urengoy Western Europe gas pipeline. 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 a pretext, because this time, unlike the situation in Afghanistan, the norms of international law were not violated by the Soviet Union. The United States announced a cessation of supplies of oil and gas equipment, which was supposed to disrupt the construction of the Urengoy Western Europe gas pipeline. However, European allies interested in economic cooperation with the USSR did not immediately support the United States. Then Soviet industry was able to independently produce pipes that the USSR had previously intended to purchase from the West. 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 attack. This program was carried out in circumvention of the ABM Treaty. The USSR did not have the technical capabilities to
creating the same system. Despite the fact that the United States was also far from successful in this area, communist leaders feared a new round of the arms race.Internal factors undermined the foundations of the system of “real socialism” much more significantly than the actions of the United States during the Cold War. At the same time, the crisis in which the USSR found itself put on the agenda the issue of “savings on foreign policy.” 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 CPSU Central Committee, Mikhail Gorbachev, came to power in the USSR. In 1985-1986 he proclaimed a policy of sweeping changes known as Perestroika. It was also envisaged to improve relations with 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 yield. The American president promised that when the research was successful, the United States 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 stated this, that we will not be the first to use nuclear weapons and will not be the first to attack the United States of America. Why are you, while maintaining all offensive potential on Earth and under water, still going to start an arms race in space? Don't you believe us? It turns out you don’t believe it. Why should we trust you more than you trust us?” Despite the fact that significant progress was not achieved at this meeting, the two presidents got to know each other better, which helped them reach agreement 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 implemented even during the years of confrontation 1980-1984. This was the last surge 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 conversion, the transformation of military production into peaceful ones. 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 force Reagan to make reciprocal concessions,
proposing large-scale reductions in nuclear weapons, but “in a package” with the abandonment of SDI. At first, Reagan was pleasantly surprised by Gorbachev's proposals and even showed hesitation on the issue of SDI. But after reflection, the president refused to cancel SDI and even feigned indignation at the linkage of the two problems: “After everything, or almost everything, as it seemed to me, had been decided, Gorbachev pulled a feint. With a smile on his face, he said: “But all this, of course, depends on whether you give up SDI.” As a result, the meeting in Reykjavikactually ended in nothing. But Reagan realized that improving international relations could be achieved not by putting pressure on the USSR, but through mutual concessions. Gorbachev's strategy was crowned with success The United States actually froze SDI until the end of the century. In 1986, the US administration abandoned a frontal attack on the USSR, which ended in failure.Despite the fact that pressure from the United States weakened, the financial situation of the USSR began to deteriorate for reasons not directly related to the Cold War. The income of the Soviet Union depended on oil prices, which began to fall in 1986. The Chernobyl disaster further undermined the financial balance of the USSR. This made it difficult to reform the country from above and forced more active encouragement of initiative from below. Gradually, authoritarian modernization gave way to civil revolution. Already in 19871988. Perestroika led to a rapid increase in social activity. By this time, the world was well on its way to ending the Cold War.
After an unsuccessful meeting in Reykjavik in 1986, the two presidents finally came to an agreement in Washington in December 1987 American and Soviet medium-range missiles were being withdrawn from Europe. “New thinking” triumphed. The major crisis that led to the renewal of the Cold War in 1979 is a thing of the past. It was followed by other “fronts” of the HV, including the main European one.
The example of Perestroika galvanized reformists in Eastern Europe. In 1989, the transformations carried out by the communists in Eastern Europe developed into revolutions. Together with the communist regime in the GDR it was destroyed and Berlin Wall, which became a symbol of the end of the division of Europe. Faced with difficult problems, the USSR could no longer support “brotherly” communist regimes. The “socialist camp” collapsed.
In December 1988, Gorbachev announced at the UN a unilateral reduction of the army. In February 1989, Soviet troops were withdrawn from Afghanistan, where the war between the Mujahideen and the pro-Soviet government of Najibullah continued.
In December 1989, off the coast of Malta, Gorbachev and the new US President George W. Bush were able to discuss the situation of the actual end of the Cold War. Bush promised to make efforts to extend most favored nation treatment to the USSR in US trade, which would not have been possible if the Cold War continued. Despite the persistence of disagreements over the situation in some countries, including the Baltics, the atmosphere of the Cold War has become a thing of the past. Explaining the principles of the “new thinking” to Bush, Gorbachev said: “The main principle that we have accepted and which we follow within the framework of the new thinking is the right of each country to free choice, including the right to review or change the initially made choice. This is very painful, but it is a fundamental right. The right to choose without outside interference.” By this time, the methods of pressure on the USSR had already changed.
In 1990, supporters of speedy “Westernization,” that is, the restructuring of society according to Western models, came to power in most countries of Eastern Europe. Reforms began based on “neoliberal” ideas close to Western neoconservatism and neo-globalism. The reforms were carried out very quickly, without gradual preparation, which led to a painful breakdown of society. They were called "shock therapy" because it was believed that after a short
"shock" will come relief. Western countries provided financial support for these reforms, and as a result, Eastern Europe managed to create a market economy along Western lines. Entrepreneurs, the middle class, and part of the youth benefited from these transformations; workers, office workers, elderly people lost. Eastern European countries found themselves financially dependent on the West.The new governments of Eastern European countries demanded the speedy withdrawal of Soviet troops from their territory. The USSR had neither the ability nor the desire to maintain its military presence. In 1990, the withdrawal of troops began, and in July 1991 the Warsaw Pact and CMEA were dissolved. NATO remains the only powerful military force in Europe. The USSR did not survive its military bloc for long. In August 1991, as a result
After the unsuccessful attempt of the leaders of the USSR to establish an authoritarian regime (the so-called State Emergency Committee), real power passed from Gorbachev to the leaders of the republics of the USSR. The Baltic states left 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 and the creation of the Commonwealth of Independent States.The almost exact coincidence of the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the USSR has sparked debate about the relationship between these phenomena. Maybe the end of the Cold War is a result of the collapse of the USSR and therefore the US won this “war”. But by the time the USSR collapsed, the Cold War had already ended. If we take into account that in 1987 the missile crisis was resolved, in 1988 an agreement was concluded on Afghanistan, and in February 1989 Soviet troops were withdrawn from this country, in 1989 authoritarian regimes disappeared in almost all countries of Eastern Europe, then we can talk about the continuation of the “Cold War” after 1990 it is not necessary. The problems that caused an aggravation of international tension not only in 1979-1980, but also in 1946-1947 were resolved. Already in 1990, the level of relations between the USSR and Western countries returned to the pre-Cold War state, and it was remembered only to proclaim its end, as President George W. Bush did when he declared victory in the Cold War after the collapse of the USSR and Presidents B. Yeltsin and D. Bush, declaring its end 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
As you remember, the site decided to start a series of articles that we devoted to quite deep and serious topics. Last time we looked at the question of why the USSR collapsed, this time we want to consider an equally serious, and from a historical and analytical point of view, a very interesting episode called the “Cold War”. Many representatives of the younger generation have heard about this, and some even witnessed these events and remember all the tense moments of this conflict. Now many people use this concept as a common noun, in a situation of a “bad world”, but, nevertheless, today in the political aspect the Cold War is relevant again, but this is a topic for a separate article. Today we will briefly look at the Cold War during the period of relations between the USSR and the USA.
What is the Cold War
The Cold War is a period of time when there was confrontation between two superpowers, and as you understand, it was between the USSR and the USA. This concept was used because the two countries were not engaged in a weapons war. And in all other, mostly peaceful ways. It seems that diplomatic relations were maintained between the countries, and sometimes the peaks of confrontation subsided, meanwhile, a quiet struggle was constantly going on in all areas and directions.The years of the Cold War are counted from 1946 to 1991. The Cold War began with the end of World War II, and ended with the collapse of the USSR. The essence of the Cold War was to establish world dominance by one country and defeat the other.
Causes of the Cold War
After the end of World War II, when both superpowers considered themselves victors in this war, they wanted to build the world situation at their own discretion. Each of them wanted to dominate the world, while both countries had diametrically opposed systems of government and ideology. Subsequently, such a confrontation would become part of the ideology of the two countries; the Soviet Union wanted to destroy America and establish communism throughout the world, and the United States wanted to “save” the world from the USSR.
If we analyze everything that happened, we can say with confidence that this is an artificial conflict, since any ideology must have its enemy, and both the USA for the USSR and the USSR for America were ideal options as an enemy. Moreover, the Soviet people hated the mythical enemies of the Americans, although they perceived the inhabitants of America as normal, just like the Americans - they were afraid of the mythical “Russians” who do not sleep, but think about how to conquer and attack America, although they had nothing against the inhabitants of the union themselves . Therefore, it is safe to say that the Cold War was a conflict of leaders and ideologies, inflated due to their own ambitions.
Cold War politics
First of all, both countries tried to enlist the support of other countries in their course. The USA supported all the countries of Western Europe, when the USSR was supported by the countries of Asia and Latin America. Essentially, during the Cold War, the world was divided into two confrontational camps. Moreover, there were only a few neutral countries.
Most of all, the aggravation of the political situation was caused by the Cold War conflicts, in particular, we will highlight only two of them: the Berlin and Cuban missile crises. It was they who became the catalyst for the deterioration of the situation, and the world was really on the brink of a nuclear war, which, fortunately, was prevented and the situation was defused.
The constant race, in everything, was also part of the Cold War. First of all, there was an arms race, both countries were developing various types of weapons: new military equipment, weapons (mostly mass destruction), missiles, spy equipment, etc. There was also a propaganda race on television and in other sources; fierce propaganda was constantly carried out against the enemy. The race was not only in the military sphere, but also in science, culture and sports. Each country sought to overtake the other.
Both countries constantly monitored each other, and there were spies and intelligence agents on both sides.
But, probably, to a greater extent, the Cold War took place on foreign territory. As the situation accumulated, both countries installed long-range missiles in countries neighboring the enemy; for the USA it was Turkey and the countries of Western Europe, while for the USSR it was the countries of Latin America.
Results of the Cold War
Many people often wonder who won the Cold War? Maybe. America won the Cold War, since this war ended with the fall of its enemy, and the main reason for the end of the Cold War was the collapse of the USSR, not the fact that it was not the work of the American intelligence services.
If we talk about the results, then none of the countries (the USA and Russia) learned any useful lessons, except that the enemy does not sleep and is always ready.
If there had been no Cold War, then all the enormous potential of the two countries could have been used for peaceful purposes: space exploration, new technologies, etc. It is possible that mobile phones, the Internet, etc. If scientists had appeared 20 years earlier, instead of developing weapons, they would have been engaged in solving various world mysteries, of which there are a huge number.
The Cold War, the years of which are conventionally limited to the period that began a year after the victory of the countries of the anti-fascist coalition and continued until the events of 1991, which resulted in the fall of the Soviet system, was a confrontation between two political blocs that dominated the world stage. While not a war in the international legal meaning of this term, it was expressed in the confrontation between the ideologies of the socialist and capitalist models of government.
The beginning of the confrontation between two world systems
The prologue to the Cold War was the establishment by the Soviet Union of control over the countries of Eastern Europe, liberated from fascist occupation, as well as the creation of a pro-Soviet puppet government in Poland, while its legitimate leaders were in London. This policy of the USSR, aimed at establishing control over the largest possible territories, was perceived by the governments of the USA and Great Britain as a threat to international security.
The confrontation between the main world powers became especially acute in 1945 during the Yalta Conference, which, in essence, resolved the issue of the post-war division of the world into spheres of influence. A striking illustration of the depth of the conflict was the development by the command of the British armed forces of a plan in the event of the outbreak of war with the USSR, which they began in April of the same year by order of Prime Minister Winston Churchill.
Another significant reason for exacerbating contradictions between yesterday's allies was the post-war division of Germany. In its eastern part, controlled by Soviet troops, the German Democratic Republic (GDR) was created, the government of which was completely controlled by Moscow. In the western territories liberated by the Allied forces - the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG). An acute confrontation immediately began between these states, which became the reason for the closure of borders and the establishment of a long period of mutual hostility.
The anti-Soviet position of the governments of Western countries was largely dictated by the policies pursued by the USSR in the post-war years. The Cold War was the result of aggravated international relations caused by a number of actions by Stalin, one of which was his refusal to withdraw Soviet troops from Iran and harsh territorial claims against Turkey.
Historical speech of W. Churchill
The beginning of the Cold War (1946), according to most historians, was marked by a speech by the head of the British government in Fulton (USA), where on March 5 he expressed the idea of the need to create a military alliance of Anglo-Saxon countries aimed at fighting against world communism.
In his speech, Churchill called on the world community not to repeat the mistakes of the thirties and, united, to put a barrier in the way of totalitarianism, which became the fundamental principle of Soviet policy. In turn, Stalin, in an interview with the Pravda newspaper on March 12 of the same year, accused the English Prime Minister of calling for a war between the West and the Soviet Union, and likened him to Hitler.
Truman Doctrine
The new impetus that the Cold War received in the post-war years was the statement of American President Harry Truman, made on March 12, 1947. In his address to the US Congress, he pointed out the need to provide comprehensive assistance to peoples fighting against attempts to enslave them by an armed minority within the country, and resisting external pressure. In addition, he characterized the emerging rivalry between the USA and the USSR as a conflict between totalitarianism and democracy.
Based on his speech, the American government developed a program that later became known as the Truman Doctrine, which guided all subsequent US presidents during the Cold War. It determined the main mechanisms for containing the Soviet Union in its attempts to spread its influence in the world.
Taking as a basis the revision of the system of international relations that had developed during Roosevelt's reign, the creators of the doctrine advocated the establishment of a unipolar political and economic system in the world, in which the leading place would be given to the United States. Among the most active supporters of the transition to a new form of international relations, in which the Soviet Union was seen as a potential enemy, were such prominent American political figures of those years as Dean Acheson, Allen Dulles, Loy Henderson, George Kennan and a number of others.
Marshall Plan
At the same time, the American Secretary of State George C. Marshall put forward a program of economic assistance to European countries affected by the Second World War. One of the main conditions for assistance in economic recovery, industrial modernization, and the elimination of trade restrictions was the refusal of states to include communists in their governments.
The government of the Soviet Union, putting pressure on the countries of Eastern Europe it controlled, forced them to refuse to participate in this project, called the Marshall Plan. His goal was to maintain his influence and establish a communist regime in the states under his control.
Thus, Stalin and his political entourage deprived many Eastern European countries of the opportunity to quickly overcome the consequences of the war and went on to further escalate the conflict. This principle of action became fundamental for the government of the USSR during the Cold War.
"Long Telegram"
The aggravation of relations between the USSR and the USA was greatly facilitated by the analysis of possible prospects for their cooperation, given in 1946 by American Ambassador George F. Kennan in a telegram sent to the president of the country. In his lengthy message, called the Long Telegram, the ambassador indicated that, in his opinion, partnership in resolving international issues should not be expected from the leadership of the USSR, which recognizes only force.
In addition, he emphasized that Stalin and his political circle were full of expansionist aspirations and did not believe in the possibility of peaceful coexistence with America. As necessary measures, he proposed a number of actions aimed at containing the USSR within the framework of its sphere of influence that existed at that time.
Transport blockade of West Berlin
Another important stage of the Cold War were the events of 1948 that unfolded around the capital of Germany. The fact is that the US government, in violation of previously reached agreements, included West Berlin in the scope of the Marshall Plan. In response to this, the Soviet leadership began a transport blockade, blocking the road and railway routes of the Western allies.
The result was a trumped-up charge against the USSR Consul General in New York, Yakov Lomakin, for allegedly exceeding his diplomatic powers and declaring him persona non grata. As an adequate response, the Soviet government closes its consulates in San Francisco and New York.
Cold War arms race
The bipolarity of the world during the Cold War became the reason for the arms race that grew year by year, since both warring sides did not exclude the possibility of a final solution to the conflict by military means. At the initial stage, the United States had an advantage in this regard, since nuclear weapons appeared in their arsenal already in the second half of the 40s.
Its first use in 1945, which resulted in the destruction of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, showed the world the monstrous power of this weapon. Then it became obvious that from now on it could give its owner superiority in resolving any international disputes. In this regard, the United States began to actively increase its reserves.
The USSR did not lag behind them, during the Cold War it also relied on military force and conducted scientific research in this area. After the end of World War II, intelligence officers of both powers were tasked with detecting and removing from the territory of defeated Germany all documentation related to nuclear development.
Soviet nuclear specialists had to be especially in a hurry, since, according to intelligence data, in the post-war years the American command developed a secret plan, code-named “Dropshot,” which included launching a nuclear strike on the USSR. There is evidence that some of its options were submitted to President Truman for consideration.
A complete surprise for the American government was the successful test of a nuclear bomb, carried out in 1949 by Soviet specialists at the Semipalatinsk test site. Overseas they could not believe that their main ideological opponents in such a short time were able to become owners of atomic weapons and thereby establish a balance of power, depriving them of their former advantage.
However, the reality of the accomplished fact was not subject to doubt. Much later it became known that this success was achieved largely thanks to the actions of Soviet intelligence operating at the American secret training ground in Los Alamos (New Mexico).
Caribbean crisis
The Cold War, the years of which were a period of not only ideological confrontation, but also a time of armed confrontation in a number of regions of the globe, reached its highest point of aggravation in 1961. The conflict that broke out that year went down in history as the Cuban Missile Crisis, which brought the world to the brink of World War III.
Its prerequisite was the deployment by the Americans of their nuclear missiles on Turkish territory. This gave them the opportunity, if necessary, to strike anywhere in the western part of the USSR, including Moscow. Since in those years missiles launched from the territory of the Soviet Union could not yet reach the American coast, the Soviet government’s response was to place them in Cuba, which had recently overthrown the pro-American puppet regime of Batista. From this position it was possible to hit even Washington with a nuclear strike.
Thus, the balance of power was restored, but the American government, not wanting to put up with this, began to prepare an armed invasion of Cuba, where Soviet military facilities were located. As a result, a critical situation has arisen in which, if they implemented this plan, a retaliatory nuclear strike would inevitably follow and, as a consequence, the beginning of a global catastrophe, to which the bipolarity of the world steadily led during the Cold War.
Since this scenario did not suit either side, the governments of both powers were interested in a compromise solution. Fortunately, at a certain stage, common sense prevailed, and literally on the eve of the invasion of American troops in Cuba, N. S. Khrushchev agreed to comply with Washington’s demands, provided they did not attack Liberty Island and remove nuclear weapons from Turkey. This ended the conflict, but during the Cold War the world was more than once brought to the brink of a new conflict.
Ideological and information war
The years of the Cold War between the USSR and the USA were marked not only by their rivalry in the field of weapons, but also by an acute information and ideological struggle. In this regard, it is appropriate to recall Radio Liberty, which is memorable to people of the older generation, created in America and broadcasting its programs to the countries of the socialist bloc. Its officially declared goal was the fight against communism and Bolshevism. It does not stop its work today, despite the fact that the Cold War ended with the collapse of the Soviet Union.
The years of confrontation between the two world systems are characterized by the fact that any major event that occurred in the world was inevitably given an ideological coloring. For example, Soviet propaganda presented Yuri Gagarin’s first flight into space as evidence of the triumph of Marxist-Leninist ideology and the victory of the society created on its basis.
Foreign policy of the USSR during the Cold War
As mentioned above, in the field of foreign policy, the actions of the Soviet leadership were aimed at creating states in Eastern Europe organized on the principle of Stalinist socialism. In this regard, providing support to the people's democratic movements that arose everywhere, the USSR government made efforts to put pro-Soviet oriented leaders at the head of these states and thereby keep them under its control.
This policy served to create the so-called security sphere on the western borders of the USSR, legally enshrined in a number of bilateral treaties with Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Albania, Romania and Czechoslovakia. The result of these agreements was the creation in 1955 of a military bloc called the Warsaw Treaty Organization (WTO).
Its establishment was a response to America's creation in 1949 of the North Atlantic Military Alliance (NATO), which included the United States, Great Britain, Belgium, France, Canada, Portugal, Italy, Denmark, Norway, Iceland, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. Subsequently, Western countries created several more military blocs, the most famous of which are SEATO, CENTO and ANZUS.
Thus, a military confrontation emerged, the cause of which was the foreign policy during the Cold War, pursued by the most powerful and influential world powers - the USA and the USSR.
Afterword
After the fall of the communist regime in the USSR and its final collapse, the Cold War, the years of which are usually defined by the interval from 1946 to 1991, ended. Although tensions between East and West remain to this day, the world is no longer bipolar. Gone is the tendency to view any international event in terms of its ideological context. And although pockets of tension periodically arise in certain areas of the world, they do not bring humanity as close to the outbreak of the Third World War as it was during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1961.
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