What became the largest and most violent conflict in the history of mankind, a confrontation arose between the countries of the communist camp on the one hand and the Western capitalist countries on the other, between the two superpowers of that time - the USSR and the USA. The Cold War can be briefly described as a rivalry for dominance in the new post-war world.
The main cause of the Cold War was the insoluble ideological contradictions between the two models of society - socialist and capitalist. The West feared the strengthening of the USSR. The absence of a common enemy among the victorious countries, as well as the ambitions of political leaders, also played a role.
Historians distinguish the following stages of the Cold War:
- March 5, 1946 - 1953: The Cold War began with Churchill's speech in the spring of 1946 in Fulton, which proposed the idea of creating an alliance of Anglo-Saxon countries to fight communism. The goal of the United States was an economic victory over the USSR, as well as the achievement of military superiority. Actually cold war began earlier, but it was precisely by the spring of 1946 that, due to the USSR's refusal to withdraw troops from Iran, the situation seriously escalated.
- 1962-1979: The period was marked by an arms race that undermined the economies of rival countries. The development and production of new types of weapons required incredible resources. Despite the tension in relations between the USSR and the USA, agreements on the limitation of strategic arms were signed. The development of the Soyuz-Apollo joint space program has begun. However, by the beginning of the 80s, the USSR began to lose in the arms race.
- 1979-1987: Relations between the USSR and the USA deteriorated again after the entry of Soviet troops into Afghanistan. In 1983 the United States deployed ballistic missiles at bases in Italy, Denmark, England, Germany, and Belgium. An anti-space defense system was being developed. The USSR reacted to the actions of the West by withdrawing from the Geneva talks. During this period, the missile attack warning system was in constant combat readiness.
- 1987-1991: the coming to power in the USSR in 1985 led not only to global changes within the country, but also to radical changes in foreign policy, called "new political thinking". Ill-conceived reforms finally undermined the economy Soviet Union which led to the actual defeat of the country in the Cold War.
1953-1962: During this period of the Cold War, the world was on the brink of nuclear conflict. Despite some improvement in relations between the Soviet Union and the United States during the Khrushchev Thaw, it was at this stage that the events in the GDR and Poland, the anti-communist uprising in Hungary, and the Suez Crisis took place. International tension increased after the development and successful testing of the USSR in 1957 of an intercontinental ballistic missile.
However, the threat of nuclear war receded, as the Soviet Union now had the opportunity to retaliate against US cities. This period of relations between the superpowers ended with the Berlin and Caribbean crises of 1961 and 1962. respectively. It was possible to resolve the Caribbean crisis only during personal negotiations between the heads of state - Khrushchev and Kennedy. As a result of the negotiations, agreements on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons were signed.
The end of the Cold War was caused by the weakness of the Soviet economy, its inability to support the arms race any longer, as well as the pro-Soviet communist regimes. Anti-war speeches in different parts of the world also played a certain role. The results of the Cold War were depressing for the USSR. The reunification of Germany in 1990 became a symbol of the West's victory.
After the USSR was defeated in the Cold War, a unipolar model of the world was formed with the US as the dominant superpower. However, these are not the only consequences of the Cold War. The rapid development of science and technology, primarily military, began. So, the Internet was originally created as a communications system for the US military.
There have been many documentaries and feature films about the Cold War period. One of them, which tells in detail about the events of those years, is "Heroes and Victims of the Cold War."
After graduation Second World War, which became the largest and most violent conflict in the history of mankind, a confrontation arose between the countries of the communist camp on the one hand and the Western capitalist countries on the other, between the two superpowers of that time, the USSR and the USA. The Cold War can be briefly described as a rivalry for dominance in the new post-war world.
The main cause of the Cold War was the insoluble ideological contradictions between the two models of society, socialist and capitalist. The West feared the strengthening of the USSR. The absence of a common enemy among the victorious countries, as well as the ambitions of political leaders, played their role.
Historians distinguish the following stages of the Cold War:
March 5, 1946 - 1953 The beginning of the Cold War was marked by Churchill's speech, delivered in the spring of 1946 in Fulton, in which the idea of creating an alliance of Anglo-Saxon countries to fight communism was proposed. The goal of the United States was an economic victory over the USSR, as well as the achievement of military superiority. In fact, the Cold War began earlier, but it was precisely by the spring of 1946, due to the USSR's refusal to withdraw troops from Iran, that the situation seriously escalated.
1953 - 1962 During this period of the Cold War, the world was on the brink of nuclear conflict. Despite some improvement in relations between the Soviet Union and the United States during the "thaw" Khrushchev, it was at this stage that the anti-communist uprising in Hungary, the events in the GDR and, earlier, in Poland, as well as the Suez crisis took place. International tension increased after the development and successful testing of the USSR in 1957 of an intercontinental ballistic missile. But, the threat of nuclear war receded, as the Soviet Union now had the opportunity to retaliate against US cities. This period of relations between the superpowers ended with the Berlin and Caribbean crises of 1961 and 1962, respectively. It was possible to resolve the Caribbean crisis only during personal negotiations between the heads of state Khrushchev and Kennedy. Also, as a result of the negotiations, a number of agreements on the nonproliferation of nuclear weapons were signed.
1962 - 1979 The period was marked by an arms race that undermined the economies of rival countries. The development and production of new types of weapons required incredible resources. Despite the presence of tension in relations between the USSR and the USA, agreements on the limitation of strategic weapons are signed. A joint space program "Soyuz-Apollo" is being developed. However, by the beginning of the 80s, the USSR began to lose in the arms race.
1979 - 1987 Relations between the USSR and the USA are again aggravated after the entry of Soviet troops into Afghanistan. In 1983 the United States deployed ballistic missiles at bases in Italy, Denmark, England, the FRG, and Belgium. An anti-space defense system is being developed. The USSR reacts to the actions of the West by withdrawing from the Geneva talks. During this period, the missile attack warning system is in constant combat readiness.
1987 - 1991 M. Gorbachev's coming to power in the USSR in 1985 entailed not only global changes within the country, but also radical changes in foreign policy, called "new political thinking". Ill-conceived reforms finally undermined the economy of the Soviet Union, which led to the country's virtual defeat in the Cold War.
The end of the Cold War was caused by the weakness of the Soviet economy, its inability to support the arms race any longer, as well as the pro-Soviet communist regimes. Anti-war speeches in various parts of the world also played a certain role. The results of the Cold War were depressing for the USSR. The reunification of Germany in 1990 became a symbol of the West's victory.
As a result, after the USSR was defeated in the Cold War, a unipolar model of the world was formed with the US as the dominant superpower. However, there are other consequences of the Cold War. This is the rapid development of science and technology, primarily military. So, the Internet was originally created as a communication system for the American army.
And the United States of America lasted more than 40 years and was called the "cold war". The years of its duration are estimated differently by different historians. However, we can say with full confidence that the confrontation ended in 1991, with the collapse of the USSR. The Cold War left an indelible mark on world history. Any conflict of the last century (after the end of World War II) must be viewed through the prism of the Cold War. It was not just a conflict between two countries.
It was a confrontation between two opposing worldviews, a struggle for dominance over the whole world.
Main reasons
The beginning of the Cold War is 1946. It was after the victory over Nazi Germany that a new map of the world and new rivals for world domination loomed. The victory over the Third Reich and its allies went to the whole of Europe, and especially the USSR, with great bloodshed. The future conflict was outlined at the Yalta Conference in 1945. At this famous meeting of Stalin, Churchill and Roosevelt, the fate of post-war Europe was decided. At this time, the Red Army was already approaching Berlin, so it was necessary to make the so-called division of spheres of influence. Soviet troops, hardened in battles on their territory, brought liberation to other peoples of Europe. In the countries occupied by the Union, friendly socialist regimes were established.
Spheres of influence
One of these was installed in Poland. At the same time, the previous Polish government was in London and considered itself legitimate. supported him, but the Communist Party elected by the Polish people de facto ruled the country. At the Yalta Conference, this issue was especially sharply considered by the parties. Similar problems were also observed in other regions. The peoples liberated from Nazi occupation created their own governments with the support of the USSR. Therefore, after the victory over the Third Reich, the map of the future Europe was finally formed.
The main stumbling blocks of the former allies in the anti-Hitler coalition began after the division of Germany. The eastern part was occupied by Soviet troops, the Western territories were proclaimed, which were occupied by the allies, became part of the Federal Republic of Germany. Disputes immediately broke out between the two governments. The confrontation eventually led to the closure of the borders between the FRG and the GDR. Spy and even sabotage actions began.
American imperialism
Throughout 1945, the allies in the anti-Hitler coalition continued close cooperation.
These were acts of transferring prisoners of war (who were captured by the Nazis) and material values. However, the Cold War began the following year. The years of the first exacerbation occurred precisely in the post-war period. The symbolic beginning was Churchill's speech in the American city of Fulton. Then already former minister Britain said that the main enemy for the West is communism and the USSR, which personifies it. Winston also called for all English-speaking nations to unite to fight the "red plague". Such provocative statements could not but provoke a response from Moscow. After some time, Joseph Stalin gave an interview to the Pravda newspaper, in which he compared the English politician with Hitler.
Countries during the Cold War: two blocs
However, although Churchill was a private individual, he only marked the course of Western governments. The United States has dramatically increased its influence on the world stage. This happened largely due to the war. The fighting was not conducted on American territory (with the exception of raids by Japanese bombers). Therefore, against the backdrop of a devastated Europe, the States had a fairly powerful economy and armed forces. Fearing the start of popular revolutions (which would be supported by the USSR) on their territory, the capitalist governments began to rally around the United States. It was in 1946 that the idea of creating a military was first voiced. In response to this, the Soviets created their own unit - the Department of Internal Affairs. Things even went so far that the parties were developing a strategy for armed struggle with each other. At the direction of Churchill, a plan was developed for a possible war with the USSR. The Soviet Union had similar plans. Preparations began for a trade and ideological war.
Arms race
The arms race between the two countries was one of the most revealing phenomena that the Cold War brought. Years of confrontation led to the creation of unique means of warfare that are still in use today. In the second half of the 40s, the United States had a huge advantage - nuclear weapons. The first nuclear bombs were used during World War II. The Enola Gay bomber dropped shells on the Japanese city of Hiroshima, which almost razed it to the ground. It was then that the world saw the destructive power of nuclear weapons. The United States began to actively increase its stocks of such weapons.
A special secret laboratory was created in the state of New Mexico. Based on the nuclear advantage, strategic plans were made for further relations with the USSR. The Soviets, in turn, also began to actively develop a nuclear program. The Americans considered the presence of charges with enriched uranium the main advantage. Therefore, intelligence hastily removed all documents on the development of atomic weapons from the territory of defeated Germany in 1945. Soon a secret was developed. This is a strategic document, which involved a nuclear strike on the territory of the Soviet Union. According to some historians, various variations of this plan were presented to Truman several times. Thus ended the initial period of the Cold War, the years of which were the least tense.
Union nuclear weapons
In 1949, the USSR successfully conducted the first tests of a nuclear bomb at the Semipalatinsk test site, which was immediately announced by all Western media. The creation of the RDS-1 (nuclear bomb) became possible largely due to the actions of Soviet intelligence, which also penetrated the secret test site at Los Alamos.
Such a rapid development of nuclear weapons came as a real surprise to the United States. Since then, nuclear weapons have become the main deterrent to direct military conflict between the two camps. The precedent in Hiroshima and Nagasaki showed the whole world the terrifying power of the atomic bomb. But in what year was the cold war the most bitter?
Caribbean crisis
For all the years of the Cold War, the most tense situation was in 1961. The conflict between the USSR and the USA went down in history as its prerequisites were long before that. It all started with the deployment of American nuclear missiles in Turkey. The Jupiter charges were placed in such a way that they could hit any targets in the western part of the USSR (including Moscow). Such a danger could not remain unanswered.
A few years earlier, a popular revolution had begun in Cuba, led by Fidel Castro. At first, the USSR did not see any prospects in the uprising. However, the Cuban people managed to overthrow the Batista regime. After that, the American leadership declared that it would not tolerate a new government in Cuba. Immediately after that, close diplomatic relations were established between Moscow and the Island of Freedom. Soviet troops were sent to Cuba.
The beginning of the conflict
After the deployment of nuclear weapons in Turkey, the Kremlin decided to take urgent countermeasures, since for this period it was impossible to launch nuclear missiles at the United States from the territory of the Union.
Therefore, the secret operation "Anadyr" was hastily developed. Warships were tasked with delivering missiles long range to Cuba. In October, the first ships reached Havana. The installation of launch pads has begun. At this time, American reconnaissance aircraft flew over the coast. The Americans managed to get some pictures of the tactical divisions, whose weapons were directed to Florida.
Aggravation of the situation
Immediately after this, the US military was put on high alert. Kennedy held an emergency meeting. A number of dignitaries urged the president to immediately launch an invasion of Cuba. In the event of such a development of events, the Red Army would immediately launch a nuclear missile attack on the landing force. This could well lead to a world wide. Therefore, both sides began to look for possible compromises. After all, everyone understood what such a cold war could lead to. The years of nuclear winter were clearly not the best prospect.
The situation was extremely tense, everything could change literally at any second. According to historical sources, at this time Kennedy even slept in his office. As a result, the Americans put forward an ultimatum - to remove Soviet missiles from the territory of Cuba. Then began the naval blockade of the island.
Khrushchev also held a similar meeting in Moscow. Some Soviet generals also insisted not to succumb to Washington's demands and, in which case, to repel the American attack. The main blow of the Union could not be in Cuba at all, but in Berlin, which was well understood in the White House.
"Black Saturday"
The world was hit the hardest during the Cold War on October 27, Saturday. On this day, an American U-2 reconnaissance aircraft flew over Cuba and was shot down by Soviet anti-aircraft gunners. A few hours later, this incident became known in Washington.
The US Congress advised the President to launch an invasion immediately. The President decided to write a letter to Khrushchev, where he repeated his demands. Nikita Sergeevich responded to this letter immediately, agreeing to them in exchange for a US promise not to attack Cuba and take the missiles out of Turkey. In order for the message to reach as quickly as possible, the appeal was made through the radio. This was the end of the Cuban crisis. Since then, the intensity of the situation began to gradually decrease.
Ideological confrontation
Foreign policy during the Cold War for both blocs was characterized not only by rivalry for control over territories, but by a tough information struggle. Two different systems tried in every possible way to show their superiority to the whole world. The famous "Radio Liberty" was created in the USA, which was broadcast to the territory of the Soviet Union and other socialist countries. The stated purpose of this news agency was to fight Bolshevism and Communism. It is noteworthy that Radio Liberty still exists and operates in many countries. During the Cold War, the USSR also created a similar station that broadcast to the territory of the capitalist countries.
Each significant event for humanity in the second half of the last century was considered in the context of the Cold War. For example, Yuri Gagarin's flight into space was presented to the world as a victory for socialist labor. Countries spent huge resources on propaganda. In addition to sponsoring and supporting cultural figures, there was a wide agent network.
Spy games
The spy intrigues of the Cold War are widely reflected in art. The secret services went to all sorts of tricks to be one step ahead of their opponents. One of the most characteristic cases is Operation Confession, which is more like a plot of a spy detective.
Even during the war, the Soviet scientist Lev Terminus created a unique transmitter that did not require recharging or a power source. It was a kind of perpetual motion machine. The listening device was named "Zlatoust". The KGB, on Beria's personal order, decided to install "Zlatoust" in the building of the US Embassy. For this, a wooden shield was created with the image of the coat of arms of the United States. During the visit of the American Ambassador to the children's wellness center, a ceremonial line. At the end, the pioneers sang the US anthem, after which the touched ambassador was presented with a wooden coat of arms. He, unaware of the trick, installed it in personal account. Thanks to this, the KGB received information about all the conversations of the ambassador for 7 years. There were a huge number of similar cases, open to the public and secret.
Cold War: years, essence
The end of the confrontation between the two blocs came after the collapse of the USSR, lasting 45 years.
Tensions between West and East have persisted to this day. However, the world has ceased to be bipolar when Moscow or Washington was behind any significant event in the world. In what year was the cold war the most bitter, and closest to the "hot"? Historians and analysts are still arguing on this topic. Most agree that this is the period of the "Caribbean Crisis", when the world was on the verge of nuclear war.
Introduction…………………………………………………………………………….3
1. How the Cold War began. The reasons for its occurrence…………….4
2. The main stages in the development of the Cold War…………………………….12
3. Conflicts of the Cold War……………………………………………….14
4. Outcomes and consequences of the Cold War…………………………………20
Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………22
List of used literature…………………………………………….25
Introduction
The first and subsequent post-war decades went down in history as a period of the "cold war", a period of acute Soviet-American confrontation, more than once bringing the world to the brink of a "hot" war. The Cold War was a complex process, part of which was psychology, a different perception of the world, a different mental paradigm. The situation of the Cold War cannot be considered an unnatural situation that goes beyond the framework of normal historical development. The Cold War is a natural stage in Soviet-American relations, formed in the conditions of the post-war "sharing" of the world, the desire to create "its own zone of influence" on the largest possible territory, which is of economic and military interest. This stage cost the world enormous stress and expenses of at least ten trillion dollars (for the period 1945-1991).
But it would be wrong to see only the negative side in this confrontation. The Cold War was the main stimulus for a powerful and long-term technological breakthrough, the fruits of which were defense and attack systems, computer and other high technologies, which were previously written only by science fiction writers.
The clash of interests between the US and the USSR predetermined international politics for many years to come. Therein lies its relevance today. After all, it is very easy to understand the modern multipolar world, based on the lessons and results that the Cold War gave us.
My work is devoted to the study of the origins of the Cold War, the description of its major crises and the final analysis of its results. It tells about the main events of the confrontation between the two superpowers.
I want to fully and clearly outline all the main stages of the Cold War. The purpose of this work is to show the situation in the world after the Second World War, during the Cold War and the post-war situation on our planet. Try to study as deeply as possible, analyze what was happening in the arena of international relations in the second half of the 20th century and show what this race, which took colossal resources for all fifty years, led to. The United States seems to have passed the test, but Russia, as a result of the change in the political and economic system, has fallen into a protracted crisis. Although it is worth recalling that the USSR began to choke in the hardest struggle with the West back in the 80s.
1. How the Cold War began. The reasons for its occurrence
When the shots of the Second World War died down, it seemed that the world had entered a new era in its development. The worst war is over. After it, the very idea of a new war seemed blasphemous. More than ever, much has been done so that it does not happen again. Germany was not only defeated, it was occupied by the victors, and the revival of German militarism now seemed impossible. Inspired optimism and the degree of cooperation that was established between the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition. Top-level meetings of the Big Three have become regular. Military operations were coordinated, political approaches were coordinated, and broad economic cooperation was carried out.
The symbol of these relations was the third meeting of the "Big Three" - the Berlin Conference. It took place from July 17 to August 2, 1954 in Potsdam, a suburb of Berlin. The United States, instead of Franklin Roosevelt, who died in April, was represented by Harry Truman, Great Britain - by Winston Churchill. However, the unexpected happened during the conference. In the first post-war parliamentary elections, the Conservatives, led by Churchill, were defeated. For the first time, the majority of the seats were won by the Labor Party, their leader, Clement Attlee, headed the government and arrived in Potsdam. So the "big three" is quite updated compared to the Crimean conference.
The Berlin Conference was not peace conference like the Parisian.
For the simple reason that there was no one to conclude peace with. Germany was occupied, and power on its territory was exercised in four occupation zones by Great Britain, the Soviet Union, the USA and France. The main task of the conference was to work out the policy of the Allied Powers in Germany. It was decided to dissolve all National Socialist organizations; restore previously banned political parties and basic civil liberties; destroy the military industry; disband the cartels that served in Nazi Germany as an instrument for the militarization of industry. The top Nazi leaders who fell into the hands of the Allies were decided to be tried by a special International Tribunal.
atomic weapons
In 1945, there was a deep disparity in power and strength between the two main victorious countries. Even before the war, disproportions were shifting in America's favor, especially in the economy. But hostilities pushed the two countries even further in the opposite direction. The war did not touch American soil: the fighting took place far from the coast of America. The economy of the United States, which was the main supplier and financier of the entire victorious coalition, experienced an unprecedented leap between 1939 and 1945. The potential of US industrial capacities grew by 50%, production increased by 2.5 times. 4 times more equipment was produced, 7 times more vehicles. Agricultural production increased by 36%. Wages grew, as did all the incomes of the population.
The contrast between American living conditions and the poverty in which the Soviet people lived was very sharp. There was an obvious gap between the economies of the countries. The output of the Soviet ferrous metallurgy was 16-18% of the American level. The production of chemical products in the USA was 10-20 times higher than in the USSR; production of the textile industry - 6-13 times. The situation was supplemented by the fact that the United States had dominant positions throughout the world. The atomic bomb was born at the very last moment, as if specifically to give the overwhelming American superiority over the USSR an undoubted and threatening character. American leaders hoped that, thanks to their economic and scientific potential, they would be able to maintain a monopoly on the possession of new apocalyptic weapons for a long time. In the context of the rapidly growing deterioration of relations between Moscow and Washington, the bomb should, naturally, inspire concern in the Soviet leaders. The Americans were also the only owners of delivery vehicles - aircraft carriers and long-range bomber aircraft capable of delivering nuclear charges to targets in any part of the world. The United States was at that time inaccessible and in great security, it was the only country in post-war years capable of determining the course of world politics.
America refused to understand that changes were taking place in Eastern Europe, determined primarily by internal local causes.
The inability of the United States to come to terms with the presence of new revolutionary movements in the model of the world order forced their participants, primarily the Communists, to turn their eyes to Moscow as the opposite pole of world politics, while the most reactionary forces saw Washington as a protector and leader. Under these conditions, the inevitable difficulties in realizing American aspirations gave rise to ever-increasing anti-Soviet anger in the United States. Thus, a phenomenon arose that was later called the "cold war", the main reason for which is the global inequality between the USSR and the USA.
Inequality also manifested itself in relation to the possession of nuclear weapons. As is known, until 1949, the only power possessing an atomic bomb was the United States. The Americans made no secret of the fact that they perceived nuclear weapons as an attribute of the might of a great power, as a means of intimidating a potential adversary - the USSR and its allies, as a means of pressure.
Stalin faced a difficult dilemma: whether to repulse the pressure that his former allies, now armed with an atomic bomb, exerted on the USSR in conditions when the country was exhausted. Stalin was convinced that the United States and England would not dare to start a war, and he decided to choose the path of confrontation with the might of the West. This is a fundamental choice, since it predetermined the main features of the future.
The Soviet government decided to speed up work on the manufacture of its own atomic bomb. The work, carried out in strict secrecy, began in full measure from August-September 1945. After Potsdam and Hiroshima, Stalin formed, under the supreme control of Beria, a special committee headed by People's Commissar Vannikov, called upon to direct all activities to create new weapons.
The support of the position of the United States by most countries of the world was combined with their exceptional position as holders of a monopoly on the atomic bomb: the Americans again demonstrated their power by conducting test explosions on the Bikini Atoll in the summer of 1946. Stalin during this period made a number of statements aimed at downplaying the importance of the new weapon. These statements set the tone for all Soviet propaganda. But the behavior of the representatives of the Soviet Union in private showed in reality their great concern. Modern historians admit that because of the disparity in the possession of atomic weapons, the Soviet Union and the world community itself were then going through "a very dangerous and difficult period."
As a result of contradictory tendencies, a project was born to establish international control over atomic energy, known as the "Baruch Plan", after the American leader who was instructed to present it to the UN. In accordance with this plan, everything related to nuclear research and production was to be forcibly concentrated in a few states, so that the entire nuclear complex would be controlled by some kind of world power, functioning as a supranational body in which no country would have the right to veto. Only after such a mechanism had been prepared, tested and put into operation, the United States, in the event of renunciation of nuclear weapons, would consider its security sufficiently guaranteed.
The American proposal was met with distrust in Moscow. From the point of view of the USSR, the "Baruch Plan" was tantamount to transferring everything related to atomic energy into the hands of the United States and, therefore, it was a form of legalization of the US nuclear monopoly, and possibly its establishment forever.
In all the activities carried out by the USSR for its security, two lines were observed.
The first, fundamental, was to, regardless of any costs, concentrate efforts on the creation of Soviet atomic weapons, eliminate the US nuclear monopoly and thereby, if not eliminate, then significantly reduce the threat of an atomic attack on the USSR and its allies. Ultimately, this problem was solved. In a TASS statement published on September 25, 1949, it was recalled that back in November 1947, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the USSR V.M. Molotov made a statement regarding the secret of the atomic bomb, saying that this secret no longer exists. In the future, a quantitative increase and improvement of atomic weapons was carried out.
Another line of the party-state leadership of the USSR on the issue of nuclear weapons was of a propaganda nature. Not possessing an atomic bomb, the USSR began to conduct propaganda against the use of this terrible weapon, which aroused the support of many political circles abroad.
It follows from the above that atomic weapons played a leading role in the emergence of the Cold War. The American monopoly on nuclear weapons was one of the reasons for the power of the United States. With the US nuclear monopoly, they tried to put into practice those plans and those ideas that were directly beneficial to them. The USSR, which often saw in these plans an infringement of its interests, carried out propaganda for the prohibition of atomic weapons, but at the same time, very quickly, spending enormous economic resources, created its own atomic bomb, which was done in 1949. The elimination of the United States monopoly on nuclear weapons led both the USSR and the United States to an exhausting arms race. But at the same time, the atomic bomb, as a weapon capable of destroying not only an opponent, but the whole world, was a deterrent to unleashing a hot war.
From Churchill's Fulton speech to the "Marshall Plan"
On March 5, 1946, W. Churchill delivered a speech in the small American town of Fulton (Missouri), where he arrived with President Truman. He stated that the capitalist countries were threatened by the danger of a new world war, and that the Soviet Union and the international communist movement were allegedly the cause of this threat. He said that "communist totalitarianism" had now replaced the "fascist enemy" and intended to conquer the countries of the West. Churchill argued that from Szczecin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, a kind of "iron curtain" ran across Europe. Churchill called for the toughest policy towards the USSR, threatened to use American atomic weapons, insisted on creating an alliance of imperialist states to impose their will on the USSR, not excluding military means. To this end, the program of action proposed by Churchill provided for the creation of an "association of English-speaking peoples", that is, the preservation good relations with Great Britain, and in the future, the creation of aggressive alliances, blocs and a network of military bases along the perimeter of the socialist world.
In the Soviet Union, Churchill's speech was received with deep indignation and regarded as a call for the creation of an Anglo-American military bloc directed against the USSR, other socialist countries, and the national liberation movement of the oppressed peoples.
In a speech before both houses of the US Congress, President Truman announced that the United States intended to take the place of a weakened England in supporting the governments of Greece and Turkey. The situation in these countries developed differently: in Greece, the Civil War, suppressed for a while by the British in 1944, while internal calm remained in Turkey, but it was at odds with the USSR over the straits. The American president went much further, defining his gesture as the implementation of a general political line: the concept of "doctrine" was introduced, Truman chose the position put forward by Churchill in Fulton as the ideological foundation of his policy. The world seemed to him a stage on which a conflict unfolded between the forces of good and evil, that is, between "free societies" and "societies of oppression." America must support "free societies" everywhere in the confrontation with "societies of oppression".
At an information meeting of representatives of a number of communist parties in Warsaw at the end of September 1947, it was noted that the "Truman Doctrine" was openly aggressive. It is designed to provide American assistance to reactionary regimes actively opposing the USSR and the countries of the socialist camp. The Soviet Union condemned the aggressive nature of the "Truman Doctrine". The US military intervention in Greece also drew condemnation from the world community.
In an effort to overcome the resistance of the peoples, the extreme monopoly circles in the USA decided to use more disguised forms of their actions. So appeared new version their policies are the Marshall Plan.
The new plan originated in the bowels of the military department. His ardent supporter was the former Chief of the US General Staff, General J. Marshall, appointed Secretary of State in January 1947. The main provisions of the plan were agreed upon with representatives of the largest monopolies and banks. Conversations on this issue were held with representatives of the governments of England, France and Italy. They assumed the character of a secret collusion between the American monopolies and Western European reactionaries, directed against the USSR, the communist movement and its development in European countries.
In May 1947, as a result, the communists were removed from the governments of Italy and France. The "Marshall Plan" was camouflaged with talk about the need for the economic recovery of Europe, but American capital cared least of all about the economy of its competitors, it was interested in military allies.
J. Marshall's speech on June 5, 1947 testified to the intention of the US leadership to expand the practice of interference in European affairs. George Marshall's speech marked an important milestone: the United States was moving on to asserting its positions in Europe on a long-term, orderly basis. If previously US economic intervention was carried out on a case-by-case basis in individual countries of the continent, now the question was raised about a large-scale program of penetration into all states in need of economic assistance.
The Marshall Plan was designed to solve a number of interrelated tasks: strengthening the shattered foundations of capitalism in Europe, ensuring America's dominant position in European affairs, and preparing for the creation of a military-political bloc. At the same time, the main ally of the United States in Europe and the main recipient of assistance under the "Marshall Plan" is already on this stage Germany was conceived, more precisely, its western part.
The Soviet Union agreed to accept the "Marshall Plan" on the condition that the sovereignty of the European countries was preserved and a distinction was made between those countries that fought in the war as allies, neutral countries and former enemies, especially Germany. These requirements were not accepted. For the USSR, there was nothing left but to choose between an agreement with the Marshall Plan and recognition of the leading role of America, to which Western Europe had already agreed, and disagreement and the risk of opening confrontations with it. Stalin made a choice definitely in favor of the second solution.
The Foreign Assistance Act of 1948 was not passed by the United States Congress until April 3, 1948. The implementation of this plan marked a sharp turn in the policy of the victorious Western powers towards defeated Germany: West Germany became their ally, which the US ruling circles clearly preferred in comparison with other allied countries. This can be seen from the distribution of appropriations under the Marshall Plan. During the first year of its implementation, West Germany received 2422 million dollars, England - 1324 million, France - 1130 million, Italy - 704 million dollars.
The military-strategic nature of the "Marshall Plan" was noted by many of its advocates in Western countries. The plan consolidated the two blocks, exacerbated the split between the communist world and the West. The Soviet Union was opposed by an organizational Western grouping, relying on the vast resources of America and persistently setting as its goal the destruction of communism by conquering world domination.
Summing up, it should be noted that the "Marshall Plan" and the sharply negative reaction to this plan from the Soviet Union, as well as Churchill's speech and the "Truman Doctrine" were a very important step in the split of Europe into opposing socio-political coalitions, and then this split of Europe was already formalized into military-political blocs, and consequently the confrontation between the USSR and the USA increased.
2. The main stages in the development of the Cold War
Over the years, the tension in the confrontation between the blocs has changed. Its most acute phase falls on the years of the Korean War, followed in 1956 by the events in Poland, Hungary and the Suez crisis; with the onset of the Khrushchev "thaw", however, the tension subsides - this was especially characteristic of the late 1950s, which culminated in Khrushchev's visit to the United States; the scandal with the American U-2 spy plane (1960) led to a new aggravation, the peak of which was the Berlin crisis of 1961 and the Caribbean crisis (1962); under the influence of this crisis, detente sets in again, darkened, however, by the suppression of the Prague Spring
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.
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, in relation to the USSR, put into use popular expression"evil empire" During this period, the United States deployed its nuclear missiles in Western Europe and began developing a space 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.
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 growing crisis of the Soviet political system and the dependence of the Soviet economy on Western technologies and loans due to a sharp drop in oil prices gave Gorbachev a reason to make concessions in the foreign policy sphere. In 1988, the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan began. The fall of the communist system in Eastern Europe during the revolutions of 1989 led to the liquidation of the Soviet bloc, and with it the virtual end of the Cold War. Meanwhile, the Soviet Union itself was on the brink of disaster. The collapse of the world socialist system, along with the fall in oil prices, was accompanied by a colossal decline in the economy and industrial production. Ethnic conflicts broke out on the outskirts of the country. Moscow began to lose control over the union republics. From March 1990 to December 1991, thirteen of the fifteen republics withdrew from the Union. On December 26, 1991, the new leadership of independent Russia denounced Union Treaty, thereby putting an end to the history of the Cold War.
3. Cold War conflicts
The Cold War was characterized by the frequent emergence of conflict zones. Each local conflict was brought onto the world stage, thanks to the fact that the Cold War opponents supported the opposing sides. In view of the fact that a direct conflict between the two superpowers would inevitably develop into a nuclear one with the guaranteed destruction of all life on the planet, the parties sought to gain the upper hand by other methods, incl. and weakening the enemy in a particular region and strengthening their positions there, if necessary, and with the help of military operations. Here are some of them.
Korean War
In 1945, Soviet and American troops liberated Korea from the Japanese army. To the south of the 38th parallel are the US troops, to the north - the Red Army. Thus, the Korean Peninsula was divided into two parts. In the North, the Communists came to power, in the South, the military, relying on US assistance. Two states formed on the peninsula - the northern Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) and the southern Republic of Korea. The leadership of North Korea dreamed of uniting the country, even if by force of arms.
In 1950, the North Korean leader Kim Il Sung visited Moscow and enlisted the support of the Soviet Union. Plans for the "military liberation" of South Korea were also approved by the Chinese leader Mao Ze Dong. At dawn on June 25, 1950, the North Korean army moved to the south of the country. Her offensive was so powerful that in three days she occupied the capital of the South - Seoul. Then the advance of the northerners slowed down, but by mid-September almost the entire peninsula was in their hands. It seemed that only one decisive effort separated the army of the north from the final victory. However, on July 7, the UN Security Council voted to send international troops to help South Korea.
And in September, UN troops (mostly American) came to the aid of the southerners. They launched a powerful offensive to the North from that patch, which was still held by the South Korean army. At the same time, troops landed on the west coast, cutting the peninsula in half. Events began to develop with the same speed in the opposite direction. The Americans occupied Seoul, crossed the 38th parallel and continued their offensive against the DPRK. North Korea was on the brink of complete disaster when China unexpectedly intervened. The Chinese leadership proposed, without declaring war on the United States, to send troops to help North Korea. In October, about a million Chinese soldiers crossed the Yalu River and fought the Americans. Soon the front leveled off along the 38th parallel.
The war continued for another three years. During the American offensive in 1950, the Soviet Union deployed several air divisions to help North Korea. The Americans were significantly superior to the Chinese in technology. China suffered heavy losses. On July 27, 1953, the war ended with a truce. In North Korea, the government of Kim Il Sung, friendly to the USSR and China, remained in power, accepting the honorary title of "great leader".
Erection of the Berlin Wall
In 1955, the division of Europe between East and West finally took shape. However, a clear frontier of confrontation has not yet completely divided Europe. There was one unclosed "window" left in it - Berlin. The city was divided in half, with East Berlin being the capital of the GDR, and West Berlin considered its part of the FRG. Two opposing social systems coexisted within the same city, while every Berliner could easily get "from socialism to capitalism" and back, moving from one street to another. Every day up to 500 thousand people crossed this invisible border in both directions. Many East Germans, using the open border, forever left for the West. And in general, the wide open window in the "Iron Curtain" did not at all correspond to the general spirit of the era.
In August 1961, the Soviet and East German authorities decided to close the border between the two parts of Berlin. The tension in the city grew. Western countries protested the division of the city. Finally, in October, the confrontation reached highest point. At the Brandenburg Gate and on Friedrichstrasse, near the main checkpoints, American tanks lined up. Soviet combat vehicles came out to meet them. For more than a day, the tanks of the USSR and the USA stood with guns aimed at each other. Periodically, the tankers turned on the engines, as if preparing for an attack. The tension was somewhat relieved only after the Soviet, and after them the American tanks, withdrew to other streets. However, Western countries finally recognized the division of the city only ten years later. It was formalized by an agreement of four powers (USSR, USA, England and France), signed in 1971. All over the world, the construction of the Berlin Wall was perceived as a symbolic completion of the post-war division of Europe.
Cuban Missile Crisis
On January 1, 1959, a revolution won in Cuba, led by the 32-year-old partisan leader Fidel Castro. The new government began a decisive struggle against American influence on the island. Needless to say, the Soviet Union fully supported the Cuban Revolution. However, the Havana authorities seriously feared a US military invasion. In May 1962, Nikita Khrushchev put forward an unexpected idea - to place Soviet nuclear missiles on the island. He jokingly explained this step by saying that the imperialists "need to put a hedgehog in their pants." After some deliberation, Cuba agreed to the Soviet proposal, and in the summer of 1962, 42 missiles with nuclear warheads and bombers capable of carrying nuclear bombs were sent to the island. The transfer of missiles was carried out in the strictest secrecy, but already in September, the US leadership suspected something was wrong. On September 4, President John F. Kennedy declared that the United States would under no circumstances tolerate Soviet nuclear missiles 150 kilometers from its coast. In response, Khrushchev assured Kennedy that there were no Soviet missiles or nuclear weapons in Cuba and never would be.
On October 14, an American reconnaissance aircraft photographed the missile launch pads from the air. In an atmosphere of strict secrecy, the US leadership began to discuss retaliatory measures. On October 22, President Kennedy addressed the American people on radio and television. He reported that Soviet missiles had been found in Cuba and demanded that the USSR immediately remove them. Kennedy announced that the United States was beginning a naval blockade of Cuba. On October 24, at the request of the USSR, the UN Security Council urgently met. The Soviet Union continued to stubbornly deny the existence of nuclear missiles in Cuba. The situation in the Caribbean became more and more tense. Two dozen Soviet ships were moving towards Cuba. American ships were ordered to stop them, if necessary, by fire. True, it did not come to sea battles. Khrushchev ordered several Soviet ships to stop on the blockade line.
On October 23, an exchange of official letters began between Moscow and Washington. In his first messages, N. Khrushchev indignantly called the actions of the United States "pure banditry" and "the madness of degenerate imperialism."
Within days, it became clear that the US was determined to remove the missiles at any cost. On October 26, Khrushchev sent a more conciliatory message to Kennedy. He admitted that Cuba had powerful Soviet weapons. At the same time, Nikita Sergeevich convinced the president that the USSR was not going to attack America. In his words, "Only crazy people can do this or suicides who want to die themselves and destroy the whole world before that." Khrushchev suggested that John F. Kennedy pledge not to attack Cuba; then the Soviet Union will be able to remove its weapons from the island. The President of the United States replied that the United States was prepared to make a gentleman's pledge not to invade Cuba if the USSR withdrew its offensive weapons. Thus, the first steps towards peace were taken.
But on October 27 came the "Black Saturday" of the Cuban crisis, when only by a miracle did not flare up a new one. World War. In those days, squadrons of American planes swept over Cuba twice a day for the purpose of intimidation. And on October 27, Soviet troops in Cuba shot down one of the US reconnaissance aircraft with an anti-aircraft missile. Its pilot Anderson was killed. The situation escalated to the limit, the US President decided two days later to begin the bombing of Soviet missile bases and a military attack on the island.
However, on Sunday, October 28, the Soviet leadership decided to accept the American terms. The decision to remove the missiles from Cuba was made without the consent of the Cuban leadership. Perhaps this was done on purpose, since Fidel Castro strongly objected to the removal of the missiles.
International tension began to subside rapidly after 28 October. The Soviet Union removed its missiles and bombers from Cuba. On November 20, the United States lifted the naval blockade of the island. The Cuban (or Caribbean) crisis ended peacefully.
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War began with an incident in the Gulf of Tonkin, during which coast guard vessels of the DRV fired on American destroyers providing fire support to South Vietnamese government forces in their fight against partisans. After that, everything secret became clear, and the conflict developed according to the already familiar pattern. One of the superpowers entered the war openly, and the second did everything in its power to make it "not boring" to fight. The war, which the United States thought was a cakewalk, turned out to be America's nightmare. Anti-war demonstrations shook the country. The youth rebelled against the senseless massacre. In 1975, the United States considered it a good thing to announce that they had "accomplished their mission" and proceed with the evacuation of their military contingent. This war greatly shocked the entire American society and led to major reforms. The post-war crisis lasted more than 10 years. It is difficult to say how it would have ended if the Afghan crisis had not come to hand.
Afghan war
In April 1978, a coup took place in Afghanistan, later called the April Revolution. The Afghan communists, the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA), came to power. The government was headed by the writer Nur Mohammed Taraki. However, after a few months, a sharp struggle flared up within the ruling party. In August 1979, a confrontation broke out between the two leaders of the party - Taraki and Amin. On September 16, Taraki was removed from his post, expelled from the party and taken into custody. Soon he died - according to the official report, "from anxiety." These events caused discontent in Moscow, although outwardly everything remained as before. The mass “purges” and executions in the party environment that began in Afghanistan caused condemnation. And since they reminded the Soviet leaders of the Chinese " cultural revolution", there were fears that Amin might break with the USSR and move closer to China. Amin repeatedly asked for the entry of Soviet troops into Afghanistan to strengthen the revolutionary power. Finally, on December 12, 1979, the Soviet leadership decided to fulfill his request, but at the same time remove Amin himself. Soviet troops were brought into Afghanistan, Amin was killed by a grenade explosion during the storming of the presidential palace. Now Soviet newspapers called him a "CIA agent", wrote about the "bloody clique of Amin and his henchmen."
In the West, the entry of Soviet troops into Afghanistan caused violent protests. The Cold War broke out with renewed vigor. On January 14, 1980, the UN General Assembly demanded the withdrawal of "foreign troops" from Afghanistan. 104 states voted for this decision.
Meanwhile, in Afghanistan itself, armed resistance to Soviet troops began to intensify. Of course, it was not the supporters of Amin who fought against them, but the opponents of the revolutionary government in general. The Soviet press at first claimed that there were no battles in Afghanistan, that peace and tranquility reigned there. However, the war did not subside, and when it became clear, the USSR recognized that "bandits were rampaging" in the republic. They were called "dushmans", that is, enemies. Secretly, through Pakistan, they were supported by the United States, helping with weapons and money. The United States knew well what a war against an armed people meant. The experience of the Vietnam War was used at 100%, with only one small difference, the roles were reversed. Now the USSR was at war with an underdeveloped country, and the United States helped him to feel what a difficult thing it was. The rebels controlled a significant part of the territory of Afghanistan. All of them were united by the slogan jihad- holy Islamic war. They called themselves "mujahideen" - fighters for the faith. Otherwise, the programs of the rebel groups varied greatly.
The war in Afghanistan did not stop for more than nine years. More than a million Afghans died during the hostilities. Soviet troops, according to official figures, lost 14,453 people killed.
In June 1987, the first, so far symbolic, steps towards peace were taken. The new Kabul government offered "national reconciliation" to the rebels. In April 1988, the Soviet Union signed an agreement in Geneva on the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan. On May 15, the troops began to leave. Nine months later, on February 15, 1989, the last Soviet soldier left Afghanistan. For the Soviet Union, the Afghan war ended that day.
Thus, the world was divided into two camps: capitalist and socialist. In both, so-called collective security systems - military blocs - were created. In April 1949, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization - NATO, was created, which included the United States, Canada and countries Western Europe. In May 1955, the Warsaw Pact was signed. It included (at the time of signing) Albania (Later (in 1968) it denounced the Treaty), Bulgaria, Hungary, the GDR, Poland, Romania, the USSR, Czechoslovakia. The polarization of the world has ended, and the created coalitions, led by their leaders, began to fight for influence in the countries of the third world.
Almost 40 years have passed from the first armed conflict in Korea (1950-1953) to the last one on the Lao-Thai border (1988). During this time, the fiery arc of the Soviet-American confrontation encircled almost all the continents of the planet from East Asia to Latin America, from South Africa to Central Europe. During this time, millions of people died in numerous wars, dozens of states were drawn into them, some of which have not been settled to this day. Afghanistan, Korea, Indochina, the Arab-Israeli conflict, Cuba, the countries of the Horn of Africa, etc. - in all these conflicts, we somehow find both the "boney hand of American imperialism" and the "aggressive impulses of the evil empire" - in the form of weapons and money , advisers and instructors, "volunteers" and military contingents.
4. Outcomes and consequences of the Cold War
The Cold War, being primarily a phenomenon of world politics, nevertheless seriously influenced domestic life. The black-and-white vision of the world gave rise to a sense of wariness in relation to the outside world and created a craving for artificial internal cohesion in the face of an external enemy. Dissent came to be seen as subversive. In the USA, this resulted in massive violations of civil rights and freedoms, and in the USSR, it helped to strengthen the totalitarian features of the regime. At the same time, in Western countries, the Cold War became an incentive to complete social reforms in order to create a "welfare state" - it was seen as a barrier to the penetration of communist ideas.
The Cold War forced huge funds to be directed to armaments, the best engineers and workers worked on new weapon systems, each of which depreciated the previous one. But this race also gave rise to unprecedented scientific discoveries. It stimulated the development of nuclear physics and space research, created the conditions for the powerful growth of electronics and the creation of unique materials. The arms race ultimately bled the Soviet economy dry and reduced the competitiveness of the American economy. At the same time, Soviet-American rivalry had a favorable effect on the restoration of the economic and political positions of West Germany and Japan, which became the front line of the struggle against communism for the United States. The rivalry between the USSR and the USA made it easier for the peoples of the colonial and dependent countries to fight for independence, but also turned this emerging "third world" into an arena of endless regional and local conflicts for spheres of influence.
In other words, the Cold War had a profound and multifaceted impact on post-war world history. This impact cannot be overestimated. But could the Cold War have been avoided?
Its emergence is largely due to the peculiarities of the results of the Second World War. It led to the fact that only two powers remained in the world, the power of which turned out to be sufficient to start and maintain global rivalry for a long time. The rest of the great powers, for various reasons, were unable to do so. The USSR and the USA in this sense became not just great powers, but superpowers. This bipolarity, the bipolarity of the world, thus, became the result of the war, and it could not but give rise to rivalry. The participation in this rivalry of not just different states according to their historical experience, geographical location, economic, social and political system, but also different worldviews could not but give it a particularly sharp form, a form of ideological conflict, reminiscent of religious wars in the Middle Ages.
So it is difficult to imagine a situation where the Cold War could have been avoided.
Conclusion
Having considered the causes of the Cold War, the course of its events and its results, I achieved the goals and objectives I had set.
Analyzing the events that served as the prologue of the Cold War, I found out for myself the reasons for biopolarity and the growing confrontation between the Soviet Union and the United States.
The diplomatic history of the creation and use of atomic weapons, if we take it in the context of inter-allied relations, was a prelude to a long confrontation between the two powers that found themselves in the power of countries before mutual extermination and found the means of combating it in the accumulation of weapons of mass destruction beyond any reasonable limits.
The atomic bomb gave confidence to the United States. The USSR, until 1949, carried out events in politics in which two lines were observed:
1) concentrated efforts on the creation of Soviet atomic weapons, to eliminate the US monopoly.
2) another line of the party and state apparatus of the USSR on the issue of nuclear weapons was of a propaganda nature. Not possessing nuclear weapons, the USSR began to conduct propaganda against the use of these deadly weapons. But after 1949 the situation changed, Stalin began to consider the atomic bomb as the main weapon in a possible third world war.
W. Churchill's speech in Fulton, the "Truman Doctrine", and later the "Marshall Plan", testify that the policy of the West was aimed at confrontation with the USSR. Churchill announced the creation of an Anglo-American military alliance claiming world domination.
The main goal of the "Marshall Plan" was to stabilize the socio-political situation in Western Europe, to involve Western Germany in the Western bloc and reduce Soviet influence in Eastern Europe. The "Marshall Plan" itself and the sharply negative reaction to this plan from the USSR were an important step towards the split of Europe, to confront socio-political coalitions, and then this split was already formalized into military-political blocs, thus, more and more bipolarity clearly acquired its outlines.
The psychological atmosphere created as a result of the Berlin crisis served to create a Western alliance directed against the USSR. In May 1949, the constitution of a separate West German state, the Federal Republic of Germany, was adopted. In response, the USSR in October 1949 created a second state in its zone - the German Democratic Republic. Two hostile blocs confronted each other on the same continent; each of these two forces now owned one of the parts of defeated Germany.
The Berlin crisis was, on the whole, an unsuccessful policy of the USSR to prevent the implementation of separate actions by the Western powers in the German question. Of course, the measures taken by the USSR in the summer of 1948 created a very dangerous situation in the center of Europe. But the then leadership of the USSR considered these measures as defensive.
In the course of this work, I realized that the Cold War at that time was inevitable not only due to geopolitical and ideological factors, but also due to the fact that the mentality of the leaders of that time in the United States and the USSR was not ready to accept the realities of the post-war world, faced by the two powers. And it was precisely this unwillingness to accept the realities of the post-war period and adapt to them that determined the form of sharp and tough military-political confrontation that the Cold War took.
So, I found out that the causes of the Cold War were:
1) the existence of two superpowers;
2) the struggle for the division of the world between them;
3) the presence of atomic weapons.
The existence of two centers of power simultaneously initiated two global processes: the struggle of the superpowers to divide the world into spheres of influence and the desire of all other countries, with rare exceptions, to join one of the superpowers themselves, to use its economic and political power to ensure their own interests.
The result of this was the inevitable formation of a bipolar geopolitical system based on an irresistible antagonism between the superpowers. Such antagonism presupposes the use of force, including military force. But in the case of the Soviet-American confrontation, atomic weapons became a powerful deterrent from the very beginning.
The more I think about the Cold War, the more pointless it seems to me to try to assess the degree of guilt of the parties. The Second World War brought the international community into terrible chaos. With countries shattered, European allies exhausted, colonial empires in turmoil and in the process of disintegration, gaping holes appeared in the world power structure. The war left only two states - America and Soviet Russia - in a state of political, ideological and military dynamism, making them capable of filling this vacuum. Moreover, both these states were based on opposite, antagonistic ideas. Neither knew exactly what the other intended to do. That is why Truman was not going to share the secrets of creating an atomic bomb, but rather wanted to use the atomic monopoly in order to influence the USSR. The Soviet Union, led by Stalin, having emerged victorious from the war, did not want to put up with the role of a minor power, Stalin wanted to force the United States to reckon with whom, for this purpose the Berlin crisis was started. And all the subsequent events that served as a prologue to the Cold War arose from both sides as a reaction of self-defense. In the current situation, none of us should be surprised by the results. What would be truly amazing to me would be if there were no Cold War.
List of used literature
1. Ismailova S.T. Encyclopedia for children V.5, part 3. History of Russia XX century. – M.: Avanta +, 1996.
2. Danilova A.A. Russia and the World: Educational book on history. In 2 parts. Part II. - M.: VLADOS, 1994
3. Ostrovsky V.P., Utkin A.I. History of Russia XX century. 11th grade: Textbook. - M .: Bustard, 1995
4. A.A. Recent history of the XX century. Textbook for basic school. – M.: UGO, 1995.
5. Krivosheev M.V., Khodyakov M.V. History of Russia: A guide for passing the exam. - M .: Yurayt-publishing house, 2005
6. Dmitrienko V.P., Esakov V.D., Shestakov V.L. The history of homeland. XX century 11kl.: A manual for secondary schools. – 2nd edition. – M.: Bustard, 1998.
7. Lelchuk V. C., Pivovar E. I. The USSR and the Cold War. M., 1995.
8. Orlov A.S., Georgiev V.A. History of Russia from ancient times to the present day. Textbook. - M .: "Prospect", 1999
9. Reader by recent history T.3 part 1. - M., 1974
10. Utkin A. "World Cold War", M .: Eksmo 2005
11. Bezborodova A.B. History of Russia: modern times (1945-1999). Textbook for high schools. - M .: Olimp, AST Publishing House, 2001
12. Trofimenko G. A. USA: politics, war, ideology. Moscow, 2001.
13. Kosarev A.I. History of State and Law of Foreign Countries: Textbook for High Schools. - M .: Publishing house NORMA, 2002.
War is incredible
peace is impossible.
Raymond Aron
Today's relations between Russia and the collective West can hardly be called constructive, let alone partnership. Mutual accusations, loud statements, growing saber-rattling and furious propaganda - all this creates a strong impression of deja vu. All this once was and is repeated now - but already in the form of a farce. Today, the news feed seems to return to the past, at the time of the epic confrontation between two powerful superpowers: the USSR and the USA, which lasted more than half a century and repeatedly brought humanity to the brink of a global military conflict. In history, this long-term confrontation has been called the Cold War. Historians consider its beginning to be the famous speech of the British Prime Minister (at that time already former) Churchill, delivered in Fulton in March 1946.
The era of the Cold War lasted from 1946 to 1989 and ended with what the current Russian President Putin called "the biggest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century" - the Soviet Union disappeared from the map of the world, and with it the entire communist system sank into oblivion. The confrontation between the two systems was not a war in the truest sense of the word, a clear clash between the armed forces of the two superpowers was avoided, but the numerous military conflicts of the Cold War that it gave rise to in different regions of the planet claimed millions of human lives.
During the Cold War, the struggle between the USSR and the United States was not only in the military or political sphere. No less intense was the competition in the economic, scientific, cultural and other fields. But the ideology was still the main one: the essence of the Cold War is the sharpest confrontation between the two models of the state system: communist and capitalist.
By the way, the very term "cold war" was coined by the cult writer of the 20th century, George Orwell. He used it even before the start of the confrontation in his article "You and the atomic bomb." The article was published in 1945. Orwell himself in his youth was an ardent supporter of the communist ideology, but in his mature years he was completely disillusioned with it, therefore, probably, he understood the issue better than many. Officially, the term "cold war" was first used by the Americans two years later.
The Cold War was not only fought by the Soviet Union and the United States. It was a global competition involving dozens of countries around the world. Some of them were the closest allies (or satellites) of the superpowers, while others were drawn into the confrontation by accident, sometimes even against their will. The logic of the processes required the parties to the conflict to create their own zones of influence in different regions of the world. Sometimes they were reinforced with the help of military-political blocs, NATO and the Warsaw Pact became the main alliances of the Cold War. On their periphery, in the redistribution of spheres of influence, the main military conflicts of the Cold War took place.
The described historical period is inextricably linked with the creation and development of nuclear weapons. Mainly, it was the presence of this most powerful means of deterrence in the hands of the opponents that did not allow the conflict to go into a hot phase. The Cold War between the USSR and the USA gave rise to an unprecedented arms race: already in the 70s, the opponents had so many nuclear warheads that they would have been enough to destroy the entire Earth. And that's not counting the huge arsenals of conventional weapons.
Over the decades, there have been both periods of normalization of relations between the US and the USSR (détente) and times of tough confrontation. The crises of the Cold War several times brought the world to the brink of a global catastrophe. The most famous of these is the Cuban Missile Crisis, which took place in 1962.
The end of the Cold War was swift and unexpected for many. The Soviet Union lost the economic race with the West. The lag was already noticeable at the end of the 60s, and by the 80s the situation had become catastrophic. The most powerful blow to the national economy of the USSR was dealt by the fall in oil prices.
In the mid-80s, it became clear to the Soviet leadership that something must be changed in the country immediately, otherwise a catastrophe would come. The end of the Cold War and the arms race were vital for the USSR. But perestroika, started by Gorbachev, led to the dismantling of the entire state structure of the USSR, and then to the collapse of the socialist state. Moreover, the United States, it seems, did not even expect such a denouement: back in 1990, American Soviet experts prepared for their leadership a forecast for the development of the Soviet economy until the year 2000.
At the end of 1989, Gorbachev and Bush officially announced during a summit on the island of Malta that the global cold war was over.
The theme of the Cold War is very popular in the Russian media today. Speaking of the current foreign policy crisis, commentators often use the term "new cold war". Is it so? What are the similarities and differences between the current situation and the events of forty years ago?
Cold War: causes and background
After the war, the Soviet Union and Germany lay in ruins, and Eastern Europe suffered greatly during the fighting. The economy of the Old World was in decline.
On the contrary, the territory of the United States was practically not affected during the war, and the human losses of the United States could not be compared with the Soviet Union or Eastern European countries. Even before the start of the war, the United States had become the world's leading industrial power, and military supplies to the allies further strengthened the American economy. By 1945, America had managed to create a new weapon of unheard of power - a nuclear bomb. All of the above allowed the United States to confidently count on the role of a new hegemon in the post-war world. However, it soon became clear that on the way to planetary leadership, the United States had a new dangerous rival - the Soviet Union.
The USSR almost single-handedly defeated the strongest German land army, but paid a colossal price for it - millions of Soviet citizens died at the front or in occupation, tens of thousands of cities and villages lay in ruins. Despite this, the Red Army occupied the entire territory of Eastern Europe, including most of Germany. In 1945, the USSR, no doubt, had the strongest armed forces on the European continent. No less strong were the positions of the Soviet Union in Asia. Literally a few years after the end of World War II, the communists came to power in China, which made this huge country an ally of the USSR in the region.
The communist leadership of the USSR never abandoned plans for further expansion and spread of its ideology to new regions of the planet. It can be said that throughout almost its entire history, the foreign policy of the USSR was quite tough and aggressive. In 1945, especially favorable conditions developed for the promotion of communist ideology in new countries.
It should be understood that the Soviet Union was incomprehensible to most American, and Western politicians in general. A country where there is no private property and market relations, churches are blown up, and society is under full control special services and parties, seemed to them some kind of parallel reality. Even Hitler's Germany was somewhat more understandable to the average American. In general, Western politicians had a rather negative attitude towards the USSR even before the start of the war, and after its completion, fear was added to this attitude.
In 1945 took place Yalta Conference, during which Stalin, Churchill and Roosevelt tried to divide the world into spheres of influence and create new rules for the future world order. Many modern researchers see the origins of the Cold War in this conference.
Summarizing the above, we can say: the cold war between the USSR and the USA was inevitable. These countries were too different to coexist peacefully. The Soviet Union wanted to expand the socialist camp to include new states, and the US sought to reshape the world to create more favorable conditions for its large corporations. However, the main causes of the Cold War are still in the realm of ideology.
The first signs of a future Cold War appeared even before the final victory over Nazism. In the spring of 1945, the USSR made territorial claims against Turkey and demanded that the status of the Black Sea straits be changed. Stalin was interested in the possibility of creating a naval base in the Dardanelles.
A little later (in April 1945), British Prime Minister Churchill instructed to prepare plans for a possible war with the Soviet Union. He later wrote about this in his memoirs. At the end of the war, the British and Americans kept several divisions of the Wehrmacht undisbanded in case of a conflict with the USSR.
In March 1946, Churchill gave his famous Fulton speech, which many historians consider the "trigger" of the Cold War. In this speech, the politician called on Britain to strengthen relations with the United States in order to jointly repel the expansion of the Soviet Union. Churchill considered the growing influence of communist parties in the states of Europe to be dangerous. He urged not to repeat the mistakes of the 1930s and not to be led by the aggressor, but to firmly and consistently defend Western values.
“... From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, the Iron Curtain was lowered across the entire continent. Behind this 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. 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…” – this is how Churchill, undoubtedly the most experienced and insightful politician in the West, described the new post-war reality in Europe. The USSR did not like this speech very much, Stalin compared Churchill with Hitler and accused him of inciting a new war.
It should be understood that during this period, the Cold War confrontation front often ran not along the external borders of countries, but within them. The poverty of Europeans, ravaged by the war, made them more receptive to leftist ideology. After the war in Italy and France, about a third of the population supported the communists. The Soviet Union, in turn, did everything possible to support the national communist parties.
In 1946, the Greek rebels became more active, led by local communists, and the Soviet Union supplied weapons through Bulgaria, Albania and Yugoslavia. It was not until 1949 that the uprising was put down. After the end of the war, the USSR for a long time refused to withdraw its troops from Iran and demanded that it be granted the right to protectorate over Libya.
In 1947, the Americans developed the so-called Marshall Plan, which provided for significant financial assistance to the states of Central and Western Europe. This program included 17 countries, the total amount of transfers was 17 billion dollars. In exchange for money, the Americans demanded political concessions: the recipient countries were to exclude communists from their governments. Naturally, neither the USSR nor the countries of the "people's democracies" of Eastern Europe received any assistance.
One of the real "architects" of the Cold War can be called the Deputy American Ambassador to the USSR George Kennan, who sent telegram No. 511 to his homeland in February 1946. It went down in history under the name "Long Telegram". In this document, the diplomat recognized the impossibility of cooperation with the USSR and called on his government to oppose the communists harshly, because, according to Kennan, the leadership of the Soviet Union respects only force. Later, this document largely determined the position of the United States in relation to the Soviet Union for many decades.
In the same year, President Truman announced the "containment policy" of the USSR throughout the world, later called the "Truman Doctrine".
In 1949, the largest military-political bloc was formed - the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, or NATO. It included most of the countries of Western Europe, Canada and the United States. The main task of the new structure was to protect Europe from the Soviet invasion. In 1955, the communist countries of Eastern Europe and the USSR created their own military alliance, called the Warsaw Pact Organization.
Stages of the Cold War
The following stages of the Cold War are distinguished:
- 1946 - 1953 First stage, which is usually considered to start with Churchill's speech in Fulton. During this period, the Marshall Plan for Europe is launched, the North Atlantic Alliance and the Warsaw Pact Organization are created, that is, the main participants in the Cold War are determined. At this time, the efforts of Soviet intelligence and the military-industrial complex were aimed at creating their own nuclear weapons; in August 1949, the USSR tested its first nuclear bomb. But the United States for a long time retained a significant superiority both in the number of charges and in the number of carriers. In 1950, the war on the Korean Peninsula began, which lasted until 1953 and became one of the bloodiest military conflicts of the last century;
- 1953 - 1962 This is a very controversial period of the Cold War, during which there was the Khrushchev "thaw" and the Cuban Missile Crisis, which almost ended in a nuclear war between the US and the Soviet Union. These years saw anti-communist uprisings in Hungary and Poland, another Berlin crisis and a war in the Middle East. In 1957, the USSR successfully tested the first intercontinental ballistic missile capable of reaching the United States. In 1961, the USSR conducted demonstrative tests of the most powerful thermonuclear charge in the history of mankind - the Tsar Bomba. The Caribbean crisis led to the signing of several documents between the superpowers on the nonproliferation of nuclear weapons;
- 1962 - 1979 This period can be called the apogee of the Cold War. The arms race reaches its maximum intensity, tens of billions of dollars are spent on it, undermining the economy of rivals. Attempts by the government of Czechoslovakia to carry out pro-Western reforms in the country were thwarted in 1968 by the entry of troops of members of the Warsaw Pact into its territory. Tensions between the two countries, of course, were present, but the Soviet Secretary General Brezhnev was not a fan of adventures, so acute crises were avoided. Moreover, in the early 1970s, the so-called "detente of international tension" began, which somewhat reduced the intensity of the confrontation. Important documents relating to nuclear weapons were signed, joint programs in space were implemented (the famous Soyuz-Apollo). In the conditions of the Cold War, these were out of the ordinary events. However, "détente" ended by the mid-1970s, when the Americans deployed medium-range nuclear missiles in Europe. The USSR responded by deploying similar weapon systems. By the mid 70s Soviet economy began to noticeably slip, there was a lag of the USSR in the scientific and technical sphere;
- 1979 - 1987 Relations between the superpowers deteriorated again after Soviet troops entered Afghanistan. In response, the Americans staged a boycott of the Olympics, which was hosted by the Soviet Union in 1980, and began to help the Afghan Mujahideen. In 1981, a new American president came to the White House - Republican Ronald Reagan, who became the most tough and consistent opponent of the USSR. It was with his submission that the program of the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) began, which was supposed to protect the American territory of the United States from Soviet warheads. During the Reagan years, the United States began to develop neutron weapons, and appropriations for military needs increased significantly. In one of his speeches, the American president called the USSR an "evil empire";
- 1987 - 1991 This stage is the end of the Cold War. A new one came to power in the USSR general secretary- Mikhail Gorbachev. He began global changes within the country, radically revised the foreign policy of the state. Another discharge has begun. The main problem of the Soviet Union was the state of the economy, undermined by military spending and low prices for energy carriers - the main export product of the state. Now the USSR could no longer afford to pursue a foreign policy in the spirit of the Cold War, it needed Western loans. Literally in a few years, the intensity of the confrontation between the USSR and the United States practically vanished. Significant documents were signed concerning the reduction of nuclear and conventional weapons. In 1988, the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan began. In 1989, one after another, pro-Soviet regimes began to crumble in Eastern Europe, and at the end of the same year the Berlin Wall was broken. Many historians consider this event to be the true end of the Cold War era.
Why did the USSR lose in the Cold War?
Despite the fact that every year the events of the Cold War are getting further and further away from us, topics related to this period are of increasing interest in Russian society. Domestic propaganda tenderly and carefully nurtures the nostalgia of a part of the population for those times when "there were two to twenty sausages and everyone was afraid of us." Such, they say, the country was destroyed!
Why is the Soviet Union, having huge resources, having a very high level social development and the highest scientific potential, lost its main war- Cold?
The USSR appeared as a result of an unprecedented social experiment to create a just society in a single country. Such ideas appeared in different historical periods, but usually they remained projects. The Bolsheviks should be given their due: for the first time they managed to realize this utopian plan in the territory Russian Empire. Socialism has a chance to take its place as a just system of social organization (socialist practices are becoming more and more evident in the social life of the Scandinavian countries, for example) - but this was not feasible at a time when they tried to introduce this social system in a revolutionary, coercive way. We can say that socialism in Russia was ahead of its time. It is unlikely that he became such a terrible and inhuman system, especially in comparison with the capitalist one. And it is all the more appropriate to recall that historically it was the Western European "progressive" empires that caused the suffering and death of the largest number of people around the world - Russia is far in this respect, in particular, to Great Britain (probably, it is she who is the true "evil empire"). ", a tool of genocide for Ireland, the peoples of the American continent, India, China and many others). Returning to the socialist experiment in the Russian Empire at the beginning of the 20th century, it should be recognized that the peoples living in it cost innumerable victims and suffering throughout the century. The German Chancellor Bismarck is credited with the following words: "If you want to build socialism, take a country that you do not mind." Unfortunately, it turned out not to be a pity for Russia. However, no one has the right to blame Russia for its path, especially given the foreign policy practice of the past 20th century in general.
The only problem is that under Soviet-style socialism and the general level of productive forces of the 20th century, the economy does not want to work. From the word at all. A person deprived of material interest in the results of his labor does not work well. Moreover, at all levels, from an ordinary worker to a high official. The Soviet Union - having Ukraine, Kuban, Don and Kazakhstan - already in the mid-60s was forced to buy grain abroad. Even then, the food supply situation in the USSR was catastrophic. Then the socialist state was saved by a miracle - the discovery of "big" oil in Western Siberia and the rise in world prices for this raw material. Some economists believe that without this oil, the collapse of the USSR would have happened already in the late 70s.
Speaking about the reasons for the defeat of the Soviet Union in the Cold War, of course, one should not forget about ideology. The USSR was originally created as a state with a completely new ideology, and for many years it was its most powerful weapon. In the 1950s and 1960s, many states (especially in Asia and Africa) voluntarily chose the socialist type of development. Believed in the construction of communism and Soviet citizens. However, already in the 1970s, it became clear that the construction of communism was a utopia that could not be realized at that time. Moreover, even many representatives of the Soviet nomenklatura elite, the main future beneficiaries of the collapse of the USSR, stopped believing in such ideas.
But at the same time, it should be noted that today many Western intellectuals admit that it was the confrontation with the “backward” Soviet system that forced the capitalist systems to mimic, to accept unfavorable social norms that originally appeared in the USSR (8-hour working day, equal rights for women , various social benefits and much more). It will not be superfluous to repeat: most likely, the time of socialism has not yet come, since there is no civilizational base for this and an appropriate level of development of production in the global economy. Liberal capitalism is by no means a panacea for world crises and suicidal global wars, but rather, on the contrary, an inevitable path to them.
The loss of the USSR in the Cold War was due not so much to the power of its opponents (although it was certainly great), but to the insoluble contradictions inherent within the Soviet system itself. But in the modern world order, there are no fewer internal contradictions, and certainly no more security and peace.
Results of the Cold War
Of course, the main positive outcome of the Cold War is that it did not develop into a hot war. Despite all the contradictions between the states, the parties were smart enough to realize what edge they were on and not cross the fatal line.
However, other consequences of the Cold War cannot be overestimated. In fact, today we live in a world that was largely shaped during that historical period. It was during the Cold War that the current system of international relations emerged. And at the very least, it works. In addition, we should not forget that a significant part of the world elite was formed back in the years of confrontation between the US and the USSR. We can say that they come from the Cold War.
The Cold War had an impact on almost all international processes that took place during this period. New states arose, wars broke out, uprisings and revolutions broke out. Many countries in Asia and Africa gained independence or got rid of the colonial yoke thanks to the support of one of the superpowers, which thus sought to expand their own zone of influence. Even today, there are countries that can safely be called "cold war relics" - for example, Cuba or North Korea.
It is impossible not to note the fact that the Cold War contributed to the development of technology. The confrontation of the superpowers gave a powerful impetus to the study of outer space, without it it is not known whether the landing on the moon would have taken place or not. The arms race contributed to the development of rocket and information technologies, mathematics, physics, medicine and much more.
If we talk about the political results of this historical period, then the main one, without a doubt, is the collapse of the Soviet Union and the collapse of the entire socialist camp. As a result of these processes, about two dozen new states appeared on the political map of the world. Russia inherited from the USSR the entire nuclear arsenal, most of the conventional weapons, as well as a seat in the UN Security Council. And as a result of the Cold War, the United States has significantly increased its power and today, in fact, is the only superpower.
The end of the Cold War led to two decades of explosive growth in the global economy. Huge territories of the former USSR, previously closed by the Iron Curtain, have become part of the global market. Military spending dropped sharply, and the freed funds were directed to investments.
However, the main result of the global confrontation between the USSR and the West was a clear proof of the utopian nature of the socialist model of the state in the conditions of social development at the end of the 20th century. Today in Russia (and other former Soviet republics) disputes about the Soviet stage in the history of the country do not subside. Someone sees in it a blessing, others call it the greatest catastrophe. At least one more generation must be born in order for the events of the Cold War (as well as for the entire Soviet period) to be viewed as a historical fact - calmly and without emotions. The communist experiment is, of course, the most important experience for human civilization, which has not yet been “reflected”. And perhaps this experience will still benefit Russia.
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