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Cold War: the USSR and the West. Cold War periods and international crises The first conflicts and crises of the Cold War abstract

We do not want a single inch of foreign land. But we will not give our land, not a single inch of our land, to anyone.

Joseph Stalin

The Cold War is a state of contradiction between the two dominant world systems: capitalism and socialism. Socialism represented the USSR, and capitalism, mainly the USA and Great Britain. Today it is popular to say that the Cold War is a confrontation between the USSR and the USA, but at the same time they forget to say that the speech of the British Prime Minister Churchill led to the formal declaration of war.

Causes of the war

In 1945, contradictions began to appear between the USSR and other members of the anti-Hitler coalition. It was clear that Germany had lost the war, and now the main question is the post-war structure of the world. Here, everyone tried to pull the blanket in his direction, to take a leading position relative to other countries. The main contradictions were in European countries: Stalin wanted to subordinate them to the Soviet system, and the capitalists sought to prevent the Soviet state from entering Europe.

The causes of the Cold War are as follows:

  • Social. Rallying the country in the face of a new enemy.
  • Economic. The struggle for markets and resources. The desire to weaken the economic power of the enemy.
  • Military. An arms race in the event of a new open war.
  • Ideological. The society of the enemy is presented exclusively in a negative connotation. The struggle of two ideologies.

The active stage of confrontation between the two systems begins with the US atomic bombing of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. If we consider this bombing in isolation, then it is illogical - the war is won, Japan is not a competitor. Why bomb cities, and even with such weapons? But if we consider the end of the Second World War and the beginning of the Cold War, then in the bombing appears the goal is to show the potential enemy their strength, and to show who should be the leader in the world. And the factor of nuclear weapons was very important in the future. After all, the atomic bomb appeared in the USSR only in 1949 ...

The beginning of the war

If we briefly consider the Cold War, then its beginning today is associated exclusively with Churchill's speech. Therefore, they say that the beginning of the Cold War is March 5, 1946.

Churchill's speech March 5, 1946

In fact, Truman (President of the United States) delivered a more specific speech, from which it became clear to everyone that the Cold War had begun. And Churchill's speech (it is not difficult to find and read it on the Internet today) was superficial. It talked a lot about the Iron Curtain, but not a word about the Cold War.

Stalin's interview of February 10, 1946

On February 10, 1946, the Pravda newspaper published an interview with Stalin. Today this newspaper is very hard to find, but this interview was very interesting. In it, Stalin said the following: “Capitalism always breeds crises and conflicts. This always creates the threat of war, which is a threat to the USSR. Therefore, we must restore the Soviet economy at an accelerated pace. We must prioritize heavy industry over consumer goods.”

This speech of Stalin turned over and it was on it that all Western leaders relied, talking about the desire of the USSR to start a war. But, as you can see, in this speech of Stalin there was not even a hint of the militaristic expansion of the Soviet state.

The real start of the war

To say that the beginning of the Cold War is connected with Churchill's speech is a bit illogical. The fact is that at the time of 1946 it was just the former Prime Minister of Great Britain. It turns out a kind of theater of the absurd - the war between the USSR and the USA is officially started by the former Prime Minister of England. In reality, everything was different, and Churchill's speech was just a convenient pretext, on which it was later profitable to write everything off.

The real beginning of the Cold War should be attributed to at least 1944, when it was already clear that Germany was doomed to defeat, and all the allies pulled the blanket over themselves, realizing that it was very important to gain dominance over the post-war world. If you try to draw a more accurate line for the start of the war, then the first serious disagreements on the topic of “how to live on” between the allies happened at the Tehran conference.

The specifics of the war

For a correct understanding of the processes that took place during the Cold War, you need to understand what this war was in history. Today, more and more often they say that it was actually the third world war. And this is a huge mistake. The fact is that all the wars of mankind that were before, including the Napoleonic wars and World Wars 2, these were the wars of the capitalist world for the rights dominated in a certain region. The Cold War was the first global war where there was a confrontation between two systems: capitalist and socialist. Here it may be objected to me that in the history of mankind there were wars, where at the forefront was not capital, but religion: Christianity against Islam and Islam against Christianity. In part, this objection is true, but only from happiness. The fact is that any religious conflicts cover only part of the population and part of the world, while the global cold war has engulfed the whole world. All countries of the world could be clearly divided into 2 main groups:

  1. Socialist. They recognized the dominance of the USSR and received funding from Moscow.
  2. Capitalist. Recognized US dominance and received funding from Washington.

There were also "indefinite". There were few such countries, but they were. Their main specificity was that outwardly they could not decide which camp to join, therefore they received funding from two sources: both from Moscow and from Washington.

Who started the war

One of the problems of the Cold War is the question of who started it. Indeed, there is no army here that crosses the border of another state, and thereby declares war. Today you can blame everything on the USSR and say that it was Stalin who started the war. But this hypothesis is in trouble with the evidence base. I will not help our "partners" and look for what motives the USSR could have for the war, but I will give the facts why Stalin did not need the aggravation of relations (at least not directly in 1946):

  • Nuclear weapon. In the United States it appeared in 1945, and in the USSR in 1949. You can imagine that the overcalculated Stalin wanted to aggravate relations with the United States when the enemy has a trump card up his sleeve - nuclear weapons. At the same time, let me remind you, there was also a plan for the atomic bombing of the largest cities of the USSR.
  • Economy. The United States and Great Britain, by and large, made money on the Second World War, so they had no economic problems. The USSR is another matter. The country needed to restore the economy. By the way, the USA had 50% of the world GDP in 1945.

The facts show that in 1944-1946 the USSR was not ready to start a war. And Churchill's speech, which formally started the Cold War, was not delivered in Moscow, and not at its suggestion. But on the other hand, both opposing camps were extremely interested in such a war.

As early as September 4, 1945, the United States adopted Memorandum 329, which developed a plan for the atomic bombing of Moscow and Leningrad. In my opinion, this is the best proof of who wanted war and aggravation of relations.

Goals

Any war has goals, and it is surprising that our historians for the most part do not even try to define the goals of the Cold War. On the one hand, this is justified by the fact that the USSR had only one goal - the expansion and strengthening of socialism by any means. But Western countries were more resourceful. They sought not only to spread their world influence, but also to inflict spiritual blows on the USSR. And it continues to this day. The following goals of the United States in the war in terms of historical and psychological impact can be distinguished:

  1. Make a substitution of concepts at the historical level. Note that under the influence of these ideas, today all the historical figures of Russia who bowed to Western countries are presented as ideal rulers. At the same time, everyone who advocated the rise of Russia is presented by tyrants, despots and fanatics.
  2. The development of an inferiority complex among Soviet people. They tried to prove to us all the time that we are somehow not like that, that we are guilty of all the problems of mankind, and so on. Largely because of this, people so easily accepted the collapse of the USSR and the problems of the 90s - it was a "retribution" for our inferiority, but in fact the enemy simply achieved the goal in the war.
  3. Blackening of history. This stage continues to this day. If you study Western materials, then there our whole history (literally all) is presented as one continuous violence.

There are, of course, pages of history with which our country can be reproached, but most of the stories are sucked out of thin air. Moreover, liberals and Western historians for some reason forget that it was not Russia that colonized the whole world, it was not Russia that destroyed the indigenous population of America, it was not Russia that shot Indians with cannons, tying 20 people in a row to save cannonballs, it was not Russia that exploited Africa. There are thousands of such examples, because every country in history has hard-hitting stories. Therefore, if you really want to poke around in the bad events of our history, be kind enough not to forget that Western countries have no less such stories.

Stages of war

The stages of the Cold War is one of the most controversial issues, since it is very difficult to graduate them. However, I can suggest dividing this war into 8 key phases:

  • Preparatory (193-1945). The world war was still going on and formally the “allies” acted as a united front, but there were already disagreements and everyone began to fight for post-war world domination.
  • Beginning (1945-1949). The time of complete US hegemony, when the Americans manage to make the dollar a single world currency and strengthen the country's position in almost all regions except those in which the USSR army was located.
  • Razgar (1949-1953). The key factors of 1949, which make it possible to single out this year as a key one: 1 - the creation of atomic weapons in the USSR, 2 - the economy of the USSR is reaching the indicators of 1940. After that, an active confrontation began, when the United States could no longer speak with the USSR from a position of strength.
  • First détente (1953-1956). The key event was the death of Stalin, after which a new course was announced - the policy of peaceful coexistence.
  • A new round of crisis (1956-1970). Events in Hungary led to a new round of tension, which lasted almost 15 years, which also included the Caribbean crisis.
  • Second détente (1971-1976). This stage of the Cold War, in short, is associated with the start of work of the commission to relieve tension in Europe, and with the signing of the Final Act in Helsinki.
  • Third crisis (1977-1985). A new round, when the cold war between the USSR and the USA reached its climax. The main point of confrontation is Afghanistan. In terms of military development, the countries staged a "wild" arms race.
  • End of the war (1985-1988). The end of the Cold War falls on 1988, when it became clear that the “new political thinking” in the USSR was ending the war and so far only de facto recognized the American victory.

These are the main stages of the Cold War. As a result, socialism and communism lost out to capitalism, since the moral and psychic influence of the United States, which was openly directed at the leadership of the CPSU, achieved its goal: the leadership of the party began to put their personal interests and benefits above socialist foundations.

Forms

The confrontation between the two ideologies began in 1945. Gradually, this confrontation embraced all spheres of public life.

Military confrontation

The main military confrontation of the Cold War era is the struggle between the two blocs. On April 4, 1949, NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) was created. NATO included the USA, Canada, England, France, Italy and a number of small countries. In response, on May 14, 1955, the OVD (Warsaw Pact Organization) was created. Thus, there was a clear confrontation between the two systems. But again, it should be noted that the first step was taken by the Western countries, which organized NATO 6 years earlier than the Warsaw Pact appeared.

The main confrontation, about which we have already partially spoken, is atomic weapons. In 1945, this weapon appeared in the United States. Moreover, in America they developed a plan for delivering nuclear strikes on the 20 largest cities of the USSR, using 192 bombs. This forced the USSR to do even the impossible to create its own atomic bomb, the first successful tests of which took place in August 1949. In the future, all this resulted in an arms race on a huge scale.

Economic confrontation

In 1947, the United States developed the Marshall Plan. According to this plan, the United States provided financial assistance to all countries affected during the war. But there was one limitation in this plan - only those countries that shared the political interests and goals of the United States received assistance. In response to this, the USSR begins to provide assistance in post-war reconstruction to countries that have chosen the path of socialism. Based on these approaches, 2 economic blocks were created:

  • Western European Union (ZEV) in 1948.
  • Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (CMEA) in January 1949. In addition to the USSR, the organization included: Czechoslovakia, Romania, Poland, Hungary and Bulgaria.

Despite the formation of alliances, the essence has not changed: ZEV helped with US money, and CMEA helped with USSR money. The rest of the countries only consumed.

In the economic confrontation with the United States, Stalin took two steps that had an extremely negative impact on the American economy: on March 1, 1950, the USSR moved from calculating the ruble in dollars (as it was around the world) to gold backing, and in April 1952, the USSR, China and Eastern European countries are creating an alternative trade zone to the dollar. This trading zone did not use the dollar at all, which means that the capitalist world, which previously owned 100% of the world market, lost at least 1/3 of this market. All this happened against the backdrop of the "economic miracle of the USSR." Western experts said that the USSR would be able to reach the level of 1940 after the war only by 1971, but in reality this happened as early as 1949.

Crises

Crises of the Cold War
Event the date
1948
Vietnam War 1946-1954
1950-1953
1946-1949
1948-1949
1956
Mid 50s - mid 60s
Mid 60s
War in Afghanistan

These are the main crises of the Cold War, but there were others, less significant. Next, we will briefly consider what the essence of these crises was, and what consequences they led to in the world.

Military conflicts

Many people in our country do not take the Cold War seriously. We have an understanding in our minds that war is “drawn swords”, weapons in hand and in the trenches. But the Cold War was different, although even it was not without regional conflicts, some of which were extremely difficult. The main conflicts of those times:

  • The split of Germany. Formation of Germany and the GDR.
  • Vietnam War (1946-1954). It led to the division of the country.
  • War in Korea (1950-1953). It led to the division of the country.

Berlin Crisis of 1948

For a correct understanding of the essence of the Berlin crisis of 1948, one should study the map.

Germany was divided into 2 parts: western and eastern. Berlin was also in the zone of influence, but the city itself was located deep in the eastern lands, that is, on the territory controlled by the USSR. In an effort to put pressure on West Berlin, the Soviet leadership organized its blockade. It was a response to the recognition of Taiwan and its admission to the UN.

England and France organized an air corridor, supplying the inhabitants of West Berlin with everything they needed. Therefore, the blockade failed and the crisis itself began to slow down. Realizing that the blockade leads to nothing, the Soviet leadership removes it, normalizing life in Berlin.

The continuation of the crisis was the creation of two states in Germany. In 1949, the western states were transformed into the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG). In response, the German Democratic Republic (GDR) was created in the eastern lands. It is these events that should be considered the final split of Europe into 2 opposing camps - West and East.

Revolution in China

In 1946, a civil war broke out in China. The Communist bloc staged an armed coup seeking to overthrow the government of Chiang Kai-shek from the Kuomintang Party. The civil war and revolution became possible thanks to the events of 1945. After the victory over Japan, a base was created here for the rise of communism. Starting in 1946, the USSR began supplying weapons, food and everything necessary to support the Chinese communists who were fighting for the country.

The revolution ended in 1949 with the formation of the People's Republic of China (PRC), where all power was in the hands of the Communist Party. As for the Chiang Kai-shek, they fled to Taiwan and formed their own state, which was very quickly recognized in the West, and even admitted to the UN. In response, the USSR leaves the UN. This is an important point as it had a major impact on another Asian conflict, the Korean War.

Formation of the State of Israel

From the first meetings of the UN, one of the main issues was the fate of the state of Palestine. At that time, Palestine was actually a British colony. The division of Palestine into a Jewish and an Arab state was an attempt by the US and the USSR to strike at Great Britain and its positions in Asia. Stalin approved of the idea of ​​creating the state of Israel, because he believed in the power of the "leftist" Jews, and expected to gain control over this country, gaining a foothold in the Middle East.


The Palestinian problem was resolved in November 1947 at the UN Assembly, where the position of the USSR played a key role. Therefore, we can say that Stalin played a key role in the creation of the state of Israel.

The UN Assembly decided to create 2 states: Jewish (Israel" Arab (Palestine). In May 1948, Israel's independence was declared and immediately the Arab countries declared war on this state. The Middle East crisis began. Great Britain supported Palestine, the USSR and the USA supported Israel. In In 1949, Israel won the war and immediately a conflict arose between the Jewish state and the USSR, as a result of which Stalin severed diplomatic relations with Israel.The US won the battle in the Middle East.

Korean War

The Korean War is an undeservedly forgotten event that is little studied today, which is a mistake. After all, the Korean War is the third in history in terms of human casualties. During the war years, 14 million people died! More casualties in only two world wars. The large number of casualties is due to the fact that this was the first major armed conflict in the Cold War.

After the victory over Japan in 1945, the USSR and the USA divided Korea (a former colony of Japan) into zones of influence: North Korea - under the influence of the USSR, South Korea - under the influence of the USA. In 1948, 2 states were officially formed:

  • Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK). Zone of influence of the USSR. The leader is Kim Il Sung.
  • The Republic of Korea. US zone of influence. The leader is Lee Seung Mann.

With the support of the USSR and China, on June 25, 1950, Kim Il Sung starts a war. In fact, it was a war for the unification of Korea, which the DPRK planned to end quickly. The factor of a quick victory was important, since this was the only way to prevent the US from intervening in the conflict. The beginning was promising, the UN troops, which were 90% American, came to the aid of the Republic of Korea. After that, the DPRK army retreated and was close to collapse. The situation was saved by Chinese volunteers who intervened in the war and restored the balance of power. After that, local battles began and the border between North and South Korea was established along the 38th parallel.

First détente of the war

The first détente in the Cold War occurred in 1953 after the death of Stalin. An active dialogue began between the opposing countries. Already on July 15, 1953, the new government of the USSR, headed by Khrushchev, announced its desire to build new relations with Western countries, based on a policy of peaceful coexistence. Similar statements were made from the opposite side.

A major factor in stabilizing the situation was the end of the Korean War and the establishment of diplomatic relations between the USSR and Israel. Wanting to demonstrate to Western countries the desire for peaceful coexistence, Khrushchev withdrew Soviet troops from Austria, having obtained a promise from the Austrian side to maintain neutrality. Naturally, there was no neutrality, just as there were no concessions and gestures from the United States.

Detente lasted from 1953 to 1956. At that time, the USSR established relations with Yugoslavia, India, began to develop relations with African and Asian countries, which had only recently freed themselves from colonial dependence.

A new round of tension

Hungary

At the end of 1956, an uprising began in Hungary. Local residents, realizing that the position of the USSR after the death of Stalin, became noticeably worse, raised an uprising against the current regime in the country. As a result, the cold war came to its critical point. For the USSR there were 2 ways:

  1. Recognize the revolution's right to self-determination. This step would give all the other countries dependent on the USSR the understanding that at any moment they could leave socialism.
  2. Suppress the rebellion. This approach was contrary to the principles of socialism, but only in this way it was possible to maintain a leading position in the world.

The 2nd option was chosen. The army crushed the rebellion. For suppression in places it was necessary to use weapons. As a result, the revolution was won, it became clear that the "detente" was over.


Caribbean crisis

Cuba is a small state near the US, but it almost led the world to a nuclear war. At the end of the 50s, a revolution took place in Cuba and Fidel Castro seized power, who declared his desire to build socialism on the island. For America, this was a challenge - a state appeared near their border, which acts as a geopolitical enemy. As a result, the United States planned to resolve the situation by military means, but were defeated.

The Cuban Missile Crisis began in 1961, after the USSR secretly delivered missiles to Cuba. This soon became known, and the US President demanded to withdraw the missiles. The parties escalated the conflict until it became clear that the world was on the verge of a nuclear war. As a result, the USSR agreed to withdraw its missiles from Cuba, and the United States agreed to withdraw its missiles from Turkey.

"Prague Vienna"

In the mid-1960s, new tensions arose, this time in Czechoslovakia. The situation here strongly resembled the one that was earlier in Hungary: democratic tendencies began in the country. Basically, young people opposed the current government, and the movement was headed by A. Dubcek.

A situation arose, as in Hungary - to allow for a democratic revolution, meant to give an example to other countries that the socialist system could be overthrown at any moment. Therefore, the Warsaw Pact countries sent their troops to Czechoslovakia. The rebellion was suppressed, but the suppression caused outrage throughout the world. But it was a cold war, and, of course, any active actions of one side were actively criticized by the other side.


Detente in the war

The peak of the Cold War came in the 50s and 60s, when the aggravation of relations between the USSR and the USA was so great that a war could start at any moment. Beginning in the 1970s, the war was detente and the subsequent defeat of the USSR. But in this case, I want to focus briefly on the United States. What happened in this country before "détente"? In fact, the country ceased to be popular and came under the control of the capitalists, under which it is to this day. One can say even more - the USSR won the Cold War from the USA in the late 60s, and the USA, as the state of the American people, ceased to exist. Capitalists seized power. The apogee of these events is the assassination of President Kennedy. But after the United States became a country representing capitalists and oligarchs, they already won the USSR in the Cold War.

But let us return to the Cold War and détente in it. These signs were indicated in 1971 when the USSR, the USA, Britain and France signed agreements on the start of the work of the commission to solve the Berlin problem, as a point of constant tension in Europe.

final act

In 1975, the most significant event of the détente era of the Cold War took place. In those years, a pan-European meeting on security was held, in which all the countries of Europe took part (of course, including the USSR, as well as the USA and Canada). The meeting was held in Helsinki (Finland), so it went down in history as the Helsinki Final Act.

As a result of the congress, an Act was signed, but before that there were difficult negotiations, primarily on 2 points:

  • Freedom of the media in the USSR.
  • Freedom to leave "from" and "to" the USSR.

The commission from the USSR agreed to both points, but in a special formulation that did little to oblige the country itself. The final signing of the Act was the first symbol that the West and the East can agree among themselves.

New aggravation of relations

In the late 70s and early 80s, a new round of the Cold War began, when relations between the USSR and the USA heated up. There were 2 reasons for this:

The United States in the countries of Western Europe placed medium-range missiles that were capable of reaching the territory of the USSR.

The beginning of the war in Afghanistan.

As a result, the Cold War reached a new level and the enemy engaged in their usual business - an arms race. It hit the budgets of both countries very painfully and ultimately led the United States to a terrible economic crisis in 1987, and the USSR to defeat in the war and subsequent collapse.

Historical meaning

Surprisingly, in our country the Cold War is not taken seriously. The best fact demonstrating the attitude to this historical event in our country and in the West is the spelling of the name. In our country, the Cold War is written in quotation marks and with a capital letter in all textbooks, in the West - without quotation marks and with a small letter. This is the difference in attitude.


It really was a war. Just in the understanding of people who have just defeated Germany, war is weapons, shots, attack, defense, and so on. But the world has changed, and in the Cold War contradictions and ways to resolve them have come to the fore. Of course, this resulted in real armed clashes.

In any case, the results of the Cold War are important, because the USSR ceased to exist as a result of it. This ended the war itself, and Gorbachev received a medal in the United States "for victory in the cold war."

Beginning of the Cold War. March 5, 1946, is formally considered the beginning of the Cold War, when Winston Churchill delivered his famous speech in Fulton (USA). In fact, the aggravation of relations between the allies began earlier, but by March 1946 it intensified due to the refusal of the USSR to withdraw the occupying troops from Iran. Churchill's speech outlined a new reality that the retired British leader, after assurances of deep respect and admiration for "the valiant Russian people and my wartime comrade Marshal Stalin", defined as follows:

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

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

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

Military-political blocs opposing each other on the territory of Europe 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 and Hungary; with the advent 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 Cuban Missile 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 Soviet invasion of 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 spring of 1983, when a South Korean civilian airliner with almost three hundred people on board was shot down by Soviet air defense. It was then that US President Ronald Reagan used the popular expression "Evil Empire" in relation to the USSR. 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).

The history of the creation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) - a military-political alliance

Already after the Yalta agreements, a situation developed in which the foreign policy of the victorious countries in World War II was more focused on the future post-war balance of power in Europe and the world, rather than on the current situation. The result of this policy was the actual division of Europe into western and eastern territories, which were destined to become the basis for future bridgeheads of US and USSR influence. In 1947-1948. the so-called. the Marshall Plan, according to which huge amounts of money were to be invested by the United States in the European countries destroyed by the war. The Soviet government under the leadership of I.V. Stalin was not allowed to participate in the discussion of the plan in Paris in July 1947, the delegation of countries under the control of the USSR, although they had invitations. Thus, 17 countries that received assistance from the United States were integrated into a single political and economic space, which determined one of the prospects for rapprochement.

In March 1948, the Treaty of Brussels was concluded between Belgium, Great Britain, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and France, which later formed the basis of the Western European Union (WEU). The Brussels Treaty is considered to be the first step towards the formalization of the North Atlantic Alliance. In parallel, secret negotiations were held between the United States, Canada and Great Britain on the creation of a union of states based on common goals and an understanding of the prospects for joint development, different from the UN, which would be based on their civilizational unity. Expanded negotiations between European countries with the United States and Canada on the creation of a single union soon followed. All these international processes culminated in the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty on April 4, 1949, putting into effect a system of common defense of twelve countries. Among them: Belgium, Great Britain, Denmark, Iceland, Italy, Canada, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, USA, France. The treaty was aimed at creating a common security system. The parties were obliged to collectively protect the one who would be attacked. The agreement between the countries finally entered into force on August 24, 1949 after ratification by the governments of the countries that acceded to the North Atlantic Treaty. An international organizational structure was created to which huge military forces in Europe and around the world were subordinate.

Thus, in fact, since its foundation, NATO has been focused on countering the Soviet Union and, later, the countries participating in the Warsaw Pact (since 1955). Summing up the reasons for the emergence of NATO, first of all, it is worth mentioning economic, political, social, the desire to ensure joint economic and political security, awareness of potential threats and risks for Western civilization played a big role. At the heart of NATO, above all, is the desire to prepare for a new possible war, to protect oneself from its monstrous risks. However, it also determined the strategies of the military policy of the USSR and the countries of the Soviet bloc.

KOREAN WAR (1950-1953)

War between North Korea and China against South Korea and the United States of a number of American allies for control of the Korean Peninsula.

It began on June 25, 1950 with a surprise attack by North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) on South Korea (Republic of Korea). This attack was carried out with the consent and support of the Soviet Union. North Korean troops quickly advanced beyond the 38th parallel separating the two countries and captured the capital of South Korea, Seoul, three days later.

The UN Security Council recognized Pyongyang as an aggressor and called on all UN member states to provide assistance to South Korea. In addition to the United States, England, Turkey, Belgium, Greece, Colombia, India, the Philippines and Thailand sent their troops to Korea. The Soviet representative at that moment boycotted the meetings of the Security Council and was unable to use his veto.

After the North Koreans refused to withdraw their troops beyond the demarcation line, on July 1, two American divisions began to be transferred to Korea. One of them was defeated, and its commander was captured. The other was able, together with the South Korean troops, to retreat to the bridgehead created near the port of Busan. By the end of July, it was the only territory on the Korean Peninsula held by UN forces. General Douglas MacArthur, a hero of the war against Japan in the Pacific, was appointed their Supreme Commander. He developed a plan for a grandiose landing operation in the port of Incheon. If successful, the communications of the North Korean army, besieging the Pusan ​​bridgehead, would have been cut.

On September 15, American and South Korean marines landed at Inchon. The American fleet dominated the sea, and aviation dominated the air, so the North Koreans could not interfere with the landing. Seoul was taken on September 28. The North Korean army fighting at Busan was partly captured and partly switched to guerrilla warfare in the mountains. On October 1, UN troops crossed the 38th parallel and on October 19 took the North Korean capital of Pyongyang. On the 27th, the Americans reached the Yalu River on the Korean-Chinese border.

In early January 1951, Chinese and North Korean forces recaptured Seoul, but at the end of the month, the American 8th Army launched a counteroffensive. By the end of March, the Chinese troops were driven back beyond the former demarcation line.

At this point, differences emerged in the American military-political leadership. MacArthur proposed to strike at Chinese territory

At the end of April, Chinese and North Korean troops launched a new offensive, but were driven back 40-50 km north of the 38th parallel. After that, on July 8, 1951, the first negotiations between the representatives of the warring parties began. The war, meanwhile, took on a positional character with extensive use of minefields and barbed wire fences. Offensive operations now had purely tactical goals. The numerical superiority of the Chinese was offset by the American superiority in firepower. Chinese troops advanced in thick chains right through the minefields, but their waves broke against the American and South Korean fortifications. Therefore, the losses of the "Chinese People's Volunteers" many times exceeded the losses of the enemy.

On July 27, 1953, a ceasefire agreement was finally reached in the town of Phanmynchzhon near the 38th parallel. Korea was divided along the 38th parallel into the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and the Republic of Korea. There is no peace treaty between North and South to this day.

The total losses of the parties in the Korean War were, according to some estimates, 2.5 million people. Of this number, approximately 1 million are the losses of the Chinese army. The North Korean army lost half as much - about half a million people. The armed forces of South Korea missed about a quarter of a million people. The loss of American troops amounted to 33 thousand killed and 2-3 times more wounded. The troops of other states that fought under the UN flag lost several thousand dead. At least 600 thousand people account for the dead and wounded civilians in North and South Korea.

Bibliography

Story. Russia and the world in the XX - early XXI century. Grade 11. Aleksashkina L.N. and others - M., 2010, 432s.

Story. Russia and the world. Grade 11. A basic level of. Volobuev O.V., Klokov V.A. and others - M., 2013, 352s.

Ilyina T.V. Art history. Domestic art: Textbook. - M., 2003, 324s.

Simkina N.N. Culture of Russia in the 20th century: Proc. allowance / N.N. Simkin. - Bryansk: BSTU, 2004.

Khutorsky V.Ya. Russian history. Soviet era (1917-1993). - M., 1995.

The Cold War is a confrontation between the world systems of socialism (a socialist bloc of states led by the USSR) and capitalism (Western democracies - the USA), expressed in an arms race, tough ideological struggle, peripheral armed conflicts mainly in the countries of Africa, Asia, Latin America, incited and supported by the opposing sides.

The term "Cold War" was first coined by US Representative on the UN Atomic Energy Committee Bernard Baruch in a speech to the South Carolina House of Representatives on April 16, 1947.

Cold War years 1946 - 1991

The formal beginning of the Cold War

The beginning of the Cold War is considered to be Winston Churchill's speech in Fulton (Missouri, USA), in which he described the situation in the world after the end of World War II:

“From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended on the continent. On the other side of the curtain are all the capitals of the ancient states of Central and Eastern Europe - Warsaw, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade, Bucharest, Sofia. All these famous cities and the populations in their districts fell within what I call the Soviet sphere, all of them, in one form or another, are subject not only to Soviet influence, but also to the significant and increasing control of Moscow .... The Communist Parties, which were very small in number in all these states of Eastern Europe, have attained an exceptional strength, far outnumbering them, and everywhere they strive to establish totalitarian control. Almost all of these countries are ruled by police governments... With the exception of the British Commonwealth and the United States, where communism is in its infancy, communist parties, or fifth columns, represent an ever-increasing challenge and danger to Christian civilization.

The end of the Cold War was the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the subsequent disappearance of the Socialist camp

Cold War conflicts

  • Korean War 1950-1953
  • Uprising in the GDR 1953
  • First Arab-Israeli War 1956
  • Uprising in Hungary 1956
  • Vietnam War 1965-1974
  • Second Arab-Israeli War 1967
  • Uprising in Czechoslovakia 1968
  • Third Arab-Israeli War 1973
  • Military coup in Chile 1973
  • Angola Civil War 1975-2002
  • Afghan war 1979-1989
  • Civil war in Nicaragua 1981-1990

Only once, in 1962, during the so-called Caribbean crisis, the USSR and the USA almost came together in a personal confrontation.

Stages of the Cold War

  • Churchill's speech
  • Creation of the NATO bloc 1949
  • The McCarthy period in the USA 1950-1953
  • "Fight against cosmopolitanism" in the USSR 1948-1953
  • "Thaw" in the USSR 1953-1964
  • Creation of the Warsaw Pact organization 1955
  • Festival of Youth and Students in Moscow 1957
  • Construction of the Berlin Wall 1961
  • Caribbean Crisis 1962
  • Brezhnev Doctrine 1968
  • Détente of international tension 1972-1975
  • Boycott of the 1980 and 1984 Olympics
  • The destruction of the South Korean passenger airliner Boeing 1983 by Soviet air defense
  • Beginning of Perestroika in the USSR 1986
  • German unification 1990
  • Charter of Paris 21 November 1990.

On March 5, 1946, W. Churchill, during his official visit to the United States, delivered a famous speech that led to fundamental changes in international relations.

Start of the Cold War

At the beginning of his speech, the British retired leader emphasized admiration for the heroism of the Soviet people and the wise policy of his friend Comrade Stalin. After such a preamble, Churchill proceeded to condemn the policies of the Communists and the dictatorial regime in the USSR.

The speech ended with fiery calls for the unification of the Anglo-Saxon nation in order to combat Stalin's arbitrariness. A few days later, I. V. Stalin called Churchill the second Hitler, perceiving the condemnation of the West as a threat of a new war. From that moment on, the capitalist and socialist states entered into a passive confrontation, which received its name of the cold war.

Berlin Crisis

The Berlin Crisis, which lasted 4 years (1958-1962), became one of the most critical moments in the course of the Cold War. At the beginning of 1958, the USSR Secretary General N. S. Khrushchev put forward an ultimatum to the United States, demanding the immediate withdrawal of the American armed forces from the territory of West Berlin, to which the US government responded with a categorical refusal, since the troops of the Soviet Union were not going to leave the eastern part of the city.

The crisis was particularly acute because life in capitalist West Berlin was much better than in the eastern neighbors, there was a continuous migration of citizens from the socialist camp to the capitalists of the FRG.

The peak of the Berlin crisis was August 1961, when, not agreeing to mutual compromises, the governments of the warring states initiated the construction of a wall that divided the city into eastern and western parts.

Berlin Wall for many years it became a symbolic curtain between the warring camps. The fall of the wall was the result of the efforts of R. Reagan, who, speaking in West Berlin, turned to M. Gorbachev with a call to prove glasnost in the USSR in practice and destroy the Berlin Wall.

The request of the President of America was heard by the General Secretary, and within a few months the wall collapsed, marking the unification of Germany.

Caribbean crisis

After the relative stabilization of the crisis in Berlin, the theater of new confrontations between the US and the USSR became the Caribbean. An American reconnaissance aircraft, making another flight over communist Cuba, noticed Soviet long-range missiles on the island.

The US government issued an urgent appeal to the people of Cuba with a request not to succumb to attempts to militarize the state by the Soviet Union. The Soviet side began to make chaotic excuses, first assuring the United States that there were no weapons in Cuba, then that nuclear missiles were deployed on the island exclusively for peaceful purposes.

The US Army created a military blockade of the island. Soviet diplomats were in no hurry to take active steps to dismantle the missiles. The Caribbean crisis lasted only 14 days, but this time was the most difficult period for all mankind: the world was facing a real threat of nuclear war.

    Formation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

    Korean War.

    The landing of UN troops in Korea.

    Armistice and division of Korea. Results of the Korean War.

    Minimum knowledge.

    The presidential elections of November 1948 in the United States and the victory of the candidate of the Democratic Party G. Truman, who remained president for the second term (the first term he acted as president after the death in 1945 of F. D. Roosevelt as his vice president) and unleashed hands of the American administration. This made it possible to make a breakthrough to consolidate American predominance in Western Europe not only by economic, but also by military-political methods. In the new administration, the post of Secretary of State was taken by Dean Acheson, who adhered to more offensive views than the ill and retired J. Marshall. He rushed to implement the most revolutionary foreign policy idea of ​​the United States since the Wilsonian League of Nations - a plan to create in Europe in peacetime and on a permanent basis a military-political alliance under the leadership of the United States. It was supposed to make Canada a member of the bloc, which formally remained a British dominion, but in fact became independent. On January 14, 1949, representatives of the US State Department for the first time openly declared the existence of a threat to the security of the countries of Western Europe and the inefficiency of the UN due to the principle of unanimity of the permanent members of the Security Council. On March 18, 1949, a draft of the North Atlantic Treaty was published, and on April 4, a conference was held in Washington with the participation of the United States, the countries of the Western Union, Canada, as well as Denmark, Iceland, Norway and Portugal. Italy also took part in the Washington Conference, which for the first time since the end of the war returned to the family of Western countries, from which it excluded itself, having entered into an alliance with Germany before the war. On the same day, the delegates signed the North Atlantic Treaty. The term NATO and the expression "North Atlantic Treaty Organization" appeared later, for the first time it was used in a convention signed in development of the agreement between its participants in Ottawa on September 20, 1951. For several years the union existed as a political and legal phenomenon, there was no organization as such. But in the early 1950s, NATO evolved into a system of political and military administration headed by a general secretary. A unified command arose, at whose disposal contingents of various types of troops were allocated, military training grounds were created, joint production of weapons was established and their standardization was carried out. The wording of the Washington Treaty was strong. It contained rigid military obligations. In his text (p. 5) states: “... An armed attack against one or more parties in Europe or North America will be considered an armed attack against all of them together; ... and if such an armed attack occurs, then each of the parties ... will assist the party or parties attacked by immediately taking, individually or jointly with other parties, such measures as may be necessary, including the use of armed force ... " Such the wording meant that the participating countries should provide each other "" military assistance immediately, as if they themselves were attacked. But in the event that the United States itself was attacked, the US president could order the use of force immediately, while simultaneously requesting from the Senate the Senate retained the right to agree or disagree with the decision of the administration.In case of disagreement of the Senate, the administration had to reverse its decision and within 30 days return the American military personnel to their places of permanent deployment. According to Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty, it turned out, what the President of the United States could use American armed forces to protect the Western European countries and Canada, acting on a simplified procedure, as if the United States itself were attacked. The parties to the treaty pledged to develop military-political and military-technical cooperation among themselves, for the purpose of which the American Congress in August 1949 allocated a huge amount of $ 4 billion for those times. The United States assumed the bulk of the costs of military development in Western countries. Europe, which made the North Atlantic Treaty very attractive to Western European states. NATO headquarters was located in Paris. Keyword Atlantic approach- an approach to ensuring the security of Western countries with the active cooperation of European states with the United States. The Washington Treaty was a sign of the victory of the Atlantic approach in ensuring European security. The struggle between European and Atlantic tendencies did not end there. Europeanism, primarily manifested in the foreign policy of France, continued to influence political thinking in Europe.