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Cold War. The era of the Cold War (beginning) Ideological confrontation during the Cold War

Introduction ................................................ ................................................. ....... 3

1. The beginning of the confrontation between the world superpowers.................................... 4

2. Military confrontation between the superpowers............................................... 7

3. Attempts to solve the problem of disarmament .................................................... 11

4. Détente in the 1970s .............................. 13

5. A new round of confrontation and the end " cold war"...... 16

Conclusion................................................. ................................................. .......... 19

Literature................................................. ................................................. .21

Introduction.

The post-war international situation was determined by Soviet-American relations. After 1945 The Soviet Union was recognized as a world power in the international arena. Through the efforts of Soviet and American diplomats, it was possible to create such fundamental structures of a political and economic order as the UN, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, etc. The USSR received a place as a permanent member of the UN Security Council (along with the USA, Britain, France, China). Since 1946 aggravated international relations. The main axis of confrontation was the conflict between the two superpowers - the USSR and the USA. The post-war foreign policy doctrine expressed the desire to create a military counterbalance to the United States and consolidate control over Central and South-Eastern Europe. For its part, the US leadership sought to pursue a policy "from a position of strength", trying to use the economic and military-political power of the United States to put pressure on the USSR.

The conclusions of the 20th Congress of the CPSU on the possibility of preventing wars in the modern era and on the peaceful coexistence of states of two social systems were of fundamental importance at that time. The fate of the systems depended on the results of economic competition, which was seen as a new form of class struggle on a world scale. It was assumed that socialism, in the figurative expression of Khrushchev, would inevitably "bury" capitalism.

The instability and contrast of Soviet-American relations during the post-war 30 years mainly determined the world foreign policy climate and played an important role in world history.

In this work, I will try to most fully and clearly state all the problems 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 try to study as deeply as possible, analyze what was happening in the arena international relations in the second half of the 20th century. The main part of the work covers the confrontation between the two most powerful states of the 20th century - the USSR and the USA.

1. The beginning of the confrontation between world superpowers.

The post-war development of the USSR proceeded in anticipation of a third world war. Its threat was determined by the Fulton speech of the retired Prime Minister of Great Britain W. Churchill. March 5, 1946 on his own behalf, he spoke at Westminster College in Fulton (Missouri, USA) with a report, which he called "Muscles of the World." Churchill devoted most of his report not to substantiating the need to ban weapons of mass destruction, but to proving the need for their effective political use. This was caused by the extreme concern of the Western powers with the growing influence of the USSR in the post-war world. Churchill suggested using American atomic weapons as an effective means of intimidating the Soviet government.

On the morning of October 28, the Americans undertook an action to destroy the barriers at the checkpoint in the center of Berlin at the Brandenburg Gate with the help of bulldozers and tanks. They were blocked by Soviet tanks. There was no collision. The crisis ended with a tank confrontation in the center of Berlin. The USSR achieved de facto recognition of the establishment of the border and transferred the functions of its protection to the German Democratic Republic.

2. Military confrontation between the superpowers.

The axis of the confrontation between the two systems in the era of the Cold War was the Soviet-American confrontation, the severity of which determined the climate of international relations. The most formidable event of this confrontation in last years Stalinist rule became Korean War

Korean War gg. Shortly after the victory of the people's revolution in China and the proclamation of the People's Republic of China (October 1, 1949), which was greatly facilitated by the assistance of the USSR, the leadership of North Korea (People's Democratic Republic of Korea, DPRK), encouraged by the Soviet leadership, made an attempt by armed means to reunify country, overthrowing the pro-American regime of South Korea.

The USSR withdrew its troops from Korea in 1948, the USA - in 1949. The country was divided into two parts along the 38th parallel. On June 25, 1950, referring to the fact that the troops of South Korea (“the Syngman regime”) invaded the DPRK, the head of the North Korean government, Kim Il Sung, ordered his troops to launch a counteroffensive. He declared the war that had begun "a war for the unification, independence, freedom and democratization of the motherland."

Successful at first, the operation was defeated and threatened to escalate into a world war after the intervention of US troops under the UN flag in the events. On the side of the DPRK, the armed forces of the PRC ("Chinese volunteers") acted. Together, on January 4, 1951, they occupied Seoul. The USSR also took an active part in the war without intervening directly in combat operations. The Soviet government transferred to China several divisions of fighter aviation, which for two and a half years participated in repelling American raids on the PRC, handed over to China a large number of aircraft and other military equipment, contributed to the creation of tank, artillery, anti-aircraft and engineering troops.

The USSR supplied the Korean People's Army and the "Chinese volunteers" with weapons, ammunition, transport, fuel, food, and medicines. He prepared "as a last resort" five divisions for direct dispatch to Korea. Stalin insisted on a tough policy towards the enemy.

After Stalin's death, the war ended on July 27, 1953. diplomatic efforts. According to the armistice, the demarcation line ran in accordance with the actual location of the troops of both sides, mainly along the 38th parallel.

Nevertheless, in 1963, the negotiations between the USSR, the USA, and Britain on a nuclear test ban, which began in 1958, culminated in the signing in Moscow of a treaty banning nuclear tests in three areas - in the atmosphere, space, and under water. He allowed underground testing of nuclear weapons. The Moscow Treaty of 1963 inspired hope that disarmament was a realistic goal. Soon, about 100 states joined it. Of the major states, it was not signed by France and China, which became nuclear powers in 1960 and 1966, respectively.

In 1968, an agreement was signed on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons, according to which nuclear states pledged not to distribute nuclear weapons, and non-nuclear states not to produce or acquire them. The 1963 and 1968 treaties became the first and most important international agreements in the field of nuclear arms limitation.

The Soviet disarmament program of 01.01.01 in September 1959 was embodied in a three-year plan for general and complete disarmament, which was presented at the XIV session of the UN General Assembly during his first official visit to the United States.

The plan provided, firstly, for complete disarmament, i.e., the elimination of the means of waging war, namely: the dissolution of the land armies, the Navy, and the Air Force; the abolition of general staffs, military ministries; the closure of military schools; liquidation of military bases in foreign territories; destruction of atomic and hydrogen weapons, military missiles. Only the militia (police), armed with light small arms, remained at the disposal of the states.

Secondly, the plan called for the establishment of general and complete control over general and complete disarmament. Khrushchev proposed that this control be carried out by national means.

The Assembly supported the idea of ​​general and complete disarmament and adopted a corresponding resolution, which was also voted for by the United States and Great Britain. The Soviet plan was submitted for detailed study to the 10-State Committee on Disarmament, which was created in the summer of that year instead of the London Subcommittee. However, due to the failure in 1960 of the Committee of 10 due to the boycott of its activities by the USSR, the plan became the subject of study of the Committee of 18, which was created in September 1961, consisting of 5 socialist, 5 Western and 8 non-aligned countries. In the new committee, the Soviet disarmament plan was buried.

4. Detente of international tension in the 1970s.

The 1970s went down in the history of international relations as a period of detente. Cooperation between countries with different socio-economic systems temporarily supplanted confrontation, the ice of the Cold War began to melt.

The prerequisites for detente were the cessation of the Vietnam War, the military-strategic parity (equality) between the USSR and the USA, achieved by the beginning of the 1970s, and the settlement of relations with the FRG.

In 1969, the Social Democrats, in alliance with the Free Democrats, came to power in the FRG. Willy Brandt became Chancellor of the FRG. He radically changed eastern policy"of his country: he refused the revanchism of the former ruling coalition of the CDU-CSU, recognized the post-war borders in Europe.

After 1975, the meetings of representatives of 35 states began to be called the Helsinki Process, or the CSCE (Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe) movement. In 1977-78. the Belgrade meeting took place, in 1980-83. and in 1985 - the Madrid meeting, in 1988-89. - Vienna meeting. It decided to transform the CSCE movement into the OSCE, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

The Helsinki Conference became a symbol of detente in the international tension of the 1970s. An important component of detente was the Soviet-American treaties and agreements signed during the resumed meetings at highest level. The first of them took place in Moscow during the official visit of US President R. Nixon to the Soviet Union on May 22-30, 1972. Its results were enshrined in ten joint documents, primarily in the "Fundamentals of Relations between the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the United States of America" signed by R. Nixon. The Fundamentals regulated relations in the field of peace and security within the framework of the UN, in the field of disarmament, and also provided for the development of political, economic, scientific, technical and cultural ties between the two countries.

In 1972 The first treaty on the limitation of strategic arms (SALT-1) was concluded, which set a ceiling above which it was impossible to build up strategic offensive weapons (intercontinental ballistic missiles, submarine-launched missiles, strategic bombers). At the same time, an agreement was signed on anti-missile defense (ABM). In 1974 and 1976, the USSR and the USA signed two treaties in the field of nuclear testing. The first limited underground nuclear weapons testing by banning nuclear explosions with a yield of more than 150 kilotons, the second regulated underground nuclear explosions for peaceful purposes.

Finally, in 1979, the second strategic arms limitation treaty (SALT-2) was signed, lowering the ceiling on the permissible build-up of these weapons.

The effectiveness of the 1974, 1976 and 1979 treaties was reduced by the fact that they were not ratified, but nevertheless respected by both parties.

The joint flight spaceships The USSR and the USA "Soyuz" - "Apollo" in 1975. Soviet leaders personally believed that detente was irreversible and "the wheel of history cannot be turned back." They were mistaken, wishful thinking.

5. A new round of confrontation and the end of the Cold War.

In the early 1980s, thanks to the efforts of both sides, detente was curtailed, the ice of the Cold War closed . The first sign of the destabilization of bilateral relations in the second half of the 1970s was the heightened activity of US President George Carter in the struggle for human rights in the USSR to the detriment of economic relations between the two countries.

Exacerbation of international tension. In the first half of the 1980s, the international situation deteriorated sharply, the position of the USSR in the world worsened, and its foreign policy activity almost died out. This was due to a number of reasons.

In the years the US launched a broad campaign to deploy neutron weapons in Western Europe. They proved the "humanity" of this type of weapon of mass destruction by the fact that it does not destroy, does not burn, but only kills all living things. The campaign bogged down in a powerful wave of mass protest that swept through the countries of the West.

Then the new US leadership, headed by President R. Reagan, decided to deploy medium-range cruise missiles in Western Europe aimed at the USSR and its allies in the ATS. The missiles could reach Moscow in 8 minutes, while deviating from the target by only a few meters. Due to the high accuracy of hitting the target, they were nicknamed in the West as “personal hunting for Soviet leaders” missiles. In the years The missiles were deployed on the territory of the Federal Republic of Germany, Great Britain and Italy with the consent of the parliaments of these countries. In turn, the USSR, in agreement with the governments of Czechoslovakia and the GDR, deployed its medium-range nuclear missiles in these countries in 1984. In the West they were called SS-20.

The most serious step and the biggest foreign policy mistake of the USSR was the entry of Soviet troops into Afghanistan in December 1979. The decision was made by a narrow circle of leaders (,) in response to repeated requests from the leadership of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan to provide military assistance in carrying out revolutionary transformations of society and protecting the country from possible intervention.

The USSR not only found itself embroiled in a civil war in the DRA, but also found itself in international isolation, like the United States during the Vietnam War. The absolute majority of UN member countries resolutely condemned the intervention of the USSR in the affairs of Afghanistan. The United States and its allies provided large-scale military assistance to the implacable Afghan opposition. The USSR began to suffer tangible human and material losses. Only according to official data, by 1988, in the undeclared Afghan war, the USSR lost about 14 thousand soldiers, 35 thousand people were wounded, more than 300 were missing or captured. The losses of the Afghan people amounted to approximately 1 million people.

Almost all the leading capitalist countries declared a scientific and technical boycott on the USSR and its allies. The Export Control Committee (COCOM), which had previously tightly controlled exports to socialist countries, set up on the initiative of the United States in 1949, imposed a ban on the import into the USSR of a wide range of science-intensive products and technologies that were supplied to our country during the years of detente. The Soviet Union, despite its powerful potential, found itself in the trap of technological dependence on the West for strategic supplies.

The anti-Soviet campaign in the world assumed hysterical forms in the autumn of 1983 in connection with the downing of a South Korean passenger plane over the territory of the USSR on September 1. US intelligence agencies used it for an intelligence operation. The tone for the campaign was set by US President Reagan, who called the Soviet Union an "evil empire" that needed to be destroyed.

With the advent of a new leadership in the USSR in the 80s. and the beginning of the policy of "perestroika" there was a change in the foreign policy strategy of the Soviet Union. This had a profound effect on the confrontation between the superpowers. The situation was characterized by the easing of tensions between East and West through disarmament talks by the superpowers; settlement of regional conflicts; recognition of the existing world order and expansion of economic ties with all states. With the advent, a new philosophical and political concept took shape, called "new political thinking" . In 1989, the USSR withdrew its troops from Afghanistan. In the same year, the normalization of relations with China began. As a result of Soviet-American negotiations, an agreement was concluded on the destruction of intermediate and short-range missiles (Treaty of December 8, 1987). In 1991, the Treaty on the Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms (START-I) was signed, putting an end to the period of confrontation. Agreements were reached on the development of humanitarian cooperation and economic relations between the USSR and the USA. The USSR came up with a number of new disarmament initiatives: the elimination of nuclear weapons by the year 2000; about the simultaneous dissolution of the Warsaw Pact and NATO (primarily their military organizations (May 1987), etc. The consent of the USSR to the unification of Germany (1990) was evidence of a new approach to international affairs. In Europe, by 1990, Soviet and American medium and shorter range missiles, and they were destroyed and could not be relocated to other regions. military advantage in tanks and personnel, and NATO had nuclear superiority. For their part, Western countries, primarily the United States and Britain, continued to link the expansion of trade ties with political changes within the USSR, including the expansion of humanitarian ties and contacts between individuals. The ruling Soviet elite declared its adherence to the principles of collective security and respect for the sovereign right of peoples to choose their own paths of development. In 1987, the leaders of the superpowers signed an agreement on the destruction of medium-range missiles. The USSR refused to suppress the "velvet" revolutions of 1989 in the countries of Eastern Europe, from whose territories Soviet troops began to withdraw. The Cold War was gradually coming to an end. The collapse of the USSR in 1991 actually meant the end of the Cold War.

Conclusion.

So, the confrontation of the superpowers and the "cold war" arose shortly after the end of the Second World War, when the allies began to sum up its results: Firstly, half of Europe was in the Soviet zone of influence, and pro-Soviet regimes feverishly arose there, a wave of liberation movement in the colonies against the mother countries. Thirdly, the world quickly polarized and turned into a bipolar one. Fourthly, two superpowers were formed on the world stage, the military and economic power of which gave them a significant superiority over others. Plus, the interests of Western countries at various points the globe begin to run into the interests of the USSR. The allies emerged from this war so strong, and the means of warfare became so destructive, that it became clear that sorting things out with the old methods was too much of a luxury. The initiative to start the "cold war" belongs to the Western countries, for which the power of the USSR, which became apparent during the Second World War, turned out to be a very unpleasant surprise. The "cold war" and the confrontation between the superpowers were characterized by the frequent appearance of "hot" spots. Each local conflict was brought onto the world stage, thanks to the fact that Cold War opponents supported the opposing sides.

An important result of the confrontation can be called the fact that despite very strong contradictions, the parties were able to sort things out without resorting to force of arms. For the first time, it forced the opposing sides to negotiate and introduce certain rules of the game into the confrontation itself (a whole system of treaties to limit the arms race is proof of this).

The arms race, as a result of the confrontation, carried away huge material resources, but, like any phenomenon, it also had a downside. In this case, we can talk about the "golden age" of the natural sciences, without the rapid development of which it would be impossible to even think about any arms race.

But the main result can be called the fact that the main component that determined the victory of one of the parties is universal human values, which neither the fantastic development of technology nor the sophisticated ideological influence could outweigh.

Literature.

1. Arslanov lectures: "History of the Fatherland." / , // ed. [Electronic resource] - Access mode: http://humanities. *****/, 19.02.2009 15:48.

2. Kapustin problems of world social development. M., 1991.

3. Malkov Roosevelt. Problems of Domestic Policy and Diplomacy: Historical Documentary Essays. M., 1988.

4. Munchaev of the Soviet state./,: Textbook for universities. - M.: Norma, 2002. - 704 p.

5. Tereshchenko Russia XX - early XXI centuries. / - Philological Society "Word"; Rostov on / D .: Publishing house "Phoenix", 200p.

01:32

The era of the Cold War (beginning)

Malysheva N.

In general, the history of international relations in the second half of the 20th century can be divided into two major periods: the formation of a bipolar world order in the conditions of the Cold War (the second half of the 1940s - 1970s) and the establishment of a new multipolar order after the end of the Cold War. "(80s - 90s).

CHAPTER I. CONFLICT OF IDEOLOGIES AND FORMATION OF THREE WORLDS.

1. Conflict of ideologies. Causes of the Cold War.

Politics is closely connected with ideology. It can even be said that in many respects politics is an arena for the clash of various ideological systems, ideological and political currents and directions. The system of international relations that existed by the beginning of the 20th century was based on the principles of national sovereignty and non-interference in the internal affairs of the state. This system included, on the one hand, autocratic Russia, the Habsburg monarchy and liberal England, on an equal footing. authoritarian and liberal regimes. The rules concerned only what is permissible or not permissible in the foreign policy relations of states with each other, that the behavior of a country on the world stage corresponds to generally accepted rules. Thus, within the same system of interstate relations, the coexistence of various political and ideological systems was allowed.
The situation changed radically in the 20th century, when the struggle for the minds of the people became an important part of politics. In the first decades of the 20th century, an uncompromising conflict unfolded between social reformism, fascism and Bolshevism. As a result of the military defeat of Germany and its allies, fascism ceased to exist as any effective and viable alternative. Social reformist capitalism and revolutionary socialism (communism) remained as the main opposing alternatives. After the Second World War, the ideological conflict between the two blocs, led by the USA and the USSR, took its final form.
During the Cold War, ideological conflict took on a self-contained significance. Strength, military power turned out to be at the service of spreading a certain way of life, worldview, and the own legitimacy of the two opposing superpowers and military-political blocs. It was about the destruction or establishment on the territory of a particular state of the appropriate regime - socialist or capitalist. In other words, the Cold War was a sort of contest of efficiency and survival between opposing political and economic systems.
Ideologization foreign policy created an excess of mutual suspicion, distrust and hostility, contributed to the creation of curtains and walls of propaganda, psychological confrontation. Geopolitically, the world has become bipolar. The very concept of "cold war" meant not just tense relations between the two sides, not just rivalry, but almost a holy war in which one of the two competing systems must win and the other disappear.

2. Formation of the three worlds.

By the middle of the 20th century, the world community was divided into three different worlds, differing from each other in terms of economic development, lifestyle, and worldview. The first is a group of developed and adjacent countries in Europe and North America, as well as Japan and some Asian countries that have achieved some success in economic development. These are mainly the countries of the first echelon of capitalist development, which constituted the "center". It was called the first world for two reasons: in terms of time, it arose already in the New Age and until the formation of the USSR it occupied a dominant position. Although the USSR appeared on the political map after the revolution of 1917, it became possible to talk about the emergence of the second world, which includes a group of socialist countries, only after the Second World War.
Having played a decisive role in the defeat of Nazi Germany, the USSR emerged from the Second World War as a powerful military and political power. As a result, if in the 20-30s. The Soviet Union was primarily an ideological threat to the capitalist world, but now, in addition to it, it also posed a real military danger (1).
After World War II, as a result of liberation from the fascist yoke, the countries of Eastern Europe - Poland, Hungary, Romania, Czechoslovakia, Albania, Bulgaria and Yugoslavia - chose the socialist path of development. The decisive role in their choice was played by the fact that during the negotiations on the post-war settlement, Eastern Europe entered the sphere of influence of the USSR, which exercised rather tight control over the development of events in this region. As a result, in the several post-war years in all these countries, the communist and workers' parties won (2).
The Eastern European countries were followed by some Asian countries. In 1949, a people's democratic revolution took place in China, which resulted in the formation of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, the Lao People's Democratic Republic (Lao PDR), and the People's Republic of Kampuchea also formed. In the early 60s. the choice of the socialist path of development was announced by the leadership of Cuba, headed by F. Castro, who came to power in 1959. As a result, a world socialist system arose, headed by the USSR, uniting all countries with socialist and people's democratic regimes.
At the same time, as a result of the collapse of colonial empires, a group of new independent countries came to the forefront of the world, which, according to a variety of indicators - socio-economic and especially ideological and political - could not and did not fully belong to either of the two groups. Together with Latin America, they amounted to special group countries that were united by a number of common features: the backwardness of the economy, the underdevelopment of the social class structure, the predominance of the peasantry, the weakness of national entrepreneurship, the immaturity of the working class, the preservation on a large scale of traditional patriarchal, tribal, clan structures and elements, etc. They were called third world countries.
In search of economic and financial assistance, a kind of competition developed between various third world countries to win the favor of the West and the countries of the socialist community, primarily the USSR. And for these states, in turn, the countries of the developing world have become the scene of a fierce ideological and political struggle for spheres of influence (3), which often resulted in local and regional wars, as was the case, for example, in the 60s and early 70s gg. in Southeast Asia or in the 70s - 80s. in Angola.

Until the late 70's - early 80's. on the basis of basic capitalist institutions, the countries of the first, i.e. industrial world. This is about ¼ of the modern world. The socialist camp included 26 countries with a total population in 1986 of about 1.7 billion inhabitants, or 37% of the population of the entire globe. The rest was the third world.

CHAPTER II. THE BEGINNING OF THE COLD WAR

1. Proclamation of the Cold War by W. Churchill.

Already by the end of the Second World War, when questions about the post-war settlement were on the agenda, contradictions began to grow between the allies in the anti-Hitler coalition - the USA and Great Britain, on the one hand, and the USSR, on the other. The growth of the influence of the USSR in the post-war world caused extreme concern of the leadership of the Western powers. For the first time, the former Prime Minister of Great Britain, W. Churchill, openly announced the complete break between the former allies and the actual beginning of the Cold War. In his speech in Fulton (USA) on March 5, 1946, he called for the creation of an Anglo-American military alliance to fight the USSR and plans to export communism to the capitalist countries. The reason for this speech was the Iranian crisis. In accordance with the union treaty, the term for the presence of Soviet troops on the territory of Iran expired on March 2, 1946. The day before, the USSR announced the withdrawal of troops, but with the exception of the regions of Iranian Azerbaijan, where a people's democratic uprising began. The political circles of Western countries regarded this as an attempt to provide military support to the separatists and form a pro-Soviet regime in part of Iran. Churchill addressed the students at Westminster Fulton College as a private person, but about 30,000 people gathered to listen to the former prime minister.
Churchill considered the "triumph of American democracy" to be the basis of the new world order. In his opinion, a danger hung over the entire Christian civilization, threatening "incalculable human suffering." Under threat were "the cornerstones of true freedom and democracy - the constitutional order, freedom of speech and thought, the freedom of society from the influence of any party." The world, according to Churchill, is threatened by tyranny, and this tyranny is personified by Soviet communism. Churchill called for the unification of the forces of all democratic peoples to defend their right to freedom. In fact, it was about creating a military-political alliance between the US and Great Britain, designed to lower the "iron curtain" in front of the communist threat. At the same time, the use of American atomic weapons as an "effective deterrent" was allowed.
The term "Iron Curtain" was first used by Churchill in a parliamentary speech on August 16, 1945, which was entitled "The Iron Curtain Begins to Fall." “From Stettin on the Baltic Sea,” said Churchill, “to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the continent.”
After Churchill's Fulton speech, the concept of the "Iron Curtain" became a symbol of the beginning of the Cold War.

In February 1947, US President G. Truman, in his message to Congress, specified Churchill's position (the "Truman Doctrine") and proclaimed a "crusade against communism" on a global scale. As a result, two strategic tasks were defined in relation to the USSR: at least - to prevent further expansion of the sphere of influence of the USSR and its communist ideology (the doctrine of containment of socialism), as a maximum - to force socialism to retreat into its former borders (the doctrine of rejection of socialism). Specific steps were also identified to achieve these goals: first, to provide large-scale economic assistance to the countries of Europe, making their economies dependent on the United States (“Marshall Plan”); secondly, to create a military-political alliance of these countries led by the United States; thirdly, to place a network of US military bases near the borders of the USSR (in Greece, Turkey); fourthly, to support anti-socialist forces within the countries of the Soviet bloc; finally, to use - as a last resort - their armed forces for direct interference in the internal affairs of the countries of the Soviet sphere of influence.

The leadership of the USSR regarded the new foreign policy course of the former military allies as a call to war with the Soviet Union, which immediately affected both the foreign and domestic politics the Soviet state. Hopes for all-round cooperation after the war of the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition collapsed, the world entered the era of the "cold war", which - either subsiding or escalating, threatening to escalate into a third world war - lasted about half a century (1946-1991). The split of the world acquired real features when two states were formed in occupied Germany - the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) and the German Democratic Republic (GDR) in 1948-1949.

3. Creation of opposing world systems.

So, the main milestones on the way to the split of Europe and the world into two camps were the events associated with the adoption of the "Marshall Plan" (since 1947), the division of Germany into two states (1949), the establishment of communist regimes in the countries of Eastern Europe (1948 - 1949). .).
A plan to provide economic assistance to European states in the process of post-war reconstruction was proposed by US Secretary of State J. Marshall. For the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, participation in this program was conditioned by their rejection of the orientation of the economy towards the USSR. The Marshall Plan was signed by 16 Western European countries. The countries of Central and Eastern Europe, at the insistence of the Soviet leadership, even refused to participate in the discussion of the plan at the European Economic Conference. Entered into force in 1948. The Marshall Plan provided that the funds provided by the United States to European states should be spent primarily on paying for the import of necessary equipment and goods from America, which helped strengthen the economic position of the United States. In the four years of the program (1948-1952), the US spent $12.5 billion, an astronomical sum.
In 1947 The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) began its activities. In subsequent years, Western countries, led by the United States, carried out a whole range of measures in line with the policy "from a position of strength" towards the Soviet Union. Among them, first of all, it is necessary to name the creation of the Atlantic military-political bloc NATO in 1949, which initially included 12 capitalist countries (USA, Great Britain, France, Canada, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Denmark, Norway, Iceland, Portugal), as well as similar blocks in Asia (SEATO, CENTO, ANZUS). The influence of world anti-communism was based primarily on the power of the United States, which emerged from the war as the most powerful power in economic and military-political terms. A whole network of US military bases and facilities was deployed in Europe (in NATO member states) and in the Middle East, the Far East and the basin Pacific Ocean, in Latin America and the Caribbean area. In the 1980s The United States had almost 1,600 military bases and facilities on the territory of 34 states, where more than 500,000 American servicemen were stationed. American leaders from the first days after the end of World War II made efforts to consolidate the leading role of the United States in the world community (4). Washington has taken a dominant position in a number of international organizations, such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, etc. Repeatedly, especially in the late 40s - 50s. during conflicts on the Korean Peninsula, the Middle East, Congo, Cyprus, the United States managed to use the UN General Assembly in its imperial interests. The reason for this was their declarative desire to "prevent direct Soviet intervention."

The measures taken by the USSR in foreign policy were adequate to the measures of the USA. The Soviet Union emerged from the war as an economically weakened but powerful military and political power that, like the United States, claims to be a superpower. Having played the main role in the defeat of Nazi Germany, the USSR achieved an increase in its weight and influence in the world. As a result of the post-war settlement, a whole group of countries in Eastern Europe and Asia found themselves in the sphere of direct influence of the USSR. Thus, the prerequisites for the formation of a world socialist system were formed, to which in the early 60s. Cuba also joined. The USSR and other socialist countries resolutely supported the national liberation movement of the colonial and dependent countries and peoples. As a result, their role and influence in the third world grew significantly, and a whole group of countries of the so-called socialist orientation was formed.
To overcome the US nuclear monopoly, the USSR developed and implemented a program to create its own nuclear weapons. In 1949 The first nuclear bomb was tested in the Soviet Union. In the same year, the European socialist countries created the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (CMEA), which was later joined by Mongolia, Cuba, and Vietnam. This organization played an important role in the economic assistance rendered by the socialist countries to each other, in the coordination of plans for economic cooperation and the implementation of the international division of labor. To block the military threat to NATO, the signing in May 1955 in Warsaw of the USSR and other countries of the socialist community of Eastern Europe - Poland, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, the GDR and Albania - of a treaty of friendship, cooperation and mutual assistance (Organization of the Warsaw Contracts - ATS). The Warsaw Military-Political Pact, created on the basis of this treaty, played an important role in strengthening the balance of power on a global scale.

The confrontation between the two military-political blocs - NATO and the Warsaw Pact, led by the US and the USSR, has formed a bipolar structure of international relations. The conflict between the two blocs was a reflection of the global ideological, political and military confrontation between opposing social models. The practical embodiment of this conflict was the "cold war" between the USSR and the USA - the ideological struggle and geopolitical confrontation between the two superpowers.

CHAPTER III. THE NATURE OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS DURING THE COLD WAR.

1. General features of international relations during the Cold War.

So, by the beginning of the 50s. in the ideological-political and military-political terms, the world space turned out to be divided into two opposing camps. Moreover, each of the two systems considered itself to be the spokesman and defender of the aspirations and interests of the peoples and, accordingly, justified the inevitability of its victory and the doom of the opposing side. Having developed an ideological justification for their positions, the United States declared itself the defenders of the free world, and the USSR, in turn, declared itself the bulwark of peace, democracy, and socialism (5).
The Cold War was characterized by increased mistrust between the great powers, the intensification of the arms race, the creation of military blocs, the use of force or the threat of the use of military force in international relations, the refusal to resolve disputes through negotiations, and so on. Confrontation in relations with each other was the basis of the global foreign policy strategy for both the USSR and the USA. This position kept the whole world in constant tension, which was divided into spheres of "vital interests" of the two superpowers. A bipolar hierarchical structure of the world community was formed, in which two superpowers occupied the top of the pyramid, followed by great powers - permanent members of the UN Security Council, then - countries that are less significant in terms of weight and influence in solving international problems.
In this game of geopolitical interests, conflicts in any region of the globe were seen as component global struggle of two sides against each other. In the eyes of both sides, each of these wars (or conflicts) had significance not only and not so much in terms of solving a particular problem, but in terms of winning or losing East or West. It is characteristic that the main driving factors the behavior of both superpowers and their blocs were precisely mutual fear and
concern for one's own safety. Accordingly, the focus on both sides was the desire to build up military power. The development of international relations turned out to be associated with an accelerating arms race, which required ever greater exertion of the forces of the leading countries of the world and created an ever greater danger to the destinies of mankind.
However, with all the overwhelming dominance of the two warring blocs, the entire post-war world could not fit into the Procrustean bed of bipolarity. Moreover, pure bipolarity existed only for a relatively short period. Throughout the post-war decades, especially since the 1960s, it was constantly violated by many factors. From this point of view, the processes of disintegration of colonial empires and the formation of many new independent states of different ideological and political orientations that unfolded after the Second World War were of paramount importance. In fact, the world turned out to be divided into three different worlds: the first is capitalist, the second is socialist, and the third is developing, fundamentally different from each other in terms of economic development, lifestyle, and ideological foundations.

2. Beginning of the Non-Aligned Movement.

The political activity of the third world countries, which included the countries of Asia, Africa, the Middle East, created a powerful factor in the transformation of the entire system of international relations. At the same time, the growing diversity of the world also created a new set of complex problems - the danger of uncontrollable conflicts. War 1967 between Israel and the Arab countries weakened the role of the UN in the Middle East. The successive crises in the Dominican Republic, the Middle East, Czechoslovakia, the wars in Vietnam and Yemen, Civil War in Nigeria showed that the restraint of states in relations with each other is a very relative thing. In this situation, the strengthening
influence of the non-aligned movement. This is an international association of countries that have proclaimed non-alignment with the military-political alliances of the great powers as one of the main principles of foreign policy. The first summit conference of the 25 non-aligned countries was convened in early September 1961. in Belgrade on the initiative of Yugoslavia, India, Egypt, Indonesia and Ghana. By 1983 the number of members of the movement reached 101. Having united in its ranks 2/3 of the countries of the world, the Non-Aligned Movement became an important factor in world politics, making a significant contribution to strengthening peace and good neighborly relations between states.

3. Other factors weakening the bipolar world system.

Important amendments to the bipolar system were also made by the gradual transformation of Japan into a powerful economic power, China into a nuclear power, as well as the rise of OPEC, an organization of oil-producing countries that set as their goal to free themselves from the economic dictates of industrial developed countries. At the same time, the world monetary system began to falter, which ultimately led to the dollar losing its former quality as an international settlement currency and significantly weakened the US position in world financial markets.

Finally, another important factor that contributed to the softening of the bipolarity is the mutual “exhaustion” of the USSR and the USA in the ongoing military, economic and ideological confrontation. The continuous build-up of the military potential of the superpowers led to a slowdown in their economic growth, the stagnation of scientific and technological progress in civilian areas, and so on. As a result, given the reality of what has been achieved by the 70s. nuclear strategic parity, the superpowers were forced to abandon all-out confrontation and build relationships in which elements of rivalry were organically combined with elements of cooperation, especially in the sphere of ensuring military security. And although the fundamental issues of world politics continued to be resolved within the framework of the bipolar order, all more development received integration processes consolidating the world community.
Economic and political integration was manifested, first of all, in the formation of many international interstate and non-governmental organizations. If before the Second World War there were several dozen of them in the world, then at present the number of organizations of the first type (economic) is already several hundred, and the second (political) is about 2.5 thousand. For a short time after the end of World War II, there were the UN, NATO, GATT, the IMF, the World Bank were created, the foundations of the European Union and the OECD were laid, the now defunct CMEA and the Warsaw Pact.
An important role in modern world are played by groups of states, world and regional organizations, many of which were founded in post-war years, European Union (EU), Organization of American States (OAS), Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Organization of African Unity (OAU), Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), etc.

4. Integration processes in Europe.

The most successful integration processes were in Europe. Already in March 1948. The Brussels Pact was signed by France, Great Britain, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg - an agreement on cooperation in the military, economic, political and cultural spheres. In May of the same year, the Hague Congress of Movements for the Unification of Europe was held. In 1949 there was the formation of the European Council, designed to promote the protection of human rights, parliamentary democracy, to promote the formation of a "common European consciousness". In 1957 the European Economic Community (EEC) was created, focused on the integration of the entire economic system of the participating countries. From the association of six countries (France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg), the EEC has now grown to 15 member countries. From the beginning of the 70s. programs were developed to create a monetary union, close political integration of the EEC countries. In the same years, it was possible to achieve a strengthening of the foundations of the EEC's agricultural policy, to introduce a single European unit of account - the ECU. At the turn of the 70-80s. the technological cooperation of the EEC countries has significantly expanded. Since 1978 direct elections to the European Parliament began to be held, raising the status of this supranational institution. These measures made it possible to move in the first half of the 80s. to the development of plans for a fundamentally new stage of integration - the creation of the European Union.

5. Activities of the United Nations.

The United Nations, which became one of the central elements of the international system created after World War II, played an important role in expanding and strengthening international cooperation.
The United Nations (UN) was founded in April 1945. and replaced the League of Nations, its task was to ensure peace and international security in the post-war period.
In 1948 A special UN organization, UNESCO, was created to deal with the development of culture and science. In 1972 Another special UN organization, UNEP, has been created, whose task is to develop and implement measures to preserve the environment. The United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is called upon to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons and to preserve the development of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.
Thanks to the efforts of the UN, one of the fundamental aspects of international politics in the modern world has become the protection of human rights. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted by the UN General Assembly back in 1948, but due to a complex of reasons, the problem of human rights became the epicenter of the political struggle in the last decades of the 20th century. The United Nations pays considerable attention to solving the economic problems of developing countries.
Today, UN services are able to set up a camp of 50,000 tents in any corner of the globe or feed 1 million refugees. Its food program is able to support the life of the population of entire countries. However, food aid to underdeveloped countries within the framework of the UN is immeasurably small compared to the volume and scale of the problems that need to be addressed. One of the main reasons limiting the activities of the UN in this area are financial difficulties.
The role of the UN in resolving and settling a number of interstate conflicts was especially great. From 1948 to 1991 There were 23 UN peacekeeping operations. The UN Secretary General has tanks, satellite communications, i.e. such forces and means that many heads of state would envy. The UN, as a rule, can operate more or less effectively when the leadership is taken over by the great powers. But if there is no agreement between them, any event, as a rule, ends in failure. For example, in Liberia, Somalia, Rwanda and other conflict zones, the UN has demonstrated its impotence. Often, major military actions sanctioned by the UN were carried out not under its command, but under the command of the United States: in Korea (1950-1953), Iraq (1990-1991), Somalia (1992-1993), Yugoslavia (1999).

The Cold War is the historical period from 1946 to 1991, which was marked by the confrontation between two major superpowers - the USSR and the USA, which took shape after the end of World War II in 1945. The rivalry between the two strongest states of the planet at that time gradually acquired a fierce character of confrontation in all spheres - economic, social, political and ideological. Both states created military-political associations (NATO and the Warsaw Pact), accelerated the creation of nuclear and conventional weapons, and also constantly took covert or overt participation in almost all local military conflicts on the planet.

Main causes of confrontation

  • The desire of the United States to secure world leadership and create a world based on American values, taking advantage of the temporary weakness of potential opponents (European states, like the USSR, lay in ruins after the war, and other countries at that time could not even close compete with the strengthened overseas "empire" )
  • Different ideological programs of the USA and the USSR (Capitalism and Socialism). The authority of the Soviet Union after the defeat of Nazi Germany was unusually high. Including in the states of Western Europe. Fearing the spread of communist ideology and mass support for it, the United States began to actively oppose the USSR.

The position of the parties at the beginning of the conflict

The United States initially had a colossal economic head start over its eastern adversary, thanks to which, in many respects, they got the opportunity to become a superpower. The USSR defeated the strongest European army, but paid for it with millions of lives and thousands of destroyed cities and villages. No one knew how long it would take to restore the economy destroyed by the fascist invasion. The territory of the United States, unlike the USSR, was not affected at all, and losses against the background of losses Soviet army seemed insignificant, since it was the Soviet Union that took the strongest blow from the fascist core of all of Europe, fighting alone against Germany and its allies from 1941 to 1944.

The United States, on the other hand, participated in the war in the European theater of operations for less than a year - from June 1944 to May 1945. After the war, the United States became a creditor to the Western European states, effectively formalizing their economic dependence on America. The Yankees proposed the Marshall Plan to Western Europe, an economic aid program that 16 states had signed by 1948. For 4 years, the United States had to transfer 17 billion to Europe. dollars.

Less than a year after the victory over fascism, the British and Americans began to look anxiously at the East and look for some kind of threat there. Already in the spring of 1946, Winston Churchill delivers his famous Fullton speech, which is usually associated with the beginning of the Cold War. Active anti-communist rhetoric begins in the West. By the end of the 1940s, all communists were removed from the governments of Western European states. This was one of the conditions under which the United States provided financial assistance to European countries.

The USSR was not included in the financial assistance program for quite understandable reasons– he was already regarded as an enemy. The countries of Eastern Europe, which were under the control of the communists, fearing the growth of US influence and economic dependence, also did not accept the Marshall Plan. Thus, the USSR and its allies were forced to restore the destroyed economy solely on their own, and this was done much faster than expected in the West. The USSR not only quickly restored infrastructure, industry and destroyed cities, but also quickly eliminated the US nuclear monopoly by creating nuclear weapons, thereby depriving the Americans of the opportunity to strike with impunity.

Creation of military-political blocs of NATO and the Warsaw Pact

In the spring of 1949, the United States initiated the creation of a NATO military bloc (Organization of the North Atlantic Alliance), citing the need to "fight the Soviet threat." The union initially included the Netherlands, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Great Britain, Iceland, Portugal, Italy, Norway, Denmark, as well as the USA and Canada. American military bases began to appear in Europe, the number of armed forces of European armies began to increase, and the number of military equipment and combat aircraft increased.

The USSR reacted in 1955 with the creation of the Warsaw Treaty Organization (OVD), in the same way creating the unified armed forces of the Eastern European states, as they did in the West. The ATS included Albania, Bulgaria, Hungary, the GDR, Poland, Romania, the USSR and Czechoslovakia. In response to the buildup of military forces by the Western military bloc, the strengthening of the armies of the socialist states also began.

Symbols of NATO and the Warsaw Pact

Local military conflicts

Two military-political blocs launched a large-scale confrontation with each other all over the planet. A direct military clash was feared on both sides, since its outcome was unpredictable. However, there was a constant struggle in various parts of the globe for spheres of influence and control over non-aligned countries. Here are just a few of the most striking examples of military conflicts in which the USSR and the USA indirectly or directly participated.

1. Korean War (1950-1953)
After World War II, Korea was divided into two states - in the South, pro-American forces were in power, and in the north, the DPRK (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) was formed, in which the Communists were in power. In 1950, a war broke out between the two Koreas - “socialist” and “capitalist”, in which, of course, the USSR supported North Korea, and the United States supported South Korea. Soviet pilots and military specialists, as well as detachments of Chinese "volunteers", unofficially fought on the side of the DPRK. The United States provided direct military assistance to South Korea, intervening openly in the conflict, which ended with the signing of peace and the maintenance of the status quo in 1953.

2. Vietnam War (1957-1975)
In fact, the scenario of the beginning of the confrontation was the same - Vietnam after 1954 was divided into two parts. In North Vietnam, the Communists were in power, and in South Vietnam, political forces oriented towards the United States. Each side sought to unify Vietnam. Since 1965, the United States has provided open military assistance to the South Vietnamese regime. Regular American troops, along with the army of South Vietnam, participated in hostilities against North Vietnamese troops. Covert assistance to North Vietnam with weapons, equipment and military specialists was provided by the USSR and China. The war ended with the victory of the North Vietnamese communists in 1975.

3. Arab-Israeli wars
In a whole series of wars in the Middle East between the Arab states and Israel, the Soviet Union and the Eastern bloc supported the Arabs, and the US and NATO supported the Israelis. Soviet military specialists trained the troops of the Arab states, which were armed with tanks and aircraft that came from the USSR, and the soldiers of the Arab armies used Soviet equipment and equipment. The Israelis used American military equipment and followed the instructions of US advisers.

4. Afghan war(1979-1989)
The USSR sent troops into Afghanistan in 1979 to support a political regime that was oriented toward Moscow. Large formations of the Afghan Mujahideen fought against the Soviet troops and the government army of Afghanistan, who enjoyed the support of the United States and NATO, and accordingly armed themselves with them. Soviet troops left Afghanistan in 1989, the war continued after their departure.

All of the above is only a small part of the military conflicts in which the superpowers participated, covertly or almost overtly fighting each other in local wars.

1 - American soldiers in position during the Korean War
2-Soviet tank in the service of the Syrian army
3-American helicopter in the sky over Vietnam
4-Column of Soviet troops in Afghanistan

Why did the USSR and the USA never enter into a direct military conflict?

As mentioned above, the outcome of the military conflict between the two large military blocs was completely unpredictable, but the main deterrent was the presence of nuclear missile weapons in huge quantities both in the United States and in the Soviet Union. Over the years of confrontation, the parties have accumulated such a number of nuclear charges that would be enough to repeatedly destroy all life on Earth.

Thus, a direct military conflict between the USSR and the USA would inevitably mean an exchange of nuclear missile strikes, during which there would be no winners - everyone would be losers, and the very possibility of life on the planet would be called into question. Nobody wanted such an outcome, so the parties avoided an open military clash with each other in every possible way, but nevertheless periodically tried each other's strength in local conflicts, helping any state covertly or directly participating in hostilities.

So, with the beginning of the nuclear age, local conflicts and information wars have become almost the only ways to expand their influence and control over other states. This situation persists to this day. The possibilities of the collapse and liquidation of such major geopolitical players as modern China and Russia lie only in the sphere of attempts to undermine the state from within by means of information wars, the purpose of which is a coup d'etat with subsequent destructive actions of puppet governments. There are constant attempts on the part of the West to find weaknesses in Russia and other uncontrolled states, to provoke ethnic, religious, political conflicts, etc.

End of the Cold War

In 1991, the Soviet Union collapsed. There was only one superpower left on planet Earth - the United States, which tried to rebuild the whole world on the basis of American liberal values. Within the framework of globalization, an attempt is being made to impose on all mankind a certain universal model of social structure along the lines of the United States and Western Europe. However, this has not yet been possible. There is active resistance in all parts of the globe against the imposition of American values, which are unacceptable to many peoples. The story goes on, the struggle continues ... Think about the future and the past, try to understand and comprehend the world around, develop and do not stand still. Passive waiting and burning through life is essentially a regression in your development. As the Russian philosopher V. Belinsky said - who does not go forward, he goes back, there is no standing position ...

Best regards, mind-point administration

cold war

cold war- this is a military, political, ideological and economic confrontation between the USSR and the USA and their supporters. It was the result of contradictions between two state systems: capitalist and socialist.

The Cold War was accompanied by an intensification of the arms race, the presence of nuclear weapons, which could lead to a third world war.

The term was first used by the writer George Orwell October 19, 1945 in You and the Atomic Bomb

Period:

1946-1989

Causes of the Cold War

Political

    An insoluble ideological contradiction between the two systems, models of society.

    Fear of the West and the United States of strengthening the role of the USSR.

Economic

    The struggle for resources and markets for products

    Weakening the economic and military power of the enemy

Ideological

    Total, irreconcilable struggle of two ideologies

    The desire to fence the population of their countries with the way of life in enemy countries

Objectives of the parties

    To consolidate the spheres of influence achieved during the Second World War.

    Put the enemy in unfavorable political, economic and ideological conditions

    The goal of the USSR: the complete and final victory of socialism on a world scale

    US goal: containment of socialism, opposition to the revolutionary movement, in the future - "throw socialism into the dustbin of history." The USSR was seen as "evil empire"

Conclusion: neither side was right, each aspired to world domination.

The forces of the parties were not equal. The USSR bore all the hardships of the war on its shoulders, and the United States received huge profits from it. It was not until the mid-1970s that parity.

Cold War Means:

    Arms race

    Block confrontation

    Destabilization of the military and economic situation of the enemy

    psychological warfare

    Ideological confrontation

    Intervention in domestic politics

    Active intelligence activity

    Collection of compromising materials on political leaders, etc.

Major periods and events

    March 5, 1946- W. Churchill's speech in Fulton(USA) - the beginning of the Cold War, in which the idea of ​​​​creating an alliance to fight communism was proclaimed. The speech of the Prime Minister of Great Britain in the presence of the new American President Truman G. had two goals:

    Prepare the Western public for the subsequent rupture between the victorious countries.

    Literally eradicate from the consciousness of people the feeling of gratitude to the USSR, which appeared after the victory over fascism.

    The United States set a goal: to achieve economic and military superiority over the USSR

    1947 – The Truman Doctrine". Its essence: containment of the spread of the expansion of the USSR by creating regional military blocs dependent on the United States.

    1947 - Marshall Plan - a program to help Europe after World War II

    1948-1953 - Soviet-Yugoslav conflict over the ways of building socialism in Yugoslavia.

    Split the world into two camps: supporters of the USSR and supporters of the USA.

    1949 - the split of Germany into the capitalist FRG, the capital is Bonn and the Soviet GDR, the capital is Berlin. (Before that, two zones were called Bizonia)

    1949 - creation NATO(North Atlantic military-political alliance)

    1949 - creation CMEA(Council for Mutual Economic Assistance)

    1949 - successful trial atomic bomb in the USSR.

    1950 -1953 – war in korea. The United States participated directly in it, while the USSR veiled it by sending military specialists to Korea.

US target: to prevent Soviet influence in the Far East. Outcome: the division of the country into the DPRK (the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (the capital of Pyongyang), established close contacts with the USSR, + into the South Korean state (Seoul) - the zone of American influence.

2nd period: 1955-1962 (cooling in relations between countries , growing contradictions in the world socialist system)

    During this period, the world stood on the brink of a nuclear catastrophe.

    Anti-communist speeches in Hungary, Poland, events in the GDR, the Suez Crisis

    1955 - creation ATS- Organizations of the Warsaw Pact.

    1955 - Geneva Conference of Heads of Government of the Victorious Countries.

    1957 - development and successful testing of an intercontinental ballistic missile in the USSR, which increased tension in the world.

    October 4, 1957 - opened space age. Launch of the first artificial earth satellite in the USSR.

    1959 - the victory of the revolution in Cuba (Fidel Castro). Cuba became one of the most reliable partners of the USSR.

    1961 - aggravation of relations with China.

    1962 – Caribbean crisis . Settled by Khrushchev N.S. and D. Kennedy

    The signing of a number of agreements on the nonproliferation of nuclear weapons.

    The arms race, which significantly weakened the economies of countries.

    1962 - complication of relations with Albania

    1963 - USSR, UK and USA signed first nuclear test ban treaty in three spheres: atmosphere, space and under water.

    1968 - complication of relations with Czechoslovakia ("Prague Spring").

    Dissatisfaction with Soviet policy in Hungary, Poland, the GDR.

    1964-1973- US war in Vietnam. The USSR provided military and material assistance to Vietnam.

3rd period: 1970-1984- tension strip

    1970s - the USSR made a number of attempts to strengthen " detente" international tension, arms reduction.

    A number of strategic arms limitation agreements have been signed. So in 1970, an agreement between the Federal Republic of Germany (V. Brand) and the USSR (Brezhnev L.I.), according to which the parties pledged to resolve all their disputes exclusively by peaceful means.

    May 1972 - arrival in Moscow of US President Richard Nixon. Treaty signed on limiting missile defense systems (PRO) and OSV-1- Interim Agreement on Certain Measures in the Sphere of Strategic Offensive Arms Limitation.

    Convention on the prohibition of the development, production and stockpiling bacteriological(biological) and toxic weapons and their destruction.

    1975- high point of détente, signed in August in Helsinki Final Act of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe and Declaration of Principles on Relations between states. Signed by 33 states, including the USSR, USA, Canada.

    Sovereign equality, respect

    Non-use of force and threats of force

    Inviolability of borders

    Territorial integrity

    Non-intervention in internal affairs

    Peaceful settlement of disputes

    Respect for human rights and freedoms

    Equality, the right of peoples to control their own destiny

    Cooperation between states

    Fulfillment in good faith of obligations under international law

    1975 - Soyuz-Apollo joint space program

    1979- Treaty on the Limitation of Offensive Arms - OSV-2(Brezhnev L.I. and Carter D.)

What are these principles?

4 period: 1979-1987 - complication of the international situation

    The USSR became a truly great power that had to be reckoned with. The détente was mutually beneficial.

    The aggravation of relations with the United States in connection with the entry of Soviet troops into Afghanistan in 1979 (the war lasted from December 1979 to February 1989). The goal of the USSR- to protect the borders in Central Asia against the penetration of Islamic fundamentalism. Eventually- The US has not ratified SALT-2.

    Since 1981, the new President Reagan R. has launched programs SOI– Strategic defense initiatives.

    1983- USA host ballistic missiles in Italy, England, Germany, Belgium, Denmark.

    Anti-space defense systems are being developed.

    The USSR withdraws from the Geneva talks.

5 period: 1985-1991 - The final stage easing tension.

    Having come to power in 1985, Gorbachev M.S. pursues a policy "new political thinking".

    Negotiations: 1985 - in Geneva, 1986 - in Reykjavik, 1987 - in Washington. Recognition of the existing world order, expansion of economic ties between countries, despite different ideologies.

    December 1989 - Gorbachev M.S. and Bush at the summit on the island of Malta announced about the end of the Cold War. Its end was caused by the economic weakness of the USSR, its inability to support the arms race anymore. In addition, pro-Soviet regimes were established in the countries of Eastern Europe, the USSR lost support in their person as well.

    1990 - German reunification. It became a kind of victory for the West in the Cold War. The fall berlin wall(existed from August 13, 1961 to November 9, 1989)

    December 25, 1991 - President D. Bush announced the end of the Cold War and congratulated his compatriots on the victory in it.

Results

    The formation of a unipolar world, in which the United States, a superpower, began to occupy a leading position.

    The United States and its allies defeated the socialist camp.

    Beginning of Westernization of Russia

    The collapse of the Soviet economy, the fall of its authority in the international market

    Emigration to the West of citizens of Russia, the way of his life seemed too attractive to them.

    The collapse of the USSR and the beginning of the formation of a new Russia.

Terms

Parity- the primacy of the side in something.

Confrontation- confrontation, clash of two social systems (people, groups, etc.).

Ratification- giving the document legal force, accepting it.

Westernization- borrowing a Western European or American way of life.

Material prepared: Melnikova Vera Aleksandrovna

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

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

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

Causes of the Cold War.

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

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

Beginning of the Cold War.

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

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

Cold War events.

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

Alliance includes:

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

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

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

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

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

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

Cold War conflicts.

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

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

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

End of the Cold War.

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