What were the causes of the Cold War. Start of the Cold War

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

As a result of the Second World War, the balance of power in the world changed. The victorious countries, primarily the Soviet Union, increased their territories at the expense of the defeated states. Most of East Prussia with the city of Koenigsberg (now the Kaliningrad region of the Russian Federation) went to the Soviet Union, the Lithuanian SSR received the territory of the Klaipeda region, the territories of Transcarpathian Ukraine went to the Ukrainian SSR. In the Far East, in accordance with the agreements reached at the Crimean Conference, South Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands (including the four southern islands that were not previously part of Russia) were returned to the Soviet Union. Czechoslovakia and Poland increased their territory at the expense of the German lands.

After World War II, the world was effectively divided into spheres of influence between two blocs with different social systems. The USSR sought to expand the "socialist camp", led from a single center on the model of the Soviet command and administrative system. In its sphere of influence, the USSR sought the introduction of state ownership of the main means of production and the political dominance of the communists. This system was supposed to control resources that were previously in the hands of private capital and capitalist states. The United States, in turn, sought to reorganize the world in such a way that favorable conditions would be created for the activities of private corporations and the strengthening of influence in the world. Despite this difference between the two systems, there were common features at the heart of their conflict. Both systems were based on the principles of an industrial society, which required industrial growth, and hence an increase in the consumption of resources. The planetary struggle for the resources of two systems with different principles of regulation of industrial relations could not but lead to clashes. But the approximate equality of forces between the blocs, and then the threat of nuclear missile destruction of the world in the event of a war between the USSR and the USA, kept the rulers of the superpowers from a direct confrontation. Thus, the phenomenon of the “cold war” arose, which never turned into a world war, although it constantly led to wars in individual countries and regions (local wars).

The situation within the Western world has changed. The aggressor countries—Germany and Japan—were defeated and lost their role as great powers, and the positions of Britain and France were significantly weakened. At the same time, the influence of the United States grew, which controlled about 80% of the gold reserves of the capitalist world, they accounted for 46% of world industrial production.

A feature of the post-war period was the people's democratic (socialist) revolutions in the countries of Eastern Europe and a number of Asian countries, which, with the support of the USSR, began to build socialism. A world system of socialism was formed, headed by the USSR.

The war marked the beginning of the disintegration of the colonial system of imperialism. As a result of the national liberation movement, such major countries as India, Indonesia, Burma, Pakistan, Ceylon, and Egypt gained independence. A number of them took the path of a socialist orientation. In total, in the post-war decade, 25 states gained independence, and 1,200 million people freed themselves from colonial dependence.

There was a shift to the left in the political spectrum of the capitalist countries of Europe. Fascist and right-wing parties left the stage. The influence of the communists grew sharply. In 1945–1947 communists were part of the governments of France, Italy, Belgium, Austria, Denmark, Norway, Iceland and Finland.

During the World War, a single anti-fascist coalition was formed - an alliance of great powers - the USSR, the USA, Great Britain and France. The presence of a common enemy helped to overcome differences between the capitalist countries and socialist Russia, to find compromises. In April-June 1945, the founding conferences of the United Nations were held in San Francisco, which included representatives of 50 countries. The UN Charter reflected the principles of peaceful coexistence of states of different socio-economic systems, the principles of sovereignty and equality of all countries of the world.

However, the Second World War was replaced by the "cold war" - a war without combat operations.

The immediate beginning of the Cold War was associated with conflicts in Europe and Asia. The Europeans, devastated by the war, were very interested in the experience of accelerated industrial development in the USSR. Information about the Soviet Union was idealized, and millions of people hoped that replacing the capitalist system, which was going through hard times, with a socialist one, could quickly restore the economy and normal life. The peoples of Asia and Africa were even more interested in the communist experience and assistance from the USSR. who fought for independence and hoped to catch up with the West just as the USSR did. As a result, the Soviet sphere of influence began to expand rapidly, which caused fears of the leaders of the Western countries - the former allies of the USSR in the Anti-Hitler coalition ..

On March 5, 1946, speaking in the presence of US President Truman in Fulton, W. Churchill accused the USSR of launching world expansion, of attacking the territory of the "free world". Churchill called on the "Anglo-Saxon world", that is, the United States, Great Britain and their allies to repulse the USSR. The Fulton speech became a kind of declaration of the Cold War.

The ideological justification of the Cold War was the doctrine of US President Truman, put forward by him in 1947. According to the doctrine, the conflict between capitalism and communism is insoluble. The task of the United States is to fight communism throughout the world, "to contain communism", "to push communism back into the borders of the USSR". American responsibility was proclaimed for events taking place all over the world, which were viewed through the prism of opposition of capitalism to communism, the USA and the USSR.

The Soviet Union began to be surrounded by a network of American military bases. In 1948, the first bombers with atomic weapons aimed at the USSR were deployed in Great Britain and West Germany. The capitalist countries are beginning to create military-political blocs directed against the USSR.

In 1946–1947, the USSR increased pressure on Greece and Turkey. There was a civil war in Greece, and the USSR demanded from Turkey the provision of territory for a military base in the Mediterranean, which could be a prelude to the seizure of the country. Under these conditions, Truman announced his readiness to "contain" the USSR throughout the world. This position was called the "Truman Doctrine" and meant the end of cooperation between the victors of fascism. The Cold War has begun.

The characteristic manifestations of the Cold War are as follows:

acute political and ideological confrontation between the communist and Western liberal systems, which has engulfed almost the entire world;

creation of a system of military alliances (NATO, Warsaw Pact Organization, SEATO, CENTO, ANZUS, ANZUK);

forcing the arms race and military preparations;

a sharp increase in military spending;

recurring international crises (Berlin Crisis, Caribbean Crisis, Korean War, Vietnam War, Afghan War);

the tacit division of the world into "spheres of influence" of the Soviet and Western blocs, within which the possibility of intervention was tacitly allowed in order to maintain a regime pleasing to one or another bloc (Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Grenada, etc.)

creation of an extensive network of military bases (first of all, the United States) on the territory of foreign states;

waging a massive "psychological war", the purpose of which was to promote their own ideology and way of life, as well as to discredit the official ideology and way of life of the opposite bloc in the eyes of the population of "enemy" countries and the "third world". For this purpose, radio stations were created that broadcast to the territory of the countries of the “ideological enemy”, the production of ideologically directed literature and periodicals in foreign languages was financed, and class, racial, and national contradictions were actively used.

reduction of economic and humanitarian ties between states with different socio-political systems.

2. Economic and social situation of the USSR and the USA during the years of the Cold War

The Soviet Union ended the war with huge losses. On the fronts, in the occupied territory, over 27 million Soviet citizens died in captivity. 1710 cities, over 70 thousand villages and villages, 32 thousand industrial enterprises were destroyed. The direct damage caused by the war exceeded 30% of the national wealth. The restoration of the destroyed industry proceeded at a rapid pace. In 1946, there is a certain decline associated with the conversion, and from 1947 a steady rise begins. In 1948, the pre-war level of industrial production was surpassed, and by the end of the five-year plan it exceeded the level of 1940. The growth was 70%, instead of the planned 48%. This was achieved by resuming production in the territories liberated from fascist occupation. The restored factories were equipped with equipment manufactured in German factories and supplied as reparations. In total, 3,200 enterprises were restored and re-launched in the western regions. They produced peaceful products, while defense enterprises remained where they were evacuated - in the Urals and Siberia.

A campaign of anti-Sovietism unfolded in the countries of the capitalist bloc, which took place under the flag of the struggle against the "Soviet military threat", with the desire of the USSR to "export the revolution" to other countries of the world. Under the pretext of fighting "subversive communist activities", a campaign was launched against the communist parties, which were portrayed as "agents of Moscow", "an alien body in the system of Western democracy." In 1947 the communists were removed from the governments of France, Italy and a number of other countries. In England and the United States, a ban was introduced for communists to hold positions in the army in the state apparatus, mass layoffs were carried out. In Germany, the Communist Party was banned.

The "witch hunt" took on a special scope in the United States in the first half of the 50s, which went down in the history of this country as the period of McCarthyism, named after Republican Senator D. McCarthy from Wisconsin. He ran for the presidency of Democrat Truman. H. Truman himself pursued a fairly anti-democratic policy, but the McCarthyists carried it to ugly extremes. G. Truman began a "test of loyalty" of civil servants, and the McCarthyists passed the law "On Internal Security", according to which a special department for the control of subversive activities was created, the task of which was to identify and register organizations of "communist action" in order to deprive them of their civil rights. G. Truman gave the order to judge the leaders of the Communist Party as foreign agents, and in 1952 the McCarthyists adopted a law on immigration restriction, which closed the entry into the country to people who collaborated with leftist organizations. After the victory of the Republicans in the elections in 1952, McCarthyism began to flourish. Under Congress, commissions were created to investigate un-American activities, to which any citizen could be called. On the recommendation of the commission, any worker or employee instantly lost his job.

The apogee of McCarthyism was the 1954 law "On Control of Communists". The Communist Party was deprived of all rights and guarantees, membership in it was declared a crime and punishable by a fine of up to 10 thousand dollars and imprisonment for up to 5 years. A number of provisions of the law had an anti-trade union orientation, classifying trade unions as subversive organizations "into which the communists penetrated."

With the beginning of the Cold War, the domestic policy of the USSR sharply tightened. The situation of a "military camp", a "besieged fortress" demanded, along with the struggle against an external enemy, the presence of an "internal enemy", an "agent of world imperialism".

In the second half of the 40s. renewed repression against the enemies of Soviet power. The largest was the "Leningrad case" (1948), when such prominent figures as the chairman of the State Planning Commission N. Voznesensky, the secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU A. Kuznetsov, the Presovmina RSFSR M. Rodionov, the head of the Leningrad party organization P. Popkov were arrested and secretly shot and etc.

When the State of Israel was established after the war, there began a mass migration of Jews from all over the world. In 1948, the arrests of representatives of the Jewish intelligentsia began in the USSR, the struggle against "rootless cosmopolitanism." In January 1953, a group of doctors of the Kremlin hospital, Jews by nationality, were accused of having killed, through improper treatment, the secretaries of the Central Committee Zhdanov and Shcherbakov and were preparing the assassination of Stalin. These doctors allegedly acted on instructions from international Zionist organizations.

Post-war repressions did not reach the scale of the 1930s, there were no high-profile show trials, but they were quite wide. It should be borne in mind that only in national formations from among the peoples of the USSR during the war years, from 1.2 to 1.6 million people fought on the side of Nazi Germany. So a large number of those repressed for collaborating with the enemy is understandable. Former prisoners of war were repressed (by order of the Commander-in-Chief Stalin, all those who were captured fell into the category of traitors to the Motherland). The war and the difficult post-war situation in the country also led to a colossal increase in criminality. Overall, by January 1953, there were 2,468,543 prisoners in the Gulag.

Returning to the causes of the Cold War, we can say that both the USSR and the United States were its culprits, since both sides sought to establish their hegemony in the world. And at the heart of everything was the conflict of two systems (capitalist and socialist), or the conflict of democracy and totalitarianism.

The USSR and the USA pursued one interest: world domination of one of the systems: either socialism or capitalism. Both sides pursued a policy of self-preservation, which consisted in preserving and increasing the role and power of world communism, and on the other hand, world democracy, as well as in expanding their spaces, since it was in this that they saw their salvation and achievement of the main goal - world power.

3. THE COLD WAR: THE MAIN STAGES AND THE END

The Cold War front ran not between countries, but within them. About a third of the population of France and Italy supported the Communist Party. The poverty of war-torn Europeans was the breeding ground for communist success. In 1947, US Secretary of State George Marshall announced that the United States was ready to provide European countries with material assistance to restore the economy. Initially, even the USSR entered into negotiations for aid, but it soon became clear that American aid would not be provided to countries ruled by the Communists. The US demanded political concessions: the Europeans were to maintain capitalist relations and withdraw the communists from their governments. Under pressure from the United States, the Communists were expelled from the governments of France and Italy, and in April 1948, 16 countries signed the Marshall Plan to provide them with $ 17 billion in aid in 1948-1952. The pro-communist governments of Eastern European countries did not participate in the plan. In the context of the intensification of the struggle for Europe, the multi-party governments of "people's democracy" in these countries were replaced by totalitarian regimes clearly subordinate to Moscow (only the Yugoslav communist regime of I. Tito left Stalin in 1948 and occupied an independent position). In January 1949, most of the countries of Eastern Europe united in an economic union - the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance.

These events consolidated the split of Europe. In April 1949, the United States, Canada and most of the countries of Western Europe created a military alliance - the North Atlantic bloc (NATO). The USSR and the countries of Eastern Europe responded to this only in 1955 by creating their own military alliance - the Warsaw Pact Organization.

Particularly hard the division of Europe affected the fate of Germany - the split line passed through the country. The east of Germany was occupied by the USSR, the west - by the USA, Great Britain and France. The western part of Berlin was also in their hands. In 1948, western Germany was included in the Marshall Plan, but eastern Germany was not. Different economic systems formed in different parts of the country, which made it difficult to unify the country. In June 1948, the Western Allies carried out a unilateral monetary reform, abolishing old-style money. The entire money supply of the old Reichsmarks poured into East Germany, which was partly the reason that the Soviet occupation authorities were forced to close the borders. West Berlin was completely surrounded. Stalin decided to use the situation to blockade him, hoping to capture the entire German capital and win concessions from the US. But the Americans organized an "air bridge" to Berlin and broke the blockade of the city, which was lifted in 1949. In May 1949, the lands that were in the western zone of occupation united into the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG). West Berlin became an autonomous self-governing city associated with the FRG. In October 1949, the German Democratic Republic (GDR) was established in the Soviet occupation zone..

The rivalry between the USSR and the USA inevitably led to the buildup of armaments by both blocs. Opponents sought to achieve superiority precisely in the field of atomic and then nuclear weapons, as well as in their means of delivery. Soon, rockets became such means in addition to bombers. A "race" of nuclear missile weapons began, which led to extreme strain on the economies of both blocs. To meet the needs of defense, powerful associations of state, industrial and military structures were created - military-industrial complexes (MIC). In 1949, the USSR tested its own atomic bomb. The presence of the bomb in the USSR prevented the United States from using nuclear weapons in Korea, although such a possibility was discussed by high-ranking American military men.

In 1952, the United States tested a thermonuclear device in which an atomic bomb played the role of a fuse, and the explosion power was many times greater than the atomic one. In 1953 the USSR tested a thermonuclear bomb. From that time on, until the 60s, the USA overtook the USSR only in the number of bombs and bombers, that is, quantitatively, but not qualitatively - the USSR had any weapon that the USA had.

The danger of a war between the USSR and the USA forced them to act "bypass", fighting for the resources of the world away from Europe. Immediately after the start of the Cold War, the countries of the Far East turned into an arena for a fierce struggle between supporters of communist ideas and the pro-Western path of development. The significance of this struggle was very great, since the Pacific region had huge human and raw material resources. The stability of the capitalist system largely depended on control over this region.

The first clash of the two systems took place in China, the world's largest country in terms of population. After World War II, the northeast of China, occupied by the Soviet army, was transferred to the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA), subordinate to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The PLA received Japanese weapons captured by Soviet troops. The rest of the country was subject to the internationally recognized government of the Kuomintang party headed by Chiang Kai-shek. Initially, it was planned to hold national elections in China, which were supposed to decide who would rule the country. But both sides were not sure of victory, and instead of elections in China, the civil war of 1946–1949 broke out. It was won by the CPC led by Mao Zedong.

The second major clash of the two systems in Asia took place in Korea. After World War II, this country was split into two zones of occupation - Soviet and American. In 1948, they withdrew their troops from the country, leaving the regimes of their proteges to rule - the pro-Soviet Kim Il Sung in the north and the pro-American Lee Syngman in the south. Each of them sought to capture the entire country. In June 1950, the Korean War began, in which the United States, China, and small units of other countries were involved. Soviet pilots "crossed swords" with the American in the sky over China. Despite heavy casualties on both sides, the war ended almost in the same positions in which it began.

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

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

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

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

However, by this time, the USSR could also impress the United States with its successes in the field of high technologies, and above all in space exploration. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, a wave of labor uprisings swept through the USSR, which were brutally suppressed.

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

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

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

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

In 1983, US President Ronald Reagan put forward the idea of the "Strategic Defense Initiative" (SDI), or "Star Wars" - space systems that could protect the United States from a nuclear strike. This program was carried out in circumvention of the ABM treaty. The USSR did not have the technical capabilities to create the same system. Although the United States was also far from successful in this area, the communist leaders feared a new round of the arms race.

Domestic factors undermined the foundations of the "real socialism" system much more significantly than US actions during the Cold War. At the same time, the crisis in which the USSR found itself put the question of "savings on foreign policy" on the agenda. Despite the fact that the possibilities of such savings were exaggerated, the reforms that began in the USSR led to the end of the Cold War in 1987-1990.

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

In November 1985, Gorbachev met with Reagan in Geneva and proposed a significant reduction in nuclear weapons in Europe. It was still impossible to solve the problem, because Gorbachev demanded the abolition of SDI, and Reagan did not concede. Despite the fact that no significant progress was achieved at this meeting, the two presidents got to know each other better, which helped them to agree in the future.

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

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

The last milestone of the Cold War is the dismantling of the Berlin Wall. That is, we can talk about its results. But this is perhaps the most difficult. History will probably sum up the results of the Cold War, its true results will be visible in decades.

After graduation Second World War, which became the largest and most violent conflict in the history of mankind, a confrontation arose between the countries of the communist camp on the one hand and the Western capitalist countries on the other, between the two superpowers of that time, the USSR and the USA. The Cold War can be briefly described as a rivalry for dominance in the new post-war world.

The main cause of the Cold War was the insoluble ideological contradictions between the two models of society, socialist and capitalist. The West feared the strengthening of the USSR. The absence of a common enemy among the victorious countries, as well as the ambitions of political leaders, played their role.

Historians distinguish the following stages of the Cold War:

March 5, 1946 - 1953 The beginning of the Cold War was marked by Churchill's speech, delivered in the spring of 1946 in Fulton, in which the idea of creating an alliance of Anglo-Saxon countries to fight communism was proposed. The goal of the United States was an economic victory over the USSR, as well as the achievement of military superiority. In fact, the Cold War began earlier, but it was precisely by the spring of 1946, due to the USSR's refusal to withdraw troops from Iran, that the situation seriously escalated.

1953 - 1962 During this period of the Cold War, the world was on the brink of nuclear conflict. Despite some improvement in relations between the Soviet Union and the United States during the "thaw" Khrushchev, it was at this stage that the anti-communist uprising in Hungary, the events in the GDR and, earlier, in Poland, as well as the Suez crisis took place. International tension increased after the development and successful testing of the USSR in 1957 of an intercontinental ballistic missile. But, the threat of nuclear war receded, as the Soviet Union now had the opportunity to retaliate against US cities. This period of relations between the superpowers ended with the Berlin and Caribbean crises of 1961 and 1962, respectively. It was possible to resolve the Caribbean crisis only during personal negotiations between the heads of state Khrushchev and Kennedy. Also, as a result of the negotiations, a number of agreements on the nonproliferation of nuclear weapons were signed.

1962 - 1979 The period was marked by an arms race that undermined the economies of rival countries. The development and production of new types of weapons required incredible resources. Despite the presence of tension in relations between the USSR and the USA, agreements on the limitation of strategic weapons are signed. A joint space program "Soyuz-Apollo" is being developed. However, by the beginning of the 80s, the USSR began to lose in the arms race.

1979 - 1987 Relations between the USSR and the USA are again aggravated after the entry of Soviet troops into Afghanistan. In 1983 the United States deployed ballistic missiles at bases in Italy, Denmark, England, the FRG, and Belgium. An anti-space defense system is being developed. The USSR reacts to the actions of the West by withdrawing from the Geneva talks. During this period, the missile attack warning system is in constant combat readiness.

1987 - 1991 M. Gorbachev's coming to power in the USSR in 1985 entailed not only global changes within the country, but also radical changes in foreign policy, called "new political thinking". Ill-conceived reforms finally undermined the economy of the Soviet Union, which led to the country's virtual defeat in the Cold War.

The end of the Cold War was caused by the weakness of the Soviet economy, its inability to support the arms race any longer, as well as the pro-Soviet communist regimes. Anti-war speeches in various parts of the world also played a certain role. The results of the Cold War were depressing for the USSR. The reunification of Germany in 1990 became a symbol of the West's victory.

As a result, after the USSR was defeated in the Cold War, a unipolar model of the world was formed with the US as the dominant superpower. However, there are other consequences of the Cold War. This is the rapid development of science and technology, primarily military. So, the Internet was originally created as a communication system for the American army.

In the second half of the 20th century, the foreign policy of almost all countries was determined by the undeclared Cold War. The world has split into two hostile camps led by the USA and the USSR. The reasons for the confrontation were the cardinal differences between the two political systems.

The origins of the confrontation between the USA and the USSR

The causes of the Cold War were laid down by the October Revolution in Russia, which brought the Bolsheviks to power.

Relations between the USSR and the West remained tense until the outbreak of World War II. The joint struggle with fascist Germany rallied the allies and gave hope for the normalization of relations.

Rice. 1. Stalin, Churchill and Roosevelt at a conference in Tehran. 1943

The prerequisites for the confrontation were the coming of leftist forces to power in a number of states in Eastern and Central Europe. In the colonial possessions of Britain, France and the Netherlands, the national liberation movement sharply intensified, which was supported by the USSR.

US Strengthening

During the war years, the economic power of the United States, which became the leader of the Western world, increased dramatically.

The invention and use of atomic weapons in Hiroshima (August 6, 1945) and Nagasaki (August 9) allowed the American leadership to declare its world domination.

Rice. 2. Hiroshima after the atomic attack.

This idea was based on the need to contain the USSR and the national liberation movement throughout the world.

The main stages of the beginning of the confrontation

The reason for the beginning of the Cold War is the famous speech of W. Churchill in Fulton (March 5, 1946), which ideologically substantiated the confrontation of the West against the Soviet Union:

socialism is a mortal threat to the entire Western world;
the emergence of the "Iron Curtain" in Eastern Europe - a consequence of the aggressive policy of the USSR;
the English-speaking peoples must unite and destroy the "Evil Empire" with the help of nuclear weapons.

Back in September 1945, the United States developed a plan for a nuclear attack on the USSR.

In 1949, the atomic bomb was invented in the Soviet Union. The US monopoly on nuclear weapons was broken. Since that time, an arms race between the USSR and the USA began.

Nuclear parity has become a guarantee of a fragile peace. At the same time, the superpowers actively took part in the "hot spots" of the Cold War.

The split of Germany into the FRG and the GDR (September 1949) divided the world into capitalist and socialist camps. This event was consolidated by the creation of military-political blocs:

the North Atlantic Alliance (NATO) of 12 states (1949);
Warsaw Pact, including 7 countries (1955).

Rice. 3. Berlin Wall. 1965

Thus, briefly by point, the causes of the Cold War were as follows:

ideological, political and economic confrontation between capitalism and socialism;
the emergence of two superpowers;
activation of the national liberation and revolutionary movement in the world;
the advent of the atomic age and the arms race.

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 atomic bomb test 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, mitigation of 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

A term that arose after the Second World War, when the US imperialists, claiming world domination, together with other imperialist states, began to escalate tension in the international situation, create military bases around the USSR and other socialist countries, organize aggressive blocs directed against the socialist camp, threaten it nuclear weapons.

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COLD WAR

global ideological, economic and political confrontation between the USSR and the USA and their allies in the second half of the 20th century.

Although the superpowers have never entered into direct military clashes with each other, their rivalry has repeatedly led to outbreaks of local armed conflicts around the world. The Cold War was accompanied by an arms race, due to which the world more than once teetered on the brink of a nuclear catastrophe (the most famous case is the so-called Caribbean crisis of 1962).

The foundation of the Cold War was laid during the Second World War, when the United States began developing plans to establish world domination after the defeat of the countries of the Nazi coalition.

The coming world Pax Americana was supposed to be based on the decisive preponderance of US power in the world, which meant, first of all, limiting the influence of the USSR as the main force in Eurasia. According to adviser F. Roosevelt, director of the Council of Foreign Relations I. Bowman, “the only and indisputable criterion for our victory will be the expansion of our dominance in the world after victory ... The United States must establish control over key regions of the world that are strategically necessary for world domination.”

After the end of World War II, the US leadership moved to the implementation of the "containment" plan, which, according to the author of this concept, D. Kennan, consisted in establishing control over those regions where geopolitical, economic and military power could be formed and consolidated. Of the four such regions - Great Britain, Germany, Japan and the USSR - after the war, only the Soviet Union retained its real sovereignty and even expanded its sphere of influence, taking the countries of Eastern Europe under protection from American expansion. Thus, relations between the former allies on the issue of the further arrangement of the world, spheres of influence, and the political system of states sharply escalated.

The United States no longer concealed its hostile attitude towards the USSR. The barbaric bombardment of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945, which instantly claimed the lives of half a million civilians, was intended to demonstrate to the Soviet leadership the possibilities of nuclear weapons. On December 14, 1945, the Joint Military Planning Committee of England and the United States adopted Directive No. 432D, which designated the first 20 targets of nuclear bombing in the territory of the Soviet Union - the largest cities and industrial centers.

The myth of the communist threat was planted in Western public opinion. The former Prime Minister of England W. Churchill (1874-1965) became its herald. On March 5, 1946, he delivered a speech to the students of Westminster College (Fulton, Missouri) about the need to resist Soviet Russia by creating an "Iron Curtain". On March 12, 1947, the Truman Doctrine was proclaimed, which set the task of containing communism. The same tasks were pursued by the "Program for the Reconstruction of Europe", or the "Marshall Plan", which, according to its author, Secretary of State J. Marshall, "military actions carried out with the help of the economy, the purpose of which, on the one hand, is to make Western Europe completely dependent on America, on the other hand, to undermine the influence of the USSR in Eastern Europe and pave the way for the establishment of American hegemony in this region ”(from a speech on June 5, 1947 at Harvard University).

On April 4, 1949, an aggressive NATO military bloc was created to ensure American military advantage in Eurasia. On December 19, 1949, the Dropshot military plan was developed in the United States, which envisaged a massive bombardment of 100 Soviet cities using 300 atomic bombs and 29,000 conventional bombs and the subsequent occupation of the USSR by 164 NATO divisions.

After the USSR conducted its first nuclear tests in 1949 and acquired nuclear sovereignty, the question of a preventive war against the Soviet Union was dropped due to its military impossibility. American experts stated that in addition to the “nuclear shield”, the USSR has other important advantages - a powerful defensive potential, a large territory, geographical proximity to the industrial centers of Western Europe, the ideological stability of the population, and huge international influence (“The CPSU is the most effective replacement for sea power in history”, - stated in the article "How strong is Russia?", published in the magazine "Time" of November 27, 1950).

Since that time, the main form of warfare has been ideological, diplomatic and political influence. Its nature was specifically defined by Directives of the US National Security Council NSC 20/1 (August 18, 1948) and NSC 68 (April 14, 1950).

These documents set for the United States the primary tasks regarding the Soviet Union: the transition of Eastern Europe into the sphere of American influence, the dismemberment of the USSR (primarily the separation of the Baltic republics and Ukraine) and undermining the Soviet system from within by demonstrating the moral and material advantages of the American way of life.

In solving these problems, NSC 20/1 emphasized, the United States is not bound by any time limits, the main thing in it is not to directly affect the prestige of the Soviet government, which "would automatically make war inevitable." The means of implementing these plans were the anti-communist campaign in the West, the encouragement of separatist sentiments in the national republics of the USSR, support for emigrant organizations, waging an open psychological war through the press, Radio Liberty, Voice of America, etc., subversive activities of various NGOs and NGOs .

For a long time, these actions had almost no effect. In the 1940s–50s. the world authority of the USSR as the winner of fascism was very high, no one believed that the "country of widows and disabled people" with a half-destroyed economy posed a real threat to the world. However, thanks to the erroneous policy of N. Khrushchev, who was extremely unrestrained in foreign policy statements and actually provoked the Caribbean crisis (the installation of our missiles in Cuba almost led to an exchange of nuclear strikes between the USA and the USSR), the world community believed in the danger of the USSR.

The US Congress significantly increased appropriations for subversive measures and authorized an arms race that was exhausting for the Soviet economy. Significant support of anti-Soviet circles in the West was enjoyed by dissidents (from the English dissident - a schismatic), whose "human rights" activities were aimed at undermining the moral authority of the USSR.

A slanderous book by A. Solzhenitsyn "The Gulag Archipelago" (1st ed. - 1973, YMCA-Press) was published in Western countries in huge editions, where the data on repressions during the reign of Stalin were exaggerated hundreds of times, and the USSR was presented as a concentration camp country, indistinguishable from Nazi Germany. The expulsion of Solzhenitsyn from the USSR, the awarding of the Nobel Prize to him, his world success brought to life a new wave of the dissident movement. It turned out that being a dissident is not dangerous, but extremely profitable.

A provocative step on the part of the West was the presentation in 1975 of the Nobel Peace Prize to one of the leaders of the “human rights” movement, nuclear physicist A. Sakharov, author of the brochure “On Peaceful Coexistence, Progress and Intellectual Freedom” (1968).

The United States and its allies supported activists of nationalist (Chechen, Crimean Tatar, Western Ukrainian, etc.) movements.

During the Brezhnev leadership, many steps were taken towards disarmament and "détente of international tension." Treaties on the limitation of strategic arms were signed, and a joint Soviet-American space flight Soyuz-Apollo took place (July 17–21, 1975). The culmination of the détente was the so-called. The Helsinki Accords (August 1, 1975), which consolidated the principle of the inviolability of the borders established after the Second World War (thus Western countries recognized the communist regimes in Eastern Europe) and imposed on the countries of both blocs a number of obligations to build confidence in the military and on human rights issues.

The softening of the position of the USSR in relation to dissidents led to the intensification of their activities. The next aggravation in relations between the superpowers occurred in 1979, when the Soviet Union sent troops to Afghanistan, giving the Americans a reason to disrupt the ratification process of the SALT-2 Treaty and freeze other bilateral agreements reached in the 1970s.

The Cold War also unfolded on the fields of sports battles: the United States and its allies boycotted the 1980 Olympics in Moscow, and the USSR boycotted the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles.

The Reagan administration, which came to power in 1980, proclaimed a policy of ensuring a decisive preponderance of US power in the world and establishing a "new world order", which required the removal of the Soviet Union from the world arena. Released in 1982–83 Directives of the US National Security Council NSC 66 and NSC 75 determined the methods for solving this problem: economic warfare, massive underground operations, destabilization of the situation and generous financial support for the "fifth column" in the USSR and the Warsaw Pact countries.

Already in June 1982, the CIA funds, the structures of George Soros and the Vatican began to allocate huge funds to support the Polish Solidarity trade union, which was destined to play in the late 1980s. decisive role in organizing the first "velvet revolution" in the socialist camp.

On March 8, 1983, speaking to the National Association of Evangelicals, Reagan called the USSR an "evil empire" and declared the fight against it his main task.

In the autumn of 1983, a South Korean civilian airliner was shot down by Soviet air defense forces over the territory of the USSR. This "asymmetric" response to the obvious provocation from the West became the reason for the deployment of American nuclear missiles in Western Europe and the development of the Space Anti-Missile Defense (SDI, or "Star Wars") program.

Subsequently, the American leadership's bluff with this technically dubious program forced M. Gorbachev to make serious military and geopolitical concessions. According to former CIA officer P. Schweitzer, author of the famous book “Victory. The role of the secret strategy of the US administration in the collapse of the Soviet Union and the socialist camp”, there were 4 main directions of attacks on the USSR:

1. Poland (provocations, support for the dissident movement Solidarity.

2. Afghanistan (provocation of conflicts, support of militants with modern weapons).

3. Technological blockade of the Soviet economy (including sabotage and distracting technological information).

4. Decline in oil prices (negotiations with OPEC to increase oil production, as a result of which its price on the market fell to $10 per barrel).

The cumulative result of these actions was the actual recognition by the Soviet Union of its defeat in the Cold War, which was expressed in the renunciation of independence and sovereignty in foreign policy decisions, the recognition of its history, economic and political courses as erroneous and requiring correction with the help of Western advisers.

With a shift in 1989–90. The communist governments in a number of countries of the socialist camp implemented the initial setting of Directive NSC 20/1 - the transition of Eastern Europe into the sphere of American influence, which was reinforced by the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact on July 1, 1991 and the beginning of NATO expansion to the East.

The next step was the collapse of the Soviet Union, "legalized" in December 1991, the so-called. "Belovezhsky agreements". At the same time, a more ambitious goal was set - the dismemberment of Russia itself.

In 1995, in a speech to members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, US President B. Clinton stated: “Using the mistakes of Soviet diplomacy, the excessive arrogance of Gorbachev and his entourage, including those who openly took a pro-American position, we have achieved that was going to make President Truman through the atomic bomb. True, with a significant difference - we received a raw materials appendage that was not destroyed by the atom ... However, this does not mean that we have nothing to think about ... It is necessary to solve several problems at the same time ... dismemberment of Russia into small states through interreligious wars, similar to those organized by us in Yugoslavia , the final collapse of the military-industrial complex and the army of Russia, the establishment of the regime we need in the republics that have broken away from Russia. Yes, we allowed Russia to be a power, but now only one country will be an empire - the United States.

The West is diligently trying to implement these plans by supporting the separatists of Chechnya and other republics of the Caucasus, by whipping up nationalism and religious intolerance in Russia through Russian, Tatar, Bashkir, Yakut, Tuva, Buryat and other nationalist organizations, through a series of "velvet revolutions" in Georgia, Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan, attempts to destabilize the situation in Transnistria, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan.

The George Bush administration essentially reaffirmed its adherence to the ideas of the Cold War. Thus, at the NATO summit in Vilnius in May 2006, US Vice President R. Cheney delivered a speech that was very reminiscent of the content and general mood of the notorious Fulton speech. In it, he accused Russia of authoritarianism and energy blackmail of neighboring countries and voiced the idea of creating the Baltic-Black Sea Union, which would include all the western republics of the former Soviet Union that cut Russia off from Europe.

The West continues to use the methods of the Cold War in the fight against Russia, which is again gaining political and economic weight. Among them are support for NGOs/NGOs, ideological sabotage, and attempts to interfere in political processes on sovereign Russian territory. All this indicates that the US and its allies do not consider the Cold War to be over. At the same time, talk about the loss of the USSR (in fact, Russia) in the Cold War is a symptom of defeatism. The battle is lost, but not the war.

Today, the former methods (and most importantly, the US ideology) are no longer successful and are not able to produce an effect, as at the end of the 20th century, and the US has no other strategy.

The moral authority of one of the victorious countries, the “country of freedom”, which was the main weapon of the United States, was seriously shaken in the world after operations in Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq, and so on. The United States appears before the world as a "new evil empire", pursuing its own interests and not carrying new values.

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