Holodnaya voyna (1946-1989 ... p.t)

In short, cold war is an ideological, military and economic confrontation between the two strongest powers of the 20th century, the USSR and the United States, which lasted 45 years - from 1946 to 1991. The word "war" is conditional here, the conflict continued without the use of military forces, but this made it no less tough. If we talk briefly about the Cold War, ideology was the main weapon in it.

The main countries of this confrontation are the Soviet Union and the United States. Since its inception, the USSR has caused concern in Western countries. The communist system was the extreme opposite of the capitalist one, and the spread of socialism to other countries caused an extremely negative reaction from the West and the United States.

Only the threat of capture fascist Germany Europe forced its former fierce opponents to become temporary allies in World War II. France, Great Britain, the USSR and the United States formed an anti-Hitler coalition and fought together with German troops. But conflicts were forgotten only during the war.

After the end of the bloodiest war of the 20th century, a new division of the world into spheres of influence between the major victorious countries began. The USSR extended its influence to Eastern Europe. The strengthening of the Soviet Union aroused serious concern in Britain and the United States. Already in 1945, the governments of these countries were developing plans to attack their main ideological enemy. British Prime Minister William Churchill, who hates the communist regime, made an open statement in which he stressed that military superiority in the world should be on the side of the Western countries, not the USSR. Statements of this kind have increased tensions between the Western countries and the Soviet Union.

In short, the Cold War began in 1946, just after the end of World War II. Churchill's speech in the American city of Fulton can be considered its beginning. She showed the true attitude of the Western allies towards the USSR.
In 1949, the West created a military NATO bloc with the aim of protecting against possible aggression from the USSR. The Soviet Union with the allied countries also formed in 1955, in opposition to the Western countries, its own military alliance - the "Warsaw Pact Organization".

The main participants in the conflict, the USSR and the USA, did not enter military operations, but their policy led to the emergence of many local conflicts in many regions of the world.
The Cold War was accompanied by increased militarization, an arms race and ideological warfare. How fragile the world is under such conditions was shown by the Cuban missile crisis in 1962. The real war was averted with difficulty. After him, the USSR came to understand the need for disarmament. Mikhail Gorbachev, starting in 1985, pursued a policy of establishing more trusting relationship with western countries.

After the end of World War II, the victorious powers were unable to improve relations with each other. The main contradictions were between the Soviet Union and the United States. Both states began to form military blocs (alliances), which, in the event of war, would act on their side. The confrontation between the USSR and the United States, as well as their allies, was called the Cold War. Despite the fact that there were no hostilities, both states were in a state of almost continuous confrontation (enmity) from the late 1940s to the mid-1970s, constantly increasing their military potential.

The beginning of the Cold War is usually counted from 1946, when British Prime Minister Winston Churchill made his famous speech in the American city of Fulton, in which the Soviet Union was named the main enemy of the Western countries. Between the USSR and the Western world fell " iron curtain". In 1949, the military Alliance (NATO) was created. The NATO bloc includes the United States, Great Britain, France, West Germany, Canada, Italy and other Western countries. In 1955, the Soviet Union founded the Warsaw Pact organization. In addition to the USSR, it was joined by the Eastern European countries that were part of the socialist camp.

Germany, which was split in two, became one of the symbols of the Cold War. The border between the two camps (western and socialist) ran right through the city of Berlin, and not symbolic, but real - in 1961 the city was divided into two parts by the Berlin Wall.

Several times during the Cold War, the USSR and the United States were on the brink of war. The most acute moment in this confrontation was the Cuban missile crisis (1962). The Soviet Union has deployed its missiles on the island of Cuba, the nearest southern neighbor USA. In response, the United States began preparations for an invasion of Cuba, where Soviet military bases and advisers were already stationed.

Only personal negotiations between US President J. Kennedy and USSR leader NS. Khrushchev was prevented from disaster. The presence of atomic weapons in the United States and the Soviet Union held back the governments of these countries from starting a real "hot" war. In the 1970s, the process of a policy of detente began. The USSR and the United States signed very important agreements on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons, but tensions between the two countries persisted.

The arms race consumed the enormous resources of both blocs. By the early 1980s, the Soviet Union began to lose heavily in the competition between the two systems. The socialist camp lagged more and more behind the advanced capitalist countries of the West. The Soviet Union was forced to begin large-scale reforms - perestroika, which led to radical changes in international politics. The Soviet Union and the United States concluded agreements on limiting the arms race and establishing new partnerships... The Cold War has become a thing of the past. The socialist camp fell apart.

In most of the Warsaw Pact countries, powers came to power who believed Western world your ally. The end of the Cold War was symbolized by the reunification of Germany in 1990.

After the end of World War II, 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 United States. The Cold War can be summed up as a rivalry for dominance in the new post-war world.

The main reason Cold War became 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 a role.

Historians identify the following stages of the Cold War:

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

1953 - 1962 During this period of the Cold War, the world was on the brink of a nuclear conflict. Despite some improvement in relations between the Soviet Union and the United States during Khrushchev's "thaw", it was at this stage that the anti-communist uprising took place in Hungary, the events in the GDR and, earlier, in Poland, as well as the Suez crisis. International tensions increased after the development and successful testing of an intercontinental ballistic missile by the USSR in 1957. But, the threat nuclear war retreated, since now the Soviet Union was able to strike back at US cities. This period of relations between the superpowers ended with the Berlin and Caribbean crises of 1961 and 1962, respectively. The Cuban missile crisis was resolved only through personal negotiations between the heads of state, Khrushchev and Kennedy. Also, as a result of the negotiations, a number of agreements on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons were signed.

1962 - 1979 The period was marked by an arms race, undermining 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 United States, agreements on the limitation of strategic arms are signed. A joint space program "Soyuz-Apollo" is being developed. However, by the beginning of the 80s, the USSR was beginning to lose in the arms race.

1979 - 1987 Relations between the USSR and the USA are aggravated again after the entry of Soviet troops into Afghanistan. USA places in 1983 ballistic missiles at bases in Italy, Denmark, England, Germany, 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 on constant alert.

1987 - 1991 The coming to power in the USSR of M. Gorbachev in 1985 entailed not only global changes within the country, but also radical changes in foreign policy, called “new political thinking”. Ill-considered 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 weakness Soviet economy, its inability to further support the arms race, as well as the pro-Soviet communist regimes. Anti-war demonstrations in the most different corners the world. The results of the Cold War turned out to be depressing for the USSR. The reunification of Germany in 1990 became the symbol of the West's victory.

The Cold War, the years of which are conventionally limited to the period that began a year after the victory of the anti-fascist coalition countries and lasted until the events of 1991, which resulted in the fall of the Soviet system, was a confrontation between the two political blocs that dominated the world arena. Not being a war in the international legal sense of this term, it was expressed in the confrontation between the ideologies of the socialist and capitalist models of state structure.

The beginning of the confrontation between the two world systems

The prologue of the Cold War was the establishment by the Soviet Union of control over the countries of Eastern Europe, liberated from the Nazi occupation, as well as the creation of a pro-Soviet puppet government in Poland, while its legitimate leaders were in London. This policy of the USSR, aimed at establishing control over the largest possible territories, was perceived by the governments of the United States and Great Britain as a threat to international security.

The confrontation between the main world powers became especially acute in 1945 during the Yalta conference, at which, in fact, the issue of the post-war division of the world into spheres of influence was resolved. A vivid illustration of the depth of the conflict was the development by the command of the British Armed Forces of a plan in case of the outbreak of war with the USSR, which they began in April of the same year by order of Prime Minister Winston Churchill.

The post-war partition of Germany became another significant reason for the aggravation of the contradictions between yesterday's allies. In its eastern part, controlled by Soviet troops, the German Democratic republic(East Germany), whose government was completely controlled by Moscow. In the western territories, liberated by the forces of the allies - the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG). A sharp confrontation immediately began between these states, which became the reason for the closure of the borders and the establishment of a long period of mutual enmity.

The anti-Soviet position of the governments of Western countries was largely dictated by the policy pursued by the USSR in the post-war years. The Cold War was the result of exacerbation of international relations caused by a number of actions by Stalin, one of which was his refusal to withdraw Soviet troops from Iran and tough territorial claims against Turkey.

Historical speech by W. Churchill

The beginning of the Cold War (1946), according to most historians, was marked by a speech by the head of the British government in Fulton (USA), where on March 5 he expressed the idea of ​​the need to create a military alliance of Anglo-Saxon countries aimed at fighting world communism.

In his speech, Churchill urged global community not to repeat the mistakes of the thirties and, having united, put a barrier on the path of totalitarianism, which became the fundamental principle of Soviet politics. In turn, Stalin, in an interview with the Pravda newspaper on March 12 of the same year, accused British prime minister in calls for a war between the West and the Soviet Union, and likened it to Hitler.

Truman Doctrine

The new impetus that the Cold War received in the post-war years was the statement of the American President Harry Truman, made by him on March 12, 1947. In his address to the US Congress, he pointed out the need to provide comprehensive assistance to the peoples who are fighting against attempts to enslave them by the armed minority inside the country and opposing external pressure. In addition, he described the incipient rivalry between the United States and the USSR as a conflict between totalitarianism and democracy.

Based on his speech, the American government developed a program, later called the Truman Doctrine, which guided all subsequent US presidents during the Cold War. It determined the main mechanisms of containment of the Soviet Union in its attempts to spread its influence in the world.

Taking as a basis the revision of the system of international relations that developed during Roosevelt's reign, the creators of the doctrine advocated the establishment of a unipolar political and economic system in the world, in which the United States would play a leading role. Among the most active supporters of the transition to new form international relations, in which the Soviet Union was viewed as a potential enemy, there were such prominent politicians America of those years, like Dean Acheson, Allen Dulles, Loy Henderson, George Kennan and a number of others.

Marshall plan

At the same time, US Secretary of State George C. Marshall put forward a program of economic assistance to European countries affected by World War II. One of the main conditions for helping to restore the economy, modernize industry, and remove trade restrictions was the refusal of states to include communists in their governments.

The government of the Soviet Union, putting pressure on the countries controlled by it of Eastern Europe, made them refuse to participate in this project, dubbed the Marshall Plan. Its goal was to preserve its influence and establish in the controlled states communist regime.

Thus, Stalin and his political entourage deprived many Eastern European countries of the opportunity to quickly overcome the consequences of the war and went on to further exacerbate the conflict. This principle of action became fundamental for the Soviet government during the Cold War.

"Long telegram"

To a large extent, the aggravation of relations between the USSR and the United States was facilitated by the analysis possible prospects their cooperation, cited in 1946 by US Ambassador George F. Kennan in a telegram sent to the President of the country. In his lengthy message, called the Long Telegram, the ambassador pointed out that, in his opinion, partnership in resolving international issues should not be expected from the leadership of the USSR, which recognizes only force.

In addition, he emphasized that Stalin and his political entourage are full of expansive aspirations and do not believe in the possibility of peaceful coexistence with America. As necessary measures, he proposed a number of actions aimed at containing the USSR within the framework of its sphere of influence that existed at that time.

Transport blockade of West Berlin

Another important stage of the Cold War was the events of 1948 that unfolded around the capital of Germany. The fact is that the US government, in violation of previously reached agreements, included West Berlin in the scope of the Marshall Plan. In response to this, the Soviet leadership began its transport blockade, blocking road and railways Western allies.

The result was a trumped-up charge against the USSR Consul General in New York, Yakov Lomakin, of allegedly exceeding diplomatic powers and declaring persona non grata. As an adequate response, the Soviet government is closing its consulates in San Francisco and New York.

Cold War arms race

The bipolarity of the world during the Cold War became the reason for the growing arms race from year to year, since both opposing sides did not exclude the possibility of a final military solution to the conflict. At the initial stage, the United States had an advantage in this regard, since in the second half of the 40s nuclear weapons appeared in their arsenal.

Its first use in 1945, as a result of which the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were destroyed, showed the world the monstrous power of this weapon. At the same time, it became obvious that from now on, it is precisely this that can give its owner superiority in resolving any international disputes. In this regard, the United States began to actively increase its reserves.

The USSR did not lag behind them, and during the Cold War it also relied on military force and conducted scientific research in this area. After the end of World War II, the secret services of both powers were tasked with detecting and removing all documentation related to nuclear development from the territory of defeated Germany.

Soviet atomic specialists had to be especially in a hurry, since according to intelligence data, in the postwar years, the American command developed a secret plan for code name"Dropshot", providing for a nuclear strike against the USSR. There is evidence that some of its options were presented to President Truman for consideration.

A complete surprise for the American government was a successful test nuclear bomb carried out in 1949 Soviet specialists at the training ground in Semipalatinsk. Overseas, they could not believe that their main ideological opponents were so short term were able to become the owners of atomic weapons and thereby established a balance of power, depriving them of their former advantage.

However, the reality of the fait accompli was beyond doubt. Much later it became known that this success was achieved largely thanks to the actions of Soviet intelligence operating at the American secret training ground in Los Alamos (New Mexico).

Caribbean crisis

The Cold War, the years of which were not only a period of ideological confrontation, but also a time of armed confrontation in a number of regions Globe, reached highest point exacerbation in 1961. The conflict that broke out that year went down in history as the Cuban Missile Crisis, which brought the world to the brink of World War III.

Its prerequisite was the placement by the Americans of their nuclear missiles on the territory of Turkey. This gave them the opportunity, if necessary, to strike at any point in the western part of the USSR, including Moscow. Since in those years missiles launched from the territory of the Soviet Union could not yet reach the American coast, the Soviet government responded by deploying them in Cuba, which had recently overthrown the pro-American puppet Batista regime. From this position, even Washington could be hit with a nuclear strike.

Thus, the balance of power was restored, but the American government, not wanting to put up with this, began to prepare an armed invasion of Cuba, where Soviet military installations were located. As a result, critical situation, in which, if they implemented this plan, a nuclear retaliation would inevitably follow and, as a consequence, the beginning of a global catastrophe, to which the bipolarity of the world was steadily leading during the Cold War.

Since this scenario did not suit either side, the governments of both powers were interested in a compromise solution. Fortunately, at a certain stage, common sense prevailed, and literally on the eve of the invasion American troops to Cuba, Nikita Khrushchev agreed to fulfill the demands of Washington, provided they do not attack the Island of Freedom and remove nuclear weapons from Turkey. This ended the conflict, but the world during the Cold War was more than once put on the brink of a new clash.

Ideological and information war

The years of the Cold War of the USSR and the USA were marked not only by their rivalry in the field of armaments, but also by an acute information and ideological struggle. In this regard, it is appropriate to recall the radio Liberty, memorable to the older generation, created in America and broadcasting its programs to the countries of the socialist bloc. Its officially declared goal was the fight against communism and bolshevism. It does not stop its work today, despite the fact that the Cold War ended with the collapse of the Soviet Union.

The years of confrontation between the two world systems are characterized by the fact that any major event in the world was inevitably given an ideological color. For example, Soviet propaganda presented the first flight into space of Yuri Gagarin as evidence of the triumph of Marxist-Leninist ideology and the victory of the society created on its basis.

Foreign policy of the USSR during the Cold War

As mentioned above, in the field of foreign policy, the actions of the Soviet leadership were aimed at creating states in Eastern Europe, organized according to the principle of Stalinist socialism. In this regard, while supporting the popular democratic movements that arose everywhere, the government of the USSR made efforts to put pro-Soviet-oriented leaders at the head of these states and thereby keep them under its control.

This policy served to create the so-called security sphere at the western borders of the USSR, legally enshrined in a number of bilateral treaties with Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Albania, Romania and Czechoslovakia. The result of these agreements was the creation in 1955 of a military bloc called the Warsaw Pact Organization (ATS).

Its establishment was a response to America's 1949 creation of the North Atlantic Military Alliance (NATO), which included the United States, Britain, Belgium, France, Canada, Portugal, Italy, Denmark, Norway, Iceland, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. Subsequently, the countries of the West created several more military blocs, the most famous of which are SEATO, CENTO and ANZUS.

Thus it became apparent military confrontation, the reason for which was the foreign policy during the Cold War, pursued by the most powerful and influential world powers - the USA and the USSR.

Afterword

After the fall of the communist regime in the USSR and its final collapse, the Cold War ended, the years of which are usually determined by the interval from 1946 to 1991. Despite the fact that tensions between East and West persist to this day, the world has ceased to be bipolar. The tendency to view any international event in terms of its ideological context is a thing of the past. And although hotbeds of tension periodically arise in certain parts of the world, they do not place humanity as close to unleashing the Third World War as it was during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1961.

Introduction. 2

1. Causes of the Cold War. 3

2. "Cold War": beginning, development. 6

2.1 The beginning of the Cold War .. 6

2.2 The climax of the Cold War ... 8

3. Consequences, results and lessons of the Cold War. eleven

3.1 Political, economic and ideological consequences of the Cold War .. 11

3.2 The results of the cold war and whether its outcome was predetermined ... 14

Conclusion. 17

Literature. 19

Introduction

Not only history, but also the attitude towards it knows sharp turns, denoting the qualitative stages of the political, social, moral development human society... With a sufficient degree of reliability, we can say: when civilization steps over the superstitions of power, everyone will agree that the Cold War - one of the saddest chapters of the 20th century - was the product of, first of all, human imperfections and ideological prejudices. It might well not have been. It would not exist if the actions of people and the actions of states were consistent with their words and declarations.

However, the Cold War hit humanity. The question arises: why did yesterday's combat allies suddenly become enemies who are cramped on the same planet? What prompted them to exaggerate past mistakes and add many new ones to them? This did not fit with common sense, not to mention the allied duty and elementary notions of decency.

The Cold War did not break out overnight. She was born in the crucible of the "hot war" and left a very noticeable imprint on the course of the latter. Many in the United States and England perceived interaction with the USSR in the fight against the aggressors as forced, contrary to their affections and interests, and secretly, and some clearly dreamed that the battles, which London and Washington had watched for a long time, would exhaust the forces of Germany as well. and the Soviet Union.

Many not only dreamed, but worked out variants of strategy and tactics behind tightly closed doors, counting on gaining a "decisive advantage" in the final direct war, when the time came to take stock, and on actively using this advantage against the USSR.

G. Hopkins, F. Roosevelt's adviser, wrote in 1945 that some overseas "really wanted our (American armies), passing through Germany, to start a war with Russia after the defeat of Germany." And who knows how things would have turned out in reality if the cards had not been confused by the unfinished war with Japan and the need for help from the Red Army, in order, as they calculated then, "to save up to a million American lives."

The relevance of the study is that the Cold War was a sharp confrontation between the two systems on the world stage. It became especially acute in the late 40s - 60s. There was a time when the severity subsided somewhat, and then intensified again. The Cold War covered all spheres of international relations: political, economic, military and ideological.

Currently, in connection with the deployment of the US missile defense system and the negative attitude of representatives of a number of countries, including Russia, to this, since the missiles will be located near the Russian borders, this topic is becoming especially acute.

Purpose of the work: to consider the "cold war" in Russia, its causes and origins, development.

1. Causes of the Cold War

The prologue of the Cold War can be attributed to the final stage of the Second World War. In our opinion, not the last role in its origin was played by the decision of the leadership of the United States and England not to inform the USSR about the work on the creation of atomic weapons. To this can be added Churchill's desire to open a second front not in France, but in the Balkans, and to advance not from West to East, but from south to north, in order to block the path of the Red Army. Then in 1945 there were plans to push back Soviet troops from the center of Europe to the pre-war borders. And finally, in 1946, a speech at Fulton.

In Soviet historiography, it was generally recognized that the Cold War was unleashed by the United States and its allies, and the USSR was forced to take retaliatory, most often adequate, measures. But at the very end of the 1980s and in the 1990s, other approaches were also discovered in the coverage of the Cold War. Some authors began to argue that it is generally impossible to determine its chronological framework and establish who started it. Others blame both sides - the United States and the USSR - as the culprits of the Cold War. Some accuse the Soviet Union of foreign policy mistakes that led, if not to outright unleashing, then to expansion, aggravation and prolonged continuation of the confrontation between the two powers.

The term "cold war" itself was introduced in 1947 by the US Secretary of State. They began to denote the state of political, economic, ideological and other confrontation between states and systems. In one government document of Washington of that time it was written: the "cold war" is the essence of "real war", the stake in which is "the survival of the free world."

What were the reasons for the Cold War?

The economic reasons for the change in US policy was that the US became immeasurably rich during the war years. With the end of the war, they were threatened by a crisis of overproduction. At the same time, the economies of European countries were destroyed, their markets were open to American goods, but there was nothing to pay for these goods. The United States was afraid to invest in the economies of these countries, since there was a strong influence of the left forces and the environment for investment was unstable.

In the United States, a plan was developed, called the Marshall. European countries were offered assistance to rebuild their shattered economies. Loans were given to buy American goods. The proceeds were not exported, but invested in the construction of enterprises on the territory of these countries.

The Marshall Plan was adopted by 16 states of Western Europe. The political condition for the assistance was the removal of communists from governments. In 1947, the communists were withdrawn from the governments of Western European countries. Help was also offered to Eastern European countries. Poland and Czechoslovakia began negotiations, but, under pressure from the USSR, they refused to help. At the same time, the United States tore up the Soviet-American loan agreement and passed a law banning exports to the USSR.

The ideological rationale for the Cold War was the Truman Doctrine, put forward by the President of the United States in 1947. According to this doctrine, the conflict between Western democracy and communism is irreconcilable. The tasks of the United States are to fight communism all over the world, "contain communism", "push communism into the borders of the USSR." American responsibility for the events taking place all over the world was proclaimed, all these events were viewed through the prism of the confrontation between communism and Western democracy, the USSR and the USA.

Speaking about the origins of the Cold War, according to many historians, it is illogical to try to completely whitewash one side and place all the blame on the other. Today, American and British historians have long recognized partial responsibility for what happened after 1945.

In order to understand the origin and essence of the Cold War, let us turn to the events of the history of the Great Patriotic War.

Since June 1941, the Soviet Union fought Nazi Germany in heavy combat. Roosevelt called the Russian front “the biggest support”.

The great battle on the Volga, according to the biographer of Roosevelt and his assistant Robert Sherwood, "changed the whole picture of the war and the prospects for the near future." As a result of one battle, Russia became one of the world's great powers. The victory of the Russian troops at the Kursk Bulge dispelled in Washington and London all doubts about the outcome of the war. Collapse Hitlerite Germany was now only a matter of time.

Accordingly, in the corridors of power in London and Washington, the question arose whether the anti-Hitler coalition had not exhausted itself, was it not time to trumpet the anti-communist gathering?

Thus, already in the course of the war, in some circles in the United States and England, plans were being considered, having passed through Germany, to start a war with Russia.

The fact of negotiations that Germany was conducting at the end of the war with the Western powers on a separate peace is widely known. In Western literature, the Wolf case is often described as the first operation of the Cold War. It can be noted that the "Wolf-Dallas affair" was the largest operation against F. Roosevelt and his course, begun during the president's lifetime and designed to upset the implementation of the Yalta agreements.

Roosevelt was succeeded by Truman. At a White House meeting on April 23, 1945, he questioned the usefulness of any agreements with Moscow. "It needs to be broken now or never ..." - he said. This refers to Soviet-American cooperation. Thus, Truman's actions canceled out the years of Roosevelt's work, when the foundations of mutual understanding with the Soviet leaders were laid.

On April 20, 1945, at a meeting with, the American President, in an unacceptable form, demanded that the USSR change its foreign policy in the spirit pleasing to the United States. Less than a month later, without any explanation, supplies to the USSR under Lend-Lease were stopped. In September, the United States set unacceptable conditions for the Soviet Union to receive a previously promised loan. As Professor J. Geddis wrote in one of his works, the USSR was demanded that "in exchange for an American loan, it change its system of government and renounce its sphere of influence in Eastern Europe."

Thus, contrary to sober thinking in politics and strategy, the concept of permissiveness, based on the monopoly of atomic weapons, has taken the leading place.

2. "Cold War": the beginning, development

2.1 The beginning of the cold war

So, at the final stage of the war, the rivalry between the two trends in the policy of the United States and Britain sharply intensified.

During the Cold War, the use of force or its threat became the rule. The desire to establish its dominance, to dictate on the part of the United States began to manifest itself for a long time. After the Second World War, the United States used all means to achieve its goal - from negotiations at conferences, at the United Nations, to political, economic and even military pressure in Latin America, in Western Europe and then in the Middle, Middle and Far East... The main ideological cover for their foreign policy doctrine was the struggle against communism. Typical in this respect were the slogans: "rejection of communism", "politics on the edge of a knife", "balancing on the brink of war."

From the NSC document 68, declassified in 1975, and approved in April 1950 by President Truman, it is clear that the United States then decided to build relations with the USSR only on the basis of constant crisis confrontation. One of the main goals in this direction was the achievement of US military superiority over the USSR. The task of American foreign policy was to "accelerate the disintegration of the Soviet system."

Already in November 1947, the United States began to introduce a whole system of restrictive and prohibitive measures in the spheres of finance and trade, which marked the beginning of an economic war between the West and the East.

During 1948, there was a progressive advancement of mutual claims in the economic, financial, transport and other spheres. But the Soviet Union took a more compliant position.

American intelligence reported that the USSR was not preparing for war and was not carrying out mobilization measures. At the same time, the Americans realized that their operational-strategic position in the center of Europe was losing.

This is evidenced by the entry in the diary of the influential US politician William Legey for June 30, 1948: “American military situation in Berlin it is hopeless, since there is no sufficient force anywhere and there is no information that the USSR is experiencing inconvenience due to internal weakness. It would be in the interests of the United States to leave Berlin. However, the Soviet side soon agreed to lift the blockade.

This is the outline of the events that threatened to lead humanity to the third world war in 1948.

2.2 The climax of the Cold War

The years 1949-1950 were the culmination of the Cold War, marked by the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty on April 4, 1949, whose "openly aggressive nature" was tirelessly exposed by the USSR, the Korean War and the rearmament of Germany.

1949 was an “extremely dangerous” year, since the USSR no longer doubted that the Americans would remain in Europe for a long time. But he also brought satisfaction to the Soviet leaders: the successful test of the first Soviet atomic bomb in September 1949 and the victory of the Chinese communists.

The strategic military plans of the time reflected national interests and the possibilities of the country, the realities of that time. So, the country's defense plan for 1947 set the following tasks for the Armed Forces:

ü Ensure a reliable reflection of aggression and the integrity of the borders in the west and east established by international treaties after the Second World War.

ü Be ready to repel enemy air attacks, including the use of atomic weapons.

ü To the Navy to repel possible aggression from sea areas and to provide support for actions for this purpose by ground forces.

Soviet foreign policy decisions during the emergence of the Cold War were largely reciprocal in nature and were determined by the logic of struggle, not the logic of cooperation.

In contrast to its policy in other regions of the world, in the Far East, the USSR has acted extremely cautiously since 1945. The entry of the Red Army into the war with Japan in August 1945 allowed him to restore in this region the positions lost in 1905 by the tsarist empire. On August 15, 1945, Chiang Kai-shek agreed to the Soviet presence in Port Arthur, Dairen and Manchuria. With Soviet support, Manchuria became an autonomous communist state headed by Gao Gang, who was apparently closely associated with Stalin. At the end of 1945, the latter called on the Chinese communists to find mutual language with Chiang Kai-shek. This position has been confirmed several times over the years.

The fact that, beginning in the summer of 1947, the political and military situation had changed in favor of the Chinese Communists did not generally change restrained attitude Soviet leadership to the Chinese communists, who were not invited to a meeting on the founding of the Comintern.

Soviet enthusiasm for the "Chinese brothers in arms" manifested itself only after the final victory of Mao Zedong. On November 23, 1949, the USSR established diplomatic relations with Beijing. One of the main factors in the agreement was the general hostility towards the United States. That this was so was openly confirmed a few weeks later, when the Security Council refused to exclude nationalist China from the UN, the USSR withdrew from all its organs (until August 1950).

It was thanks to the absence of the USSR that the Security Council was able on June 27, 1950 to adopt a resolution on the introduction of American waxes into Korea, where the North Koreans had crossed the 38th parallel two days earlier.

According to some modern versions, Stalin pushed North Korea to this step, who did not believe in the possibility of US retaliatory actions after they "abandoned" Chiang Kai-shek, and wanted to compete with Mao in the Far East. Nevertheless, when China, in turn, entered the war on the side of North Korea, the USSR, faced with a firm position of the United States, tried to preserve the local character of the conflict.

To a greater extent than the conflict in Korea, the "headache" of Soviet foreign policy in the early 1950s was the issue of the FRG's integration into the West. political system and its rearmament. On October 23, 1950, the foreign ministers of the Eastern European camp gathered in Prague proposed to sign a peace treaty with Germany, providing for its demilitarization and the withdrawal of all foreign troops... In December, the Western countries agreed to a meeting, but demanded that all the problems on which there was a confrontation between the West and the East were discussed at it.

In September 1951, the US Congress passed the Mutual Security Act, which granted the right to finance anti-Soviet and counter-revolutionary émigré organizations. On its basis, significant funds were allocated for the recruitment of persons living in the Soviet Union and other countries of Eastern Europe, and payment for their subversive activities.

Speaking about the "cold war", one cannot but touch upon the topic of conflicts that can develop into an atomic war. Historical analyzes of the causes and course of crises during the Cold War years leave much to be desired.

So far, there are three documented cases in which American policy headed for war. In each of them, Washington deliberately risked atomic war: during the Korean War; in conflict for chinese islands Kuema and Mazu; in the Cuban crisis.

The Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 convincingly testified that the nuclear missile arsenals of both powers are not only sufficient, but also redundant for mutual destruction, that a further quantitative build-up of nuclear potential cannot give advantages to either country.

Thus, already at the beginning of the 60s, it became obvious that even in the context of the Cold War, only compromises, mutual concessions, understanding of each other's interests and the global interests of all mankind, diplomatic negotiations, the exchange of truthful information, the adoption of emergency rescue measures against the emergence of the immediate threat of nuclear war is now an effective means of conflict resolution. This is main lesson Caribbean crisis.

Being a product of the psychology of the Cold War, he clearly showed the vital need to discard the categories of the old thinking and adopt a new way of thinking, adequate to the threats of the nuclear-missile age, global interdependence, the interests of survival and global security. As you know, the Cuban missile crisis ended with a compromise; the USSR removed Soviet ballistic missiles and IL-28 medium-range bombers from Cuba. In response, the US gave guarantees of non-interference in Cuba's affairs and removed the Jupiter missiles from Turkey, and then from Great Britain and Italy. Nevertheless, militaristic thinking was far from being eradicated, continuing to dominate politics.

In September 1970, the London International Institute for Strategic Studies announced that the USSR was approaching nuclear parity with the United States. On February 25, 1971, the Americans heard President Nixon's radio address: "Today, neither the United States nor the Soviet Union has a clear nuclear advantage."

In October of the same year, preparing for the Soviet-American meeting at the highest level, he said at a press conference: “If there is a new war, if there is a war between superpowers, then no one will win. That is why the moment has come to settle our differences, to settle them taking into account our differences of opinion, recognizing that they are still very deep, while recognizing, however, that in currently there is no alternative to negotiation. "

Thus, the recognition of the realities of the nuclear age led in the early 1970s to a revision of policy, to a turn from the Cold War, to detente, to cooperation between states with different social systems.

3. Consequences, outcomes and lessons of the Cold War

3.1 Political, economic and ideological consequences of the Cold War

The United States constantly sought to preempt the USSR and to be the initiators both in politics and in the economy and, especially, in military affairs. At first, they were in a hurry to use their advantage of owning atomic bomb, then in the development of new species military equipment and weapons, thereby pushing the Soviet Union to prompt and adequate actions. Their main goal was to weaken the USSR, to destroy it, to tear its allies away from it. By drawing the USSR into the arms race, the United States thus forced it to strengthen the army at the expense of funds intended for internal development, to improve the well-being of the people.

In recent years, some historians have accused the Soviet Union of taking and implementing measures that allegedly helped the United States pursue its policy of confrontation and strengthening of the Cold War. However, the facts tell a different story. The United States, together with its Western allies, began to pursue its special line from Germany. In the spring of 1947, at the Ministerial Council session, representatives of the United States, Britain and France announced their rejection of the decisions previously agreed upon with the Soviet Union. By their unilateral actions, they put in a difficult position eastern zone occupation and consolidated the split in Germany. By carrying out monetary reform in the three western zones in June 1948, the three powers actually provoked the Berlin crisis, forcing the Soviet occupation authorities to shield the eastern zone from currency manipulation and protect its economy and monetary system. For these purposes, a system of checking citizens arriving from West Germany was introduced and the movement of any transport was prohibited in case of refusal to check. The Western occupation authorities banned the population of the western part of the city from accepting any help from East Germany and organized the supply of West Berlin by air, at the same time increasing anti-Soviet propaganda. Later, such an informed person as JF Dulles spoke about the use of the Berlin crisis by Western propaganda.

In line with the Cold War, the Western powers carried out such foreign policy actions as the split of Germany into two states, the creation of a military Western alliance and the signing of the North Atlantic Pact, which was already mentioned above.

This was followed by the formation of military blocs and alliances in different parts of the world under the pretext of ensuring mutual security.

In September 1951 the USA, Australia and New Zealand create a military-political union (ANZUS).

On May 26, 1952, representatives of the USA, England and France, on the one hand, and the FRG on the other, sign in Bonn a document on the participation of West Germany in the European Defense Community (EOS), and on May 27, Germany, France, Italy, Belgium, Holland and Luxembourg conclude an agreement in Paris on the creation of this bloc.

In September 1954 in Manila, the United States, England, France, Australia, New Zealand, Pakistan, the Philippines and Thailand sign the Collective Defense Treaty South-East Asia(SEATO).

In October 1954, the Paris agreements were signed on the remilitarization of the FRG and its inclusion in the Western Union and NATO. They come into force in May 1955.

In February 1955, a military Turkish-Iraqi alliance (Baghdad Pact) was created.

The actions of the United States and its allies demanded a response. On May 14, 1955, a collective defensive alliance of socialist states - the Warsaw Pact Organization - was formed. This was a response to the creation of the NATO military bloc and the inclusion of the FRG in it. The Warsaw Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance was signed by Albania, Bulgaria, Hungary, East Germany, Poland, Romania, USSR and Czechoslovakia. It was purely defensive in nature and was not directed against anyone else. Its task was to protect the socialist gains and peaceful labor of the peoples of the countries participating in the treaty.

If a collective security system was created in Europe, the Warsaw Pact was to lose its force from the day the European Treaty entered into force.

To make it difficult for the Soviet Union to resolve issues of post-war development, the United States imposed a ban on economic ties and trade with the USSR and the countries of Central and South-Eastern Europe. The delivery of even previously ordered and already finished equipment to these countries was interrupted, Vehicle and various materials. A list of items prohibited for export to the USSR and other countries of the socialist camp was specially adopted. This created certain difficulties for the USSR, but caused serious damage and industrial enterprises West.

In September 1951, the US government annulled the trade agreement with the USSR that had existed since 1937. The second list of goods that were banned for export to socialist countries, adopted in early January 1952, was so wide that it included goods from almost all industries.

3.2 Outcomes of the Cold War and Was Its Outcome Predetermined

What was the Cold War for us, what are its results and lessons from the point of view of the changes that have taken place in the world?

It is hardly legitimate to characterize the Cold War with one-sided definitions - either as yet another conflict in the history of mankind, or as a lasting peace. This point of view was adhered to by J. Gaddis. Apparently, this historical phenomenon bore the features of both.

In this regard, I agree with Academician G. Arbatov, who believes that the antagonisms and instability generated by the Second World War carried the same possibility of a military conflict as those that developed after the First World War.

In any case, both the Berlin Crisis of 1953, and, especially, the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962, could well have culminated in a third world war. A general military conflict did not arise only due to the "dissuasive" role of nuclear weapons.

Political scientists and ideologists around the world have tried many times to clearly define the concept of "cold war" and identify its most characteristic features. From the position today, in conditions when the "cold war" became a thing of the past, it is quite obvious that it was primarily a political course of the confronting parties, pursued from a position of strength on a peculiar ideological basis.

In the economy and trade, this manifested itself in blocs and discriminatory measures against each other. In propaganda activities - in the formation of the "image of the enemy." The goal of such a policy in the West was to contain the spread of communism, to protect the "free world" from it. In the East, the goal of such a policy was also seen in the protection of peoples, but from the "pernicious influence of the decaying Western world."

Now it is futile to look for the blame of any one of the parties as the main reason for the emergence of the Cold War. It is quite obvious that there was a general "blindness" in which, instead of a political dialogue, preference was given to confrontation between the leading states of the world - the USSR and the United States.

The transition to confrontation happened subtly quickly. A circumstance of exceptional importance was also the fact that nuclear weapons appeared on the world stage.

The Cold War, as a whole complex of phenomena, had a tremendous impact on the general growth of tension in the world, on the increase in the number, scale and severity of local conflicts. There is no reason to doubt that without the established climate of the Cold War, many crisis situations in various regions of the planet would most likely have been extinguished by the concerted efforts of the world community.

Speaking about the peculiarities of the Cold War, it should be said that in our country for a long time everything related to nuclear weapons... Allegedly for moral reasons. Again, the question arises of what prevented the development of an armed conflict when the world was literally on the verge of war?

This, in my opinion, is the fear of total annihilation, which sobered politicians, reoriented public opinion, made me remember about eternal moral values.

Fear of mutual destruction led to the fact that international politics has ceased to be exclusively "the art of diplomats and soldiers." It actively involved new subjects - scientists, transnational corporations, mass media, public organizations and movement, individuals... They all brought their own interests, beliefs and goals into it, including those based solely on moral considerations.

So who won this war?

Now, after the lapse of time, which has put everything in its place, it has become clear that humanity as a whole has emerged victorious, since the main result of the Cuban missile crisis, like the Cold War as a whole, turned out to be an unprecedented strengthening of the moral factor in world politics.

Most researchers note the exceptional role of ideology in the Cold War.

V this case the words said by General de Gaulle are correct: "the banner of ideology from the moment of the birth of the world, it seems, did not cover anything but human ambitions." A country that proclaimed itself the bearer of universal moral values, unceremoniously rejected morality when it came to own interests or the opportunity to win back at least one point in a political struggle with the enemy.

The question is legitimate: if the policy of the West in post-war history were based not on momentary state interests, but solely on the principles proclaimed in international law, in democratic constitutions, and finally in the biblical commandments, if the requirements of morality were addressed primarily to themselves, would there be an arms race and local wars? There is still no answer to this question, since humanity has not yet accumulated the experience of politics based on moral principles.

At present, the "triumph" of the United States, won by them in the short term, now appears to the Americans as something completely different, maybe even a defeat in the long term.

On the other hand, having suffered defeat in the short term, the Soviet Union, or rather, its heirs, did not at all deprive themselves of chances in the long term. Reforms and changes in Russia give it a unique opportunity to answer the questions facing civilization as a whole. The chance that Russia has given the world today, having saved it from the exhausting arms race and the class approach, it seems to me, can be qualified as a moral achievement. And in this regard, I agree with the authors of the article "Were there any winners in the Cold War" B. Martynov.

This circumstance is also noted by many foreign politicians.

I believe that its outcome was predetermined, since a military equilibrium had developed in the world, and in the event of a nuclear threat, there would be no survivors.

Conclusion

The "cold war" quite naturally became a kind of fusion of the traditional, forceful confrontation not only between two military blocs, but also two ideological concepts. Moreover, the struggle over moral values ​​was of a secondary, auxiliary nature. A new conflict was avoided only thanks to the presence of nuclear weapons.

Fear of mutual assured destruction, on the one hand, became a catalyst moral progress in the world (the problem of human rights, ecology), and on the other, - the cause of the economic and political collapse of the society of the so-called real socialism (the unbearable burden of the arms race).

As history shows, not a single socio-economic model, no matter how economically effective it is, has a historical perspective, if it is not based on any firm moral postulates, if the meaning of its existence is not focused on achieving universal humanistic ideals.

The common victory of humankind as a result of the Cold War may be the triumph of moral values ​​in politics and in the life of society. Russia's contribution to achieving this goal has determined its position in the world in the long term.

The end of the Cold War should not, however, lull the peoples and governments of the two great states, as well as the entire population. the main task all healthy, realistically thinking forces society to prevent a secondary return to it. This is relevant in our time, since, as noted, a confrontation is possible due to the deployment of the missile defense system, as well as in connection with conflicts that recent times arose between Russia and Georgia, Russia and Estonia, the former Soviet republics.

Refusal of confrontation of thinking, cooperation, mutual consideration of interests and security - this is the general line in relations between countries and peoples living in the nuclear-missile era.

The Cold War years provide grounds for the conclusion that, in opposing communism and revolutionary movements, the United States primarily fought against the Soviet Union, as the country that represented the greatest obstacle to their implementation. main goal- establishing their dominance over the world.

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