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Joseph Stalin
Jospeh Stalin was a fierce leader, arguably the meanest and harshest leader in the USSR. He was able to keep the USSR under fine control with the amount of power he had. He was aggressive as a leader and built the USSR empire at its peak. When his death ensued the USSR was never able to recover to his potential of what he had done. -
Russia enterance into the Japanese War
In 1945 the USSR stated they were going to join th Allies into the Japanese War. The problem was if they joined the war effort they were able to choose peace treaty descisions. This was reason to end the war with nukes on Japan as they would surrender quickly. The Japnese did not surrender fast enough and Russia did become a "victor" of the Japnese War. -
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Chinese Communist Revolution
The Chinese Communist Revolution was led by a man called Mao Zedong. Mao Zedong was able to gain massive support throughout China and overthrew the previous government, and created the Peoples Republic of China. The reason why this revolution was seen as a problem was because it brought to the Allies attention of how easily Communism spread. -
Truman Doctrine
The Truman Doctrine gave money to failing economies, such as Greece and Turkey, at the time. The reason why countries with free economies were not to fail was because communism could easily spread to those places. This is noted as the start of the Cold War to some historians. -
Marshall Plan
The Marshall Plan was a "sequel" to the Truman Doctrine as it did the same thing, to stop the spread of Communism. The difference was, however that the Marshall Plan was much bigger and gave over 13 billion dollars in support to European nations. Soviet Union and its satellite states were asked if they wanted support, but declined. -
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Berlin Blockade & Airlift
The Soviet Union wanted to gain complete control of Berlin and not just their sector. This resulted as the Berlin Blockade and Berlin was blocked off from land routes and had no way to gain supplies. The Allies soon dropped much needed supplies to their sectors, this was known as the Berlin Airlift. The Berlin Airlift was effective as the Soviets soon dropped the blockade. -
Creation of NATO
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization, also known as NATO, was a defense initiative that stated if one country was to enter war, so were the others. NATO still is in existence and has helped with the Korean War, Break of Yugoslovia. The Warsaw Pact was a direct cause of this event. -
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Korean War
The Korean War was a war that was fought between North Korea, supported by USSR and South Korea, supported by the US. The Korean War was a major impact on the Cold War as it sparked the real fight between Communism and Democracy. The war never ended, but did have cease fire in 1953. -
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Destalinization
After the death of Joseph Stalin, the Soviet Union had a power change and eventually Nikita Khrushchev became the leader of the Soviet Union. He allowed many reforms and lifted on the press, travel and prisons. This was seen as a weakness so he was told to step down and someone else would take charge. -
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Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Khruschev was the reason for Destalinization, the effects of less harsher reforms in the USSR. His peers disliked him for this reason. Khruschev was seen as a weak leader and was deposed as a leader. -
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Vietnam War
The Vietnam, just like the Korean War, was a war fought between the North (Communist) and South (Democratic). The war was very harsh and had many casualities, this upset many of the people in the United States. The Vietnam War also created the "Vietnam Syndrome" which is a description of why we halt or take so much caution before war and this was used effectively in the Cold War. -
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Hungarian Revolution
Many Hungarian students were fed up with the strong laws and regulations. As a result they revolted with other students and soon the revolution took over the streets of Hungary. Riots and havoc spread throughout and collapsed the Hungarian economy. The Soviet union eventualy fought back for Hungary and crushed the resistance. This was seen as an example as a revolutionand led to the collapse of the Soviet Union a few decades later. -
Sputnik I
Sputnik I was the first human made projectile to enter space, this began the space race between the US and the USSR. Sputnik I was a Soviet win and the US reacted by creating many new reforms that improved education in the US. While the Russians did enter space first, they did not reach the moon. -
U-2 Incident
The U-2 incident was when the USSR shot down a survelliance plane. At first the US declined and said it was a weather balloon, however they had to confess it was a survelliance plane. The reason why this was bad news to the US was because it was a great embarrasment and showed that Soviets could shoot down anything the US gave them. -
Bay of Pigs Invasion
The Bay of Pig Invasion was a failed invasion from the US to kill Fidel Castro, the dictator of Cuba. The invasion was a direct failure as the US failed to support the refugees who were at the invasion. The invasion was a direct result to the Cuban Missile Crisis, the most tense part of the Cold War. -
Building of the Berlin Wall
In 1681, the Soviet Union began building a wall that was to completely isolate West Berlin from East Berlin. The Soviets had built the wall to keep all Western ideas out of East Berlin. It was very effective and had a very strict policy to pass through. -
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Cuban Missile Crisis
The Cuban Missile Crisis was the closest that the US had gotten into war with the Soviet Union. Cuba had got in touch with Soviet Union and was able to obtain Soviet nuclear missiles. The US found out and after a tense period of time, the Soviet Union and the US came to a resolution. The Soviet Union would dismantle their missiles in Cuba, and the US would never invade Cuba and dismantle their nukes in Turkey. -
Nuclear Test Ban Treaty
The Nuclear Test Ban Treaty was a treaty created by the Soviet Union. It had the power to slow down nuclear testing, this would directly effect the arms race by slowing it down and making nuclear research a little bit less harsh on the atmosphere. The signers were Soviet union, Great Britain,and the United States. -
Gulf of Tonkin Incident
The Gulf of Tonkin Incident was when the North Vietnamese shot down the USS Maddox. The US blamed North Vietnam of shooting for no reason, but in truth the Maddox was in North Vietnamese waters. The Gulf of Tonkin Incident was the reason why the US joined South Vietnam in their fight agaisnt the North. -
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Leonid Brezhnev
Leonid Brezhnev was awesome. If he wasn't awesome then he was bad. If he was neither then he is alright. -
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Prague Spring
Prague Spring was a time period Czechoslovakia that had enabled extra rights to the citizens. The media was less censored and people were able to travel freely. The Soviet Union was not happy with the new rights and had made a change in power and went back to the original day before Prague Spring. -
Invasion of Czechslovakia
The Soviet Union and the rest of the Warsaw Pact invaded Czechoslovakia to stop the reforms that were put into effect. The invasion was very succesful as it stopped all the reforms from Prague Springs. The Soviet Union also strengthened from this win as it gave an example why not to revolt agaisnt them. -
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Ostpolitik
Ostpolitik was a smaller form of Detente, as they both loosened the tension, but Ostpolitik was for East and West Germany. Ostpolitik was a vital part of the fall of the Soviet Union as it alowed, with the help of other treaties, to let some of the satellite states to become less communist, such as Poland. -
Apollo 11
Apollo 11 was the US's attempt at space and they were able to go to the moon, unlike the Soviets who entered space first. Apollo 11 showed the world that the US was further in technologies than the Soviets. This produced an increase in nationalism for the United States. -
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SALT I
SALT I was a negotiation pact that was between the Soviet Union and the United States. SALT I was the first part of the negotiations and was mainly entitled to the ballistic missiles. The ballistic missiles shot from the ground were stopped in production, while submarine ballistic missiles were built for every ballistic missiles dismantled on the ground. The effect was to slow down the Arms Race. -
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Detente
Detente is a russian word for thawing, in this case the tension between Soviet Union and the US.Detente was very effective at making relationship between the two countries and the whole world much less tense. Nixon was the first president to go into the Soviet Union, as well as pass many treaties such as the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty and SALT I & II -
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SALT II
SALT II was the second part of negotiations between the USSR and the US. Unlike SALT I, SALT II talked about the nuclear missiles. SALT II put limits on all of the nuclear missile production. With a halt on the nuclear production the chances of war were less imminent. -
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Pope John Paul II
Pope John Paul II was agaisnt Communism because communism didn't have religion. He took a nine day pilgrimage to Poland, where the spiritual awakening just began. With this event Poland was able to gain some rights from the USSR. -
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Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Thatcher was the only woman to hold the Prime Minister in Great Britain. She was very uncompromising and was very close to Ronald Reagan and his policies. She was however very much against the reunification of Germany. -
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Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagna was the President of the United States, during the years of 1981 to 1989. Ronald Reagan foused mainly on domestic policies, however was very important in the fall of the USSR. He was able to bring back moral support for America. He also brought on Detente, causing less tension between the US and USSR. -
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Helmut Kohl
Helmut Kohl was the Chancellor of Germany and was very succesful in his work. Kohl was able to gain much support from the Allies and went through a "economic miracle". Germany was able to recover from its losses in WWII and soon began to do better then ever. -
Perestroika
Perstroika is the russian word for restructuring.It was put into effect by Mikhail Gorbachev because he wanted to "restructure" the effects of communism on the Soviet Union's economy. This was a major reason to why the USSR fell because it allowed people to create businesses and make other important descions for themselves. -
Glasnost
Glasnost is the Russian word for openness. Glasnost was a reform put into the USSR to help with the over-whelming demand of the citizens. Glasnost let many people have free press. Gorbachev believed it would allow the USSR to be free of the corruption that had been placed in the government. This and perestroika have been said to be the major reasons to the USSR downfall. -
Demokratizatsiya
Demokratizatsiya means Democratization in Russian, and basically was meant toward the USSR government. Mikhael Gorbachev created many reforms, this being one of them, that hurt the power of the leaders of the USSR and gave it to the people. This was put into effect and created much more ease within the Soviet people. -
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Velvet Revolution
The Velvet Revolution was a peaceful revolution in Czaechoslovakia that was near the end of the USSR. This period was a number of protests and during these protests the government release many of the strict laws, such as making travel easier. This was very succesfull and was the contributing factor the Soviet unions downfall. -
Collapse of the Berlin Wall
In 1989, the wall had come under much pressure as more and more East Germans wanted to leave for the West. Many refugees left through many routes that enabled them to get into West German, such as going into Hungary and leaving directly into West Germany. Soon the huge crowds of protesters persuaded the Soviet officials to close the wall, creating a unified Germany. -
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Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Gorbachev single-handedly was the cause of the fall of the USSR. He put in many new reforms, such as Perestroika and Glasnost, that allowed freedom of press and loosening of the government. Mikahel Gorbachev was seen as a hero to some as he took the USSR to the ground, but many others thought he was weak. -
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Boris Yeltsin
Boris Yeltsin was the leader of Russia after the fall of the USSR. He put in effect a free market economy. This was very diffucult as many were not used to have many opportunities and were in a worse place before the USSR fell. Boris Yeltsin, however was able to bring the Russia to stableness, but his views were still skewed as he was not picked for another term. -
Fall of the USSR
The USSR was not able to survive with the conditions it had been living with for so long, such as the protesting citizens who had been upset over food shortages. The USSR fell because of many new reforms that hurt their power. These reforms included Glasnost and Perstroika which allowed many citizens of the USSR to obtin information and soon this made many citizens mad with all the rights they were denied. With a decade of protests and loosening of reforms the USSR fell. -
Works Cited
"The Cold War (1945–1963)." SparkNotes. SparkNotes, n.d. Web. 08 Apr. 2013.
"The Cold War Museum." Cold War Museum. The Cold War Muesuem, n.d. Web. 08 Apr. 2013.
"Quizlet." Significant Leaders of the Cold War Flashcards. Quizlet, n.d. Web. 08 Apr. 2013.
"What Were Significant Events in the Cold War?" WikiAnswers. Answers, n.d. Web. 08 Apr. 2013.