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Death of a Leader
On March 5 1953, Joseph Stalin died. Shortly After his death, Nikita Khrushchev took over. -
The Split
Relationships between China and the Soviet Union had been very shaky and unstable from the start. After refusing to share thier missile plans with China, the two countries split up -
Lenoid Brezhnev
After the Cuban Missile Crisis, the embarassed Khrushchev was kick out of office. Shortly after, Lenoid Brezhnev took control. -
End of the Prauge Spring.
In 1968, a era of reform started in Czechoslovakia known as the Prauge Spring. In response to this, Brezhnev invaded Czechoslovakia. -
Nixon eases the tensions
Both the US and Tthe USSR were starting to get tired of the fighting in the Cold War. Nixon decided it was time to stop the fighting and tried to ease the tensions of the time. His first stop was China. -
Detente
Next stop was the Soviet Union. Nixon decided to start a policy known as detente, which is the lessesnign of Cold War tensions, and created the SALT pact. -
The SALT pact
The purpose of the SALT pact was to limit the amount of weapons a country could have in order to keep the peace. By 1975, 33 countries had agreed to the pact. -
SALT II
A few years after the SALT pact was signed, the US and USSR began work on the SALT II pact. Even though the pact signed, it was never put into effect. -
Iranian Hostage Crisis
In 1979, the Shah of Iran fled to America when Ayatollah Khomeini took over. In response, Khomeini took a group of Americans hostage for 444 days until Reagan took office. -
Invasion of Afghanistan
In the n1970s, Afghanistan overthrew its communist government and parted from the Soviets. In response, the Soviets invaded Afghanistan to reunite it tothe Union, -
Ronald Reagan
On January 20, 1981, predient Ronald Reagan took office. Reagan's highly anti-communist polices ended detente and raised the tensions back up. -
INF
In order to help lessen the tensions created when Reagan took office, General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev signed the INF treaty. The signing of this treaty pretty much ended the Arms Race. -
Withdrawl from Afghanistan
With help from the CIA, the Afghan rebels, the Mujahideen, were able to fend off the soviets. The last Soviet troop left Afghanistan on February 15, 1989 -
Mikhail Gorbachev
After Brezhnev, the Soviets needed a new successor. They decided to elect Mikhail Gorbachev as their next leader. -
Protests in Germany
In 1989 the East German government shut down its borders completely. This caused the people to becone very angry and protests started to rise up. -
Fall of the Berlin Wall
The German people refused to stop the protesting. Due to the unbareable pressure they were recieveing, the government decided to tear down th Berlin Wall, freeing the people to join with their long lost loved ones and friends. -
Lithuania
In early 1990, Lithuania declared its independence from the USSR. In response to this, Gorbachev invaded Lithuania and attacked its people. This brought him opposition from two sides in the form of Boris Yeltsin and The Hardliners. -
Reunification
Shortly after the wall fell, the communist government was thrown out and now the people wanted to reunify the east and west. After convincing Europe that they've changed, the two Germanys were reunited. -
August Coup
THe Hardliners were very dissapointed with Gorbachevs reforms, and on August 18, 1991, they surrounded his house and tried to force hm to resign. the Coup was a failure since their own army refused to attack them and Boris Yeltsin Convinced the people to come together. -
The End of an Empire
After the August Coup, and the reforms and new leadershis set up by Yeltsin, Gorbachev stepped down as leader. This was the end of the Soviet Union, the USSR, and the Cold War.