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Soviet Union is Founded
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) was founded, adopting a communist government following the fall of the Russian royal family in 1917. -
Truman Doctrine
President Truman gave a speech that stated the United States would help any nation threatened by communism. -
Berlin Blockade
The Soviet Union began a blockade that blocked the Western Allies' railway, road, and canal access to the sectors of Berlin under Western control, hoping to starve the Allies out of the city. -
Marshall Plan
The Marshall Plan was made effective, which allowed the United States to send vast amounts of money to 16 nations in Europe for rebuilding cities, railroads, factories, and electric systems to weaken the appeal of communism. -
NATO
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was signed, and made any attack upon any NATO country treated as an attack against them all. -
Warsaw Pact
A pact was formed that called for military cooperation among the Soviet Union, Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and East Germany. -
Berlin Wall
Construction on the Berlin Wall began, which divided East and West Germany, and guards were posted to prevent anyone from escaping from the East into the freedom of West Berlin. (It stood for 30 years) -
Cuban Missile Crisis
President Kennedy announced that the Soviets had secretly installed nuclear missiles in Cuba; this marked the start of a 13-day standoff that came extremely close to nuclear war. -
Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Gorbachev came into power in the Soviet Union (becoming president in 1990) and worked to reform the communist system and make it work better. He met with President Reagan to discuss ways to end the arms race, which resulted in both sides reducing the numbers of their nuclear weapons. -
Dissolution of the Soviet Union
All around the world, communist governments were being overthrown. Gorbachev said that the Soviets had no right to interfere with those other countries. These uprisings eventually spread into the Soviet Union, and by December 25 it ceased to exist, being replace by the Russian Federation.
