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Cold War

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article is about the state of political tension in the 20th century. For the general term, see Cold war (term). For other uses, see Cold War (disambiguation).
"Cold Warrior" redirects here. For other uses, see Cold Warrior (disambiguation).
Cold War
12 March 1947 – 26 December 1991[A]
(44 years and 9 months)
Part of the post-World War II era

  NATO and   Warsaw Pact states during the Cold War era

The "Three Worlds" of the Cold War era, between 30 April and 24 June 1975:
  First World: Western Bloc led by the United States and its allies
  Second World: Eastern Bloc led by the Soviet Union, China (independent), and their allies
  Third World: Non-Aligned and neutral countries
Part of a series on
History of the Cold War

Origins
World War II Hiroshima and NagasakiAftermathEastern BlocWestern BlocIron Curtain
Periods
Cold War (1947–1948)
Cold War (1948–1953)
Cold War (1953–1962)
Cold War (1962–1979)
Cold War (1979–1985)
Cold War (1985–1991)
Frozen conflicts
Related topics
Timeline of events HistoriographyRelated conflictsPost–Cold War era Relations since 1989Second Cold WarPost-Soviet conflictsArab Cold WarCold War in Asia Reagan Doctrine
vte
The Cold War was a period of global geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 until the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. The term cold war is used because there was no direct fighting between the two superpowers, though each supported opposing sides in regional conflicts known as proxy wars. In addition to the struggle for ideological and economic influence and an arms race in both conventional and nuclear weapons, the Cold War was expressed through technological rivalries such as the Space Race, espionage, propaganda campaigns, embargoes, and sports diplomacy.

After the end of World War II in 1945, during which the US and USSR had been allies, the USSR installed satellite governments in its occupied territories in Eastern Europe and North Korea by 1949, resulting in the political division of Europe (and Germany) by an "Iron Curtain". The USSR tested its first nuclear weapon in 1949, four years after their use by the US at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and allied with the People's Republic of China, founded in 1949. The US declared the Truman Doctrine of "containment" of communism in 1947, launched the Marshall Plan in 1948 to assist Western Europe's economic recovery, and founded the NATO military alliance in 1949 (matched by the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact in 1955). The Berlin Blockade of 1948 to 1949 was an early confrontation, as was the Korean War of 1950 to 1953, which ended in a stalemate.

US involvement in regime change during the Cold War included support for anti-communist and right-wing dictatorships and uprisings, while Soviet involvement included the funding of left-wing parties, wars of independence, and dictatorships. As nearly all the colonial states underwent decolonization, many became Third World battlefields of the Cold War. Both powers used economic aid in an attempt to win the loyalty of non-aligned countries. The Cuban Revolution of 1959 installed the first communist regime in the Western Hemisphere, and in 1962, the Cuban Missile Crisis began after deployments of US missiles in Europe and Soviet missiles in Cuba; it is widely considered the closest the Cold War came to escalating into nuclear war. Another major proxy conflict was the Vietnam War of 1955 to 1975, which ended in defeat for the US.

The USSR solidified its domination of Eastern Europe with its crushing of the Hungarian Revolution in 1956 and the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968. Relations between the USSR and China broke down by 1961, with the Sino-Soviet split bringing the two states to the brink of war amid a border conflict in 1969. In 1972, the US initiated diplomatic contacts with China and the US and USSR signed a series of treaties limiting their nuclear arsenals during a period known as détente. In 1979, the toppling of US-allied governments in Iran and Nicaragua and the outbreak of the Soviet–Afghan War again raised tensions. In 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev became leader of the USSR and expanded political freedoms, which contributed to the revolutions of 1989 in the Eastern Bloc and the collapse of the USSR in 1991, ending the Cold War.

Terminology
Main article: Cold war (term)
Writer George Orwell used cold war, as a general term, in his essay "You and the Atomic Bomb", published 19 October 1945. Contemplating a world living in the shadow of the threat of nuclear warfare, Orwell looked at James Burnham's predictions of a polarized world, writing:

Looking at the world as a whole, the drift for many decades has been not towards anarchy but towards the reimposition of slavery... James Burnham's theory has been much discussed, but few people have yet considered its ideological implications—that is, the kind of world-view, the kind of beliefs, and the social structure that would probably prevail in a state which was at once unconquerable and in a permanent state of "cold war" with its neighbours.[1]

In The Observer of 10 March 1946, Orwell wrote, "after the Moscow conference last December, Russia began to make a 'cold war' on Britain and the British Empire."[2]

The first use of the term to describe the specific post-war geopolitical confrontation between the Soviet Union and the United States came in a speech by Bernard Baruch, an influential advisor to Democratic presidents,[3] on 16 April 1947. The speech, written by journalist Herbert Bayard Swope,[4] proclaimed, "we are today in the midst of a cold war."[5] Newspaper columnist Walter Lippmann gave the term wide currency with his book The Cold War. When asked in 1947 about the source of the term, Lippmann traced it to a French term from the 1930s, la guerre froide.[6][B]

Background and periodization
Main article: Origins of the Cold War
For a chronological guide, see Timeline of the Cold War.
The roots of the Cold War can be traced to diplomatic and military tensions preceding World War II. The 1917 Russian Revolution and the subsequent Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, where Soviet Russia ceded vast territories to Germany, deepened distrust among the Western Allies. Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War further complicated relations, and although the Soviet Union later allied with Western powers to defeat Nazi Germany, this cooperation was strained by mutual suspicions.

In the immediate aftermath of World War II, disagreements about the future of Europe, particularly Eastern Europe, became central. The Soviet Union's establishment of communist regimes in the countries it had liberated from Nazi control—enforced by the presence of the Red Army—alarmed the US and UK. Western leaders saw this as Soviet expansionism, clashing with their vision of a democratic Europe. Economically, the divide was sharpened with the introduction of the Marshall Plan in 1947, a US initiative to provide financial aid to rebuild Europe and prevent the spread of communism by stabilizing capitalist economies. The Soviet Union rejected the Marshall Plan, seeing it as an effort by the US to impose its influence on Europe. In response, the Soviet Union established Comecon (Council for Mutual Economic Assistance) to foster economic cooperation among communist states.

The United States and its Western European allies sought to strengthen their bonds and used the policy of containment against Soviet influence; they accomplished this most notably through the formation of NATO, which was essentially a defensive agreement in 1949. The Soviet Union countered with the Warsaw Pact in 1955, which had similar results with the Eastern Bloc. As by that time the Soviet Union already had an armed presence and political domination all over its eastern satellite states, the pact has been long considered superfluous.[7] Although nominally a defensive alliance, the Warsaw Pact's primary function was to safeguard Soviet hegemony over its Eastern European satellites, with the pact's only direct military actions having been the invasions of its own member states to keep them from breaking away;[8] in the 1960s, the pact evolved into a multilateral alliance, in which the non-Soviet Warsaw Pact members gained significant scope to pursue their own interests. In 1961, Soviet-allied East Germany constructed the Berlin Wall to prevent the citizens of East Berlin from fleeing to West Berlin, at the time part of United States-allied West Germany.[9] Major crises of this phase included the Berlin Blockade of 1948–1949, the Chinese Communist Revolution of 1945–1949, the Korean War of 1950–1953, the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 and the Suez Crisis of that same year, the Berlin Crisis of 1961, the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, and the Vietnam War of 1955–1975. Both superpowers competed for influence in Latin America and the Middle East, and the decolonising states of Africa, Asia, and Oceania.

Following the Cuban Missile Crisis, this phase of the Cold War saw the Sino-Soviet split. Between China and the Soviet Union's complicated relations within the Communist sphere, leading to the Sino-Soviet border conflict, while France, a Western Bloc state, began to demand greater autonomy of action. The Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia occurred to suppress the Prague Spring of 1968, while the United States experienced internal turmoil from the civil rights movement and opposition to United States involvement in the Vietnam War. In the 1960s–1970s, an international peace movement took root among citizens around the world. Movements against nuclear weapons testing and for nuclear disarmament took place, with large anti-war protests. By the 1970s, both sides had started making allowances for peace and security, ushering in a period of détente that saw the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks and the 1972 visit by Richard Nixon to China that opened relations with China as a strategic counterweight to the Soviet Union. A number of self-proclaimed Marxist–Leninist governments were formed in the second half of the 1970s in developing countries, including Angola, Mozambique, Ethiopia, Cambodia, Afghanistan, and Nicaragua.

Détente collapsed at the end of the decade with the beginning of the Soviet–Afghan War in 1979. Beginning in the 1980s, this phase was another period of elevated tension. The Reagan Doctrine led to increased diplomatic, military, and economic pressures on the Soviet Union, which at the time was undergoing the Era of Stagnation. This phase saw the new Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev introducing the liberalizing reforms of glasnost ("openness") and perestroika ("reorganization") and ending Soviet involvement in Afghanistan in 1989. Pressures for national sovereignty grew stronger in Eastern Europe, and Gorbachev refused to further support the Communist governments militarily.

The fall of the Iron Curtain after the Pan-European Picnic and the Revolutions of 1989, which represented a peaceful revolutionary wave with the exception of the Romanian revolution and the Afghan Civil War (1989–1992), overthrew almost all of the Marxist–Leninist regimes of the Eastern Bloc. The Communist Party of the Soviet Union itself lost control in the country and was banned following the 1991 Soviet coup attempt that August. This in turn led to the formal dissolution of the Soviet Union in December 1991 and the collapse of Communist governments across much of Africa and Asia. The Russian Federation became the Soviet Union's successor state, while many of the other republics emerged as fully independent post-Soviet states.[10] The United States was left as the world's sole superpower.

Containment, Truman Doctrine, Korean War (1947–1953)
Main articles: Cold War (1947–1948), Cold War (1948–1953), Soviet empire, Containment, and Truman Doctrine
Iron Curtain, Iran, Turkey, Greece, and Poland
Further information: X Article, Iron Curtain, Iran crisis of 1946, and Restatement of Policy on Germany

Remains of the "Iron Curtain" in the Czech Republic, 2014
In February 1946, George F. Kennan's "Long Telegram" from Moscow to Washington helped to articulate the US government's increasingly hard line against the Soviets, which would become the basis for US strategy toward the Soviet Union. The telegram galvanized a policy debate that would eventually shape the Truman administration's Soviet policy.[11] Washington's opposition to the Soviets accumulated after broken promises by Stalin and Molotov concerning Europe and Iran.[12] Following the World War II Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran, the country was occupied by the Red Army in the far north and the British in the south.[13] Iran was used by the United States and British to supply the Soviet Union, and the Allies agreed to withdraw from Iran within six months after the cessation of hostilities.[13] However, when this deadline came, the Soviets remained in Iran under the guise of the Azerbaijan People's Government and Kurdish Republic of Mahabad.[14] On 5 March, former British prime minister Winston Churchill delivered his famous "Iron Curtain" speech calling for an Anglo-American alliance against the Soviets, whom he accused of establishing an "iron curtain" dividing Europe.[15][16]

A week later, on 13 March, Stalin responded vigorously to the speech, saying Churchill could be compared to Adolf Hitler insofar as he advocated the racial superiority of English-speaking nations so that they could satisfy their hunger for world domination, and that such a declaration was "a call for war on the USSR." The Soviet leader also dismissed the accusation that the USSR was exerting increasing control over the countries lying in its sphere. He argued that there was nothing surprising in "the fact that the Soviet Union, anxious for its future safety, [was] trying to see to it that governments loyal in their attitude to the Soviet Union should exist in these countries."[17][18]


European military alliances

European economic blocs
Soviet territorial demands to Turkey regarding the Dardanelles in the Turkish Straits crisis and Black Sea border disputes were also a major factor in increasing tensions.[12][19] In September, the Soviet side produced the Novikov telegram, sent by the Soviet ambassador to the US but commissioned and "co-authored" by Vyacheslav Molotov; it portrayed the US as being in the grip of monopoly capitalists who were building up military capability "to prepare the conditions for winning world supremacy in a new war".[20] On 6 September 1946, James F. Byrnes delivered a speech in Germany repudiating the Morgenthau Plan (a proposal to partition and de-industrialize post-war Germany) and warning the Soviets that the US intended to maintain a military presence in Europe indefinitely.[21][22] As Byrnes stated a month later, "The nub of our program was to win the German people ... it was a battle between us and Russia over minds ..." In December, the Soviets agreed to withdraw from Iran after persistent US pressure, an early success of containment policy.

By 1947, US president Harry S. Truman was outraged by the perceived resistance of the Soviet Union to American demands in Iran, Turkey, and Greece, as well as Soviet rejection of the Baruch Plan on nuclear weapons.[23] In February 1947, the British government announced that it could no longer afford to finance the Kingdom of Greece in its civil war against Communist-led insurgents.[24] In the same month, Stalin conducted the rigged 1947 Polish legislative election which constituted an open breach of the Yalta Agreement. The US government responded by adopting a policy of containment,[25] with the goal of stopping the spread of communism. Truman delivered a speech calling for the allocation of $400 million to intervene in the war and unveiled the Truman Doctrine, which framed the conflict as a contest between free peoples and totalitarian regimes.[25] American policymakers accused the Soviet Union of conspiring against the Greek royalists in an effort to expand Soviet influence even though Stalin had told the Communist Party to cooperate with the British-backed government.[26][27][28]

Enunciation of the Truman Doctrine marked the beginning of a US bipartisan defense and foreign policy consensus between Republicans and Democrats focused on containment and deterrence that weakened during and after the Vietnam War, but ultimately persisted thereafter.[29] Moderate and conservative parties in Europe, as well as social democrats, gave virtually unconditional support to the Western alliance,[30] while European and American Communists, financed by the KGB and involved in its intelligence operations,[31] adhered to Moscow's line, although dissent began to appear after 1956. Other critiques of the consensus policy came from anti-Vietnam War activists, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, and the anti-nuclear movement.[32]

Marshall Plan, Czechoslovak coup and formation of two German states
Main articles: Marshall Plan, Western Bloc, and 1948 Czechoslovak coup d'état

The labeling used on the Marshall Plan economic aid to Western Europe.

Map of Cold War-era Europe and the Near East showing countries that received Marshall Plan aid. The red columns show the relative amount of total aid received per nation.

Construction in West Berlin under Marshall Plan aid
In early 1947, France, Britain and the United States unsuccessfully attempted to reach an agreement with the Soviet Union for a plan envisioning an economically self-sufficient Germany, including a detailed accounting of the industrial plants, goods and infrastructure already taken by the Soviets.[33] In June 1947, in accordance with the Truman Doctrine, the United States enacted the Marshall Plan, a pledge of economic assistance for all European countries willing to participate.[33] Under the plan, which President Harry S. Truman signed on 3 April 1948, the US government gave to Western European countries over $13 billion (equivalent to $189 billion in 2016). Later, the program led to the creation of the OECD.

The plan's aim was to rebuild the democratic and economic systems of Europe and to counter perceived threats to the European balance of power, such as communist parties seizing control.[34] The plan also stated that European prosperity was contingent upon German economic recovery.[35] One month later, Truman signed the National Security Act of 1947, creating a unified Department of Defense, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and the National Security Council (NSC). These would become the main bureaucracies for US defense policy in the Cold War.[36]

Stalin believed economic integration with the West would allow Eastern Bloc countries to escape Soviet control, and that the US was trying to buy a pro-US re-alignment of Europe.[37] Stalin therefore prevented Eastern Bloc nations from receiving Marshall Plan aid.[37] The Soviet Union's alternative to the Marshall Plan, which was purported to involve Soviet subsidies and trade with central and eastern Europe, became known as the Molotov Plan (later institutionalized in January 1949 as the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance).[27] Stalin was also fearful of a reconstituted Germany; his vision of a post-war Germany did not include the ability to rearm or pose any kind of threat to the Soviet Union.[38]

In early 1948, Czech Communists executed a coup d'état in Czechoslovakia (resulting in the formation of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic), the only Eastern Bloc state that the Soviets had permitted to retain democratic structures.[39] The public brutality of the coup shocked Western powers more than any event up to that point and swept away the last vestiges of opposition to the Marshall Plan in the United States Congress.[40][41]

In an immediate aftermath of the crisis, the London Six-Power Conference was held, resulting in the Soviet boycott of the Allied Control Council and its incapacitation, an event marking the beginning of the full-blown Cold War, as well as ending any hopes at the time for a single German government and leading to formation in 1949 of the Federal Republic of Germany and German Democratic Republic.[42]

The twin policies of the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan led to billions in economic and military aid for Western Europe, Greece, and Turkey. With the US assistance, the Greek military won its civil war.[36] Under the leadership of Alcide De Gasperi the Italian Christian Democrats defeated the powerful Communist–Socialist alliance in the elections of 1948.[43]

Outside of Europe, the United States also began to express interest in the development of many other countries, so that they would not fall under the sway of Eastern Bloc communism. In his January 1949 inaugural address, Truman declared for the first time in U.S. history that international development would be a key part of U.S. foreign policy. The resulting program later became known as the Point Four Program because it was the fourth point raised in his address.[44]

Espionage
Main articles: Cold War espionage, American espionage in the Soviet Union and Russian Federation, and Soviet espionage in the United States
All major powers engaged in espionage, using a great variety of spies, double agents, moles, and new technologies such as the tapping of telephone cables.[45] The Soviet KGB ("Committee for State Security"), the bureau responsible for foreign espionage and internal surveillance, was famous for its effectiveness. The most famous Soviet operation involved its atomic spies that delivered crucial information from the United States' Manhattan Project, leading the USSR to detonate its first nuclear weapon in 1949, four years after the American detonation and much sooner than expected.[46][47] A massive network of informants throughout the Soviet Union was used to monitor dissent from official Soviet politics and morals.[45][48] Although to an extent disinformation had always existed, the term itself was invented, and the strategy formalized by a black propaganda department of the Soviet KGB.[49][C]

Based on the amount of top-secret Cold War archival information that has been released, historian Raymond L. Garthoff concludes there probably was parity in the quantity and quality of secret information obtained by each side. However, the Soviets probably had an advantage in terms of HUMINT (human intelligence or interpersonal espionage) and "sometimes in its reach into high policy circles." In terms of decisive impact, however, he concludes:[50]

We also can now have high confidence in the judgment that there were no successful "moles" at the political decision-making level on either side. Similarly, there is no evidence, on either side, of any major political or military decision that was prematurely discovered through espionage and thwarted by the other side. There also is no evidence of any major political or military decision that was crucially influenced (much less generated) by an agent of the other side.

According to historian Robert L. Benson, "Washington's forte was 'signals' intelligence – the procurement and analysis of coded foreign messages," leading to the Venona project or Venona intercepts, which monitored the communications of Soviet intelligence agents.[51] Moynihan wrote that the Venona project contained "overwhelming proof of the activities of Soviet spy networks in America, complete with names, dates, places, and deeds."[52] The Venona project was kept highly secret even from policymakers until the Moynihan Commission in 1995.[52] Despite this, the decryption project had already been betrayed and dispatched to the USSR by Kim Philby and Bill Weisband in 1946,[52][53] as was discovered by the US by 1950.[54] Nonetheless, the Soviets had to keep their discovery of the program secret, too, and continued leaking their own information, some of which was still useful to the American program.[53] According to Moynihan, even President Truman may not have been fully informed of Venona, which may have left him unaware of the extent of Soviet espionage.[55][56]

Clandestine atomic spies from the Soviet Union, who infiltrated the Manhattan Project during WWII, played a major role in increasing tensions that led to the Cold War.[51]

In addition to usual espionage, the Western agencies paid special attention to debriefing Eastern Bloc defectors.[57] Edward Jay Epstein describes that the CIA understood that the KGB used "provocations", or fake defections, as a trick to embarrass Western intelligence and establish Soviet double agents. As a result, from 1959 to 1973, the CIA required that East Bloc defectors went through a counterintelligence investigation before being recruited as a source of intelligence.[58]

During the late 1970s and 1980s, the KGB perfected its use of espionage to sway and distort diplomacy.[59] Active measures were "clandestine operations designed to further Soviet foreign policy goals," consisting of disinformation, forgeries, leaks to foreign media, and the channeling of aid to militant groups.[60] Retired KGB Major General Oleg Kalugin described active measures as "the heart and soul of Soviet intelligence."[61]

During the Sino-Soviet split, "spy wars" also occurred between the USSR and PRC.[62]

Cominform and the Tito–Stalin Split
Main articles: Cominform and Tito–Stalin Split
In September 1947, the Soviets created Cominform to impose orthodoxy within the international communist movement and tighten political control over Soviet satellites through coordination of communist parties in the Eastern Bloc.[37] Cominform faced an embarrassing setback the following June, when the Tito–Stalin split obliged its members to expel Yugoslavia, which remained communist but adopted a non-aligned position and began accepting financial aid from the US.[63]

Besides Berlin, the status of the city of Trieste was at issue. Until the break between Tito and Stalin, the Western powers and the Eastern bloc faced each other uncompromisingly. In addition to capitalism and communism, Italians and Slovenes, monarchists and republicans as well as war winners and losers often faced each other irreconcilably. The neutral buffer state Free Territory of Trieste, founded in 1947 with the United Nations, was split up and dissolved in 1954 and 1975, also because of the détente between the West and Tito.[64][65]

Berlin Blockade
Main article: Berlin Blockade

American C-47s unloading at the Berlin Tempelhof Airport during the Berlin Blockade
The US and Britain merged their western German occupation zones into "Bizone" (1 January 1947, later "Trizone" with the addition of France's zone, April 1949).[66] As part of the economic rebuilding of Germany, in early 1948, representatives of a number of Western European governments and the United States announced an agreement for a merger of western German areas into a federal governmental system.[67] In addition, in accordance with the Marshall Plan, they began to re-industrialize and rebuild the West German economy, including the introduction of a new Deutsche Mark currency to replace the old Reichsmark currency that the Soviets had debased.[68] The US had secretly decided that a unified and neutral Germany was undesirable, with Walter Bedell Smith telling General Eisenhower "in spite of our announced position, we really do not want nor intend to accept German unification on any terms that the Russians might agree to, even though they seem to meet most of our requirements."[69]

Shortly thereafter, Stalin instituted the Berlin Blockade (June 1948 – May 1949), one of the first major crises of the Cold War, preventing Western supplies from reaching West Germany's exclave of West Berlin.[70] The United States (primarily), Britain, France, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and several other countries began the massive "Berlin airlift", supplying West Berlin with provisions despite Soviet threats.[71]

The Soviets mounted a public relations campaign against the policy change. Once again, the East Berlin communists attempted to disrupt the Berlin municipal elections,[66] which were held on 5 December 1948 and produced a turnout of 86% and an overwhelming victory for the non-communist parties.[72] The results effectively divided the city into East and West, the latter comprising US, British and French sectors. 300,000 Berliners demonstrated and urged the international airlift to continue,[73] and US Air Force pilot Gail Halvorsen created "Operation Vittles", which supplied candy to German children.[74] The Airlift was as much a logistical as a political and psychological success for the West; it firmly linked West Berlin to the United States.[75] In May 1949, Stalin lifted the blockade.[76][77]

In 1952, Stalin repeatedly proposed a plan to unify East and West Germany under a single government chosen in elections supervised by the United Nations, if the new Germany were to stay out of Western military alliances, but this proposal was turned down by the Western powers. Some sources dispute the sincerity of the proposal.[78]

Beginnings of NATO and Radio Free Europe
Main articles: NATO, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Eastern Bloc media and propaganda, and Propaganda in the Soviet Union

President Truman signs the North Atlantic Treaty with guests in the Oval Office.
Britain, France, the United States, Canada and eight other western European countries signed the North Atlantic Treaty of April 1949, establishing the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).[76] That August, the first Soviet atomic device was detonated in Semipalatinsk, Kazakh SSR.[27] Following Soviet refusals to participate in a German rebuilding effort set forth by western European countries in 1948,[67][79] the US, Britain and France spearheaded the establishment of the Federal Republic of Germany from the three Western zones of occupation in April 1949.[80] The Soviet Union proclaimed its zone of occupation in Germany the German Democratic Republic that October.[81]

Media in the Eastern Bloc was an organ of the state, completely reliant on and subservient to the communist party. Radio and television organizations were state-owned, while print media was usually owned by political organizations, mostly by the local communist party.[82] Soviet radio broadcasts used Marxist rhetoric to attack capitalism, emphasizing themes of labor exploitation, imperialism and war-mongering.[83]

Along with the broadcasts of the BBC and the Voice of America to Central and Eastern Europe,[84] a major propaganda effort began in 1949 was Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, dedicated to bringing about the peaceful demise of the communist system in the Eastern Bloc.[85] Radio Free Europe attempted to achieve these goals by serving as a surrogate home radio station, an alternative to the controlled and party-dominated domestic press in the Soviet Bloc.[85] Radio Free Europe was a product of some of the most prominent architects of America's early Cold War strategy, especially those who believed that the Cold War would eventually be fought by political rather than military means, such as George F. Kennan.[86] Soviet and Eastern Bloc authorities used various methods to suppress Western broadcasts, including radio jamming.[87][88]

American policymakers, including Kennan and John Foster Dulles, acknowledged that the Cold War was in its essence a war of ideas.[86] The United States, acting through the CIA, funded a long list of projects to counter the communist appeal among intellectuals in Europe and the developing world.[89] The CIA also covertly sponsored a domestic propaganda campaign called Crusade for Freedom.[90]

German rearmament
Main article: West German rearmament

Generals Adolf Heusinger and Hans Speidel sworn into the newly founded Bundeswehr by Theodor Blank in November 1955
The rearmament of West Germany was achieved in the early 1950s. Its main promoter was Konrad Adenauer, the chancellor of West Germany, with France the main opponent. Washington had the decisive voice. It was strongly supported by the Pentagon (the US military leadership), and weakly opposed by President Truman; the State Department was ambivalent. The outbreak of the Korean War in June 1950 changed the calculations and Washington now gave full support. That also involved naming Dwight D. Eisenhower in charge of NATO forces and sending more American troops to West Germany. There was a strong promise that West Germany would not develop nuclear weapons.[91]

Widespread fears of another rise of German militarism necessitated the new military to operate within an alliance framework under NATO command.[92] In 1955, Washington secured full German membership of NATO.[81] In May 1953, Lavrentiy Beria, by then in a government post, had made an unsuccessful proposal to allow the reunification of a neutral Germany to prevent West Germany's incorporation into NATO, but his attempts were cut short after he was executed several months later during a Soviet power struggle.[93] The events led to the establishment of the Bundeswehr, the West German military, in 1955.[94][95]

Chinese Civil War, SEATO, and NSC 68
Main article: Cold War in Asia

Mao Zedong and Joseph Stalin in Moscow, December 1949
In 1949, Mao Zedong's People's Liberation Army defeated Chiang Kai-shek's United States-backed Kuomintang (KMT) Nationalist Government in China. The KMT-controlled territory was now restricted to the island of Taiwan, the nationalist government of which exists to this day. The Kremlin promptly created an alliance with the newly formed People's Republic of China.[96] According to Norwegian historian Odd Arne Westad, the communists won the Civil War because they made fewer military mistakes than Chiang Kai-Shek made, and because in his search for a powerful centralized government, Chiang antagonized too many interest groups in China. Moreover, his party was weakened during the war against Japan. Meanwhile, the communists told different groups, such as the peasants, exactly what they wanted to hear, and they cloaked themselves under the cover of Chinese nationalism.[97]

Confronted with the communist revolution in China and the end of the American atomic monopoly in 1949, the Truman administration quickly moved to escalate and expand its containment doctrine.[27] In NSC 68, a secret 1950 document, the National Security Council proposed reinforcing pro-Western alliance systems and quadrupling spending on defense.[27] Truman, under the influence of advisor Paul Nitze, saw containment as implying complete rollback of Soviet influence in all its forms.[98]

United States officials moved to expand this version of containment into Asia, Africa, and Latin America, in order to counter revolutionary nationalist movements, often led by communist parties financed by the USSR.[99] In this way, this US would exercise "preponderant power," oppose neutrality, and establish global hegemony.[98] In the early 1950s (a period sometimes known as the "Pactomania"), the US formalized a series of alliances with Japan (a former WWII enemy), South Korea, Taiwan, Australia, New Zealand, Thailand and the Philippines (notably ANZUS in 1951 and SEATO in 1954), thereby guaranteeing the United States a number of long-term military bases.[81]

Korean War
Main articles: Division of Korea, Korean War, and Rollback

General Douglas MacArthur, UN Command CiC (seated), observes the naval shelling of Incheon, Korea from USS Mt. McKinley, 15 September 1950.
One of the more significant examples of the implementation of containment was the United Nations US-led intervention in the Korean War. In June 1950, after years of mutual hostilities,[D][100][101] Kim Il Sung's North Korean People's Army invaded South Korea. Stalin had been reluctant to support the invasion[E] but ultimately sent advisers.[102] To Stalin's surprise,[27] the United Nations Security Council backed the defense of South Korea, although the Soviets were then boycotting meetings in protest of the fact that Taiwan (Republic of China), not the People's Republic of China, held a permanent seat on the council.[103] A UN force of sixteen countries faced North Korea,[104] although 40 percent of troops were South Korean, and about 50 percent were from the United States.[105]


US Marines engaged in street fighting during the liberation of Seoul, September 1950
The US initially seemed to follow containment, only pushing back North Korea across the 38th Parallel and restoring South Korea's sovereignty while allowing North Korea's survival as a state. However, the success of the Inchon landing inspired the US/UN forces to pursue a rollback strategy instead and to overthrow communist North Korea, thereby allowing nationwide elections under U.N. auspices.[106] General Douglas MacArthur then advanced into North Korea. The Chinese, fearful of a possible US invasion, sent in a large army and pushed the U.N. forces back below the 38th parallel.[107] The episode was used to support the wisdom of the containment doctrine as opposed to rollback. The Communists were later pushed to roughly around the original border, with minimal changes. Among other effects, the Korean War galvanised NATO to develop a military structure.[108] The Korean Armistice Agreement was approved in July 1953.[109][110]

Nuclear Arms Race and escalation (1953–1962)
Main article: Cold War (1953–1962)
Khrushchev, Eisenhower, and de-Stalinization

NATO and Warsaw Pact troop strengths in Europe in 1959
In 1953, changes in political leadership on both sides shifted the dynamic of the Cold War.[36] Dwight D. Eisenhower was inaugurated president that January. During the last 18 months of the Truman administration, the American defense budget had quadrupled, and Eisenhower moved to reduce military spending by a third while continuing to fight the Cold War effectively.[27]

Joseph Stalin died in 1953. Nikita Khrushchev eventually won the ensuing power struggle by the mid-1950s. In 1956, he denounced Joseph Stalin and proceeded to ease controls over the party and society (de-Stalinization).[36]


From left to right: Soviet head of state Kliment Voroshilov, Soviet first secretary Nikita Khrushchev and Finnish president Urho Kekkonen at Moscow in 1960
On 18 November 1956, while addressing Western dignitaries at a reception in Moscow's Polish embassy, Khrushchev infamously declared, "Whether you like it or not, history is on our side. We will bury you", shocking everyone present.[111] He would later claim he had not been referring to nuclear war, but the "historically fated victory of communism over capitalism."[112]

Eisenhower's secretary of state, John Foster Dulles, initiated a "New Look" for the containment strategy, calling for a greater reliance on nuclear weapons against US enemies in wartime.[36] Dulles also enunciated the doctrine of "massive retaliation", threatening a severe US response to any Soviet aggression. Possessing nuclear superiority, for example, allowed Eisenhower to face down Soviet threats to intervene in the Middle East during the 1956 Suez Crisis.[27] The declassified US plans for retaliatory nuclear strikes in the late 1950s included the "systematic destruction" of 1,200 major urban centers in the Soviet Bloc and China, including Moscow, East Berlin and Beijing.[113][114]

In spite of these events, there were substantial hopes for détente when an upswing in diplomacy took place in 1959, including a two-week visit by Khrushchev to the US, and plans for a two-power summit for May 1960. The latter was disturbed by the U-2 spy plane scandal, however, in which Eisenhower was caught lying about the intrusion of American surveillance aircraft into Soviet territory.[115][116]

Warsaw Pact and Hungarian Revolution
Main articles: Warsaw Pact and Hungarian Revolution of 1956
The Hungarian Revolution of 1956

March of protesters in Budapest, on 25 October;

A destroyed Soviet T-34-85 tank in Budapest

The maximum territorial extent of Soviet influence, after the Cuban Revolution of 1959 and before the official Sino-Soviet split of 1961
While Stalin's death in 1953 slightly relaxed tensions, the situation in Europe remained an uneasy armed truce.[117] The Soviets, who had already created a network of mutual assistance treaties in the Eastern Bloc by 1949, established a formal alliance therein, the Warsaw Pact, in 1955. It stood opposed to NATO.[81]


Hungarian flag (1949–1956) with the communist coat of arms cut out was an anti-Soviet revolutionary symbol
The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 occurred shortly after Khrushchev arranged the removal of Hungary's Stalinist leader Mátyás Rákosi.[118] In response to a popular anti-communist uprising,[F] the new regime formally disbanded the secret police, declared its intention to withdraw from the Warsaw Pact and pledged to re-establish free elections. The Soviet Army invaded.[119] Thousands of Hungarians were killed and arrested, imprisoned and deported to the Soviet Union,[120] and approximately 200,000 Hungarians fled Hungary.[121] Hungarian leader Imre Nagy and others were executed following secret trials.[122]

From 1957 through 1961, Khrushchev openly and repeatedly threatened the West with nuclear annihilation. He claimed that Soviet missile capabilities were far superior to those of the United States, capable of wiping out any American or European city. According to John Lewis Gaddis, Khrushchev rejected Stalin's "belief in the inevitability of war," however. The new leader declared his ultimate goal was "peaceful coexistence".[123] In Khrushchev's formulation, peace would allow capitalism to collapse on its own,[124] as well as giving the Soviets time to boost their military capabilities,[125] which remained for decades until Gorbachev's later "new thinking" envisioning peaceful coexistence as an end in itself rather than a form of class struggle.[126]

The events in Hungary produced ideological fractures within the communist parties of the world, particularly in Western Europe, with great decline in membership, as many in both western and socialist countries felt disillusioned by the brutal Soviet response.[127] The communist parties in the West would never recover.[127]

Rapacki Plan and Berlin Crisis of 1958–1959
Further information: Rapacki Plan and Berlin Crisis of 1958–1959
In 1957, Polish foreign minister Adam Rapacki proposed the Rapacki Plan for a nuclear free zone in central Europe. Public opinion tended to be favourable in the West, but it was rejected by leaders of West Germany, Britain, France and the United States. They feared it would leave the powerful conventional armies of the Warsaw Pact dominant over the weaker NATO armies.[128]

During November 1958, Khrushchev made an unsuccessful attempt to turn all of Berlin into an independent, demilitarized "free city". He gave the United States, Great Britain and France a six-month ultimatum to withdraw their troops from the sectors of West Berlin, or he would transfer control of Western access rights to the East Germans. Khrushchev earlier explained to Mao Zedong that "Berlin is the testicles of the West. Every time I want to make the West scream, I squeeze on Berlin."[129] NATO formally rejected the ultimatum in mid-December and Khrushchev withdrew it in return for a Geneva conference on the German question.[130]

American military buildup
Main article: Flexible response
Like Truman and Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy supported containment. President Eisenhower's New Look policy had emphasized the use of less expensive nuclear weapons to deter Soviet aggression by threatening massive nuclear attacks on all of the Soviet Union. Nuclear weapons were much cheaper than maintaining a large standing army, so Eisenhower cut conventional forces to save money. Kennedy implemented a new strategy known as flexible response. This strategy relied on conventional arms to achieve limited goals. As part of this policy, Kennedy expanded the United States special operations forces, elite military units that could fight unconventionally in various conflicts. Kennedy hoped that the flexible response strategy would allow the US to counter Soviet influence without resorting to nuclear war.[131]

To support his new strategy, Kennedy ordered a massive increase in defense spending and a rapid build-up of the nuclear arsenal to restore the lost superiority over the Soviet Union. In his inaugural address, Kennedy promised "to bear any burden" in the defense of liberty, and he repeatedly asked for increases in military spending and authorization of new weapons systems. From 1961 to 1964, the number of nuclear weapons increased by 50 percent, as did the number of B-52 bombers to deliver them. The new ICBM force grew from 63 intercontinental ballistic missiles to 424. He authorized 23 new Polaris submarines, each of which carried 16 nuclear missiles. Kennedy also called on cities to construct fallout shelters.[132][133]

Competition in the Third World
Main articles: Decolonization § After 1945, Wars of national liberation, 1953 Iranian coup d'état, 1954 Guatemalan coup d'état, Congo Crisis, 1954 Geneva Conference, and Bandung Conference

European colonial empires in Asia and Africa all collapsed in the years after 1945.
Nationalist movements in some countries and regions, notably Guatemala, Indonesia and Indochina, were often allied with communist groups or otherwise perceived to be unfriendly to Western interests.[36] In this context, the United States and the Soviet Union increasingly competed for influence by proxy in the Third World as decolonization gained momentum in the 1950s and early 1960s.[134] Both sides were selling armaments to gain influence.[135] The Kremlin saw continuing territorial losses by imperial powers as presaging the eventual victory of their ideology.[136]

The United States used the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to undermine neutral or hostile Third World governments and to support allied ones.[137] In 1953, President Eisenhower implemented Operation Ajax, a covert coup operation to overthrow the Iranian prime minister, Mohammad Mosaddegh. The popularly elected Mosaddegh had been a Middle Eastern nemesis of Britain since nationalizing the British-owned Anglo-Iranian Oil Company in 1951. Winston Churchill told the United States that Mosaddegh was "increasingly turning towards Communist influence."[138][139] The pro-Western shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, assumed control as an autocratic monarch.[140] The shah's policies included banning the communist Tudeh Party of Iran, and general suppression of political dissent by SAVAK, the shah's domestic security and intelligence agency.

In Guatemala, a banana republic, the 1954 Guatemalan coup d'état ousted the left-wing President Jacobo Árbenz with material CIA support.[141] The post-Arbenz government—a military junta headed by Carlos Castillo Armas—repealed a progressive land reform law, returned nationalized property belonging to the United Fruit Company, set up a National Committee of Defense Against Communism, and decreed a Preventive Penal Law Against Communism at the request of the United States.[142]

The non-aligned Indonesian government of Sukarno was faced with a major threat to its legitimacy beginning in 1956 when several regional commanders began to demand autonomy from Jakarta. After mediation failed, Sukarno took action to remove the dissident commanders. In February 1958, dissident military commanders in Central Sumatra (Colonel Ahmad Husein) and North Sulawesi (Colonel Ventje Sumual) declared the Revolutionary Government of the Republic of Indonesia-Permesta Movement aimed at overthrowing the Sukarno regime. They were joined by many civilian politicians from the Masyumi Party, such as Sjafruddin Prawiranegara, who were opposed to the growing influence of the communist Partai Komunis Indonesia. Due to their anti-communist rhetoric, the rebels received arms, funding, and other covert aid from the CIA until Allen Lawrence Pope, an American pilot, was shot down after a bombing raid on government-held Ambon in April 1958. The central government responded by launching airborne and seaborne military invasions of rebel strongholds at Padang and Manado. By the end of 1958, the rebels were militarily defeated, and the last remaining rebel guerilla bands surrendered by August 1961.[143]


1961 USSR stamp commemorating Patrice Lumumba, assassinated prime minister of the Republic of the Congo
In the Republic of the Congo, also known as Congo-Léopoldville, newly independent from Belgium since June 1960, the Congo Crisis erupted on 5 July leading to the secession of the regions Katanga and South Kasai. CIA-backed President Joseph Kasa-Vubu ordered the dismissal of the democratically elected Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba and the Lumumba cabinet in September over massacres by the armed forces during the invasion of South Kasai and for involving Soviets in the country.[144][145] Later the CIA-backed Colonel Mobutu Sese Seko quickly mobilized his forces to seize power through a military coup d'état,[145] and worked with Western intelligence agencies to imprison Lumumba and hand him over to Katangan authorities who executed him by firing squad.[146][147]

In British Guiana, the leftist People's Progressive Party (PPP) candidate Cheddi Jagan won the position of chief minister in a colonially administered election in 1953 but was quickly forced to resign from power after Britain's suspension of the still-dependent nation's constitution.[148] Embarrassed by the landslide electoral victory of Jagan's allegedly Marxist party, the British imprisoned the PPP's leadership and maneuvered the organization into a divisive rupture in 1955.[149] Jagan again won the colonial elections in 1957 and 1961, despite Britain's shift to a reconsideration of its view of the left-wing Jagan as a Soviet-style communist at this time. The United States pressured the British to withhold Guyana's independence until an alternative to Jagan could be identified, supported, and brought into office.[150] In Malaya, the British colonialists suppressed the communist anti-colonial rebellion.

Worn down by the communist guerrilla war for Vietnamese full independence and handed a watershed defeat by communist Viet Minh rebels at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu, the French accepted a negotiated abandonment of their neo-colonial stake in Vietnam right in 1954. On June 4, France granted full sovereignty to the anti-communist State of Vietnam, an independent country within the French Union.[151] In the Geneva Conference in July, peace accords were signed, leaving Vietnam divided between a pro-Soviet administration in North Vietnam and a pro-Western administration in South Vietnam at the 17th parallel north. Between 1954 and 1961, Eisenhower's United States sent economic aid and military advisers to strengthen South Vietnam's pro-Western government against communist efforts to destabilize it.[27]

Many emerging nations of Asia, Africa, and Latin America rejected the pressure to choose sides in the East–West competition. In 1955, at the Bandung Conference in Indonesia, dozens of Third World governments resolved to stay out of the Cold War.[152] The consensus reached at Bandung culminated with the creation of the Belgrade-headquartered Non-Aligned Movement in 1961.[36] Meanwhile, Khrushchev broadened Moscow's policy to establish ties with India and other key neutral states. Independence movements in the Third World transformed the post-war order into a more pluralistic world of decolonized African and Middle Eastern nations and of rising nationalism in Asia and Latin America.[27]

Sino-Soviet split
Main article: Sino-Soviet split

Map showing greatest territorial extent of the Soviet Union and the states that it dominated politically, economically and militarily in 1960, after the Cuban Revolution of 1959 but before the official Sino-Soviet split of 1961 (total area: c. 35,000,000 km2)[G]
After 1956, the Sino-Soviet alliance began to break down. Mao had defended Stalin when Khrushchev criticized him in 1956 and treated the new Soviet leader as a superficial upstart, accusing him of having lost his revolutionary edge.[153] For his part, Khrushchev, disturbed by Mao's glib attitude toward nuclear war, referred to the Chinese leader as a "lunatic on a throne".[154]

After this, Khrushchev made many desperate attempts to reconstitute the Sino-Soviet alliance, but Mao considered it useless and denied any proposal.[153] The Chinese-Soviet animosity spilled out in an intra-communist propaganda war.[155] Further on, the Soviets focused on a bitter rivalry with Mao's China for leadership of the global communist movement.[156] Historian Lorenz M. Lüthi argues:

The Sino-Soviet split was one of the key events of the Cold War, equal in importance to the construction of the Berlin Wall, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Second[clarification needed] Vietnam War, and Sino-American rapprochement. The split helped to determine the framework for the Cold War period 1979–1985 in general, and influenced the course of the Second Vietnam War in particular.[157]
Space Race
Main article: Space Race

Clockwise from top left: Sputnik 1, Apollo 11 Moon landing, Space station Mir
On the nuclear weapons front, the United States and the Soviet Union pursued nuclear rearmament and developed long-range weapons with which they could strike the territory of the other.[81] In August 1957, the Soviets successfully launched the world's first intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM),[158] and in October they launched the first Earth satellite, Sputnik 1.[159] This led to what became known as the Sputnik crisis. The Central Intelligence Agency described the orbit of Sputnik 1 as a "stupendous scientific achievement" and concluded that the USSR had likely perfected an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) capable of reaching 'any desired target with accuracy'.[160]

The launch of Sputnik inaugurated the Space Race. This led to a series of historic space exploration milestones, and most notably the Apollo Moon landings from 1969 by the United States, which astronaut Frank Borman later described as "just a battle in the Cold War."[161] The public's reaction in the Soviet Union was mixed. The Soviet government limited the release of information about the lunar landing, which affected the reaction. A portion of the populace did not give it any attention, and another portion was angered by it.[162] A major Cold War element of the Space Race was satellite reconnaissance, as well as signals intelligence to gauge which aspects of the space programs had military capabilities.[163] The Soviet Salyut programme, conducted in the 1970s and 80s, put a manned space station in long term orbit; two of the successful installations to the station were covers for secret military Almaz reconnaissance stations: Salyut 3, and Salyut 5.[164][165][166][167]

During the whole duration of the cold war, the US and the USSR represented the largest and dominant space powers of the world.[168] Despite their fierce competition, both nations signed international space treaties in the 1960s which would limit the militarization of space.[169]

The first research of anti-satellite weapon technology also came about during this period.[170]

Later, the US and USSR pursued some cooperation in space as part of détente, notably the Apollo–Soyuz orbital rendezvous and docking.[171]

Aftermath of the Cuban Revolution
Main articles: Consolidation of the Cuban Revolution and Bay of Pigs Invasion

Che Guevara (left) and Fidel Castro (right) in 1961
In Cuba, the 26th of July Movement, led by young revolutionaries Fidel Castro and Che Guevara, seized power in the Cuban Revolution on 1 January 1959.[172] Although Fidel Castro's first refused to categorize his new government as socialist and repeatedly denying being a communist, Castro appointed Marxists to senior government and military positions.[173][174][175]

Diplomatic relations between Cuba and the United States continued for some time after Batista's fall, but President Eisenhower deliberately left the capital to avoid meeting Castro during the latter's trip to Washington, D.C. in April, leaving Vice President Richard Nixon to conduct the meeting in his place.[176] Cuba began negotiating for arms purchases from the Eastern Bloc in March 1960.[177] The same month, Eisenhower gave approval to CIA plans and funding to overthrow Castro.[178]

In January 1961, just prior to leaving office, Eisenhower formally severed relations with the Cuban government. That April, the administration of newly elected American President John F. Kennedy mounted the unsuccessful CIA-organized ship-borne invasion of the island by Cuban exiles at Playa Girón and Playa Larga in Santa Clara Province—a failure that publicly humiliated the United States.[179] Castro responded by publicly embracing Marxism–Leninism, and the Soviet Union pledged to provide further support.[179] In December, the US government began a violent campaign of terrorist attacks against civilians in Cuba, and covert operations and sabotage against the administration, in an attempt to overthrow the Cuban government.[184]

Berlin Crisis of 1961
Main article: Berlin Crisis of 1961
Further information: Berlin Wall and Emigration from the Eastern Bloc

Soviet and American tanks face each other at Checkpoint Charlie during the Berlin Crisis of 1961
The Berlin Crisis of 1961 was the last major incident in the Cold War regarding the status of Berlin and post–World War II Germany. By the early 1950s, the Soviet approach to restricting emigration movement was emulated by most of the rest of the Eastern Bloc.[185] However, hundreds of thousands of East Germans annually emigrated to free and prosperous West Germany through a "loophole" in the system that existed between East Berlin and West Berlin.[186][187]

The emigration resulted in a massive "brain drain" from East Germany to West Germany of younger educated professionals, such that nearly 20% of East Germany's population had migrated to West Germany by 1961.[188] That June, the Soviet Union issued a new ultimatum demanding the withdrawal of Allied forces from West Berlin.[189] The request was rebuffed, but the United States now limited its security guarantees to West Berlin.[190] On 13 August, East Germany erected a barbed-wire barrier that would eventually be expanded through construction into the Berlin Wall, effectively closing the loophole and preventing its citizens from fleeing to the West.[191]

Cuban Missile Crisis and Khrushchev's ousting
Main articles: Operation Mongoose and Cuban Missile Crisis

Aerial photograph of a Soviet missile site in Cuba, taken by a US spy aircraft, 1 November 1962
The Kennedy administration continued seeking ways to oust Castro following the Bay of Pigs invasion, experimenting with various ways of covertly facilitating the overthrow of the Cuban government. Significant hopes were pinned on the program of terrorist attacks and other destabilization operations known as Operation Mongoose, that was devised under the Kennedy administration in 1961. Khrushchev learned of the project in February 1962,[192] and preparations to install Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba were undertaken in response.[192]

Alarmed, Kennedy considered various reactions. He ultimately responded to the installation of nuclear missiles in Cuba with a naval blockade, and he presented an ultimatum to the Soviets. Khrushchev backed down from a confrontation, and the Soviet Union removed the missiles in return for a public American pledge not to invade Cuba again as well as a covert deal to remove US missiles from Turkey.[193]

The Cuban Missile Crisis (October–November 1962) brought the world closer to nuclear war than ever before.[194] The aftermath led to efforts in the nuclear arms race at nuclear disarmament and improving relations, although the Cold War's first arms control agreement, the Antarctic Treaty, had come into force in 1961.[J]

The compromise embarrassed Khrushchev and the Soviet Union because the withdrawal of US missiles from Italy and Turkey was a secret deal between Kennedy and Khrushchev, and the Soviets were seen as retreating from circumstances that they had started. In 1964, Khrushchev's Kremlin colleagues managed to oust him, but allowed him a peaceful retirement.[195] He was accused of rudeness and incompetence, and John Lewis Gaddis argues that he was also blamed with ruining Soviet agriculture, bringing the world to the brink of nuclear war, and becoming an "international embarrassment" when he authorized construction of the Berlin Wall.[196] According to Dobrynin, the top Soviet leadership took the Cuban outcome as "a blow to its prestige bordering on humiliation".[197][198]

From confrontation to détente (1962–1979)
Main articles: Cold War (1962–1979) and Era of Stagnation

Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin with U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson at the 1967 Glassboro Summit Conference.

NATO and Warsaw Pact troop strengths in Europe in 1973
In the course of the 1960s and 1970s, Cold War participants struggled to adjust to a new, more complicated pattern of international relations in which the world was no longer divided into two clearly opposed blocs.[36] From the beginning of the post-war period, with American help Western Europe and Japan rapidly recovered from the destruction of World War II and sustained strong economic growth through the 1950s and 1960s, with per capita GDPs approaching those of the United States, while Eastern Bloc economies stagnated.[36][199]

The Vietnam War descended into a quagmire for the United States, leading to a decline in international prestige and economic stability, derailing arms agreements, and provoking domestic unrest. America's withdrawal from the war led it to embrace a policy of détente with both China and the Soviet Union.[200]

In the 1973 oil crisis, Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) cut their petroleum output. This raised oil prices and hurt Western economies, but helped the Soviet Union by generating a huge flow of money from its oil sales.[201]

As a result of the oil crisis, combined with the growing influence of Third World alignments such as OPEC and the Non-Aligned Movement, less powerful countries had more room to assert their independence and often showed themselves resistant to pressure from either superpower.[99] Meanwhile, Moscow was forced to turn its attention inward to deal with the Soviet Union's deep-seated domestic economic problems.[36] During this period, Soviet leaders such as Leonid Brezhnev and Alexei Kosygin embraced the notion of détente.[36]

Vietnam War
Main articles: Vietnam War and Opposition to United States involvement in the Vietnam War

US combat operations during the Battle of Ia Drang, South Vietnam, November 1965
Under President John F. Kennedy, US troop levels in Vietnam grew from just under a thousand in 1959 to 16,000 in 1963.[202][203] South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem's heavy-handed crackdown on Buddhist monks in 1963 led the US to endorse a deadly military coup against Diem.[204] The war escalated further in 1964 following the controversial Gulf of Tonkin incident, in which a US destroyer was alleged to have clashed with North Vietnamese fast attack craft. The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution gave President Lyndon B. Johnson broad authorization to increase US military presence, deploying ground combat units for the first time and increasing troop levels to 184,000.[205] Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev responded by reversing Khrushchev's policy of disengagement and increasing aid to the North Vietnamese, hoping to entice the North from its pro-Chinese position. The USSR discouraged further escalation of the war, however, providing just enough military assistance to tie up American forces.[206] From this point, the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) engaged in more conventional warfare with US and South Vietnamese forces.[207]

The Tet Offensive of 1968 proved to be the turning point of the war. Despite years of American tutelage and aid, the South Vietnamese forces were unable to withstand the communist offensive and the task fell to US forces instead.[208] At the same time, in 1963–1965, American domestic politics saw the triumph of liberalism. According to historian Joseph Crespino:

It has become a staple of twentieth-century historiography that Cold War concerns were at the root of a number of progressive political accomplishments in the postwar period: a high progressive marginal tax rate that helped fund the arms race and contributed to broad income equality; bipartisan support for far-reaching civil rights legislation that transformed politics and society in the American South, which had long given the lie to America's egalitarian ethos; bipartisan support for overturning an explicitly racist immigration system that had been in place since the 1920s; and free health care for the elderly and the poor, a partial fulfillment of one of the unaccomplished goals of the New Deal era. The list could go on.[209]
Nuclear testing and Use of Outer-Space treaties
The Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty was signed on August 5, 1963, by the United States, the Soviet Union, and over 100 other nations. This treaty banned nuclear weapons tests in the atmosphere, outer space, and underwater, restricting such tests to underground environments.[210][211][212][213] The treaty followed heightened concerns over the militarization of space, amplified by the United States' Starfish Prime test in 1962, which involved the detonation of a nuclear device in the upper atmosphere.[214][215]

To further delineate the peaceful use of outer space, the United Nations facilitated the drafting of the Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies, commonly known as the Outer Space Treaty. Signed on January 27, 1967, by the United States, the Soviet Union, and the United Kingdom, it entered into force on October 10, 1967. The treaty established space as a domain to be used exclusively for peaceful purposes, prohibiting the placement of nuclear weapons or any other weapons of mass destruction in orbit or on celestial bodies.[216][217][218]

Invasion of Czechoslovakia
Main articles: Prague Spring and Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia

The invasion of Czechoslovakia by the Soviet Union in 1968 was one of the biggest military operations on European soil since World War II.
In 1968, a period of political liberalization took place in Czechoslovakia called the Prague Spring. An "Action Program" of reforms included increasing freedom of the press, freedom of speech and freedom of movement, along with an economic emphasis on consumer goods, the possibility of a multiparty government, limitations on the power of the secret police,[219][220] and potential withdrawal from the Warsaw Pact.[221]

In answer to the Prague Spring, on 20 August 1968, the Soviet Army, together with most of their Warsaw Pact allies, invaded Czechoslovakia.[222] The invasion was followed by a wave of emigration, including an estimated 70,000 Czechs and Slovaks initially fleeing, with the total eventually reaching 300,000.[223][224] The invasion sparked intense protests from Yugoslavia, Romania, China, and from Western European countries.[225]

Sino-Soviet split and Nixon-China visit

U.S. President Richard Nixon shakes hands with Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai at Beijing Capital International Airport
As a result of the Sino-Soviet split, tensions along the Chinese–Soviet border reached their peak in 1969, when the Soviet planned to launch a large-scale nuclear strike against China.[226] United States President Richard Nixon intervened,[226] and decided to use the conflict to shift the balance of power towards the West in the Cold War through a policy of rapproachment with China, which began with his 1972 visit to China and culminated in 1979 with the signing of the Joint Communiqué on the Establishment of Diplomatic Relations by President Carter and Chinese Communist Party leader Deng Xiaoping.[227][228]

Nixon, Brezhnev, and détente
Main articles: Presidency of Richard Nixon, Détente, Brezhnev Doctrine, Strategic Arms Limitation Talks, Helsinki Accords, Vladivostok Summit Meeting on Arms Control, and Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe

Nikolai Podgorny visiting Tampere, Finland on 16 October 1969
Although indirect conflict between Cold War powers continued through the late 1960s and early 1970s, tensions were beginning to ease.[229] Following the ousting of Khrushchev, another period of collective leadership ensued, consisting of Leonid Brezhnev as general secretary, Alexei Kosygin as Premier and Nikolai Podgorny as Chairman of the Presidium, lasting until Brezhnev established himself in the early 1970s as the preeminent Soviet leader.

Following his visit to China, Nixon met with Soviet leaders in Moscow.[230] These Strategic Arms Limitation Talks resulted in landmark arms control treaties. These aimed to limit the development of costly anti-ballistic missiles and nuclear missiles.[36]

Nixon and Brezhnev proclaimed a new era of "peaceful coexistence" and established the groundbreaking new policy of détente (or cooperation) between the superpowers. Meanwhile, Brezhnev attempted to revive the Soviet economy, which was declining in part because of heavy military expenditures. The Soviet Union's military budget in the 1970s was massive, 40–60% of the federal budget and 15% of GDP.[231] Between 1972 and 1974, the two sides also agreed to strengthen their economic ties,[27] including agreements for increased trade. As a result of their meetings, détente would replace the hostility of the Cold War and the two countries would live mutually.[232] These developments coincided with Bonn's "Ostpolitik" policy formulated by the West German Chancellor Willy Brandt,[225] an effort to normalize relations between West Germany and Eastern Europe. Other agreements were concluded to stabilize the situation in Europe, culminating in the Helsinki Accords signed at the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe in 1975.[233]


Soviet general secretary Leonid Brezhnev and US President Jimmy Carter sign the SALT II arms limitation treaty in Vienna on 18 June 1979.
The Helsinki Accords, in which the Soviets promised to grant free elections in Europe, has been called a major concession to ensure peace by the Soviets. In practice, the Soviet government significantly curbed the rule of law, civil liberties, protection of law and guarantees of property,[234][235] which were considered examples of "bourgeois morality" by Soviet legal theorists such as Andrey Vyshinsky.[236] The Soviet Union signed legally-binding human rights documents, such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights in 1973 and the Helsinki Accords in 1975, but they were neither widely known or accessible to people living under Communist rule, nor were they taken seriously by the Communist authorities.[237] Human rights activists in the Soviet Union were regularly subjected to harassment, repressions and arrests.

The pro-Soviet American business magnate Armand Hammer of Occidental Petroleum often mediated trade relations. Author Daniel Yergin, in his book The Prize, writes that Hammer "ended up as a go-between for five Soviet General Secretaries and seven U.S. Presidents."[238] Hammer had extensive business relationship in the Soviet Union stretching back to the 1920s with Lenin's approval.[239][240] According to Christian Science Monitor in 1980, "although his business dealings with the Soviet Union were cut short when Stalin came to power, he had more or less single-handedly laid the groundwork for the [1980] state of Western trade with the Soviet Union."[239]


Iranian people protesting against the Pahlavi dynasty, during the Iranian Revolution
Kissinger and Nixon were "realists" who deemphasized idealistic goals like anti-communism or promotion of democracy worldwide because those goals were too expensive in terms of America's economic capabilities.[241] They rejected "idealism" as impractical and too expensive, and neither man showed much sensitivity to the plight of people living under Communism. Kissinger's realism fell out of fashion as idealism returned to American foreign policy with Carter's moralism emphasizing human rights, and Reagan's rollback strategy aimed at destroying Communism.[242]

Late 1970s deterioration of relations
See also: Soviet reaction to the Polish crisis of 1980–1981, Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, Antisemitism in the Soviet Union, and Refuseniks
In the 1970s, the KGB, led by Yuri Andropov, continued to persecute distinguished Soviet dissidents, such as Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and Andrei Sakharov, who were criticising the Soviet leadership in harsh terms.[243] Indirect conflict between the superpowers continued through this period of détente in the Third World, particularly during political crises in the Middle East, Chile, Ethiopia, and Angola.[244]

In 1973, Nixon announced his administration was committed to seeking most favored nation trade status with the USSR,[245] which was challenged by Congress in the Jackson-Vanik Amendment.[246] The United States had long linked trade with the Soviet Union to its foreign policy toward the Soviet Union and, especially since the early 1980s, to Soviet human rights policies. The Jackson-Vanik Amendment, which was attached to the 1974 Trade Act, linked the granting of most-favored-nation to the USSR to the right of persecuted Soviet Jews to emigrate. Because the Soviet Union refused the right of emigration to Jewish refuseniks, the ability of the President to apply most-favored nation trade status to the Soviet Union was restricted.[247]

Although President Jimmy Carter tried to place another limit on the arms race with a SALT II agreement in 1979,[248] his efforts were undermined by the other events that year, including the Iranian Revolution and the Nicaraguan Revolution, which both ousted pro-US governments, and his retaliation against the Soviet coup in Afghanistan in December.[27]

Renewal of tensions (1979–1985)
Main article: Cold War (1979–1985)

Protest in Amsterdam against the deployment of Pershing II missiles in Europe, 1981
The period in the late 1970s and early 1980s showed an intensive reawakening of Cold War tensions and conflicts. Tensions greatly increased between the major powers with both sides becoming more militant.[249] Diggins says, "Reagan went all out to fight the second cold war, by supporting counterinsurgencies in the third world."[250] Cox says, "The intensity of this 'second' Cold War was as great as its duration was short."[251]

Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and end of détente
Main articles: Soviet–Afghan War, Carter Doctrine, Foreign policy of the Ronald Reagan administration, Operation Cyclone, Saur Revolution, and Afghan Civil War (1989–1992)

The Soviet invasion during Operation Storm-333 on 26 December 1979
In April 1978, the communist People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) seized power in Afghanistan in the Saur Revolution. Within months, opponents of the communist regime launched an uprising in eastern Afghanistan that quickly expanded into a civil war waged by guerrilla mujahideen against government forces countrywide.[252] The Islamic Unity of Afghanistan Mujahideen insurgents received military training and weapons in neighboring Pakistan and China,[253][254] while the Soviet Union sent thousands of military advisers to support the PDPA government.[252] Meanwhile, increasing friction between the competing factions of the PDPA—the dominant Khalq and the more moderate Parcham—resulted in the dismissal of Parchami cabinet members and the arrest of Parchami military officers under the pretext of a Parchami coup. By mid-1979, the United States had started a covert program to assist the mujahideen.[255][256]

In September 1979, Khalqist President Nur Muhammad Taraki was assassinated in a coup within the PDPA orchestrated by fellow Khalq member Hafizullah Amin, who assumed the presidency. Distrusted by the Soviets, Amin was assassinated by Soviet special forces during Operation Storm-333 in December 1979. Afghan forces suffered losses during the Soviet operation; 30 Afghan palace guards and over 300 army guards were killed while another 150 were captured.[257] In the aftermath of the operation, a total of 1,700 Afghan soldiers who surrendered to Soviet forces were taken as prisoners,[258] and the Soviets installed Babrak Karmal, the leader of the PDPA's Parcham faction, as Amin's successor. Veterans of the Soviet Union's Alpha Group have stated that Operation Storm-333 was one of the most successful in the unit's history. Documents released following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in the 1990s revealed that the Soviet leadership believed Amin had secret contacts within the American embassy in Kabul and "was capable of reaching an agreement with the United States";[259] however, allegations of Amin colluding with the Americans have been widely discredited.[260][K][L] The PDBA was tasked to fill the vacuum and carried out a purge of Amin supporters. Soviet troops were deployed to put Afghanistan under Soviet control with Karmal in more substantial numbers, although the Soviet government did not expect to do most of the fighting in Afghanistan. As a result, however, the Soviets were now directly involved in what had been a domestic war in Afghanistan.[261]


President Reagan publicizes his support by meeting with Afghan mujahideen leaders in the White House, 1983.
Carter responded to the Soviet invasion by withdrawing the SALT II treaty from ratification, imposing embargoes on grain and technology shipments to the USSR, and demanding a significant increase in military spending, and further announced the boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, which was joined by 65 other nations.[262][263][264] He described the Soviet incursion as "the most serious threat to the peace since the Second World War".[265]

Reagan and Thatcher
Further information: Reagan Doctrine and Thatcherism

President Reagan with Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher during a working luncheon at Camp David, December 1984

The world map of military alliances in 1980
In January 1977, four years prior to becoming president, Ronald Reagan bluntly stated, in a conversation with Richard V. Allen, his basic expectation in relation to the Cold War. "My idea of American policy toward the Soviet Union is simple, and some would say simplistic," he said. "It is this: We win and they lose."[266] In 1980, Ronald Reagan won the 1980 presidential election, vowing to increase military spending and confront the Soviets everywhere.[267] Both Reagan and new British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher denounced the Soviet Union and its ideology. Reagan labeled the Soviet Union an "evil empire" and predicted that Communism would be left on the "ash heap of history," while Thatcher inculpated the Soviets as "bent on world dominance."[268] In 1982, Reagan tried to cut off Moscow's access to hard currency by impeding its proposed gas line to Western Europe. It hurt the Soviet economy, but it also caused ill will among American allies in Europe who counted on that revenue. Reagan retreated on this issue.[269][270]

By early 1985, Reagan's anti-communist position had developed into a stance known as the new Reagan Doctrine—which, in addition to containment, formulated an additional right to subvert existing communist governments.[271] Besides continuing Carter's policy of supporting the Islamic opponents of the Soviet Union and the Soviet-backed PDPA government in Afghanistan, the CIA also sought to weaken the Soviet Union itself by promoting Islamism in the majority-Muslim Central Asian Soviet Union.[272] Additionally, the CIA encouraged anti-communist Pakistan's ISI to train Muslims from around the world to participate in the jihad against the Soviet Union.[272]

Polish Solidarity movement and martial law
Main articles: Solidarity (Polish trade union) and Martial law in Poland
Further information: Soviet reaction to the Polish crisis of 1980–1981
Pope John Paul II provided a moral focus for anti-communism; a visit to his native Poland in 1979 stimulated a religious and nationalist resurgence centered on the Solidarity movement trade union that galvanized opposition, and may have led to his attempted assassination two years later.[273][274][275] In December 1981, Poland's Wojciech Jaruzelski reacted to the crisis by imposing a period of martial law. Reagan imposed economic sanctions on Poland in response.[276] Mikhail Suslov, the Kremlin's top ideologist, advised Soviet leaders not to intervene if Poland fell under the control of Solidarity, for fear it might lead to heavy economic sanctions, resulting in a catastrophe for the Soviet economy.[276]

US and USSR military and economic issues
Further information: Era of Stagnation, Strategic Defense Initiative, RSD-10 Pioneer, and MGM-31 Pershing

US and USSR/Russian nuclear weapons stockpiles, 1945–2006
The Soviet Union had built up a military that consumed as much as 25 percent of its gross national product at the expense of consumer goods and investment in civilian sectors.[277] Soviet spending on the arms race and other Cold War commitments both caused and exacerbated deep-seated structural problems in the Soviet system,[278] which experienced at least a decade of economic stagnation during the late Brezhnev years.

Soviet investment in the defense sector was not driven by military necessity but in large part by the interests of the nomenklatura, which was dependent on the sector for their own power and privileges.[279] The Soviet Armed Forces became the largest in the world in terms of the numbers and types of weapons they possessed, in the number of troops in their ranks, and in the sheer size of their military–industrial base.[280] However, the quantitative advantages held by the Soviet military often concealed areas where the Eastern Bloc dramatically lagged behind the West.[281] For example, the Persian Gulf War demonstrated how the armor, fire control systems, and firing range of the Soviet Union's most common main battle tank, the T-72, were drastically inferior to the American M1 Abrams, yet the USSR fielded almost three times as many T-72s as the US deployed M1s.[282]


Delta 183 launch vehicle lifts off, carrying the Strategic Defense Initiative sensor experiment "Delta Star".
By the early 1980s, the USSR had built up a military arsenal and army surpassing that of the United States. Soon after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, President Carter began massively building up the United States military. This buildup was accelerated by the Reagan administration, which increased the military spending from 5.3 percent of GNP in 1981 to 6.5 percent in 1986,[283] the largest peacetime defense buildup in United States history.[284] The American-Soviet tensions present during 1983 was defined by some as the start of "Cold War II". While in retrospective this phase of the Cold War was generally defined as a "war of words",[285] the Soviet's "peace offensive" was largely rejected by the West.[286]

Tensions continued to intensify as Reagan revived the B-1 Lancer program, which had been canceled by the Carter administration,[287] produced LGM-118 Peacekeeper missiles,[288] installed US cruise missiles in Europe, and announced the experimental Strategic Defense Initiative, dubbed "Star Wars" by the media, a defense program to shoot down missiles in mid-flight.[289] The Soviets deployed RSD-10 Pioneer ballistic missiles targeting Western Europe, and NATO decided, under the impetus of the Carter presidency, to deploy MGM-31 Pershing and cruise missiles in Europe, primarily West Germany.[290] This deployment placed missiles just 10 minutes' striking distance from Moscow.[291]

After Reagan's military buildup, the Soviet Union did not respond by further building its military,[292] because the enormous military expenses, along with inefficient planned manufacturing and collectivized agriculture, were already a heavy burden for the Soviet economy.[293] At the same time, Saudi Arabia increased oil production,[294] even as other non-OPEC nations were increasing production.[M] These developments contributed to the 1980s oil glut, which affected the Soviet Union as oil was the main source of Soviet export revenues.[277] Issues with command economics,[295] oil price decreases and large military expenditures gradually brought the Soviet economy to stagnation.[294]


After ten-year-old American Samantha Smith wrote a letter to Yuri Andropov expressing her fear of nuclear war, Andropov invited Smith to the Soviet Union.
On 1 September 1983, the Soviet Union shot down Korean Air Lines Flight 007, a Boeing 747 with 269 people aboard, including sitting Congressman Larry McDonald, an action which Reagan characterized as a massacre. The airliner was en route from Anchorage to Seoul but owing to a navigational mistake made by the crew, it flew through Russian prohibited airspace. The Soviet Air Force treated the unidentified aircraft as an intruding U.S. spy plane and destroyed it with air-to-air missiles.[296] The incident increased support for military deployment, overseen by Reagan, which stood in place until the later accords between Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev.[297] During the early hours of 26 September 1983, the 1983 Soviet nuclear false alarm incident occurred; systems in Serpukhov-15 underwent a glitch that claimed several intercontinental ballistic missiles were heading towards Russia, but officer Stanislav Petrov correctly suspected it was a false alarm, ensuring the Soviets did not respond to the non-existent attack.[298] As such, he has been credited as "the man who saved the world".[299] The Able Archer 83 exercise in November 1983, a realistic simulation of a coordinated NATO nuclear release, was perhaps the most dangerous moment since the Cuban Missile Crisis, as the Soviet leadership feared that a nuclear attack might be imminent.[300]

American domestic public concerns about intervening in foreign conflicts persisted from the end of the Vietnam War.[301] The Reagan administration emphasized the use of quick, low-cost counterinsurgency tactics to intervene in foreign conflicts.[301] In 1983, the Reagan administration intervened in the multisided Lebanese Civil War, invaded Grenada, bombed Libya and backed the Central American Contras, anti-communist paramilitaries seeking to overthrow the Soviet-aligned Sandinista government in Nicaragua.[99] While Reagan's interventions against Grenada and Libya were popular in the United States, his backing of the Contra rebels was mired in controversy.[302] The Reagan administration's backing of the military government of Guatemala during the Guatemalan Civil War, in particular the regime of Efraín Ríos Montt, was also controversial.[303]

Meanwhile, the Soviets incurred high costs for their own foreign interventions. Although Brezhnev was convinced in 1979 that the Soviet war in Afghanistan would be brief, Muslim guerrillas, aided by the US, China, Britain, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan,[254] waged a fierce resistance against the invasion.[304] The Kremlin sent nearly 100,000 troops to support its puppet regime in Afghanistan, leading many outside observers to dub the war "the Soviets' Vietnam".[304] However, Moscow's quagmire in Afghanistan was far more disastrous for the Soviets than Vietnam had been for the Americans because the conflict coincided with a period of internal decay and domestic crisis in the Soviet system.

A senior US State Department official predicted such an outcome as early as 1980, positing that the invasion resulted in part from a:

...domestic crisis within the Soviet system. ... It may be that the thermodynamic law of entropy has ... caught up with the Soviet system, which now seems to expend more energy on simply maintaining its equilibrium than on improving itself. We could be seeing a period of foreign movement at a time of internal decay.[305]

Final years (1985–1991)
Main article: Cold War (1985–1991)
Gorbachev's reforms
Further information: Mikhail Gorbachev, Perestroika, and Glasnost

Mikhail Gorbachev in one-to-one discussions with US President Ronald Reagan

Mikhail Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan sign the INF Treaty at the White House, 1987.
By the time the comparatively youthful Mikhail Gorbachev became General Secretary in 1985,[268] the Soviet economy was stagnant and faced a sharp fall in foreign currency earnings as a result of the downward slide in oil prices in the 1980s.[306] These issues prompted Gorbachev to investigate measures to revive the ailing state.[306]

An ineffectual start led to the conclusion that deeper structural changes were necessary, and in June 1987 Gorbachev announced an agenda of economic reform called perestroika, or restructuring.[307] Perestroika relaxed the production quota system, allowed cooperative ownership of small businesses and paved the way for foreign investment. These measures were intended to redirect the country's resources from costly Cold War military commitments to more productive areas in the civilian sector.[307]

Despite initial skepticism in the West, the new Soviet leader proved to be committed to reversing the Soviet Union's deteriorating economic condition instead of continuing the arms race with the West.[308] Partly as a way to fight off internal opposition from party cliques to his reforms, Gorbachev simultaneously introduced glasnost, or openness, which increased freedom of the press and the transparency of state institutions.[309] Glasnost was intended to reduce the corruption at the top of the Communist Party and moderate the abuse of power in the Central Committee.[310] Glasnost also enabled increased contact between Soviet citizens and the Western world, particularly with the United States, contributing to the accelerating détente between the two nations.[311]

Thaw in relations
Further information: Reykjavík Summit, Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, START I, and Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany

The beginning of the 1990s brought a thaw in relations between the superpowers.
In response to the Kremlin's military and political concessions, Reagan agreed to renew talks on economic issues and the scaling-back of the arms race.[312] The first summit was held in November 1985 in Geneva, Switzerland.[312] A second summit was held in October 1986 in Reykjavík, Iceland. Talks went well until the focus shifted to Reagan's proposed Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), which Gorbachev wanted to be eliminated. Reagan refused.[313] The negotiations failed, but the third summit (Washington Summit (1987), 8–10 December 1987) led to a breakthrough with the signing of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF). The INF treaty eliminated all nuclear-armed, ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles with ranges between 500 and 5,500 kilometers (310 and 3,420 mi) and their infrastructure.[314]


"Tear down this wall!" speech: Reagan speaking in front of the Brandenburg Gate, 12 June 1987
During 1988, it became apparent to the Soviets that oil and gas subsidies, along with the cost of maintaining massive troops levels, represented a substantial economic drain.[315] In addition, the security advantage of a buffer zone was recognised as irrelevant and the Soviets officially declared that they would no longer intervene in the affairs of satellite states in Central and Eastern Europe.[316] George H. W. Bush and Gorbachev met at the Moscow Summit in May 1988 and the Governors Island Summit in December 1988.

In 1989, Soviet forces withdrew from Afghanistan without achieving their objectives.[317] Later that year, the Berlin Wall, the Inner German border and the Iron Curtain fell. On 3 December 1989, Gorbachev and Bush declared the Cold War over at the Malta Summit. In February 1990, Gorbachev agreed with the US-proposed Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany and signed it on 12 September 1990, paving the way for the German reunification.[315] When the Berlin Wall came down, Gorbachev's "Common European Home" concept began to take shape.[318][319] The two former adversaries were partners in the Gulf War against Iraq (August 1990 – February 1991).[320] During the final summit in Moscow in July 1991, Gorbachev and Bush signed the START I arms control treaty.[321]

Eastern Europe breaks away
Main article: Revolutions of 1989

Otto von Habsburg, who played a leading role in opening the Iron Curtain
Two developments dominated the decade that followed: the increasingly apparent crumbling of the Soviet Union's economic and political structures, and the patchwork attempts at reforms to reverse that process. Kenneth S. Deffeyes argued in Beyond Oil that the Reagan administration encouraged Saudi Arabia to lower the price of oil to the point where the Soviets could not make a profit selling their oil, and resulted in the depletion of the country's hard currency reserves.[322]

Brezhnev's next two successors, transitional figures with deep roots in his tradition, did not last long. Yuri Andropov was 68 years old and Konstantin Chernenko 72 when they assumed power; both died in less than two years. In an attempt to avoid a third short-lived leader, in 1985, the Soviets turned to the next generation and selected Mikhail Gorbachev. He made significant changes in the economy and party leadership, called perestroika. His policy of glasnost freed public access to information after decades of heavy government censorship. Gorbachev also moved to end the Cold War. In 1988, the USSR abandoned its war in Afghanistan and began to withdraw its forces. In the following year, Gorbachev refused to interfere in the internal affairs of the Soviet satellite states, which paved the way for the Revolutions of 1989. In particular, the standstill of the Soviet Union at the Pan-European Picnic in August 1989 then set a peaceful chain reaction in motion, at the end of which the Eastern Bloc collapsed. With the tearing down of the Berlin Wall and with East and West Germany pursuing re-unification, the Iron Curtain between the West and Soviet-occupied regions came down.[323][324][325]

By 1989, the Soviet alliance system was on the brink of collapse, and, deprived of Soviet military support, the communist leaders of the Warsaw Pact states were losing power.[317] Grassroots organizations, such as Poland's Solidarity movement, rapidly gained ground with strong popular bases.


The Pan-European Picnic took place in August 1989 on the Hungarian-Austrian border.
The Pan-European Picnic in August 1989 in Hungary finally started a peaceful movement that the rulers in the Eastern Bloc could not stop. It was the largest movement of refugees from East Germany since the Berlin Wall was built in 1961 and ultimately brought about the fall of the Iron Curtain. The patrons of the picnic, Otto von Habsburg and the Hungarian Minister of State Imre Pozsgay, saw the planned event as an opportunity to test Mikhail Gorbachev's reaction. The Austrian branch of the Paneuropean Union, which was then headed by Otto von Habsburg, distributed thousands of brochures inviting the GDR holidaymakers in Hungary to a picnic near the border at Sopron. But with the mass exodus at the Pan-European Picnic the subsequent hesitant behavior of the ruling Socialist Unity Party of East Germany and the non-interference of the Soviet Union broke the dams. Now tens of thousands of media-informed East Germans made their way to Hungary, which was no longer willing to keep its borders completely closed or to oblige its border troops to use armed force. On the one hand, this caused disagreement among the Eastern European states and, on the other hand, it was clear to the Eastern European population that the governments no longer had absolute power.[323][324][325][326]


East German leader Erich Honecker lost control in August 1989.
In 1989, the communist governments in Poland and Hungary became the first to negotiate the organization of competitive elections. In Czechoslovakia and East Germany, mass protests unseated entrenched communist leaders. The communist regimes in Bulgaria and Romania also crumbled, in the latter case as the result of a violent uprising. Attitudes had changed enough that US Secretary of State James Baker suggested that the American government would not be opposed to Soviet intervention in Romania, on behalf of the opposition, to prevent bloodshed.[327]

The tidal wave of change culminated with the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989, which symbolized the collapse of European communist governments and graphically ended the Iron Curtain divide of Europe. The 1989 revolutionary wave swept across Central and Eastern Europe and peacefully overthrew all of the Soviet-style Marxist–Leninist states: East Germany, Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Bulgaria;[328] Romania was the only Eastern-bloc country to topple its communist regime violently and execute its head of state.[329]

Soviet dissolution
Main article: Dissolution of the Soviet Union
Further information: History of the Soviet Union (1982–1991), The Barricades, 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, Commonwealth of Independent States, Economy of the Soviet Union, and Baltic Way

The human chain in Lithuania during the Baltic Way, 23 August 1989
At the same time, the Soviet republics started legal moves towards potentially declaring sovereignty over their territories, citing the freedom to secede in Article 72 of the USSR constitution.[330] On 7 April 1990, a law was passed allowing a republic to secede if more than two-thirds of its residents voted for it in a referendum.[331] Many held their first free elections in the Soviet era for their own national legislatures in 1990. Many of these legislatures proceeded to produce legislation contradicting the Union laws in what was known as the 'War of Laws'. In 1989, the Russian SFSR convened a newly elected Congress of People's Deputies. Boris Yeltsin was elected its chairman. On 12 June 1990, the Congress declared Russia's sovereignty over its territory and proceeded to pass laws that attempted to supersede some of the Soviet laws. After a landslide victory of Sąjūdis in Lithuania, that country declared its independence restored on 11 March 1990, citing the illegality of the Soviet occupation of the Baltic states. Soviet forces attempted to halt the secession by crushing popular demonstrations in Lithuania (Bloody Sunday) and Latvia (The Barricades), as a result, numerous civilians were killed or wounded. However, these actions only bolstered international support for the secessionists.[332]


August Coup in Moscow, 1991
A referendum for the preservation of the USSR was held on 17 March 1991 in nine republics (the remainder having boycotted the vote), with the majority of the population in those republics voting for preservation of the Union in the form of a new federation. The referendum gave Gorbachev a minor boost. In the summer of 1991, the New Union Treaty, which would have turned the country into a much looser Union, was agreed upon by eight republics. The signing of the treaty, however, was interrupted by the August Coup—an attempted coup d'état by hardline members of the government and the KGB who sought to reverse Gorbachev's reforms and reassert the central government's control over the republics. After the coup collapsed, Russian president Yeltsin was seen as a hero for his decisive actions, while Gorbachev's power was effectively ended. The balance of power tipped significantly towards the republics. In August 1991, Latvia and Estonia immediately declared the restoration of their full independence (following Lithuania's 1990 example). Gorbachev resigned as general secretary in late August, and soon afterwards, the party's activities were indefinitely suspended—effectively ending its rule. By the fall, Gorbachev could no longer influence events outside Moscow, and he was being challenged even there by Yeltsin, who had been elected President of Russia in July 1991.


T-80 tank on Red Square during the August Coup
Later in August, Gorbachev resigned as general secretary of the Communist party, and Russian President Boris Yeltsin ordered the seizure of Soviet property. Gorbachev clung to power as the President of the Soviet Union until 25 December 1991, when the USSR dissolved.[333] Fifteen states emerged from the Soviet Union, with by far the largest and most populous one (which also was the founder of the Soviet state with the October Revolution in Petrograd), the Russian Federation, taking full responsibility for all the rights and obligations of the USSR under the Charter of the United Nations, including the financial obligations. As such, Russia assumed the Soviet Union's UN membership and permanent membership on the Security Council, nuclear stockpile and the control over the armed forces.[10]


The first Russian McDonald's on Moscow's Pushkin Square, pictured in 1991
In his 1992 State of the Union Address, US President George H. W. Bush expressed his emotions: "The biggest thing that has happened in the world in my life, in our lives, is this: By the grace of God, America won the Cold War."[334] Bush and Yeltsin met in February 1992, declaring a new era of "friendship and partnership".[335] In January 1993, Bush and Yeltsin agreed to START II, which provided for further nuclear arms reductions on top of the original START treaty.[336]

Aftermath
Main articles: Effects of the Cold War, International relations since 1989, Post-Soviet states, Post-Soviet conflicts, Yugoslav Wars, Second Cold War, and East–West dichotomy

Changes in national boundaries after the end of the Cold War
In summing up the international ramifications of these events, Vladislav Zubok stated: 'The collapse of the Soviet empire was an event of epochal geopolitical, military, ideological, and economic significance.'[337] After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Russia drastically cut military spending, and restructuring the economy left millions unemployed.[338] According to Western analysis, the neoliberal reforms in Russia culminated in a recession in the early 1990s more severe than the Great Depression as experienced by the United States and Germany.[339] Western analysts suggest that in the 25 years following the end of the Cold War, only five or six of the post-communist states are on a path to joining the rich and capitalist world while most are falling behind, some to such an extent that it will take several decades to catch up to where they were before the collapse of communism.[340][341]

Decommunization
Stephen Holmes of the University of Chicago argued in 1996 that decommunization, after a brief active period, quickly ended in near-universal failure. After the introduction of lustration, demand for scapegoats has become relatively low, and former communists have been elected for high governmental and other administrative positions. Holmes notes that the only real exception was former East Germany, where thousands of former Stasi informers have been fired from public positions.[342]

Holmes suggests the following reasons for the failure of decommunization:[342]

After 45–70 years of communist rule, nearly every family has members associated with the state. After the initial desire "to root out the reds" came a realization that massive punishment is wrong and finding only some guilty is hardly justice.
The urgency of the current economic problems of postcommunism makes the crimes of the communist past "old news" for many citizens.
Decommunization is believed to be a power game of elites.
The difficulty of dislodging the social elite makes it require a totalitarian state to disenfranchise the "enemies of the people" quickly and efficiently and a desire for normalcy overcomes the desire for punitive justice.
Very few people have a perfectly clean slate and so are available to fill the positions that require significant expertise.
Compared with the decommunization efforts of the other former constituents of the Eastern Bloc and the Soviet Union, decommunization in Russia has been restricted to half-measures, if conducted at all.[343] Notable anti-communist measures in the Russian Federation include the banning of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (and the creation of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation) as well as changing the names of some Russian cities back to what they were before the 1917 October Revolution (Leningrad to Saint Petersburg, Sverdlovsk to Yekaterinburg and Gorky to Nizhny Novgorod),[344] though others were maintained, with Ulyanovsk (former Simbirsk), Tolyatti (former Stavropol) and Kirov (former Vyatka) being examples. Even though Leningrad and Sverdlovsk were renamed, regions that were named after them are still officially called Leningrad and Sverdlovsk oblasts.[345]


The Spasskaya Tower had kept its red star and did not restore the two-headed eagle present before communist takeover.
Nostalgia for the Soviet Union is gradually on the rise in Russia.[346] Communist symbols continue to form an important part of the rhetoric used in state-controlled media, as banning on them in other countries is seen by the Russian foreign ministry as "sacrilege" and "a perverse idea of good and evil".[344] The process of decommunization in Ukraine, a neighbouring post-Soviet state, was met with fierce criticism by Russia.[344] The State Anthem of the Russian Federation, adopted in 2000 (the same year Vladimir Putin began his first term as president of Russia), uses the exact same music as the State Anthem of the Soviet Union, but with new lyrics written by Sergey Mikhalkov.[347][348]

Conversely, decommunization in Ukraine started during and after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991[349] With the success of the Revolution of Dignity in 2014, the Ukrainian government approved laws that outlawed communist symbols.[350] In July 2015, President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko signed a set of laws that started a six-month period for the removal of communist monuments (excluding World War II monuments) and renaming of public places named after communist-related themes.[344][351][352] At the time, this meant that 22 cities and 44 villages were set to get new names.[353] In 2016, 51,493 streets and 987 cities and villages were renamed, and 1,320 Lenin monuments and 1,069 monuments to other communist figures removed.[354] Violation of the law carries a penalty of a potential media ban and prison sentences of up to five years.[355][356] The Ministry of the Interior stripped the Communist Party of Ukraine, the Communist Party of Ukraine (renewed), and the Communist Party of Workers and Peasants of their right to participate in elections and stated it was continuing the court actions that started in July 2014 to end the registration of communist parties in Ukraine.[357] By 16 December 2015, these three parties had been banned in Ukraine; the Communist Party of Ukraine appealed the ban to the European Court of Human Rights.[358][359][360]

Collapse of Yugoslavia and Balkan conflicts

NATO psyop flyer during the Kosovo War 1999.[361]
The Cold War had provided external stabilizing pressures. Both the United States and the Soviet Union had a vested interest in Yugoslavia's stability, ensuring it remained a buffer state in the East-West divide. This resulted in financial and political support for its regime. When the Cold War ended, this external support evaporated, leaving Yugoslavia more vulnerable to internal divisions.[362][363]

As Yugoslavia fragmented, the wars began after Slovenia and Croatia declared independence in 1991. Serbia, under Slobodan Milošević, opposed these moves.[364] The Bosnian War (1992–1995) was the most brutal of the Yugoslav Wars, characterized by ethnic cleansing and genocide. International organizations, including the United Nations, struggled to manage the violence. NATO eventually intervened with airstrikes in Bosnia (1995) as part of Operation Deliberate Force and later in Kosovo (1999) as part of Operation allied force. These interventions marked the transition of NATO as a deterrent to the Soviet Union, to also functioning at the time as an active peacekeeping and conflict-resolution force.[365]

Influence
The post-Cold War world is considered to be unipolar, with the United States the sole remaining superpower.[366][367] The Cold War defined the political role of the United States after World War II—by 1989 the United States had military alliances with 50 countries, with 526,000 troops stationed abroad,[368] with 326,000 in Europe (two-thirds of which were in West Germany)[369] and 130,000 in Asia (mainly Japan and South Korea).[368] The Cold War also marked the zenith of peacetime military–industrial complexes and large-scale military funding of science.[370]


Since the end of the Cold War, the EU has expanded eastwards into the former Warsaw Pact and parts of the former Soviet Union.
Cumulative US military expenditures throughout the entire Cold War amounted to an estimated $8 trillion. Nearly 100,000 Americans died in the Korean and Vietnam Wars.[371] Although Soviet casualties are difficult to estimate, as a share of gross national product the financial cost for the Soviet Union was much higher than that incurred by the United States.[372]

Millions died in the superpowers' proxy wars around the globe, most notably in eastern Asia.[373][N] Most of the proxy wars and subsidies for local conflicts ended along with the Cold War; interstate wars, ethnic wars, revolutionary wars, as well as refugee and displaced persons crises have declined sharply in the post-Cold War years.[374]

However, the aftermath of the Cold War is not considered to be concluded. Many of the economic and social tensions that were exploited to fuel Cold War competition in parts of the Third World remain acute. The breakdown of state control in a number of areas formerly ruled by communist governments produced new civil and ethnic conflicts, particularly in the former Yugoslavia. In Central and Eastern Europe, the end of the Cold War has ushered in an era of economic growth and an increase in the number of liberal democracies, while in other parts of the world, such as Afghanistan, independence was accompanied by state failure.[249]

In popular culture
See also: Culture during the Cold War
The Cold War endures as a popular topic reflected in entertainment media, and continuing to the present with post-1991 Cold War-themed feature films, novels, television and web series, and other media.

Historiography
Main article: Historiography of the Cold War
Interpreting the course and origins of the conflict has been a source of heated controversy among historians, political scientists, and journalists.[375] In particular, historians have sharply disagreed as to who was responsible for the breakdown of Soviet–US relations after the Second World War; and whether the conflict between the two superpowers was inevitable or could have been avoided.[376] Historians have also disagreed on what exactly the Cold War was, what the sources of the conflict were, and how to disentangle patterns of action and reaction between the two sides.[249]

Although explanations of the origins of the conflict in academic discussions are complex and diverse, several general schools of thought on the subject can be identified. Historians commonly speak of three different approaches to the study of the Cold War: "orthodox" accounts, "revisionism", and "post-revisionism".[370]

"Orthodox" accounts place responsibility for the Cold War on the Soviet Union and its expansion further into Europe.[370] "Revisionist" writers place more responsibility for the breakdown of post-war peace on the United States, citing a range of US efforts to isolate and confront the Soviet Union well before the end of World War II.[370] "Post-revisionists" see the events of the Cold War as more nuanced and attempt to be more balanced in determining what occurred during the Cold War.[370] Much of the historiography on the Cold War weaves together two or even all three of these broad categories.[81]

See also
Category:Cold War by period
American imperialism
Canada in the Cold War
Cold peace
McCarthyism
Outline of the Cold War
Red Scare
Second Cold War
War on terror
Notes and quotes
 Service 2015, p. [page needed]: "Historians do not fully agree on its starting and ending points, but the period is generally considered to span from the announcement of the Truman Doctrine on 12 March 1947 to the dissolution of the Soviet Union on 26 December 1991."
 Lippmann's own book is Lippmann, Walter (1947). The Cold War. Harper. ISBN 9780598864048.
 Jowett & O'Donnell 2005, pp. 21–23: "In fact, the word disinformation is a cognate for the Russian dezinformatsia, taken from the name of a division of the KGB devoted to black propaganda."
 Matray 2002: "South Korea's President Rhee was obsessed with accomplishing early reunification through military means. The Truman administration's fear that Rhee would launch an invasion prompted it to limit South Korea's military capabilities, refusing to provide tanks, heavy artillery, and combat planes. This did not stop the South Koreans from initiating most of the border clashes with North Korean forces at the thirty-eighth parallel beginning in the summer of 1948 and reaching a high level of intensity and violence a year later. Historians now acknowledge that the two Koreas already were waging a civil conflict when North Korea's attack opened the conventional phase of the war."
 Matray 2002: "Contradicting traditional assumptions, however, available declassified Soviet documents demonstrate that throughout 1949 Stalin consistently refused to approve Kim Il Sung's persistent requests to approve an invasion of South Korea. The Soviet leader believed that North Korea had not achieved either military superiority north of the parallel or political strength south of that line. His main concern was the threat South Korea posed to North Korea's survival, for example fearing an invasion northward following U.S. military withdrawal in June 1949."
 "Revolt in Hungary". Archived from the original on 17 November 2007. Narrator: Walter Cronkite, producer: CBS (1956) – Fonds 306, Audiovisual Materials Relating to the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, OSA Archivum, Budapest, Hungary ID number: HU OSA 306-0-1:40
 34,374,483 square kilometres (13,272,062 sq mi).
 Prados & Jimenez-Bacardi 2019: "The memorandum showed no concern for international law or the unspoken nature of these operations as terrorist attacks."
 International Policy Report (Report). Washington, D.C.: Center for International Policy. 1977. pp. 10–12. To coordinate and carry out its war of terror and destruction during the early 1960s, the CIA established a base of operations, known as JMWAVE.
 National Research Council Committee on Antarctic Policy and Science, p. 33
 Coll 2004, pp. 47–49: "Frustrated and hoping to discredit him, the KGB initially planted false stories that Amin was a CIA agent. In the autumn these rumors rebounded on the KGB in a strange case of "blowback," the term used by spies to describe planted propaganda that filters back to confuse the country that first set the story loose."
 Jones, S. 2010, pp. 16–17: "'It was total nonsense,' said the CIA's Graham Fuller. 'I would have been thrilled to have those kinds of contacts with Amin, but they didn't exist.'"
 "Official Energy Statistics of the US Government", EIA – International Energy Data and Analysis. Retrieved on 4 July 2008.
 Kim 2014, p. 45: "With three of the four major Cold War fault lines—divided Germany, divided Korea, divided China, and divided Vietnam—East Asia acquired the dubious distinction of having engendered the largest number of armed conflicts resulting in higher fatalities between 1945 and 1994 than any other region or sub-region. Even in Asia, while Central and South Asia produced a regional total of 2.8 million in human fatalities, East Asia's regional total is 10.4 million including the Chinese Civil War (1 million), the Korean War (3 million), the Vietnam War (2 million), and the Pol Pot genocide in Cambodia (1 to 2 million)."
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Bamford, James (4 July 2003). "Books of The Times; The Labyrinthine Morass of Spying in the Cold War". New York Times. Archived from the original on 9 November 2017.
Bevins, Vincent (20 October 2017). "What the United States Did in Indonesia". The Atlantic. Archived from the original on 1 February 2020. Retrieved 21 October 2017.
Bradner, Eric (2015). "Newly released documents reveal U.S. Cold War nuclear target list". CNN Politics. Archived from the original on 22 October 2019. Retrieved 23 October 2019.
Feeney, Mark (29 March 2006). "Caspar W. Weinberger, 88; Architect of Massive Pentagon Buildup". The Boston Globe. Archived from the original on 29 May 2014. Retrieved 28 May 2014.
Glass, Andrew (16 April 2016). "Bernard Baruch coins term 'Cold War,' April 16, 1947". Politico. Retrieved 13 November 2022.
Glass, Andrew (14 October 2017). "McNamara becomes Vietnam War skeptic, Oct. 14, 1966". Politico. Archived from the original on 9 May 2019. Retrieved 1 June 2018.
Hoffman, David (10 February 1999). "I Had A Funny Feeling in My Gut". The Washington Post. Retrieved 18 April 2006.
Keller, Bill (26 October 1989). "Gorbachev, in Finland, Disavows Any Right of Regional Intervention". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 16 March 2021.
Khotin, Rostyslav (27 November 2009). "Ukraine tears down controversial statue". BBC News. Retrieved 17 October 2017.
Lebow, Richard Ned; Stein, Janice Gross (February 1994). "Reagan and the Russians". The Atlantic. Archived from the original on 31 December 2016. Retrieved 28 May 2010.
Lehto, Mika (19 September 2018). "Näin Neuvostoliitto vakoili Suomessa – Supo seurasi "Jakkea", joka johdatti uusille jäljille" [This is how the Soviet Union spied in Finland – Supo followed "Jakke", who led to new tracks]. Ilta-Sanomat (in Finnish). Retrieved 16 August 2020.
McCormick, Lynde (3 July 1980). "Deal-maker Armand Hammer Moscow's capitalist comrade". Christian Science Monitor. ISSN 0882-7729. Retrieved 7 November 2021.
Nzongola-Ntalaja, Georges (17 January 2011). "Patrice Lumumba: the most important assassination of the 20th century". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 23 October 2019. Retrieved 26 October 2019.
Orwell, George (19 October 1945). "You and the Atomic Bomb". Tribune.
Orwell, George (10 March 1946). "Russia began to make a 'cold war' on Britain and the British Empire". The Observer.
Perry, Juliet (21 July 2016). "Tribunal finds Indonesia guilty of 1965 genocide; US, UK complicit". CNN. Archived from the original on 8 June 2019. Retrieved 5 June 2017.
Rosenberg, Steve (19 August 2016). "The Russians with fond memories of the USSR". BBC News. Archived from the original on 21 August 2016. Retrieved 20 August 2016.
Roth, Andrew (23 August 2019). "Molotov-Ribbentrop: why is Moscow trying to justify Nazi pact?". The Guardian.
Safire, William (1 October 2006). "Language: Islamofascism, anyone? – Editorials & Commentary – International Herald Tribune". Opinion. The New York Times. Archived from the original on 17 January 2012.
Scott, Margaret (26 October 2017). "Uncovering Indonesia's Act of Killing". The New York Review of Books. Archived from the original on 25 June 2018. Retrieved 27 February 2018.
Shevchenko, Vitaly (14 April 2015). "Goodbye, Lenin: Ukraine moves to ban communist symbols". BBC News. Retrieved 17 May 2015.
Talbott, Strobe; Hannifin, Jerry; Magnuson, Ed; Doerner, William R.; Kane, Joseph J. (12 September 1983). "Atrocity in the skies". Time. Archived from the original on 12 June 2008. Retrieved 8 June 2008.
Taylor, Adam (26 November 2016). "Before 'fake news,' there was Soviet 'disinformation'". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 13 November 2021.
Thaler, Kai (2 December 2015). "50 years ago today, American diplomats endorsed mass killings in Indonesia. Here's what that means for today". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on 5 June 2019. Retrieved 12 April 2017.
Web
Allen, Richard V. (30 January 2000). "The Man Who Won the Cold War". Hoover Institution. Archived from the original on 1 May 2011. Retrieved 3 November 2011.
Čulík, Jan (21 August 1998). "Den, kdy tanky zlikvidovaly české sny Pražského jara". Britské Listy. Archived from the original on 28 September 2007. Retrieved 23 January 2008.
Dietz, Jason (8 December 2013). "2013 Film Critic Top Ten Lists". Metacritic. Archived from the original on 11 December 2013. Retrieved 5 November 2022.
Harriman, Pamela C. (Winter 1987–1988). "Churchill and ... Politics: The True Meaning of the Iron Curtain Speech". Winston Churchill Centre. Archived from the original on 15 October 2007. Retrieved 22 June 2008.
Kalb, Marvin (22 January 2013). "It's Called the Vietnam Syndrome, and It's Back". Brookings Institution. Archived from the original on 13 June 2015. Retrieved 12 June 2015.
Von Geldern, James; Siegelbaum, Lewis. "The Soviet-led Intervention in Czechoslovakia". Soviethistory. Archived from the original on 17 August 2009. Retrieved 7 March 2008.
"Address given by Mikhail Gorbachev to the Council of Europe". Centre Virtuel de la Connaissance sur l'Europe. 6 July 1989. Archived from the original on 27 September 2007. Retrieved 11 February 2007.
"Milestones: 1945–1952 – Office of the Historian". history.state. Archived from the original on 18 January 2020. Retrieved 25 October 2017.
"Milestones: 1969–1976 – Office of the Historian". history.state. Archived from the original on 11 June 2019. Retrieved 21 June 2019.
"Report by Soviet Deputy Interior Minister M.N. Holodkov to Interior Minister N. P. Dudorov (15 November 1956)" (PDF). The 1956 Hungarian Revolution, A History in Documents. George Washington University: The National Security Archive. 4 November 2002. Archived (PDF) from the original on 8 September 2006. Retrieved 2 September 2006.
"Cambodia: U.S. bombing, civil war, & Khmer Rouge". World Peace Foundation. 7 August 2015. Archived from the original on 14 July 2019. Retrieved 30 August 2019.
Further reading
Further information: Bibliography of the Cold War, Cold War in Asia § Further reading, and Bibliography of Stalinism and the Soviet Union
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Select "Communism & Cold War" value to browse Maps from 1933–1982 at the Persuasive Cartography, The PJ Mode Collection, Cornell University Library
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Cold War
United StatesSoviet UnionNATOWarsaw PactANZUSMETOSEATONEATORio PactNon-Aligned Movement
1940s    
Morgenthau PlanHukbalahap rebellionJamaican political conflictDekemvrianaGuerrilla war in the Baltic states Operation PriboiOperation JungleOccupation of the Baltic statesCursed soldiersOperation UnthinkableGouzenko AffairDivision of KoreaIndonesian National RevolutionOperation MasterdomOperation BeleaguerOperation Blacklist FortyIran crisis of 1946Greek Civil WarBaruch PlanCorfu Channel incidentTurkish Straits crisisRestatement of Policy on GermanyFirst Indochina War1947 Polish parliamentary electionTruman DoctrineAsian Relations ConferenceMay 1947 crisesPartition of IndiaIndo-Pakistani war of 1947–19481947–1949 Palestine war 1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine1948 Arab–Israeli War1948 Palestinian expulsion and flightMarshall PlanComecon1948 Czechoslovak coup d'étatIncapacitation of the Allied Control CouncilAl-Wathbah uprisingTito–Stalin splitBerlin BlockadeAnnexation of HyderabadMadiun AffairWestern betrayalIron CurtainEastern BlocWestern BlocChinese Civil War Chinese Communist RevolutionMalayan EmergencyMarch 1949 Syrian coup d'étatOperation Valuable
1950s    
Bamboo curtainMcCarthyismKorean WarArab Cold War (1952–1979)1952 Egyptian revolutionIraqi Intifada (1952)Mau Mau rebellionEast German uprising of 19531953 Iranian coup d'étatPact of MadridBricker Amendment1954 Syrian coup d'étatPetrov AffairDomino theory1954 Geneva Conference1954 Guatemalan coup d'étatCapture of the TuapseFirst Taiwan Strait CrisisJebel Akhdar WarAlgerian WarKashmir PrincessBandung ConferenceGeneva Summit (1955)Vietnam WarCyprus Emergency"On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences"1956 Poznań protestsHungarian Revolution of 1956Polish OctoberSuez Crisis"We will bury you"Operation GladioSyrian Crisis of 1957Sputnik crisisIfni WarIraqi 14 July Revolution1958 Lebanon crisisSecond Taiwan Strait Crisis1959 Mosul uprising1959 Tibetan uprisingLaotian Civil WarKitchen DebateCuban Revolution Consolidation of the Cuban RevolutionSino-Soviet splitNight Frost Crisis
1960s    
Congo CrisisSimba rebellion1960 U-2 incidentJohn F. KennedyBay of Pigs Invasion1960 Turkish coup d'étatAlbanian–Soviet split Expulsion of Soviets from AlbaniaIraqi–Kurdish conflict First Iraqi–Kurdish WarBerlin Crisis of 1961Berlin WallAnnexation of GoaPapua conflictIndonesia–Malaysia confrontationSand WarPortuguese Colonial War Angolan War of IndependenceGuinea-Bissau War of IndependenceMozambican War of IndependenceCuban Missile CrisisEl PorteñazoSino-Indian WarCommunist insurgency in SarawakRamadan RevolutionEritrean War of IndependenceNorth Yemen civil war1963 Syrian coup d'étatAssassination of John F. KennedyLyndon B. JohnsonAden EmergencyCyprus crisis of 1963–1964Shifta WarMexican Dirty War Tlatelolco massacreGuatemalan Civil WarColombian conflict1964 Brazilian coup d'étatDominican Civil WarRhodesian Bush WarIndonesian mass killings of 1965–1966Transition to the New Order (Indonesia)ASEAN Declaration1966 Syrian coup d'étatCultural RevolutionArgentine RevolutionSouth African Border WarKorean DMZ Conflict12-3 incidentGreek junta1967 Hong Kong riotsYears of Lead (Italy)Six-Day WarWar of AttritionDhofar WarAl-Wadiah WarNigerian Civil WarProtests of 1968 May 68Prague SpringUSS Pueblo incident1968 Polish political crisisCommunist insurgency in MalaysiaWarsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia17 July Revolution1968 Peruvian coup d'état Revolutionary Government1969 Sudanese coup d'état1969 Libyan revolutionGoulash CommunismSino-Soviet border conflictNew People's Army rebellionNote Crisis
1970s    
DétenteNuclear Non-Proliferation TreatyBlack SeptemberAlcora ExerciseCorrective Movement (Syria)Western Sahara conflictCambodian Civil WarCommunist insurgency in Thailand1970 Polish protestsKoza riotRealpolitikPing-pong diplomacy1971 JVP insurrectionCorrective revolution (Egypt)1971 Turkish military memorandum1971 Sudanese coup d'état1971 Bolivian coup d'étatFour Power Agreement on BerlinBangladesh Liberation War1972 visit by Richard Nixon to ChinaNorth Yemen-South Yemen Border conflict of 1972First Yemenite WarMunich massacre1972–1975 Bangladesh insurgencyEritrean Civil Wars1973 Uruguayan coup d'état1973 Afghan coup d'état1973 Chilean coup d'étatYom Kippur War1973 oil crisisCarnation RevolutionSpanish transition to democracyMetapolitefsiStrategic Arms Limitation TalksSecond Iraqi–Kurdish WarTurkish invasion of Cyprus15 August 1975 Bangladeshi coup d'étatSiege of Dhaka (1975)Sipahi-Janata revolutionAngolan Civil WarCambodian genocideJune 1976 protestsMozambican Civil WarOromo conflictOgaden War1978 Somali coup attemptWestern Sahara WarEthiopian Civil WarLebanese Civil WarSino-Albanian splitThird Indochina WarCambodian–Vietnamese WarCambodian conflictOperation CondorDirty War (Argentina)1976 Argentine coup d'étatEgyptian–Libyan WarGerman AutumnKorean Air Lines Flight 902Nicaraguan RevolutionUganda–Tanzania WarNDF RebellionChadian–Libyan WarSecond Yemenite WarGrand Mosque seizureIranian revolutionSaur RevolutionSino-Vietnamese WarNew Jewel Movement1979 Herat uprisingSeven Days to the River RhineStruggle against political abuse of psychiatry in the Soviet Union
1980s    
Salvadoran Civil WarSoviet–Afghan War1980 and 1984 Summer Olympics boycottsGera DemandsPeruvian RevolutionGdańsk Agreement SolidarityEritrean Civil Wars1980 Turkish coup d'étatUgandan Bush WarGulf of Sidra incidentMartial law in PolandCasamance conflictFalklands War1982 Ethiopian–Somali Border WarNdogboyosoi WarUnited States invasion of GrenadaAble Archer 83Star Wars1985 Geneva SummitIran–Iraq WarSomali RebellionReykjavík Summit1986 Black Sea incidentSouth Yemen civil warToyota War1987 Lieyu massacreOperation Denver1987–1989 JVP insurrectionLord's Resistance Army insurgency1988 Black Sea bumping incident8888 UprisingSolidarity (Soviet reaction)ContrasCentral American crisisOperation RYANKorean Air Lines Flight 007People Power RevolutionGlasnostPerestroikaBougainville conflictFirst Nagorno-Karabakh WarAfghan Civil WarUnited States invasion of Panama1988 Polish strikesPolish Round Table Agreement1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacreRevolutions of 1989Fall of the Berlin WallFall of the inner German borderVelvet RevolutionRomanian RevolutionPeaceful Revolution
1990s    
Mongolian Revolution of 1990Min Ping Yu No. 5540 incidentGulf WarMin Ping Yu No. 5202German reunificationYemeni unificationFall of communism in AlbaniaBreakup of YugoslaviaDissolution of the Soviet Union 1991 August CoupDissolution of Czechoslovakia
Frozen conflicts    
AbkhaziaChina-TaiwanKoreaKosovoSouth OssetiaTransnistriaSino-Indian border disputeNorth Borneo dispute
Foreign policy    
Truman DoctrineContainmentEisenhower DoctrineDomino theoryHallstein DoctrineKennedy DoctrinePeaceful coexistenceOstpolitikJohnson DoctrineBrezhnev DoctrineNixon DoctrineUlbricht DoctrineCarter DoctrineReagan DoctrinePaasikivi–Kekkonen doctrineRollbackKinmen Agreement
Ideologies    
Capitalism    
LiberalismChicago schoolConservatism American conservatismKeynesianismLibertarianismMonetarismNeoclassical economicsReaganomicsSupply-side economicsDemocratic capitalism
Socialism    
CommunismMarxism–LeninismCastroismEurocommunismGuevarismHoxhaismJucheHo Chi Minh ThoughtMaoismTrotskyismStalinismTitoism
Other    
ImperialismAnti-imperialismNationalismUltranationalismChauvinismEthnic nationalismRacismZionismAnti-ZionismFascismNeo-NazismIslamismTotalitarianismAuthoritarianismAutocracyLiberal democracyIlliberal democracyGuided democracySocial democracyThird-worldismWhite supremacyWhite nationalismWhite separatismApartheidFinlandization
Organizations    
NATOSEATOMETOEECWarsaw PactComeconNon-Aligned MovementNN StatesASEANSAARCSafari Club
Propaganda    
Pro-communist    
Active measuresIzvestiaNeues DeutschlandPravdaRadio MoscowRudé právoTrybuna LuduTASSSoviet Life
Pro-Western    
AmerikaCrusade for FreedomPaix et LibertéRadio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
Red ScareVoice of America
Technological
competition    
Arms raceNuclear arms raceSpace Race
Historians    
Gar AlperovitzThomas A. BaileyMichael BeschlossArchie BrownWarren H. CarrollAdrian CioroianuJohn CostelloMichael CoxNicholas J. CullNorman DaviesWillem DreesRobert D. EnglishHerbert FeisRobert Hugh FerrellAndré FontaineAnneli Ute GabanyiJohn Lewis GaddisLloyd GardnerTimothy Garton AshGabriel GorodetskyFred HallidayJussi HanhimäkiJohn Earl HaynesPatrick J. HeardenTvrtko JakovinaTony JudtHarvey KlehrGabriel KolkoWalter LaFeberWalter LaqueurMelvyn P. LefflerGeir LundestadVojtech MastnyJack F. Matlock Jr.Thomas J. McCormickTimothy NaftaliMarius OpreaDavid S. PainterWilliam B. PickettRonald E. PowaskiYakov M. RabkinM. E. SarotteArthur M. Schlesinger Jr.Ellen SchreckerGiles Scott-SmithShen ZhihuaTimothy SnyderAthan TheoharisAndrew ThorpeVladimir TismăneanuPatrick VaughanAlex von TunzelmannOdd Arne WestadWilliam Appleman WilliamsJonathan Reed WinklerRudolph WinnackerKen Young
Espionage and
intelligence    
List of Eastern Bloc agents in the United StatesSoviet espionage in the United StatesRussian espionage in the United StatesAmerican espionage in the Soviet Union and Russian FederationCIA and the Cultural Cold WarCIAMI5MI6United States involvement in regime changeSoviet involvement in regime changeMVDKGBStasi
See also    
Allied intervention in the Russian Civil WarSoviet Union–United States relationsSoviet Union–United States summitsRussia–NATO relationsWar on terrorBrinkmanshipPax AtomicaSecond Cold WarRussian Revolution
CategoryList of conflictsTimeline
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United States 
History    
By period    
1776–17891789–18151815–18491849–18651865–19171917–19451945–19641964–19801980–19911991–20162016–present
By event    
Pre-colonial eraColonial era Stamp Act CongressThirteen ColoniesContinental CongressContinental AssociationUnited Coloniesmilitary historyFounding FathersHalifax ResolvesLee ResolutionDeclaration of IndependenceAmerican Revolution WarTreaty of ParisArticles of Confederation Perpetual UnionConfederation periodAmerican frontierConstitution drafting and ratificationBill of RightsFederalist EraWar of 1812Territorial evolutionMexican–American WarCivil WarReconstruction eraIndian WarsNative genocideGilded AgeProgressive EraWomen's suffrageCivil rights movement 1865–18961896–19541954–1968Spanish–American WarImperialismWorld War IRoaring TwentiesGreat DepressionWorld War II home frontAmerican CenturyCold WarKorean WarSpace RaceFeminist MovementLGBTQ MovementVietnam WarPost-Cold War (1991–2016)September 11 attacksWar on Terror War in AfghanistanIraq WarGreat RecessionCOVID-19 pandemic
By topic    
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Geography    
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Politics    
Federal    
Executive    
President of the United States powersExecutive OfficeVice PresidentCabinetExecutive departmentsIndependent agenciesIntelligence Community Director of National IntelligenceCentral Intelligence AgencyNational Security AgencyNational Reconnaissance OfficeLaw enforcement ATFCBPDiplomatic SecurityDEAFBIICEMarshalsSecret ServiceTSAInspector generalsCivil servicePublic policy
Legislative    
House of Representatives current membersSpeakerSenate current membersPresident pro temporePresidentCapitol PoliceLibrary of CongressCongressional Budget OfficeGovernment Accountability OfficeGovernment Publishing Office
Judicial    
Supreme Court Chief JusticeAssociate JusticeslistCourts of appeals list of judgesDistrict courts/Territorial courts list of courtslist of judgesOther tribunalsU.S. attorney
Law    
Bill of Rights civil libertiesCode of Federal RegulationsConstitution federalismpreemptionseparation of powerscivil rightsUnited States Code
Uniformed    
Armed Forces ArmyMarine CorpsNavyAir ForceSpace ForceCoast GuardNational GuardNOAA CorpsPublic Health Service Corps
State,
Federal District,
and Territorial    
Executive    
Governor listLieutenant governor listSecretary of stateAttorney generalTreasurerAuditor/ComptrollerAgriculture commissionerInsurance commissionerPublic utilities commissionState police list
Legislative    
List of legislaturesList of legislators
Judicial    
Supreme courts Chief justicesDistrict attorney list
Law    
State constitutionsStatutory codesUniform actComparison of governments
Tribal    
Tribal sovereigntyNative American recognition in the United States Federally recognized tribesFederally recognized Alaska Native tribesState-recognized tribesIndian reservation listHawaiian home land
Local    
County    
List of counties and county equivalentsCounty executiveSheriffClerk
Cities    
Consolidated city-countyIndependent cityCoterminous municipalityCharterMayor–council governmentCouncil–manager governmentCity commission governmentMayorCity managerCity council
Minor divisions    
TownshipTown meeting
Special district    
School district list
CorruptionDemocratic backslidingElections Electoral CollegeRed states and blue statesForeign relations foreign policyImperial presidencyIdeologies Anti-AmericanismexceptionalismnationalismParties DemocraticRepublicanThird partiesScandals
Economy    
By sector AgricultureBankingCommunicationsCompaniesEnergyInsuranceManufacturingMiningScience and technologyTourismTradeby stateCurrencyExportsFederal budgetGreenhouse gas emissions by the United StatesFederal Reserve SystemFinancial positionLabor unionsPublic debtSocial welfare programsTaxationUnemploymentWall Street
Transport    
AviationDrivingPublic transportationRail transportationTransportation policyTransportation safetyTrucking industry
Society    
Culture    
AmericanaArchitectureCinemaCrimeCuisineDanceDemographicsEconomic issues affluenceevictionhomeownershiphousehold incomeincome inequalitymiddle classpersonal incomepovertystandard of livingwealthworking classEducation attainmentliteracyFamilyFashionFlag listFolkloreHolidays Federal holidaysHomelessnessHousingHuman rightsLanguages American EnglishIndigenous languagesASLLiteratureMedia journalisminternetnewspapersradiotelevisionMusicNamesNational anthemNational symbols ColumbiaMount RushmoreStatue of LibertyUncle SamPeoplePhilosophyPolitical ideologiesRaceReligionSexualitySocial classSocietySports historyTheaterTransportationVideo gamesVisual art
Social class    
AffluenceAmerican DreamEducational attainmentHomelessnessHomeownershipHousehold incomeIncome inequalityMiddle classPersonal incomePovertyStandard of living
Health    
AgingHealthcare AbortionBirth controlPrenatal careHospice careImmigrant health careRationingHealth care finance Health insurance costsHealth care pricesPrescription drug pricesDisabilityHealth insuranceFood safetyPhysician shortagePoverty and healthRace and healthObesityMedical desertsWomen's reproductive healthLife expectancy
Issues    
Capital punishmentCrime incarcerationCriticism of governmentDiscrimination affirmative actionantisemitismintersex rightsIslamophobiaLGBTQ rightsracismNative AmericanAfrican AmericanEnergy policyEnvironmental issues Environmental movementClimate changeGun politicsMass shootingsHungerSmokingHuman rightsImmigration illegalNational security TerrorismOpioid epidemicSeparation of church and stateXenophobia
OutlineIndex
Category
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Soviet Union topics
Bibliography of the Russian Revolution and Civil WarBibliography of Stalinism and the Soviet UnionBibliography of the Post Stalinist Soviet Union
History    
Index of Soviet Union–related articlesOutlineRussian Revolution FebruaryOctoberRussian Civil WarRussian SFSRCreation treatyNew Economic PolicyStalinismGreat PurgeGreat Patriotic War (World War II) EvacuationThe HolocaustCold WarKhrushchev ThawSino-Soviet splitSoviet space programCaribbean CrisisStagnationSoviet–Afghan WarPerestroikaGlasnostChernobyl disasterRevolutions of 1989August CoupDissolutionTransition period and cessation of the existenceSuccession, continuity and legacyPost-Soviet statesNostalgia
Geography    
Subdivisions    
Republics AutonomousKraisOblasts AutonomousAutonomous okrugsClosed city
Regions    
Caspian SeaCaucasus MountainsEuropean RussiaNorth CaucasusSiberiaUral MountainsWest Siberian Plain
Politics    
General    
ConscriptionConstitution 192419361977ElectionsForeign relations Brezhnev DoctrineGun controlGovernment ListMinistriesState CommitteesHuman rights LGBTLawCapital punishmentLeaders Collective leadershipNational delimitationPassport systemPropiskaPolitical partiesState ideology Marxism–LeninismLeninismStalinismSoviet anti-Zionism
Bodies    
Communist Party organisationCongressCentral Committee Presidium/PolitburoSecretariatGeneral SecretaryCongress of Soviets (1922–1936)Supreme Soviet (1938–1991)Congress of People's Deputies (1989–1991)Supreme Court Military CollegiumAll-Union Central Council of Trade UnionsCreative unions
Offices    
Heads of state PresidentPremierDeputy PremierFirst Deputy Premier
Security services    
ChekaGPUNKVD Destruction battalionsMVD MilitsiyaMGBKGB ChairmenSoviet Border TroopsSoviet Armed Forces Soviet Army/Spetsnaz GRU • Soviet Navy • Soviet Air Forces/Soviet Airborne Forces
Political repression    
Red TerrorCollectivizationGreat PurgePopulation transferForced laborForeign forced laborGulag ListHolodomorPolitical abuse of psychiatry Anti-abuse struggle
Ideological repression    
Persecution of ChristiansScienceCensorshipCensorship of images
Economy    
AgricultureBanking Central BankState Labor Savings Banks SystemEconomic planningEnergy policyEnterprisesFive-year plansIndustrializationInternet domainInventionsNet material productOGASEconomic reforms 1956–1962 Wage reform1957196519731979Rouble (currency)Monetary reforms 194719611991Automotive industryConstruction
Transport    
Ministry of RailwaysRailway systemRail transportRailway electrificationList of metro systemsVehicle registration plates
Science    
Communist AcademyCyberneticsAcademy of SciencesAcademy of Medical SciencesLenin All-Union Academy of Agricultural SciencesSharashkasNaukograds List
Society    
AntisemitismCrimeDemographics Soviet peopleWorking class1989 censusDrug policyEthnic conflictsFamilyLanguages LinguisticsCyrillisationProhibitionRacism
Culture    
BalletCinemaFashionLiteratureMusic OperaPhraseologyPrinted mediaPropagandaPublishing housesRadioReligion IslamSportsStalinist architectureTelevision
Opposition    
Anti-Soviet agitationSoviet dissidents and their groups List
Symbols    
Anthem RepublicsEmblem RepublicsFlag RepublicsHammer and sickle
flag Soviet Union portal Category
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Western world and culture
Foundations    
Cradle of civilizationOld WorldGreco-Roman world GreeceHellenistic KingdomsRomeRoman Empire WesternEasternRoman legacyRomanizationRomano-Germanic culture Gallo-RomanChristendom
History    
European Bronze AgeClassical antiquity Late antiquityMiddle Ages earlyhighlateRenaissanceModern period Early modern periodAge of DiscoveryReformationAge of EnlightenmentScientific RevolutionAge of RevolutionRomanticismAbolitionismEmancipationCapitalismIndustrial RevolutionGreat DivergenceModernismWorld War IInterwar periodUniversal suffrageWorld War IICold WarPost–Cold War era Information ageWar on terror
Culture    
Alphabet GreekLatinCyrillicArchitectureArt PeriodsCalendarCuisine DietClassical tradition StudiesClothing HistoryDanceEducationEsotericism AstrologyFolkloreImmigrationLawLanguages EurolinguisticsStandard Average EuropeanLiterature CanonMedia InternetMusic ChantClassicalFolkInstrumentsMythologyPainting contemporaryPhilosophy ScienceValuesPhysical culture SportReligion East–West SchismWestern ChristianityDeclineSecularism
Philosophy    
Ancient Greek philosophyHellenistic philosophyAncient Roman philosophyChristian ethicsJudeo-Christian ethicsChristian philosophyScholasticismRationalismEmpiricismExistentialism Christian existentialismHumanism Christian humanismSecular humanismLiberalismConservatismSocialismContinental philosophyAnalytic philosophyPost-structuralismTolerance ParadoxRelativism PeritropeAtlanticismSovereigntismIndividualismValues European
Religion    
Abrahamic Christianity Culture Western/EasternCatholicism Latin ChurchEastern Orthodoxy Greek Orthodox ChurchProtestantismJudaism CulturePaganism BalticCelticFinnishGermanic Anglo-SaxonFrankishGothicOld NorseHellenisticRomanSlavicNeoAgnosticismAtheism
Law    
Natural lawRule of law Equality before the lawConstitutionalismHuman rights LifeThoughtSpeechPressReligionPropertyDemocracyInternational law
Contemporary
integration    
ABCANZ ArmiesAERAnglo-Portuguese AllianceANZUKANZUSArctic CouncilAUKUSAUSCANNZUKUSBaltic AssemblyBeneluxBritish–Irish CouncilBSECBucharest NineCANZUKCBSSCEFTACouncil of EuropeCraiova GroupEastern European GroupEastern PartnershipEEAEFTAEPCESAEUEU Customs UnionEurozoneEU–UK TCAFive EyesG7Lancaster House TreatiesLublin TriangleNATONordic CouncilOASOECDOpen BalkanOSCEPacific Islands ForumPROSUR/PROSULRio TreatySchengenSpecial RelationshipThree Seas InitiativeUKUSA AgreementUSMCAVisegrád GroupWest Nordic CouncilWestern BlocWestern European and Others GroupWesternization
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Eastern world and culture
Foundations    
Cradle of civilizationOld WorldSinic worldIndic worldSilk Road transmission of BuddhismIslamdom
History    
Ancient historySilk RoadPost-classical history (Middle Ages)Modern period Early modern periodIndustrial RevolutionWorld War I Asian and Pacific TheatreMiddle Eastern TheatreInterwar periodWorld War II Pacific WarMiddle Eastern TheatreCold WarPost–Cold War era War on terror
Culture    
Alphabet HanziKanjiKanaHangulHanjaBrahmicArabicCyrillicLatinArchitectureArt HistoryCalendar ChineseBuddhistHinduCuisineEsotericismFolklore ChineseJapaneseKoreanLanguagesLiteratureMusic ChantFolkMythologyPhilosophyReligion
Philosophy    
Chinese philosophyJapanese philosophyKorean philosophyVietnamese philosophyIndian philosophyIranian philosophyBuddhist ethicsIslamic ethicsHindu philosophyBuddhist philosophyJain philosophyIslamic philosophyCollectivismValues JapanesePhilippine
Religion    
Dharmic Buddhism Culture Southern/Eastern/NorthernTheravadaMahayanaVajrayanaHinduism CultureVaishnavismShaivismShaktismSmartismSikhismJainismTaoic TaoismConfucianismShenismShintoMuismTengrismIranian ZoroastrianismYazidismAbrahamic Islam CultureSunniShiaChristianity Culture EasternEastern OrthodoxyOriental OrthodoxyCatholicism Latin ChurchEastern ChurchesJudaism CultureBábism AzaliBaháʼíDruze
Contemporary
integration    
APECArab Customs UnionArab LeagueASEANAsia and the Pacific GroupAsia Cooperation DialogueAsia CouncilBIMSTECCARECCAUCSTOCPTPPEastern BlocEasternizationEAEUEAEU Customs UnionECOGCCOTSRCEPSAARCSCOSEATOTCS
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International relations
Glossary
Organizations    
Present    
BRICSCollective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO)International Criminal Court (ICC)Non-Aligned Movement (NAM)North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO)United Nations (UN)
Past    
League of NationsWarsaw Pact
History    
1648–18141814–19191919–1939Diplomatic history of World War IICold WarInternational relations since 1989
Concepts    
Alliance EntenteCoalitionMilitaryAppeasementCo-belligerenceCollective securityColonialism / ColonizationCrisisDeterrence theoryExpansionismGrey-zoneHegemonyIdealismImperialismInternational communityInternationalism InternationalityLiberalInterventionismIsolationismNational interestNeutral countryNon-belligerentNon-state actorPeacePowerRegionalismRight of conquestSovereigntySuzeraintyTreaty BilateralFriendshipMultilateralNon-aggressionPeaceWarWhole-of-society
Theory    
ConstructivismEnglish schoolFeminismLiberalismMarxismPostcolonialismRealism
Related fields and subfields    
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Nuclear weapon

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"Atom bomb", "A-bomb", and "Nuke" redirect here. For other uses, see Atom bomb (disambiguation), A-bomb (disambiguation), and Nuke (disambiguation).
    
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An assortment of American nuclear intercontinental ballistic missiles at the National Museum of the United States Air Force. Clockwise from top left: PGM-17 Thor, LGM-25C Titan II, HGM-25A Titan I, Thor-Agena, LGM-30G Minuteman III, LGM-118 Peacekeeper, LGM-30A/B/F Minuteman I or II, PGM-19 Jupiter
Nuclear weapons
Photograph of a mock-up of the Little Boy nuclear weapon dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, in August 1945.
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A nuclear weapon[a] is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission or atomic bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions (thermonuclear weapon[b]), producing a nuclear explosion. Both bomb types release large quantities of energy from relatively small amounts of matter.

Nuclear bombs have had yields between 10 tons (the W54) and 50 megatons for the Tsar Bomba (see TNT equivalent). Yields in the low kilotons can devastate cities. A thermonuclear weapon weighing as little as 600 pounds (270 kg) can release energy equal to more than 1.2 megatons of TNT (5.0 PJ).[1] Apart from the blast, effects of nuclear weapons include firestorms, extreme heat and ionizing radiation, radioactive nuclear fallout, an electromagnetic pulse, and a radar blackout.

The first nuclear weapons were developed by the Allied Manhattan Project during World War II. Their production continues to require a large scientific and industrial complex, primarily for the production of fissile material, either from nuclear reactors and nuclear reprocessing plants or from enrichment facilities. Nuclear weapons have been used twice in war, both times by the United States against the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. Nuclear deterrence, sometimes based on mutually assured destruction, aims to prevent nuclear warfare through the potential to inflict unacceptable damage, including the danger of uncontrolled escalation to nuclear holocaust. A nuclear arms race for weapons and their delivery systems was a defining component of the Cold War.

Strategic nuclear weapons are targeted against civilian, industrial, and military infrastructure, while tactical nuclear weapons are intended for battlefield use. Strategic weapons led to the development of dedicated intercontinental ballistic missiles, submarine-launched ballistic missile, and nuclear strategic bombers, collectively known as the nuclear triad. Tactical weapons options have included shorter-range ground-, air-, and sea-launched missiles, nuclear artillery, nuclear land mines, nuclear torpedoes, and nuclear depth charges, but they have become less salient since the end of the Cold War.

As of 2025, nine countries possess nuclear weapons and delivery systems, and six more agree to nuclear sharing. Nuclear weapons are weapons of mass destruction, and their control is a focus of international security through measures to prevent their proliferation, limit their numbers, or eliminate them altogether. Key international agreements and organizations include the Non-Proliferation Treaty, the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and Organization, the International Atomic Energy Agency, the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, and Nuclear-weapon-free zones.

Nuclear weapons testing is used to validate and improve designs and to understand the effects of nuclear explosions. Between 1945 and 2017, over 2,000 tests were conducted, ranging from fully weaponized to experimental designs. A science-based stockpile stewardship is usually adopted by countries that have ceased testing.
Testing and deployment

Nuclear weapons have only twice been used in warfare, both times by the United States against Japan at the end of World War II. On August 6, 1945, the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) detonated a uranium gun-type fission bomb nicknamed "Little Boy" over the Japanese city of Hiroshima; three days later, on August 9, the USAAF[2] detonated a plutonium implosion-type fission bomb nicknamed "Fat Man" over the Japanese city of Nagasaki. These bombings caused injuries that resulted in the deaths of approximately 200,000 civilians and military personnel.[3] The ethics of these bombings and their role in Japan's surrender are to this day, still subjects of debate.

Since the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, nuclear weapons have been detonated over 2,000 times for testing and demonstration. Only a few nations possess such weapons or are suspected of seeking them. The only countries known to have detonated nuclear weapons—and acknowledge possessing them—are (chronologically by date of first test) the United States, the Soviet Union (succeeded as a nuclear power by Russia), the United Kingdom, France, China, India, Pakistan, and North Korea. Israel is believed to possess nuclear weapons, though, in a policy of deliberate ambiguity, it does not acknowledge having them.[4][5][c] Germany, Italy, Turkey, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Belarus are nuclear weapons sharing states.[4] South Africa is the only country to have independently developed and then renounced and dismantled its nuclear weapons.[6]

The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons aims to reduce the spread of nuclear weapons, but there are different views of its effectiveness.[7]
Types
Main article: Nuclear weapon design
The Trinity test of the Manhattan Project was the first detonation of a nuclear weapon, which led J. Robert Oppenheimer to recall verses from the Hindu scripture Bhagavad Gita: "If the radiance of a thousand suns were to burst at once into the sky, that would be like the splendor of the mighty one "... "I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds".[8]
J. Robert Oppenheimer, principal leader of the Manhattan Project, often referred to as the "father of the atomic bomb".

There are two basic types of nuclear weapons: those that derive the majority of their energy from nuclear fission reactions alone, and those that use fission reactions to begin nuclear fusion reactions that produce a large amount of the total energy output.[9]
Fission weapons
The two basic fission weapon designs

All existing nuclear weapons derive some of their explosive energy from nuclear fission reactions. Weapons whose explosive output is exclusively from fission reactions are commonly referred to as atomic bombs or atom bombs (abbreviated as A-bombs). This has long been noted as something of a misnomer, as their energy comes from the nucleus of the atom, just as it does with fusion weapons.

In fission weapons, a mass of fissile material (enriched uranium or plutonium) is forced into supercriticality—allowing an exponential growth of nuclear chain reactions—either by shooting one piece of sub-critical material into another (the "gun" method) or by compression of a sub-critical sphere or cylinder of fissile material using chemically fueled explosive lenses. The latter approach, the "implosion" method, is more sophisticated and more efficient (smaller, less massive, and requiring less of the expensive fissile fuel) than the former.

A major challenge in all nuclear weapon designs is to ensure that a significant fraction of the fuel is consumed before the weapon destroys itself. The amount of energy released by fission bombs can range from the equivalent of just under a ton to upwards of 500,000 tons (500 kilotons) of TNT (4.2 to 2.1×106 GJ).[10]

All fission reactions generate fission products, the remains of the split atomic nuclei. Many fission products are either highly radioactive (but short-lived) or moderately radioactive (but long-lived), and as such, they are a serious form of radioactive contamination. Fission products are the principal radioactive component of nuclear fallout. Another source of radioactivity is the burst of free neutrons produced by the weapon. When they collide with other nuclei in the surrounding material, the neutrons transmute those nuclei into other isotopes, altering their stability and making them radioactive.

The most commonly used fissile materials for nuclear weapons applications have been uranium-235 and plutonium-239. Less commonly used has been uranium-233. Neptunium-237 and some isotopes of americium may be usable for nuclear explosives as well, but it is not clear that this has ever been implemented, and their plausible use in nuclear weapons is a matter of dispute.[11]
Fusion weapons
Main article: Thermonuclear weapon
The basics of the Teller–Ulam design for a hydrogen bomb: a fission bomb uses radiation to compress and heat a separate section of fusion fuel.

The other basic type of nuclear weapon produces a large proportion of its energy in nuclear fusion reactions. Such fusion weapons are generally referred to as thermonuclear weapons or more colloquially as hydrogen bombs (abbreviated as H-bombs), as they rely on fusion reactions between isotopes of hydrogen (deuterium and tritium). All such weapons derive a significant portion of their energy from fission reactions used to "trigger" fusion reactions, and fusion reactions can themselves trigger additional fission reactions.[12]

Only six countries—the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, China, France, and India—have conducted thermonuclear weapon tests. Whether India has detonated a "true" multi-staged thermonuclear weapon is controversial.[13] North Korea claims to have tested a fusion weapon as of January 2016, though this claim is disputed.[14] Thermonuclear weapons are considered much more difficult to successfully design and execute than primitive fission weapons. Almost all of the nuclear weapons deployed today use the thermonuclear design because it results in an explosion hundreds of times stronger than that of a fission bomb of similar weight.[15]

Thermonuclear bombs work by using the energy of a fission bomb to compress and heat fusion fuel. In the Teller-Ulam design, which accounts for all multi-megaton yield hydrogen bombs, this is accomplished by placing a fission bomb and fusion fuel (tritium, deuterium, or lithium deuteride) in proximity within a special, radiation-reflecting container. When the fission bomb is detonated, gamma rays and X-rays emitted first compress the fusion fuel, then heat it to thermonuclear temperatures. The ensuing fusion reaction creates enormous numbers of high-speed neutrons, which can then induce fission in materials not normally prone to it, such as depleted uranium. Each of these components is known as a "stage", with the fission bomb as the "primary" and the fusion capsule as the "secondary". In large, megaton-range hydrogen bombs, about half of the yield comes from the final fissioning of depleted uranium.[10]

Virtually all thermonuclear weapons deployed today use the "two-stage" design described to the right, but it is possible to add additional fusion stages—each stage igniting a larger amount of fusion fuel in the next stage. This technique can be used to construct thermonuclear weapons of arbitrarily large yield. This is in contrast to fission bombs, which are limited in their explosive power due to criticality danger (premature nuclear chain reaction caused by too-large amounts of pre-assembled fissile fuel). The largest nuclear weapon ever detonated, the Tsar Bomba of the USSR, which released an energy equivalent of over 50 megatons of TNT (210 PJ), was a three-stage weapon. Most thermonuclear weapons are considerably smaller than this, due to practical constraints from missile warhead space and weight requirements.[16] In the early 1950s the Livermore Laboratory in the United States had plans for the testing of two massive bombs, Gnomon and Sundial, 1 gigaton of TNT and 10 gigatons of TNT respectively.[17][18]
Edward Teller, often referred to as the "father of the hydrogen bomb"

Fusion reactions do not create fission products, and thus contribute far less to the creation of nuclear fallout than fission reactions, but because all thermonuclear weapons contain at least one fission stage, and many high-yield thermonuclear devices have a final fission stage, thermonuclear weapons can generate at least as much nuclear fallout as fission-only weapons. Furthermore, high yield thermonuclear explosions (most dangerously ground bursts) have the force to lift radioactive debris upwards past the tropopause into the stratosphere, where the calm non-turbulent winds permit the debris to travel great distances from the burst, eventually settling and unpredictably contaminating areas far removed from the target of the explosion.
Other types
Main articles: Boosted fission weapon, Neutron bomb, Radiological warfare, Induced gamma emission, and Antimatter weapon

There are other types of nuclear weapons as well. For example, a boosted fission weapon is a fission bomb that increases its explosive yield through a small number of fusion reactions, but it is not a fusion bomb. In the boosted bomb, the neutrons produced by the fusion reactions serve primarily to increase the efficiency of the fission bomb. There are two types of boosted fission bomb: internally boosted, in which a deuterium-tritium mixture is injected into the bomb core, and externally boosted, in which concentric shells of lithium-deuteride and depleted uranium are layered on the outside of the fission bomb core. The external method of boosting enabled the USSR to field the first partially thermonuclear weapons, but it is now obsolete because it demands a spherical bomb geometry, which was adequate during the 1950s arms race when bomber aircraft were the only available delivery vehicles.

The detonation of any nuclear weapon is accompanied by a blast of neutron radiation. Surrounding a nuclear weapon with suitable materials (such as cobalt or gold) creates a weapon known as a salted bomb. This device can produce exceptionally large quantities of long-lived radioactive contamination. It has been conjectured that such a device could serve as a "doomsday weapon" because such a large quantity of radioactivities with half-lives of decades, lifted into the stratosphere where winds would distribute it around the globe, would make all life on the planet extinct.

In connection with the Strategic Defense Initiative, research into the nuclear pumped laser was conducted under the DOD program Project Excalibur but this did not result in a working weapon. The concept involves the tapping of the energy of an exploding nuclear bomb to power a single-shot laser that is directed at a distant target.

During the Starfish Prime high-altitude nuclear test in 1962, an unexpected effect was produced which is called a nuclear electromagnetic pulse. This is an intense flash of electromagnetic energy produced by a rain of high-energy electrons which in turn are produced by a nuclear bomb's gamma rays. This flash of energy can permanently destroy or disrupt electronic equipment if insufficiently shielded. It has been proposed to use this effect to disable an enemy's military and civilian infrastructure as an adjunct to other nuclear or conventional military operations. By itself it could as well be useful to terrorists for crippling a nation's economic electronics-based infrastructure. Because the effect is most effectively produced by high altitude nuclear detonations (by military weapons delivered by air, though ground bursts also produce EMP effects over a localized area), it can produce damage to electronics over a wide, even continental, geographical area.[19]

Research has been done into the possibility of pure fusion bombs: nuclear weapons that consist of fusion reactions without requiring a fission bomb to initiate them. Such a device might provide a simpler path to thermonuclear weapons than one that required the development of fission weapons first, and pure fusion weapons would create significantly less nuclear fallout than other thermonuclear weapons because they would not disperse fission products. In 1998, the United States Department of Energy divulged that the United States had, "...made a substantial investment" in the past to develop pure fusion weapons, but that, "The U.S. does not have and is not developing a pure fusion weapon", and that, "No credible design for a pure fusion weapon resulted from the DOE investment".[20]

Nuclear isomers provide a possible pathway to fissionless fusion bombs. These are naturally occurring isotopes (178m2Hf being a prominent example) which exist in an elevated energy state. Mechanisms to release this energy as bursts of gamma radiation (as in the hafnium controversy) have been proposed as possible triggers for conventional thermonuclear reactions.

Antimatter, which consists of particles resembling ordinary matter particles in most of their properties but having opposite electric charge, has been considered as a trigger mechanism for nuclear weapons.[21][22][23] A major obstacle is the difficulty of producing antimatter in large enough quantities, and there is no evidence that it is feasible beyond the military domain.[24] However, the US Air Force funded studies of the physics of antimatter in the Cold War, and began considering its possible use in weapons, not just as a trigger, but as the explosive itself.[25] A fourth generation nuclear weapon design[21] is related to, and relies upon, the same principle as antimatter-catalyzed nuclear pulse propulsion.[26]

Most variation in nuclear weapon design is for the purpose of achieving different yields for different situations, and in manipulating design elements to attempt to minimize weapon size,[10] radiation hardness or requirements for special materials, especially fissile fuel or tritium.
Tactical nuclear weapons
Soviet OTR-21 Tochka missile. Capable of firing a 100-kiloton nuclear warhead a distance of 185 km

Some nuclear weapons are designed for special purposes; most of these are for non-strategic (decisively war-winning) purposes and are referred to as tactical nuclear weapons.

The neutron bomb purportedly conceived by Sam Cohen is a thermonuclear weapon that yields a relatively small explosion but a relatively large amount of neutron radiation. Such a weapon could, according to tacticians, be used to cause massive biological casualties while leaving inanimate infrastructure mostly intact and creating minimal fallout. Because high energy neutrons are capable of penetrating dense matter, such as tank armor, neutron warheads were procured in the 1980s (though not deployed in Europe) for use as tactical payloads for US Army artillery shells (200 mm W79 and 155 mm W82) and short range missile forces. Soviet authorities announced similar intentions for neutron warhead deployment in Europe; indeed, they claimed to have originally invented the neutron bomb, but their deployment on USSR tactical nuclear forces is unverifiable.[citation needed]

A type of nuclear explosive most suitable for use by ground special forces was the Special Atomic Demolition Munition, or SADM, sometimes popularly known as a suitcase nuke. This is a nuclear bomb that is man-portable, or at least truck-portable, and though of a relatively small yield (one or two kilotons) is sufficient to destroy important tactical targets such as bridges, dams, tunnels, important military or commercial installations, etc. either behind enemy lines or pre-emptively on friendly territory soon to be overtaken by invading enemy forces. These weapons require plutonium fuel and are particularly "dirty". They also demand especially stringent security precautions in their storage and deployment.[citation needed]

Small "tactical" nuclear weapons were deployed for use as antiaircraft weapons. Examples include the USAF AIR-2 Genie, the AIM-26 Falcon and US Army Nike Hercules. Missile interceptors such as the Sprint and the Spartan also used small nuclear warheads (optimized to produce neutron or X-ray flux) but were for use against enemy strategic warheads.[citation needed]

Other small, or tactical, nuclear weapons were deployed by naval forces for use primarily as antisubmarine weapons. These included nuclear depth bombs or nuclear armed torpedoes. Nuclear mines for use on land or at sea are also possibilities.[citation needed]
Weapons delivery
See also: Nuclear weapons delivery, Nuclear triad, Strategic bomber, Intercontinental ballistic missile, and Submarine-launched ballistic missile
The first nuclear weapons were gravity bombs, such as this "Fat Man" weapon dropped on Nagasaki, Japan. They were large and could only be delivered by heavy bomber aircraft
A demilitarized, commercial launch of the Russian Strategic Rocket Forces R-36 ICBM; also known by the NATO reporting name: SS-18 Satan. Upon its first fielding in the late 1960s, the SS-18 remains the single highest throw weight missile delivery system ever built.

The system used to deliver a nuclear weapon to its target is an important factor affecting both nuclear weapon design and nuclear strategy. The design, development, and maintenance of delivery systems are among the most expensive parts of a nuclear weapons program; they account, for example, for 57% of the financial resources spent by the United States on nuclear weapons projects since 1940.[27]

The simplest method for delivering a nuclear weapon is a gravity bomb dropped from aircraft; this was the method used by the United States against Japan in 1945. This method places few restrictions on the size of the weapon. It does, however, limit attack range, response time to an impending attack, and the number of weapons that a country can field at the same time. With miniaturization, nuclear bombs can be delivered by both strategic bombers and tactical fighter-bombers. This method is the primary means of nuclear weapons delivery; the majority of US nuclear warheads, for example, are free-fall gravity bombs, namely the B61, which is being improved upon to this day.[10][28]
Montage of an inert test of a United States Trident SLBM (submarine launched ballistic missile), from submerged to the terminal, or re-entry phase, of the multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles

Preferable from a strategic point of view is a nuclear weapon mounted on a missile, which can use a ballistic trajectory to deliver the warhead over the horizon. Although even short-range missiles allow for a faster and less vulnerable attack, the development of long-range intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) and submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs) has given some nations the ability to plausibly deliver missiles anywhere on the globe with a high likelihood of success.

More advanced systems, such as multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles (MIRVs), can launch multiple warheads at different targets from one missile, reducing the chance of a successful missile defense. Today, missiles are most common among systems designed for delivery of nuclear weapons. Making a warhead small enough to fit onto a missile, though, can be difficult.[10]

Tactical weapons have involved the most variety of delivery types, including not only gravity bombs and missiles but also artillery shells, land mines, and nuclear depth charges and torpedoes for anti-submarine warfare. An atomic mortar has been tested by the United States. Small, two-man portable tactical weapons (somewhat misleadingly referred to as suitcase bombs), such as the Special Atomic Demolition Munition, have been developed, although the difficulty of combining sufficient yield with portability limits their military utility.[10]
Nuclear strategy
Main articles: Nuclear strategy and Deterrence theory
See also: Pre-emptive nuclear strike, Nuclear peace, Essentials of Post–Cold War Deterrence, Single Integrated Operational Plan, Nuclear warfare, and On Thermonuclear War

Nuclear warfare strategy is a set of policies that deal with preventing or fighting a nuclear war. The policy of trying to prevent an attack by a nuclear weapon from another country by threatening nuclear retaliation is known as the strategy of nuclear deterrence. The goal in deterrence is to always maintain a second strike capability (the ability of a country to respond to a nuclear attack with one of its own) and potentially to strive for first strike status (the ability to destroy an enemy's nuclear forces before they could retaliate). During the Cold War, policy and military theorists considered the sorts of policies that might prevent a nuclear attack, and they developed game theory models that could lead to stable deterrence conditions.[29]
The now decommissioned United States' Peacekeeper missile was an ICBM developed to replace the Minuteman missile in the late 1980s. Each missile, like the heavier lift Russian SS-18 Satan, could contain up to ten nuclear warheads (shown in red), each of which could be aimed at a different target. A factor in the development of MIRVs was to make complete missile defense difficult for an enemy country.

Different forms of nuclear weapons delivery (see above) allow for different types of nuclear strategies. The goals of any strategy are generally to make it difficult for an enemy to launch a pre-emptive strike against the weapon system and difficult to defend against the delivery of the weapon during a potential conflict. This can mean keeping weapon locations hidden, such as deploying them on submarines or land mobile transporter erector launchers whose locations are difficult to track, or it can mean protecting weapons by burying them in hardened missile silo bunkers. Other components of nuclear strategies included using missile defenses to destroy the missiles before they land or implementing civil defense measures using early-warning systems to evacuate citizens to safe areas before an attack.

Weapons designed to threaten large populations or to deter attacks are known as strategic weapons. Nuclear weapons for use on a battlefield in military situations are called tactical weapons.

Critics of nuclear war strategy often suggest that a nuclear war between two nations would result in mutual annihilation. From this point of view, the significance of nuclear weapons is to deter war because any nuclear war would escalate out of mutual distrust and fear, resulting in mutually assured destruction. This threat of national, if not global, destruction has been a strong motivation for anti-nuclear weapons activism.

Critics from the peace movement and within the military establishment[citation needed] have questioned the usefulness of such weapons in the current military climate. According to an advisory opinion issued by the International Court of Justice in 1996, the use of (or threat of use of) such weapons would generally be contrary to the rules of international law applicable in armed conflict, but the court did not reach an opinion as to whether or not the threat or use would be lawful in specific extreme circumstances such as if the survival of the state were at stake.
Ballistic missile submarines have been of great strategic importance for the United States, Russia, and other nuclear powers since they entered service in the Cold War, as they can hide from reconnaissance satellites and fire their nuclear weapons with virtual impunity.

Another deterrence position is that nuclear proliferation can be desirable. In this case, it is argued that, unlike conventional weapons, nuclear weapons deter all-out war between states, and they succeeded in doing this during the Cold War between the US and the Soviet Union.[30] In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Gen. Pierre Marie Gallois of France, an adviser to Charles de Gaulle, argued in books like The Balance of Terror: Strategy for the Nuclear Age (1961) that mere possession of a nuclear arsenal was enough to ensure deterrence, and thus concluded that the spread of nuclear weapons could increase international stability. Some prominent neo-realist scholars, such as Kenneth Waltz and John Mearsheimer, have argued, along the lines of Gallois, that some forms of nuclear proliferation would decrease the likelihood of total war, especially in troubled regions of the world where there exists a single nuclear-weapon state. Aside from the public opinion that opposes proliferation in any form, there are two schools of thought on the matter: those, like Mearsheimer, who favored selective proliferation,[31] and Waltz, who was somewhat more non-interventionist.[32][33] Interest in proliferation and the stability-instability paradox that it generates continues to this day, with ongoing debate about indigenous Japanese and South Korean nuclear deterrent against North Korea.[34]

The threat of potentially suicidal terrorists possessing nuclear weapons (a form of nuclear terrorism) complicates the decision process. The prospect of mutually assured destruction might not deter an enemy who expects to die in the confrontation. Further, if the initial act is from a stateless terrorist instead of a sovereign nation, there might not be a nation or specific target to retaliate against. It has been argued, especially after the September 11, 2001, attacks, that this complication calls for a new nuclear strategy, one that is distinct from that which gave relative stability during the Cold War.[35] Since 1996, the United States has had a policy of allowing the targeting of its nuclear weapons at terrorists armed with weapons of mass destruction.[36]
A Minuteman III ICBM test launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base, United States. MIRVed land-based ICBMs are considered destabilizing because they tend to put a premium on striking first.

Robert Gallucci argues that although traditional deterrence is not an effective approach toward terrorist groups bent on causing a nuclear catastrophe, Gallucci believes that "the United States should instead consider a policy of expanded deterrence, which focuses not solely on the would-be nuclear terrorists but on those states that may deliberately transfer or inadvertently leak nuclear weapons and materials to them. By threatening retaliation against those states, the United States may be able to deter that which it cannot physically prevent.".[37]

Graham Allison makes a similar case, arguing that the key to expanded deterrence is coming up with ways of tracing nuclear material to the country that forged the fissile material. "After a nuclear bomb detonates, nuclear forensics cops would collect debris samples and send them to a laboratory for radiological analysis. By identifying unique attributes of the fissile material, including its impurities and contaminants, one could trace the path back to its origin."[38] The process is analogous to identifying a criminal by fingerprints. "The goal would be twofold: first, to deter leaders of nuclear states from selling weapons to terrorists by holding them accountable for any use of their weapons; second, to give leaders every incentive to tightly secure their nuclear weapons and materials."[38]

According to the Pentagon's June 2019 "Doctrine for Joint Nuclear Operations" of the Joint Chiefs of Staffs website Publication, "Integration of nuclear weapons employment with conventional and special operations forces is essential to the success of any mission or operation."[39][40]
Governance, control, and law
Main articles: International Atomic Energy Agency, Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, Strategic Arms Limitation Talks, Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, START I, START II, Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty, Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, Lahore Declaration, New START, and Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons
See also: Anti-nuclear movement

Because they are weapons of mass destruction, the proliferation and possible use of nuclear weapons are important issues in international relations and diplomacy. In most countries, the use of nuclear force can only be authorized by the head of government or head of state.[d] Despite controls and regulations governing nuclear weapons, there is an inherent danger of "accidents, mistakes, false alarms, blackmail, theft, and sabotage".[41]

In the late 1940s, lack of mutual trust prevented the United States and the Soviet Union from making progress on arms control agreements. The Russell–Einstein Manifesto was issued in London on July 9, 1955, by Bertrand Russell in the midst of the Cold War. It highlighted the dangers posed by nuclear weapons and called for world leaders to seek peaceful resolutions to international conflict. The signatories included eleven pre-eminent intellectuals and scientists, including Albert Einstein, who signed it just days before his death on April 18, 1955. A few days after the release, philanthropist Cyrus S. Eaton offered to sponsor a conference—called for in the manifesto—in Pugwash, Nova Scotia, Eaton's birthplace. This conference was to be the first of the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs, held in July 1957.

By the 1960s, steps were taken to limit both the proliferation of nuclear weapons to other countries and the environmental effects of nuclear testing. The Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (1963) restricted all nuclear testing to underground nuclear testing, to prevent contamination from nuclear fallout, whereas the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (1968) attempted to place restrictions on the types of activities signatories could participate in, with the goal of allowing the transference of non-military nuclear technology to member countries without fear of proliferation.
UN vote on adoption of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons on July 7, 2017
  Yes
  No
  Did not vote

In 1957, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) was established under the mandate of the United Nations to encourage development of peaceful applications of nuclear technology, provide international safeguards against its misuse, and facilitate the application of safety measures in its use. In 1996, many nations signed the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty,[42] which prohibits all testing of nuclear weapons. A testing ban imposes a significant hindrance to nuclear arms development by any complying country.[43] The Treaty requires the ratification by 44 specific states before it can go into force; as of 2012, the ratification of eight of these states is still required.[42]

Additional treaties and agreements have governed nuclear weapons stockpiles between the countries with the two largest stockpiles, the United States and the Soviet Union, and later between the United States and Russia. These include treaties such as SALT II (never ratified), START I (expired), INF, START II (never in effect), SORT, and New START, as well as non-binding agreements such as SALT I and the Presidential Nuclear Initiatives[44] of 1991. Even when they did not enter into force, these agreements helped limit and later reduce the numbers and types of nuclear weapons between the United States and the Soviet Union/Russia.

Nuclear weapons have also been opposed by agreements between countries. Many nations have been declared Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zones, areas where nuclear weapons production and deployment are prohibited, through the use of treaties. The Treaty of Tlatelolco (1967) prohibited any production or deployment of nuclear weapons in Latin America and the Caribbean, and the Treaty of Pelindaba (1964) prohibits nuclear weapons in many African countries. As recently as 2006 a Central Asian Nuclear Weapon Free Zone was established among the former Soviet republics of Central Asia prohibiting nuclear weapons.
The number of nuclear warheads by country in 2024, based on an estimation by the Federation of American Scientists.

In 1996, the International Court of Justice, the highest court of the United Nations, issued an Advisory Opinion concerned with the "Legality of the Threat or Use of Nuclear Weapons". The court ruled that the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons would violate various articles of international law, including the Geneva Conventions, the Hague Conventions, the UN Charter, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Given the unique, destructive characteristics of nuclear weapons, the International Committee of the Red Cross calls on States to ensure that these weapons are never used, irrespective of whether they consider them lawful or not.[45]

Additionally, there have been other, specific actions meant to discourage countries from developing nuclear arms. In the wake of the tests by India and Pakistan in 1998, economic sanctions were (temporarily) levied against both countries, though neither were signatories with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. One of the stated casus belli for the initiation of the 2003 Iraq War was an accusation by the United States that Iraq was actively pursuing nuclear arms (though this was soon discovered not to be the case as the program had been discontinued). In 1981, Israel had bombed a nuclear reactor being constructed in Osirak, Iraq, in what it called an attempt to halt Iraq's previous nuclear arms ambitions; in 2007, Israel bombed another reactor being constructed in Syria.

In 2013, Mark Diesendorf said that governments of France, India, North Korea, Pakistan, UK, and South Africa have used nuclear power or research reactors to assist nuclear weapons development or to contribute to their supplies of nuclear explosives from military reactors.[46] In 2017, 122 countries mainly in the Global South voted in favor of adopting the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which eventually entered into force in 2021.[47]

The Doomsday Clock measures the likelihood of a human-made global catastrophe and is published annually by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. The two years with the highest likelihood had previously been 1953, when the Clock was set to two minutes until midnight after the US and the Soviet Union began testing hydrogen bombs, and 2018, following the failure of world leaders to address tensions relating to nuclear weapons and climate change issues.[48] In 2023, following the escalation of nuclear threats during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the doomsday clock was set to 90 seconds, the highest likelihood of global catastrophe since the existence of the Doomsday Clock.[49]

As of 2024, Russia has intensified nuclear threats in Ukraine and is reportedly planning to place nuclear weapons in orbit, breaching the 1967 Outer Space Treaty. China is significantly expanding its nuclear arsenal, with projections of over 1,000 warheads by 2030 and up to 1,500 by 2035. North Korea is progressing in intercontinental ballistic missile tests and has a mutual-defense treaty with Russia, exchanging artillery for possible missile technology. Iran is currently viewed as a nuclear "threshold" state.[50]
Disarmament
Main article: Nuclear disarmament
For statistics on possession and deployment, see List of states with nuclear weapons.
The USSR and United States nuclear weapon stockpiles throughout the Cold War until 2015, with a precipitous drop in total numbers following the end of the Cold War in 1991.

Nuclear disarmament refers to both the act of reducing or eliminating nuclear weapons and to the end state of a nuclear-free world, in which nuclear weapons are eliminated.

Beginning with the 1963 Partial Test Ban Treaty and continuing through the 1996 Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, there have been many treaties to limit or reduce nuclear weapons testing and stockpiles. The 1968 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty has as one of its explicit conditions that all signatories must "pursue negotiations in good faith" towards the long-term goal of "complete disarmament". The nuclear-weapon states have largely treated that aspect of the agreement as "decorative" and without force.[51]

Only one country—South Africa—has ever fully renounced nuclear weapons they had independently developed. The former Soviet republics of Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Ukraine returned Soviet nuclear arms stationed in their countries to Russia after the collapse of the USSR.

Proponents of nuclear disarmament say that it would lessen the probability of nuclear war, especially accidentally. Critics of nuclear disarmament say that it would undermine the present nuclear peace and deterrence and would lead to increased global instability. Various American elder statesmen,[52] who were in office during the Cold War period, have been advocating the elimination of nuclear weapons. These officials include Henry Kissinger, George Shultz, Sam Nunn, and William Perry. In January 2010, Lawrence M. Krauss stated that "no issue carries more importance to the long-term health and security of humanity than the effort to reduce, and perhaps one day, rid the world of nuclear weapons".[53]
Ukrainian workers use equipment provided by the US Defense Threat Reduction Agency to dismantle a Soviet-era missile silo. After the end of the Cold War, Ukraine and the other non-Russian, post-Soviet republics relinquished Soviet nuclear stockpiles to Russia.

In January 1986, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev publicly proposed a three-stage program for abolishing the world's nuclear weapons by the end of the 20th century.[54] In the years after the end of the Cold War, there have been numerous campaigns to urge the abolition of nuclear weapons, such as that organized by the Global Zero movement, and the goal of a "world without nuclear weapons" was advocated by United States President Barack Obama in an April 2009 speech in Prague.[55] A CNN poll from April 2010 indicated that the American public was nearly evenly split on the issue.[56]

Some analysts have argued that nuclear weapons have made the world relatively safer, with peace through deterrence and through the stability–instability paradox, including in south Asia.[57][58] Kenneth Waltz has argued that nuclear weapons have helped keep an uneasy peace, and further nuclear weapon proliferation might even help avoid the large scale conventional wars that were so common before their invention at the end of World War II.[33] But former Secretary Henry Kissinger says there is a new danger, which cannot be addressed by deterrence: "The classical notion of deterrence was that there was some consequences before which aggressors and evildoers would recoil. In a world of suicide bombers, that calculation doesn't operate in any comparable way".[59] George Shultz has said, "If you think of the people who are doing suicide attacks, and people like that get a nuclear weapon, they are almost by definition not deterrable".[60]

As of early 2019, more than 90% of world's 13,865 nuclear weapons were owned by Russia and the United States.[61][62]
United Nations
Main article: United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs

The UN Office for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA) is a department of the United Nations Secretariat established in January 1998 as part of the United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan's plan to reform the UN as presented in his report to the General Assembly in July 1997.[63]

Its goal is to promote nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation and the strengthening of the disarmament regimes in respect to other weapons of mass destruction, chemical and biological weapons. It also promotes disarmament efforts in the area of conventional weapons, especially land mines and small arms, which are often the weapons of choice in contemporary conflicts.
Controversy
See also: Nuclear weapons debate and History of the anti-nuclear movement
Ethics
Main article: Nuclear ethics
Anti-nuclear weapons protest march in Oxford, 1980

Even before the first nuclear weapons had been developed, scientists involved with the Manhattan Project were divided over the use of the weapon. The role of the two atomic bombings of the country in Japan's surrender and the US's ethical justification for them has been the subject of scholarly and popular debate for decades. The question of whether nations should have nuclear weapons, or test them, has been continually and nearly universally controversial.[64]
Notable nuclear weapons accidents
Main articles: Nuclear and radiation accidents and incidents and List of military nuclear accidents
See also: List of nuclear close calls

    August 21, 1945: While conducting experiments on a plutonium-gallium core at Los Alamos National Laboratory, physicist Harry Daghlian received a lethal dose of radiation when an error caused it to enter prompt criticality. He died 25 days later, on September 15, 1945, from radiation poisoning.[65]
    May 21, 1946: While conducting further experiments on the same core at Los Alamos National Laboratory, physicist Louis Slotin accidentally caused the core to become briefly supercritical. He received a lethal dose of gamma and neutron radiation, and died nine days later on May 30, 1946. After the death of Daghlian and Slotin, the mass became known as the "demon core". It was ultimately used to construct a bomb for use on the Nevada Test Range.[66]
    February 13, 1950: a Convair B-36B crashed in northern British Columbia after jettisoning a Mark IV atomic bomb. This was the first such nuclear weapon loss in history. The accident was designated a "Broken Arrow"—an accident involving a nuclear weapon, but which does not present a risk of war. Experts believe that up to 50 nuclear weapons were lost during the Cold War.[67]
    May 22, 1957: a 42,000-pound (19,000 kg) Mark-17 hydrogen bomb accidentally fell from a bomber near Albuquerque, New Mexico. The detonation of the device's conventional explosives destroyed it on impact and formed a crater 25 feet (7.6 m) in diameter on land owned by the University of New Mexico. According to a researcher at the Natural Resources Defense Council, it was one of the most powerful bombs made to date.[68]
    June 7, 1960: the 1960 Fort Dix IM-99 accident destroyed a Boeing CIM-10 Bomarc nuclear missile and shelter and contaminated the BOMARC Missile Accident Site in New Jersey.
    January 24, 1961: the 1961 Goldsboro B-52 crash occurred near Goldsboro, North Carolina. A Boeing B-52 Stratofortress carrying two Mark 39 nuclear bombs broke up in mid-air, dropping its nuclear payload in the process.[69]
    1965 Philippine Sea A-4 crash, where a Skyhawk attack aircraft with a nuclear weapon fell into the sea.[70] The pilot, the aircraft, and the B43 nuclear bomb were never recovered.[71] It was not until 1989 that the Pentagon revealed the loss of the one-megaton bomb.[72]
    January 17, 1966: the 1966 Palomares B-52 crash occurred when a B-52G bomber of the USAF collided with a KC-135 tanker during mid-air refuelling off the coast of Spain. The KC-135 was completely destroyed when its fuel load ignited, killing all four crew members. The B-52G broke apart, killing three of the seven crew members aboard.[73] Of the four Mk28 type hydrogen bombs the B-52G carried,[74] three were found on land near Almería, Spain. The non-nuclear explosives in two of the weapons detonated upon impact with the ground, resulting in the contamination of a 2-square-kilometer (490-acre) (0.78 square mile) area by radioactive plutonium. The fourth, which fell into the Mediterranean Sea, was recovered intact after a 21⁄2-month-long search.[75]
    January 21, 1968: the 1968 Thule Air Base B-52 crash involved a United States Air Force (USAF) B-52 bomber. The aircraft was carrying four hydrogen bombs when a cabin fire forced the crew to abandon the aircraft. Six crew members ejected safely, but one who did not have an ejection seat was killed while trying to bail out. The bomber crashed onto sea ice in Greenland, causing the nuclear payload to rupture and disperse, which resulted in widespread radioactive contamination.[76] One of the bombs remains lost.[77]
    September 18–19, 1980: the Damascus Accident occurred in Damascus, Arkansas, where a Titan Missile equipped with a nuclear warhead exploded. The accident was caused by a maintenance man who dropped a socket from a socket wrench down an 80-foot (24 m) shaft, puncturing a fuel tank on the rocket. Leaking fuel resulted in a hypergolic fuel explosion, jettisoning the W-53 warhead beyond the launch site.[78][79][80]

Nuclear testing and fallout
Main article: Nuclear fallout
See also: Downwinders
Over 2,000 nuclear explosions have been conducted in over a dozen different sites around the world. Red Russia/Soviet Union, blue France, light blue United States, violet Britain, yellow China, orange India, brown Pakistan, green North Korea and light green (territories exposed to nuclear bombs). The black dot indicates the location of the Vela incident.
This view of downtown Las Vegas shows a mushroom cloud in the background. Scenes such as this were typical during the 1950s. From 1951 to 1962 the government conducted 100 atmospheric tests at the nearby Nevada Test Site.

Over 500 atmospheric nuclear weapons tests were conducted at various sites around the world from 1945 to 1980. Radioactive fallout from nuclear weapons testing was first drawn to public attention in 1954 when the Castle Bravo hydrogen bomb test at the Pacific Proving Grounds contaminated the crew and catch of the Japanese fishing boat Lucky Dragon.[81] One of the fishermen died in Japan seven months later, and the fear of contaminated tuna led to a temporary boycotting of the popular staple in Japan. The incident caused widespread concern around the world, especially regarding the effects of nuclear fallout and atmospheric nuclear testing, and "provided a decisive impetus for the emergence of the anti-nuclear weapons movement in many countries".[81]

As public awareness and concern mounted over the possible health hazards associated with exposure to the nuclear fallout, various studies were done to assess the extent of the hazard. A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention/ National Cancer Institute study claims that fallout from atmospheric nuclear tests would lead to perhaps 11,000 excess deaths among people alive during atmospheric testing in the United States from all forms of cancer, including leukemia, from 1951 to well into the 21st century.[82][83] As of March 2009, the US is the only nation that compensates nuclear test victims. Since the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act of 1990, more than $1.38 billion in compensation has been approved. The money is going to people who took part in the tests, notably at the Nevada Test Site, and to others exposed to the radiation.[84][85]

In addition, leakage of byproducts of nuclear weapon production into groundwater has been an ongoing issue, particularly at the Hanford site.[86]
Effects of nuclear explosions
Main article: Effects of nuclear explosions
Effects of nuclear explosions on human health
Main article: Effects of nuclear explosions on human health
A photograph of Sumiteru Taniguchi's back injuries taken in January 1946 by a US Marine photographer

Some scientists estimate that a nuclear war with 100 Hiroshima-size nuclear explosions on cities could cost the lives of tens of millions of people from long-term climatic effects alone. The climatology hypothesis is that if each city firestorms, a great deal of soot could be thrown up into the atmosphere which could blanket the earth, cutting out sunlight for years on end, causing the disruption of food chains, in what is termed a nuclear winter.[87][88]

People near the Hiroshima explosion and who managed to survive the explosion subsequently suffered a variety of horrible medical effects. Some of these effects are still present to this day:[89]

    Initial stage—the first 1–9 weeks, in which are the greatest number of deaths, with 90% due to thermal injury or blast effects and 10% due to super-lethal radiation exposure.
    Intermediate stage—from 10 to 12 weeks. The deaths in this period are from ionizing radiation in the median lethal range – LD50
    Late period—lasting from 13 to 20 weeks. This period has some improvement in survivors' condition.
    Delayed period—from 20+ weeks. Characterized by numerous complications, mostly related to healing of thermal and mechanical injuries, and if the individual was exposed to a few hundred to a thousand millisieverts of radiation, it is coupled with infertility, sub-fertility and blood disorders. Furthermore, ionizing radiation above a dose of around 50–100 millisievert exposure has been shown to statistically begin increasing one's chance of dying of cancer sometime in their lifetime over the normal unexposed rate of ~25%, in the long term, a heightened rate of cancer, proportional to the dose received, would begin to be observed after ~5+ years, with lesser problems such as eye cataracts and other more minor effects in other organs and tissue also being observed over the long term.

Fallout exposure—depending on if further afield individuals shelter in place or evacuate perpendicular to the direction of the wind, and therefore avoid contact with the fallout plume, and stay there for the days and weeks after the nuclear explosion, their exposure to fallout, and therefore their total dose, will vary. With those who do shelter in place, and or evacuate, experiencing a total dose that would be negligible in comparison to someone who just went about their life as normal.[90][91]

Staying indoors until after the most hazardous fallout isotope, I-131 decays away to 0.1% of its initial quantity after ten half-lifes—which is represented by 80 days in I-131s case, would make the difference between likely contracting Thyroid cancer or escaping completely from this substance depending on the actions of the individual.[92]
Effects of nuclear war
See also: Nuclear holocaust, Doomsday Clock, Doomsday device, World War III, and Nuclear famine
Mushroom cloud from the explosion of Castle Bravo, the largest nuclear weapon detonated by the US, in 1954

Nuclear war could yield unprecedented human death tolls and habitat destruction. Detonating large numbers of nuclear weapons would have an immediate, short term and long-term effects on the climate, potentially causing cold weather known as a "nuclear winter".[93][94] In 1982, Brian Martin estimated that a US–Soviet nuclear exchange might kill 400–450 million directly, mostly in the United States, Europe and Russia, and maybe several hundred million more through follow-up consequences in those same areas.[95] Many scholars have posited that a global thermonuclear war with Cold War-era stockpiles, or even with the current smaller stockpiles, may lead to the extinction of the human race.[96] The International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War believe that nuclear war could indirectly contribute to human extinction via secondary effects, including environmental consequences, societal breakdown, and economic collapse. It has been estimated that a relatively small-scale nuclear exchange between India and Pakistan involving 100 Hiroshima yield (15 kilotons) weapons, could cause a nuclear winter and kill more than a billion people.[97]

According to a peer-reviewed study published in the journal Nature Food in August 2022, a full-scale nuclear war between the US and Russia would directly kill 360 million people and more than 5 billion people would die from starvation. More than 2 billion people could die from a smaller-scale nuclear war between India and Pakistan.[94][98][99]
Public opposition
See also: Nuclear disarmament and International Day against Nuclear Tests
Protest in Bonn against the nuclear arms race between the US/NATO and the Warsaw Pact, 1981
Demonstration against nuclear testing in Lyon, France, in the 1980s

Peace movements emerged in Japan and in 1954 they converged to form a unified "Japan Council against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs." Japanese opposition to nuclear weapons tests in the Pacific Ocean was widespread, and "an estimated 35 million signatures were collected on petitions calling for bans on nuclear weapons".[100]

In the United Kingdom, the Aldermaston Marches organised by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) took place at Easter 1958, when, according to the CND, several thousand people marched for four days from Trafalgar Square, London, to the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment close to Aldermaston in Berkshire, England, to demonstrate their opposition to nuclear weapons.[101][102] The Aldermaston marches continued into the late 1960s when tens of thousands of people took part in the four-day marches.[100]

In 1959, a letter in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists was the start of a successful campaign to stop the Atomic Energy Commission dumping radioactive waste in the sea 19 kilometres from Boston.[103] In 1962, Linus Pauling won the Nobel Peace Prize for his work to stop the atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons, and the "Ban the Bomb" movement spread.[64]

In 1963, many countries ratified the Partial Test Ban Treaty prohibiting atmospheric nuclear testing. Radioactive fallout became less of an issue and the anti-nuclear weapons movement went into decline for some years.[81][104] A resurgence of interest occurred amid European and American fears of nuclear war in the 1980s.[105]
Costs and technology spin-offs
See also: Global Positioning System, Nuclear weapons delivery, History of computing hardware, ENIAC, and Swords to ploughshares

According to an audit by the Brookings Institution, between 1940 and 1996, the US spent $11.7 trillion in present-day terms[106] on nuclear weapons programs. 57% of which was spent on building nuclear weapons delivery systems. 6.3% of the total$, 732 billion in present-day terms, was spent on environmental remediation and nuclear waste management, for example cleaning up the Hanford site, and 7% of the total $820 billion was spent on making nuclear weapons themselves.[107]
Non-weapons uses
Main article: Peaceful nuclear explosion

Peaceful nuclear explosions are nuclear explosions conducted for non-military purposes, such as activities related to economic development including the creation of canals. During the 1960s and 1970s, both the United States and the Soviet Union conducted a number of PNEs.[108] The United States created plans for several uses of PNEs, including Operation Plowshare.[109] Six of the explosions by the Soviet Union are considered to have been of an applied nature, not just tests.

The United States and the Soviet Union later halted their programs. Definitions and limits are covered in the Peaceful Nuclear Explosions Treaty of 1976.[110][111] The stalled Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty of 1996 would prohibit all nuclear explosions, regardless of whether they are for peaceful purposes or not.[112]
History of development
Main article: History of nuclear weapons
See also: Soviet atomic bomb project, Manhattan Project, Cold War, and History of the Teller–Ulam design
This section is an excerpt from History of nuclear weapons § Background.[edit]
In nuclear fission, the nucleus of a fissile atom (in this case, enriched uranium) absorbs a thermal neutron, becomes unstable and splits into two new atoms, releasing some energy and between one and three new neutrons, which can perpetuate the process.

In the first decades of the 20th century, physics was revolutionized with developments in the understanding of the nature of atoms including the discoveries in atomic theory by John Dalton.[113] Around the turn of the 20th century, it was discovered by Hans Geiger and Ernest Marsden and then Ernest Rutherford, that atoms had a highly dense, very small, charged central core called an atomic nucleus. In 1898, Pierre and Marie Curie discovered that pitchblende, an ore of uranium, contained a substance—which they named radium—that emitted large amounts of radiation. Ernest Rutherford and Frederick Soddy identified that atoms were breaking down and turning into different elements. Hopes were raised among scientists and laymen that the elements around us could contain tremendous amounts of unseen energy, waiting to be harnessed.

In Paris in 1934, Irène and Frédéric Joliot-Curie discovered that artificial radioactivity could be induced in stable elements by bombarding them with alpha particles; in Italy Enrico Fermi reported similar results when bombarding uranium with neutrons. He mistakenly believed he had discovered elements 93 and 94, naming them ausenium and hesperium. In 1938 it was realized these were in fact fission products.[citation needed]

In December 1938, Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann reported that they had detected the element barium after bombarding uranium with neutrons. Lise Meitner and Otto Robert Frisch correctly interpreted these results as being due to the splitting of the uranium atom. Frisch confirmed this experimentally on January 13, 1939.[114] They gave the process the name "fission" because of its similarity to the splitting of a cell into two new cells. Even before it was published, news of Meitner's and Frisch's interpretation crossed the Atlantic.[115] In their second publication on nuclear fission in February 1939, Hahn and Strassmann predicted the existence and liberation of additional neutrons during the fission process, opening up the possibility of a nuclear chain reaction.
Leo Szilard, pictured in about 1960, invented the electron microscope, linear accelerator, cyclotron, nuclear chain reaction and patented the nuclear reactor

After learning about the German fission in 1939, Leo Szilard concluded that uranium would be the element which can realize his 1933 idea about nuclear chain reaction.[116]

Uranium appears in nature primarily in two isotopes: uranium-238 and uranium-235. When the nucleus of uranium-235 absorbs a neutron, it undergoes nuclear fission, releasing energy and, on average, 2.5 neutrons. Because uranium-235 releases more neutrons than it absorbs, it can support a chain reaction and so is described as fissile. Uranium-238, on the other hand, is not fissile as it does not normally undergo fission when it absorbs a neutron.

By the start of the war in September 1939, many scientists likely to be persecuted by the Nazis had already escaped. Physicists on both sides were well aware of the possibility of utilizing nuclear fission as a weapon, but no one was quite sure how it could be engineered. In August 1939, concerned that Germany might have its own project to develop fission-based weapons, Albert Einstein signed a letter to U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt warning him of the threat.[117]

Roosevelt responded by setting up the Uranium Committee under Lyman James Briggs but, with little initial funding ($6,000), progress was slow. It was not until the U.S. entered the war in December 1941 that Washington decided to commit the necessary resources to a top-secret high priority bomb project.[118]

Organized research first began in Britain and Canada as part of the Tube Alloys project: the world's first nuclear weapons project. The Maud Committee was set up following the work of Frisch and Rudolf Peierls who calculated uranium-235's critical mass and found it to be much smaller than previously thought which meant that a deliverable bomb should be possible.[119] In the February 1940 Frisch–Peierls memorandum they stated that: "The energy liberated in the explosion of such a super-bomb...will, for an instant, produce a temperature comparable to that of the interior of the sun. The blast from such an explosion would destroy life in a wide area. The size of this area is difficult to estimate, but it will probably cover the centre of a big city."

Edgar Sengier, a director of Shinkolobwe Mine in the Congo which produced by far the highest quality uranium ore in the world, had become aware of uranium's possible use in a bomb. In late 1940, fearing that it might be seized by the Germans, he shipped the mine's entire stockpile of ore to a warehouse in New York.[120]
The final iteration of the Gadget nuclear device prior to its successful test on July 16, 1945, the culmination of the United States' 3-year Manhattan Project's research and development of nuclear weapons
See also

    Cobalt bomb
    Cosmic bomb (phrase)
    Cuban Missile Crisis
    Dirty bomb
    International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons
    List of global issues
    List of nuclear weapons
    List of states with nuclear weapons
    Nth Country Experiment
    Nuclear blackout
    Nuclear bunker buster
    Nuclear weapons of the United Kingdom
    Nuclear weapons in popular culture
    Nuclear weapons of the United States
    OPANAL (Agency for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America and the Caribbean)
    Three Non-Nuclear Principles of Japan

References
Notes

Explanatory Notes

also known as an atom bomb, atomic bomb, nuclear bomb, or nuclear warhead, and colloquially as an A-bomb or nuke
also known colloquially as an H-bomb
See also Mordechai Vanunu

    In the United States, the President and the Secretary of Defense, acting as the National Command Authority, must jointly authorize the use of nuclear weapons.

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    Groves, Leslie R. (1983). Now It Can Be Told: The Story of the Manhattan Project. Da Capo Press. p. 33. ISBN 978-0-786-74822-8.

Bibliography
See also: List of books about nuclear issues

    Bethe, Hans Albrecht. The Road from Los Alamos. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1991. ISBN 0-671-74012-1
    DeVolpi, Alexander, Minkov, Vladimir E., Simonenko, Vadim A., and Stanford, George S. Nuclear Shadowboxing: Contemporary Threats from Cold War Weaponry. Fidlar Doubleday, 2004 (Two volumes, both accessible on Google Book Search) (Content of both volumes is now available in the 2009 trilogy by Alexander DeVolpi: Nuclear Insights: The Cold War Legacy)
    Glasstone, Samuel and Dolan, Philip J. The Effects of Nuclear Weapons (third edition). Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1977. Available online (PDF).
    NATO Handbook on the Medical Aspects of NBC Defensive Operations (Part I – Nuclear). Archived April 8, 2015, at the Wayback Machine. Departments of the Army, Navy, and Air Force: Washington, D.C., 1996
    Hansen, Chuck. U.S. Nuclear Weapons: The Secret History. Arlington, TX: Aerofax, 1988
    Hansen, Chuck, "Swords of Armageddon: U.S. nuclear weapons development since 1945" (CD-ROM & download available). Archived December 30, 2016, at the Wayback Machine. PDF. 2,600 pages, Sunnyvale, California, Chucklea Publications, 1995, 2007. ISBN 978-0-9791915-0-3 (2nd Ed.)
    Holloway, David. Stalin and the Bomb. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1994. ISBN 0-300-06056-4
    Jungk, Robert (1958). Brighter than a Thousand Suns: A Personal History of the Atomic Scientists. New York: Harcourt Brace. ISBN 0-15-614150-7. OCLC 181321. 

    The Manhattan Engineer District, "The Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki" (1946), Archived February 4, 2012, at the Wayback Machine

    (in French) Jean-Hugues Oppel, Réveillez le président, Éditions Payot et rivages, 2007 (ISBN 978-2-7436-1630-4). The book is a fiction about the nuclear weapons of France; the book also contains about ten chapters on true historical incidents involving nuclear weapons and strategy.
    The Effects of Nuclear War. Office of Technology Assessment, May 1979.
    Rhodes, Richard. Dark Sun: The Making of the Hydrogen Bomb. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1995. ISBN 0-684-82414-0
    Rhodes, Richard (1986). The Making of the Atomic Bomb. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-671-44133-7. OCLC 13793436.
    Shultz, George P. and Goodby, James E. The War that Must Never be Fought, Hoover Press, 2015, ISBN 978-0-8179-1845-3.
    Smyth, Henry DeWolf. Atomic Energy for Military Purposes. Archived April 21, 2017, at the Wayback Machine. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1945. (Smyth Report – the first declassified report by the US government on nuclear weapons)
    Weart, Spencer R. Nuclear Fear: A History of Images. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1988. ISBN 0-674-62836-5
    Weart, Spencer R. The Rise of Nuclear Fear. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2012. ISBN 0-674-05233-1

Further reading
Library resources about
Nuclear weapon

    Resources in your library
    Resources in other libraries

    Laura Grego and David Wright, "Broken Shield: Missiles designed to destroy incoming nuclear warheads fail frequently in tests and could increase global risk of mass destruction", Scientific American, vol. 320, no. no. 6 (June 2019), pp. 62–67. "Current U.S. missile defense plans are being driven largely by technology, politics and fear. Missile defenses will not allow us to escape our vulnerability to nuclear weapons. Instead large-scale developments will create barriers to taking real steps toward reducing nuclear risks—by blocking further cuts in nuclear arsenals and potentially spurring new deployments." (p. 67.)
    Michael T. Klare, "Missile Mania: The death of the INF [Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces] Treaty [of 1987] has escalated the arms race", The Nation, vol. 309, no. 6 (September 23, 2019), p. 4.
    Moniz, Ernest J., and Sam Nunn, "The Return of Doomsday: The New Nuclear Arms Race – and How Washington and Moscow Can Stop It", Foreign Affairs, vol. 98, no. 5 (September / October 2019), pp. 150–161. Former U.S. Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz and former U.S. Senator Sam Nunn write that "the old [strategic] equilibrium" between the United States and Russia has been "destabilized" by "clashing national interests, insufficient dialogue, eroding arms control structures, advanced missile systems, and new cyberweapons... Unless Washington and Moscow confront these problems now, a major international conflict or nuclear escalation is disturbingly plausible—perhaps even likely." (p. 161.)
    Thomas Powers, "The Nuclear Worrier" (review of Daniel Ellsberg, The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner, New York, Bloomsbury, 2017, ISBN 9781608196708, 420 pp.), The New York Review of Books, vol. LXV, no. 1 (January 18, 2018), pp. 13–15.
    Eric Schlosser, Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety, Penguin Press, 2013, ISBN 1594202273. The book became the basis for a 2-hour 2017 PBS American Experience episode, likewise titled "Command and Control". Nuclear weapons continue to be equally hazardous to their owners as to their potential targets. Under the 1970 Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, nuclear-weapon states are obliged to work toward the elimination of nuclear weapons.
    Tom Stevenson, "A Tiny Sun" (review of Fred Kaplan, The Bomb: Presidents, Generals, and the Secret History of Nuclear War, Simon and Schuster, 2021, 384 pp.; and Keir A. Lieber and Daryl G. Press, The Myth of the Nuclear Revolution: Power Politics in the Atomic Age, Cornell, 2020, 180 pp.), London Review of Books, vol. 44, no. 4 (24 February 2022), pp. 29–32. "Nuclear strategists systematically underestimate the chances of nuclear accident... [T]here have been too many close calls for accidental use to be discounted." (p. 32.)
    David Wright and Cameron Tracy, "Over-hyped: Physics dictates that hypersonic weapons cannot live up to the grand promises made on their behalf", Scientific American, vol. 325, no. 2 (August 2021), pp. 64–71. "Failure to fully assess [the potential benefits and costs of hypersonic weapons] is a recipe for wasteful spending and increased global risk." (p. 71.)

External links
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    Media related to Nuclear weapons at Wikimedia Commons
    Nuclear Weapon Archive from Carey Sublette: reliable source, has links to other sources and an informative FAQ.
    The Federation of American Scientists Archived October 18, 1996, at the Wayback Machine provide information on weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear weapons and their effects
    Alsos Digital Library for Nuclear Issues Archived March 2, 2001, at the Wayback Machine – contains resources related to nuclear weapons, including a historical and technical overview and searchable bibliography of web and print resources
    Video archive of US, Soviet, UK, Chinese and French Nuclear Weapon Testing at sonicbomb
    The National Museum of Nuclear Science & History (United States) Archived March 27, 2021, at the Wayback Machine – located in New Mexico; a Smithsonian Affiliate Museum
    Nuclear Emergency and Radiation Resources Archived May 15, 2021, at the Wayback Machine
    The Manhattan Project: Making the Atomic Bomb at AtomicArchive
    Los Alamos National Laboratory: History Archived January 15, 2009, at the Wayback Machine (US nuclear history)
    Race for the Superbomb Archived November 10, 2016, at the Wayback Machine, PBS website on the history of the H-bomb
    Recordings of recollections of the victims of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
    The Woodrow Wilson Center's Nuclear Proliferation International History Project or NPIHP is a global network of individuals and institutions engaged in the study of international nuclear history through archival documents, oral history interviews and other empirical sources.
    NUKEMAP3D Archived August 28, 2015, at the Wayback Machine – a 3D nuclear weapons effects simulator powered by Google Maps.

    vte

United States nuclear devices
Fission
(including
boosted)    
Gravity bombs    

    Little Boy (Mark 1) Thin Man (Mark 2) Fat Man (Mark 3) Mark 4 Mark 5 Mark 6 Mark 7 Mark 8 Mark 10 Mark 11 Mark 12 Mark 13 Mark 18 Mark 20 Mk 105 B57

Warheads    

    W4 W5 W7 W8 W12 W13 W25 W30 W31 W34 W37 W40 W42 W44 W45 XW-51 W54 W72 W76-2 W81

Depth bombs    

    Mark 90 Mk 101 Mk 105 B57

Artillery    

    W9 W19 W23 W33 W48 W54 W74 W75 W79-1 W82-1

Atomic demolition
munitions    

    XM1 ADM T2 ADM T4 Medium Atomic Demolition Munition (MADM) Special Atomic Demolition Munition (SADM) Tactical Atomic Demolition Munition (TADM)

Thermonuclear    
Gravity bombs    

    Mark 14 Mark 15 TX16 Mark 17 Mark 21 TX22 Mark 24 Mark 26 Mark 27 B28 Mark 36 Mark 39 B41 B43 TX46 B53 B61 B77 B83 B90

Depth bombs    

    B90

Warheads    

    W15 W27 W28 TX29 XW-35 W38 W39 W41 XW-46 W47 W49 W50 W52 W53 W55 W56 W58 W59 W60 W61 W62 W63 W64 W67 W68 W69 W70 W71 W73 W76 W78 W80 W84 W85 W86 W87 W88 W89 W91 Reliable Replacement Warhead (RRW) W93

Enhanced
radiation    
Warheads    

    W63 W64 W65 W66 W70-3

Artillery    

    W79-0 W82-0

Primary stages    

    Robin Swan Python Tsetse Kinglet Starling Komodo

Experimental    

    Gadget Sausage RACER IV

    vte

French nuclear armament
Strategic missiles    

    missile M1 missile M2 missile M20 missile S1 missile S2 missile S3 missile M4 missile M45 missile M5 missile M51

Pre-strategic missiles    

    Pluton Hadès ASMP ASMP-A​ ASN4G

Nuclear warheads    

    AN-11 bomb AN-22 bomb AN-52 bomb MR 31 MR 41 MR 50 CTC AN 51 CTC AN 52 CTC TN 60 TN 61 TN 70 TN 71 TN 75 TN 76 TN 80 TN 81 TN 90 TNA TNO

Related subjects    

    French nuclear deterrence FAS FOST France and weapons of mass destruction

    vte

Strategic nuclear weapon systems of the United Kingdom
Timeline
V bomber force
(1955–1993)    
Aircraft    

    Vickers Valiant Avro Vulcan Handley Page Victor

Missiles    

    Blue Steel Skybolt (cancelled)

Bomb casings    

    Blue Danube Red Beard Yellow Sun WE.177

Warheads    

    Mk.1 atom bomb Violet Club Orange Herald Green Bamboo Green Grass Red Snow WE.177

Blue Streak
(1960, cancelled)    
Launch site    

    Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile Test Centre, RAF Spadeadam

Warheads    

    Ulysses

Polaris
(1968–1996)    
Launch platform    

    Resolution-class submarine

Missiles    

    Polaris A3T and A3TK

Warheads    

    ET.317 Chevaline upgrade

Trident
(1994–present)    
Launch platforms    

    Vanguard-class submarine (1994–present) Dreadnought-class submarine (replacement)

Missile    

    Trident II D5

Warheads    

    Holbrook Astraea (planned)

Other cancelled projects    

    Blue Water missile Blue Peacock nuclear landmine

part of the Nuclear weapons of the United Kingdom

    vte

Nuclear technology

    Outline

Science    

    Chemistry Engineering Physics Atomic nucleus Fission Fusion Radiation
        ionizing braking

Fuel    

    Tritium Deuterium Helium-3 Fertile material Fissile material Isotope separation Nuclear material
        Uranium
            enriched depleted Plutonium Thorium

Neutron    

    Activation Capture Poison Cross section Generator Radiation
        Wigner effect Reflector Temperature Thermal Fast Fusion

Power    

    by country Power plant Economics Accidents and incidents Policy Fusion Radioisotope thermoelectric (RTG)
        MMRTG Propulsion
        rocket Safety and security
        Nuclear meltdown

Medicine    
Imaging    

    Autoradiograph RadBall Scintigraphy Single-photon emission (SPECT) Positron-emission tomography (PET)

Therapy    

    Fast-neutron Neutron capture therapy of cancer Targeted alpha-particle Proton-beam Tomotherapy Brachytherapy Radiosurgery Radiopharmacology

Processing    

    Atomic gardening Electron-beam processing Food irradiation Gemstone irradiation

Weapons    
Topics    

    Arms race Delivery Design Disarmament Ethics Explosion
        effects History Proliferation Testing
        high-altitude underground Warfare Yield
        TNTe

Lists    

    States with nuclear weapons Historical stockpiles and tests
        Tests Tests in the United States WMD treaties Weapon-free zones Weapons

Waste    
Products    

    Actinide
        Reprocessed uranium Reactor-grade plutonium Minor actinide Activation Fission
        LLFP Actinide chemistry

Disposal    

    Fuel cycle High-level (HLW) Low-level (LLW) Nuclear decommissioning Repository Reprocessing Spent fuel
        pool cask Transmutation

Debate    

    Nuclear power Nuclear weapons Blue Ribbon Commission on America's Nuclear Future Anti-nuclear movement Uranium mining Nuclear power phase-out

Nuclear reactors
Fission
Fusion

    Nuclear technology portal Category Commons

    vte

Nuclear and radioactive disasters, former facilities, tests and test sites
Lists of
disasters
and
incidents    

    Crimes involving radioactive substances Criticality accidents and incidents Nuclear meltdown accidents Military nuclear accidents Nuclear and radiation accidents and incidents Nuclear and radiation accidents by death toll Nuclear and radiation fatalities by country Nuclear weapons tests
        China France India North Korea Pakistan South Africa Soviet Union United Kingdom
            in Australia in the United States United States Sunken nuclear submarines List of orphan source incidents Nuclear power accidents by country

Individual
accidents
and sites    

    2019 Nyonoksa radiation accident 2011 Fukushima nuclear accident 2001 Instituto Oncológico Nacional#Accident 1996 San Juan de Dios radiotherapy accident 1990 Clinic of Zaragoza radiotherapy accident 1987 Goiânia accident 1986 Chernobyl disaster
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The Berlin Wall (German: Berliner Mauer, pronounced [bɛʁˌliːnɐ ˈmaʊɐ] ⓘ) was a guarded concrete barrier that encircled West Berlin from 1961 to 1989, separating it from East Berlin and the German Democratic Republic (GDR; East Germany).[a][1][3] Construction of the Berlin Wall was commenced by the government of the GDR on 13 August 1961. It included guard towers placed along large concrete walls,[4] accompanied by a wide area (later known as the "death strip") that contained anti-vehicle trenches, beds of nails and other defenses. The primary intention for the Wall's construction was to prevent East German citizens from fleeing to the West.[5]

The Soviet Bloc propaganda portrayed the Wall as protecting its population from "fascist elements conspiring to prevent the will of the people" from building a communist state in the GDR. The authorities officially referred to the Berlin Wall as the Anti-Fascist Protection Rampart (German: Antifaschistischer Schutzwall, pronounced [antifaˌʃɪstɪʃɐ ˈʃʊtsval] ⓘ). Conversely, West Berlin's city government sometimes referred to it as the "Wall of Shame", a term coined by mayor Willy Brandt in reference to the Wall's restriction on freedom of movement.[6] Along with the separate and much longer inner German border, which demarcated the border between East and West Germany, it came to symbolize physically the Iron Curtain that separated the Western Bloc and Soviet satellite states of the Eastern Bloc during the Cold War.[7]

Before the Wall's erection, 3.5 million East Germans circumvented Eastern Bloc emigration restrictions and defected from the GDR, many by crossing over the border from East Berlin into West Berlin; from there they could then travel to West Germany and to other Western European countries. Between 1961 and 1989, the deadly force associated with the Wall prevented almost all such emigration.[8] During this period, over 100,000[9] people attempted to escape, and over 5,000 people succeeded in escaping over the Wall, with an estimated death toll of those murdered by East German authorities ranging from 136[10] to more than 200[7][11] in and around Berlin.

In 1989, a series of revolutions in nearby Eastern Bloc countries (Poland and Hungary in particular) and the events of the "Pan-European Picnic" set in motion a peaceful development during which the Iron Curtain largely broke, rulers in the East came under public pressure to cease their repressive policies.[12][13][14] After several weeks of civil unrest, the East German government announced on 9 November 1989 that all GDR citizens could visit the FRG and West Berlin. Crowds of East Germans crossed and climbed onto the Wall, joined by West Germans on the other side, and souvenir hunters chipped away parts of the Wall over the next few weeks.[7] The Brandenburg Gate, a few meters from the Berlin Wall, reopened on 22 December 1989, with demolition of the Wall beginning on 13 June 1990 and concluding in 1994.[1] The fall of the Berlin Wall paved the way for German reunification, which formally took place on 3 October 1990.[7] 

Soviet Union

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Several terms redirect here. For other uses, see USSR (disambiguation), CCCP (disambiguation), Soviet (disambiguation), and Soviet Union (disambiguation).
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
Союз Советских Социалистических Республик
Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik[a][1]
1922–1991
Flag of Soviet Union
Flag
(1955–1991)
State Emblem (1956–1991) of Soviet Union
State Emblem
(1956–1991)
Motto: Пролетарии всех стран, соединяйтесь!
"Workers of the world, unite!"
Anthem: 
Интернационал
"The Internationale" (1922–1944)
Duration: 3 minutes and 59 seconds.3:59
Государственный гимн Союза Советских Социалистических Республик
"State Anthem of the Soviet Union" (1944–1991)
Duration: 3 minutes and 24 seconds.3:24
The Soviet Union during the Cold War
The Soviet Union during the Cold War
Capital
and largest city
Moscow
55°45′N 37°37′E
Official languages    Russian[b]
Recognised regional languages    
UkrainianBelarusianUzbekKazakhGeorgianAzerbaijaniLithuanianMoldavian (Romanian)LatvianKyrgyzTajikArmenianTurkmenEstonian
Ethnic groups (1989)    
70% East Slavs
17% Turkic
13% other
Religion    
Secular state (de jure)
State atheism (de facto)
Demonym(s)    Soviet
Government    Federal Marxist–Leninist one-party socialist republic
Leader     
• 1922–1924 (first)
Vladimir Lenin[c]
• 1924–1953
Joseph Stalin[d]
• 1953[f]
Georgy Malenkov[e]
• 1953–1964
Nikita Khrushchev[g]
• 1964–1982
Leonid Brezhnev[h]
• 1982–1984
Yuri Andropov
• 1984–1985
Konstantin Chernenko
• 1985–1991 (last)
Mikhail Gorbachev[i]
Head of State     
• 1922–1946 (first)
Mikhail Kalinin[j]
• 1988–1991 (last)
Mikhail Gorbachev[k]
Premier     
• 1922–1924 (first)
Vladimir Lenin[l]
• 1991 (last)
Ivan Silayev[m]
Legislature    
Congress of Soviets
(1922–1936)[n]
Supreme Soviet
(1936–1991)
• Upper house
Soviet of Nationalities
(1936–1991)
Soviet of Republics
(1991)
• Lower house
Soviet of the Union
(1936–1991)
Historical era    
Interwar periodWorld War IICold War
• October Revolution
7 November 1917
• Treaty of Creation
30 December 1922
• First constitution
31 January 1924
• Second constitution
5 December 1936
• Westward expansion
1939–1940
• Great Patriotic War
1941–1945
• De-Stalinization
25 February 1956
• Last constitution
9 October 1977
• Parade of sovereignties
1988–1991
• August Coup
19–22 August 1991
• Belovezha Accords
8 December 1991[o]
• Formal dissolution
26 December 1991[p]
Area
• Total
22,402,200 km2 (8,649,500 sq mi) (1st)
• Water
2,767,198 km2 (1,068,421 sq mi)
• Water (%)
12.3
Population
• 1989 census
Neutral increase 286,730,819[2] (3rd)
• Density
12.7/km2 (32.9/sq mi)
GDP (PPP)    1990 estimate
• Total
$2.7 trillion[q] (2nd)
• Per capita
$9,000
GDP (nominal)    1990 estimate
• Total
$2.7 trillion[r][3] (2nd)
• Per capita
$9,000 (28th)
Gini (1989)    0.275
low inequality
HDI (1990 formula)    0.920[4]
very high
Currency    Soviet ruble (руб) (SUR)
Time zone    (UTC+2 to +12)
Calling code    +7
ISO 3166 code    SU
Internet TLD    .su[s]
Preceded by    Succeeded by
    1922:
Russian SFSR
    Ukrainian SSR
    Byelorussian SSR
    Transcaucasian SFSR
    1939:
Poland
    1940:
Finland
    Estonia
    Latvia
    Lithuania
    Romania
    1945:
Hungary
1990:
Lithuania    
Latvia    
Estonia    
1991:
Georgia    
Ukraine    
Belarus    
Moldova    
Kyrgyzstan    
Uzbekistan    
Tajikistan    
Armenia    
Azerbaijan    
Turkmenistan    
Russian Federation    
Kazakhstan    
CIS    
 
With the exception of the CIS – an intergovernmental organization and legal successor to the Soviet Union – only states that are former Soviet republics, now members of the United Nations, are listed as successors.
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics[t] (USSR),[u] commonly known as the Soviet Union,[v] was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until it dissolved in 1991. During its existence, it was the largest country by area, extending across eleven time zones and sharing borders with twelve countries, and the third-most populous country.[w] An overall successor to the Russian Empire, it was nominally organized as a federal union of national republics, the largest and most populous of which was the Russian SFSR.[x] In practice, its government and economy were highly centralized. As a one-party state governed by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), it was a flagship communist state. Its capital and largest city was Moscow.

The Soviet Union's roots lay in the October Revolution of 1917. The new government, led by Vladimir Lenin, established the Russian SFSR, the world's first constitutionally socialist state. The revolution was not accepted by all within the Russian Republic, resulting in the Russian Civil War. The Russian SFSR and its subordinate republics were merged into the Soviet Union in 1922. Following Lenin's death in 1924, Joseph Stalin came to power, inaugurating rapid industrialization and forced collectivization that led to significant economic growth but contributed to a famine between 1930 and 1933 that killed millions. The Soviet forced labour camp system of the Gulag was expanded. During the late 1930s, Stalin's government conducted the Great Purge to remove opponents, resulting in mass death, imprisonment, and deportation. In 1939, the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany signed a non-aggression pact, but in 1941, Germany invaded the Soviet Union in the largest land invasion in history, opening the Eastern Front of World War II. The Soviets played a decisive role in defeating the Axis powers, suffering an estimated 27 million casualties, which accounted for most Allied losses. In the aftermath of the war, the Soviet Union consolidated the territory occupied by the Red Army, forming satellite states, and undertook rapid economic development which cemented its status as a superpower.

Geopolitical tensions with the United States led to the Cold War. The American-led Western Bloc coalesced into NATO in 1949, prompting the Soviet Union to form its own military alliance, the Warsaw Pact, in 1955. Neither side engaged in direct military confrontation, and instead fought on an ideological basis and through proxy wars. In 1953, following Stalin's death, the Soviet Union undertook a campaign of de-Stalinization under Nikita Khrushchev, which saw reversals and rejections of Stalinist policies. This campaign caused tensions with Communist China. During the 1950s, the Soviet Union expanded its efforts in space exploration and took a lead in the Space Race with the first artificial satellite, the first human spaceflight, the first space station, and the first probe to land on another planet. In 1985, the last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, sought to reform the country through his policies of glasnost and perestroika. In 1989, various countries of the Warsaw Pact overthrew their Soviet-backed regimes, and nationalist and separatist movements erupted across the Soviet Union. In 1991, amid efforts to preserve the country as a renewed federation, an attempted coup against Gorbachev by hardline communists prompted the largest republics—Ukraine, Russia, and Belarus—to secede. On 26 December, Gorbachev officially recognized the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Boris Yeltsin, the leader of the Russian SFSR, oversaw its reconstitution into the Russian Federation, which became the Soviet Union's successor state; all other republics emerged as fully independent post-Soviet states.

During its existence, the Soviet Union produced many significant social and technological achievements and innovations. It had the world's second-largest economy and largest standing military. An NPT-designated state, it wielded the largest arsenal of nuclear weapons in the world. As an Allied nation, it was a founding member of the United Nations as well as one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council. Before its dissolution, the Soviet Union was one of the world's two superpowers through its hegemony in Eastern Europe, global diplomatic and ideological influence (particularly in the Global South), military and economic strengths, and scientific accomplishments.

Etymology
Main article: Official names of the Soviet Union
See also: Names of Russia

Vladimir Lenin, founder of the Soviet Union and the leader of the Bolsheviks

Leon Trotsky, founder of the Red Army and a key figure in the October Revolution
The word soviet is derived from the Russian word sovet (Russian: совет), meaning 'council', 'assembly', 'advice',[y] ultimately deriving from the proto-Slavic verbal stem of *vět-iti ('to inform'), related to Slavic věst ('news'), English wise. The word sovietnik means 'councillor'.[5] Some organizations in Russian history were called council (Russian: совет). In the Russian Empire, the State Council, which functioned from 1810 to 1917, was referred to as a Council of Ministers.[5]

The soviets as workers' councils first appeared during the 1905 Russian Revolution.[6][7] Although they were quickly suppressed by the Imperial army, after the February Revolution of 1917, workers' and soldiers' soviets emerged throughout the country and shared power with the Russian Provisional Government.[6][8] The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, demanded that all power be transferred to the soviets, and gained support from the workers and soldiers.[9] After the October Revolution, in which the Bolsheviks seized power from the Provisional Government in the name of the soviets,[8][10] Lenin proclaimed the formation of the Russian Socialist Federal Soviet Republic (RSFSR).[11]

During the Georgian Affair of 1922, Lenin called for the Russian SFSR and other national soviet republics to form a greater union which he initially named as the Union of Soviet Republics of Europe and Asia (Russian: Союз Советских Республик Европы и Азии, romanized: Soyuz Sovyetskikh Respublik Evropy i Azii).[12] Joseph Stalin initially resisted Lenin's proposal but ultimately accepted it, and with Lenin's agreement he changed the name to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), although all republics began as socialist soviet and did not change to the other order until 1936. In addition, in the regional languages of several republics, the word council or conciliar in the respective language was only quite late changed to an adaptation of the Russian soviet and never in others, e.g. Ukrainian SSR.

СССР (in the Latin alphabet: SSSR) is the abbreviation of the Russian-language cognate of USSR, as written in Cyrillic letters. The soviets used this abbreviation so frequently that audiences worldwide became familiar with its meaning. After this, the most common Russian initialization is Союз ССР (transliteration: Soyuz SSR) which essentially translates to Union of SSRs in English. In addition, the Russian short form name Советский Союз (transliteration: Sovyetsky Soyuz, which literally means Soviet Union) is also commonly used, but only in its unabbreviated form. Since the start of the Great Patriotic War at the latest, abbreviating the Russian name of the Soviet Union as СС has been taboo, the reason being that СС as a Russian Cyrillic abbreviation is associated with the infamous Schutzstaffel of Nazi Germany, as SS is in English.

In English-language media, the state was referred to as the Soviet Union or the USSR. The Russian SFSR dominated the Soviet Union to such an extent that, for most of the Soviet Union's existence, it was colloquially, but incorrectly, referred to as Russia.

History
Main article: History of the Soviet Union
See also: History of Russia
Part of a series on the
History of the Soviet Union
State Emblem of the Soviet Union
Background
1917–1927: Establishment
1927–1953: Stalinism
1953–1964: Khrushchev Thaw
1964–1982: Era of Stagnation
1982–1991: Decline and collapse
Soviet leadership
Related topics
flag Soviet Union portal
vte
Part of a series on the
History of Russia
Russia in 1730
Periods
Timeline
flag Russia portal
vte
The history of the Soviet Union began with the ideals of the Bolshevik Revolution and ended in dissolution amidst economic collapse and political disintegration. Established in 1922 following the Russian Civil War, the Soviet Union quickly became a one-party state under the Communist Party. Its early years under Lenin were marked by the implementation of socialist policies and the New Economic Policy (NEP), which allowed for market-oriented reforms.

The rise of Joseph Stalin in the late 1920s ushered in an era of intense centralization and totalitarianism. Stalin's rule was characterized by the forced collectivization of agriculture, rapid industrialization, and the Great Purge, which eliminated perceived enemies of the state. The Soviet Union played a crucial role in the Allied victory in World War II, but at a tremendous human cost, with millions of Soviet citizens perishing in the conflict.

The Soviet Union emerged as one of the world's two superpowers, leading the Eastern Bloc in opposition to the Western Bloc during the Cold War. This period saw the USSR engage in an arms race, the Space Race, and proxy wars around the globe. The post-Stalin leadership, particularly under Nikita Khrushchev, initiated a de-Stalinization process, leading to a period of liberalization and relative openness known as the Khrushchev Thaw. However, the subsequent era under Leonid Brezhnev, referred to as the Era of Stagnation, was marked by economic decline, political corruption, and a rigid gerontocracy. Despite efforts to maintain the Soviet Union's superpower status, the economy struggled due to its centralized nature, technological backwardness, and inefficiencies. The vast military expenditures and burdens of maintaining the Eastern Bloc, further strained the Soviet economy.

In the 1980s, Mikhail Gorbachev's policies of Glasnost (openness) and Perestroika (restructuring) aimed to revitalize the Soviet system but instead accelerated its unraveling. Nationalist movements gained momentum across the Soviet republics, and the control of the Communist Party weakened. The failed coup attempt in August 1991 against Gorbachev by hardline communists hastened the end of the Soviet Union, which formally dissolved on 26 December 1991, ending nearly seven decades of Soviet rule.

Geography
Main article: Geography of the Soviet Union
See also: Geography of Russia

Mountain Khan Tengri (6,995 m) of the Tian Shan mountain range

Landscape near Karabash, Chelyabinsk Oblast, an area that was previously covered with forests until acid rainfall from a nearby copper smelter killed all vegetation

One of the many impacts of the approach to the environment in the USSR and post-Soviet states is the Aral Sea. (See status in 1989 and 2014)[13]
With an area of 22,402,200 square kilometres (8,649,500 sq mi), the Soviet Union was the world's largest country,[14] a status that is retained by the Russian Federation.[15] Covering a sixth of Earth's land surface, its size was comparable to that of North America.[16] Two other successor states, Kazakhstan and Ukraine, rank among the top 10 countries by land area, and the largest country entirely in Europe, respectively. The European portion accounted for a quarter of the country's area and was the cultural and economic center. The eastern part in Asia extended to the Pacific Ocean to the east and Afghanistan to the south, and, except some areas in Central Asia, was much less populous. It spanned over 10,000 kilometres (6,200 mi) east to west across 11 time zones, and over 7,200 kilometres (4,500 mi) north to south. It had five climate zones: tundra, taiga, steppes, desert and mountains.

The USSR, like Russia, had the world's longest border, measuring over 60,000 kilometres (37,000 mi), or 1+1⁄2 circumferences of Earth. Two-thirds of it was a coastline. The country bordered Afghanistan, the People's Republic of China, Czechoslovakia, Finland, Hungary, Iran, Mongolia, North Korea, Norway, Poland, Romania, and Turkey from 1945 to 1991. The Bering Strait separated the USSR from the United States.

The country's highest mountain was Communism Peak (now Ismoil Somoni Peak) in Tajikistan, at 7,495 metres (24,590 ft). The USSR also included most of the world's largest lakes; the Caspian Sea (shared with Iran), and Lake Baikal, the world's largest (by volume) and deepest freshwater lake that is also an internal body of water in Russia.

Neighbouring countries were aware of the high levels of pollution in the Soviet Union[17][18] but after the dissolution of the Soviet Union it was discovered that its environmental problems were greater than what the Soviet authorities admitted.[19] The Soviet Union was the world's second largest producer of harmful emissions. In 1988, total emissions in the Soviet Union were about 79% of those in the United States. But since the Soviet GNP was only 54% of that of the United States, this means that the Soviet Union generated 1.5 times more pollution than the United States per unit of GNP.[20]

The Soviet Chernobyl disaster in 1986 was the first major accident at a civilian nuclear power plant.[21][22][23] Unparalleled in the world, it resulted in a large number of radioactive isotopes being released into the atmosphere. Radioactive doses were scattered relatively far.[24] Although long-term effects of the accident were unknown, 4,000 new cases of thyroid cancer which resulted from the accident's contamination were reported at the time of the accident, but this led to a relatively low number of deaths (WHO data, 2005).[25] Another major radioactive accident was the Kyshtym disaster.[26]

The Kola Peninsula was one of the places with major problems.[27] Around the industrial cities of Monchegorsk and Norilsk, where nickel, for example, is mined, all forests have been destroyed by contamination, while the northern and other parts of Russia have been affected by emissions.[28] During the 1990s, people in the West were also interested in the radioactive hazards of nuclear facilities, decommissioned nuclear submarines, and the processing of nuclear waste or spent nuclear fuel.[29][30] It was also known in the early 1990s that the USSR had transported radioactive material to the Barents Sea and Kara Sea, which was later confirmed by the Russian parliament. The crash of the K-141 Kursk submarine in 2000 in the west further raised concerns.[31] In the past, there were accidents involving submarines K-19, K-8, a K-129, K-27, K-219 and K-278 Komsomolets.[32][33][34][35]

Government and politics
Main articles: Politics of the Soviet Union and Ideology of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
There were three power hierarchies in the Soviet Union: the legislature represented by the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union, the government represented by the Council of Ministers, and the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), the only legal party and the final policymaker in the country.[36]

Communist Party
Main article: Communist Party of the Soviet Union

Military parade on the Red Square in Moscow, 7 November 1964
At the top of the Communist Party was the Central Committee, elected at Party Congresses and Conferences. In turn, the Central Committee voted for a Politburo (called the Presidium between 1952 and 1966), Secretariat and the general secretary (First Secretary from 1953 to 1966), the de facto highest office in the Soviet Union.[37] Depending on the degree of power consolidation, it was either the Politburo as a collective body or the General Secretary, who always was one of the Politburo members, that effectively led the party and the country[38] (except for the period of the highly personalized authority of Stalin, exercised directly through his position in the Council of Ministers rather than the Politburo after 1941).[39] They were not controlled by the general party membership, as the key principle of the party organization was democratic centralism, demanding strict subordination to higher bodies, and elections went uncontested, endorsing the candidates proposed from above.[40]

The Communist Party maintained its dominance over the state mainly through its control over the system of appointments. All senior government officials and most deputies of the Supreme Soviet were members of the CPSU. Of the party heads themselves, Stalin (1941–1953) and Khrushchev (1958–1964) were Premiers. Upon the forced retirement of Khrushchev, the party leader was prohibited from this kind of double membership,[41] but the later General Secretaries for at least some part of their tenure occupied the mostly ceremonial position of Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, the nominal head of state. The institutions at lower levels were overseen and at times supplanted by primary party organizations.[42]

However, in practice the degree of control the party was able to exercise over the state bureaucracy, particularly after the death of Stalin, was far from total, with the bureaucracy pursuing different interests that were at times in conflict with the party,[43] nor was the party itself monolithic from top to bottom, although factions were officially banned.[44]

Government
Main article: Government of the Soviet Union

The Grand Kremlin Palace, the seat of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union, 1982
The Supreme Soviet (successor of the Congress of Soviets) was nominally the highest state body for most of the Soviet history,[45] at first acting as a rubber stamp institution, approving and implementing all decisions made by the party. However, its powers and functions were extended in the late 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, including the creation of new state commissions and committees. It gained additional powers relating to the approval of the Five-Year Plans and the government budget.[46] The Supreme Soviet elected a Presidium (successor of the Central Executive Committee) to wield its power between plenary sessions,[47] ordinarily held twice a year, and appointed the Supreme Court,[48] the Procurator General[49] and the Council of Ministers (known before 1946 as the Council of People's Commissars), headed by the Chairman (Premier) and managing an enormous bureaucracy responsible for the administration of the economy and society.[47] State and party structures of the constituent republics largely emulated the structure of the central institutions, although the Russian SFSR, unlike the other constituent republics, for most of its history had no republican branch of the CPSU, being ruled directly by the union-wide party until 1990. Local authorities were organized likewise into party committees, local Soviets and executive committees. While the state system was nominally federal, the party was unitary.[50]

The state security police (the KGB and its predecessor agencies) played an important role in Soviet politics. It was instrumental in the Red Terror and Great Purge,[51] but was brought under strict party control after Stalin's death. Under Yuri Andropov, the KGB engaged in the suppression of political dissent and maintained an extensive network of informers, reasserting itself as a political actor to some extent independent of the party-state structure,[52] culminating in the anti-corruption campaign targeting high-ranking party officials in the late 1970s and early 1980s.[53]

Separation of power and reform
Main article: Perestroika

Nationalist anti-government riots in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, 1990
The constitution, which was promulgated in 1924, 1936 and 1977, did not limit state power.[54] No formal separation of powers existed between the Party, Supreme Soviet and Council of Ministers[55] that represented executive and legislative branches of the government. The system was governed less by statute than by informal conventions, and no settled mechanism of leadership succession existed. Bitter and at times deadly power struggles took place in the Politburo after the deaths of Lenin[56] and Stalin,[57] as well as after Khrushchev's dismissal,[58] itself due to a decision by both the Politburo and the Central Committee.[59] All leaders of the Communist Party before Gorbachev died in office, except Georgy Malenkov[60] and Khrushchev, both dismissed from the party leadership amid internal struggle within the party.[59]

Between 1988 and 1990, facing considerable opposition, Mikhail Gorbachev enacted reforms shifting power away from the highest bodies of the party and making the Supreme Soviet less dependent on them. The Congress of People's Deputies was established, the majority of whose members were directly elected in competitive elections held in March 1989, the first in Soviet history. The Congress now elected the Supreme Soviet, which became a full-time parliament, and much stronger than before. For the first time since the 1920s, it refused to rubber stamp proposals from the party and Council of Ministers.[61] In 1990, Gorbachev introduced and assumed the position of the President of the Soviet Union, concentrated power in his executive office, independent of the party, and subordinated the government,[62] now renamed the Cabinet of Ministers of the USSR, to himself.[63]

Tensions grew between the Union-wide authorities under Gorbachev, reformists led in Russia by Boris Yeltsin and controlling the newly elected Supreme Soviet of the Russian SFSR, and communist hardliners. On 19–21 August 1991, a group of hardliners staged a coup attempt. The coup failed, and the State Council of the Soviet Union became the highest organ of state power 'in the period of transition'.[64] Gorbachev resigned as General Secretary, only remaining President for the final months of the existence of the USSR.[65]

Judicial system
Main article: Law of the Soviet Union
See also: Socialist law
The judiciary was not independent of the other branches of government. The Supreme Court supervised the lower courts (People's Court) and applied the law as established by the constitution or as interpreted by the Supreme Soviet. The Constitutional Oversight Committee reviewed the constitutionality of laws and acts. The Soviet Union used the inquisitorial system of Roman law, where the judge, procurator, and defence attorney collaborate to "establish the truth".[66]

Human rights
Main article: Human rights in the Soviet Union
Human rights in the Soviet Union were severely limited. The Soviet Union was a totalitarian state from 1927 until 1953[67][68][69][70] and a one-party state until 1990.[71] Freedom of speech was suppressed and dissent was punished. Independent political activities were not tolerated, whether these involved participation in free labour unions, private corporations, independent churches or opposition political parties. The freedom of movement within and especially outside the country was limited. The state restricted rights of citizens to private property.

The remainder of this section is an excerpt from Human rights in the Soviet Union § Soviet concept of human rights and legal system.[edit]
According to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, human rights are the "basic rights and freedoms to which all humans are entitled."[72] including the right to life and liberty, freedom of expression, and equality before the law; and social, cultural and economic rights, including the right to participate in culture, the right to food, the right to work, and the right to education.

The Soviet conception of human rights was very different from international law. According to Soviet legal theory, "it is the government who is the beneficiary of human rights which are to be asserted against the individual".[73] The Soviet state was considered as the source of human rights.[74] Therefore, the Soviet legal system considered law an arm of politics and it also considered courts agencies of the government.[75] Extensive extrajudicial powers were given to the Soviet secret police agencies. In practice, the Soviet government significantly curbed the rule of law, civil liberties, protection of law and guarantees of property,[76][77] which were considered as examples of "bourgeois morality" by Soviet law theorists such as Andrey Vyshinsky.[78]

The USSR and other countries in the Soviet Bloc had abstained from affirming the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), saying that it was "overly juridical" and potentially infringed on national sovereignty.[79]: 167–169  The Soviet Union later signed legally-binding human rights documents, such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights in 1973 (and the 1966 International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights), but they were neither widely known or accessible to people living under Communist rule, nor were they taken seriously by the Communist authorities.[80]: 117  Under Joseph Stalin, the death penalty was extended to adolescents as young as 12 years old in 1935.[81][82][83]

Sergei Kovalev recalled "the famous article 125 of the Constitution which enumerated all basic civil and political rights" in the Soviet Union. But when he and other prisoners attempted to use this as a legal basis for their abuse complaints, their prosecutor's argument was that "the Constitution was written not for you, but for American Negroes, so that they know how happy the lives of Soviet citizens are".[84]

Crime was determined not as the infraction of law, instead, it was determined as any action which could threaten the Soviet state and society. For example, a desire to make a profit could be interpreted as a counter-revolutionary activity punishable by death.[75] The liquidation and deportation of millions of peasants in 1928–31 was carried out within the terms of the Soviet Civil Code.[75] Some Soviet legal scholars even said that "criminal repression" may be applied in the absence of guilt.[75] Martin Latsis, chief of Soviet Ukraine's secret police explained: "Do not look in the file of incriminating evidence to see whether or not the accused rose up against the Soviets with arms or words. Ask him instead to which class he belongs, what is his background, his education, his profession. These are the questions that will determine the fate of the accused. That is the meaning and essence of the Red Terror."[85]

The purpose of public trials was "not to demonstrate the existence or absence of a crime – that was predetermined by the appropriate party authorities – but to provide yet another forum for political agitation and propaganda for the instruction of the citizenry (see Moscow Trials for example). Defense lawyers, who had to be party members, were required to take their client's guilt for granted..."[75]
Foreign relations
Main article: Foreign relations of the Soviet Union

Sukarno and Voroshilov in a state meeting on 1958

Soviet stamps 1974 for friendship between the USSR and India

Gerald Ford, Andrei Gromyko, Leonid Brezhnev and Henry Kissinger speaking informally at the Vladivostok Summit in 1974

Mikhail Gorbachev and George H. W. Bush signing bilateral documents during Gorbachev's official visit to the United States in 1990
During his rule, Stalin always made the final policy decisions. Otherwise, Soviet foreign policy was set by the commission on the Foreign Policy of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, or by the party's highest body the Politburo. Operations were handled by the separate Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It was known as the People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs (or Narkomindel), until 1946. The most influential spokesmen were Georgy Chicherin, Maxim Litvinov, Vyacheslav Molotov, Andrey Vyshinsky, and Andrei Gromyko. Intellectuals were based in the Moscow State Institute of International Relations.[86]

Comintern (1919–1943), or Communist International, was an international communist organization based in the Kremlin that advocated world communism. The Comintern intended to 'struggle by all available means, including armed force, for the overthrow of the international bourgeoisie and the creation of an international Soviet republic as a transition stage to the complete abolition of the state'.[87] It was abolished as a conciliatory measure toward Britain and the United States.[88]
Comecon, the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (Russian: Совет Экономической Взаимопомощи, Sovet Ekonomicheskoy Vzaimopomoshchi, СЭВ, SEV) was an economic organization from 1949 to 1991 under Soviet control that comprised the countries of the Eastern Bloc along with several communist states elsewhere in the world. Moscow was concerned about the Marshall Plan, and Comecon was meant to prevent countries in the Soviets' sphere of influence from moving towards that of the Americans and Southeast Asia. Comecon was the Eastern Bloc's reply to the formation in Western Europe of the Organization for European Economic Co-Operation (OEEC),[89][90]
The Warsaw Pact was a collective defence alliance formed in 1955 among the USSR and its satellite states in Eastern Europe during the Cold War.[91][92] The Warsaw Pact was the military complement to the Comecon, the regional economic organization for the socialist states of Central and Eastern Europe. The Warsaw Pact was created in reaction to the integration of West Germany into NATO.[93][91] Although nominally a "defensive" alliance, the Pact's primary function was to safeguard the Soviet Union's hegemony over its Eastern European satellites, with the Pact's only direct military actions having been the invasions of its own member states to keep them from breaking away.[94][91][95]
The Cominform (1947–1956), informally the Communist Information Bureau and officially the Information Bureau of the Communist and Workers' Parties, was the first official agency of the international Marxist-Leninist movement since the dissolution of the Comintern in 1943. Its role was to coordinate actions between Marxist-Leninist parties under Soviet direction. Stalin used it to order Western European communist parties to abandon their exclusively parliamentarian line and instead concentrate on politically impeding the operations of the Marshall Plan, the U.S. program of rebuilding Europe after the war and developing its economy.[96] It also coordinated international aid to Marxist-Leninist insurgents during the Greek Civil War in 1947–1949.[97] It expelled Yugoslavia in 1948 after Josip Broz Tito insisted on an independent program. Its newspaper, For a Lasting Peace, for a People's Democracy!, promoted Stalin's positions. The Cominform's concentration on Europe meant a deemphasis on world revolution in Soviet foreign policy. By enunciating a uniform ideology, it allowed the constituent parties to focus on personalities rather than issues.[98]
Early policies (1919–1939)
Further information: International relations (1919–1939) § Soviet Union

1987 Soviet stamp
The Marxist-Leninist leadership of the Soviet Union intensely debated foreign policy issues and changed directions several times. Even after Stalin assumed dictatorial control in the late 1920s, there were debates, and he frequently changed positions.[99]

During the country's early period, it was assumed that Communist revolutions would break out soon in every major industrial country, and it was the Russian responsibility to assist them. The Comintern was the weapon of choice. A few revolutions did break out, but they were quickly suppressed (the longest lasting one was in Hungary)—the Hungarian Soviet Republic—lasted only from 21 March 1919 to 1 August 1919. The Russian Bolsheviks were in no position to give any help.

By 1921, Lenin, Trotsky, and Stalin realized that capitalism had stabilized itself in Europe and there would not be any widespread revolutions anytime soon. It became the duty of the Russian Bolsheviks to protect what they had in Russia, and avoid military confrontations that might destroy their bridgehead. Russia was now a pariah state, along with Germany. The two came to terms in 1922 with the Treaty of Rapallo that settled long-standing grievances. At the same time, the two countries secretly set up training programs for the illegal German army and air force operations at hidden camps in the USSR.[100]

Moscow eventually stopped threatening other states, and instead worked to open peaceful relationships in terms of trade, and diplomatic recognition. The United Kingdom dismissed the warnings of Winston Churchill and a few others about a continuing Marxist-Leninist threat, and opened trade relations and de facto diplomatic recognition in 1922. There was hope for a settlement of the pre-war Tsarist debts, but it was repeatedly postponed. Formal recognition came when the new Labour Party came to power in 1924.[101] All the other countries followed suit in opening trade relations. Henry Ford opened large-scale business relations with the Soviets in the late 1920s, hoping that it would lead to long-term peace. Finally, in 1933, the United States officially recognized the USSR, a decision backed by the public opinion and especially by US business interests that expected an opening of a new profitable market.[102]

In the late 1920s and early 1930s, Stalin ordered Marxist-Leninist parties across the world to strongly oppose non-Marxist political parties, labour unions or other organizations on the left, which they labelled social fascists. In the usage of the Soviet Union, and of the Comintern and its affiliated parties in this period, the epithet fascist was used to describe capitalist society in general and virtually any anti-Soviet or anti-Stalinist activity or opinion.[103] Stalin reversed himself in 1934 with the Popular Front program that called on all Marxist parties to join with all anti-Fascist political, labour, and organizational forces that were opposed to fascism, especially of the Nazi variety.[104][105]

The rapid growth of power in Nazi Germany encouraged both Paris and Moscow to form a military alliance, and the Franco-Soviet Treaty of Mutual Assistance was signed in May 1935. A firm believer in collective security, Stalin's foreign minister Maxim Litvinov worked very hard to form a closer relationship with France and Britain.[106]

In 1939, half a year after the Munich Agreement, the USSR attempted to form an anti-Nazi alliance with France and Britain.[107] Adolf Hitler proposed a better deal, which would give the USSR control over much of Eastern Europe through the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. In September, Germany invaded Poland, and the USSR also invaded later that month, resulting in the partition of Poland. In response, Britain and France declared war on Germany, marking the beginning of World War II.[108]

World War II (1939–1945)
Main articles: Causes of World War II and Diplomatic history of World War II § Soviet Union
Up until his death in 1953, Joseph Stalin controlled all foreign relations of the Soviet Union during the interwar period. Despite the increasing build-up of Germany's war machine and the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Soviet Union did not cooperate with any other nation, choosing to follow its own path.[109] However, after Operation Barbarossa, the Soviet Union's priorities changed. Despite previous conflict with the United Kingdom, Vyacheslav Molotov dropped his post war border demands.[110]

Cold War (1945–1991)
Main articles: Origins of the Cold War and Cold War
The Cold War was a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc, which began following World War II in 1945. The term cold war is used because there was no large-scale fighting directly between the two superpowers, but they each supported major regional conflicts known as proxy wars. The conflict was based around the ideological and geopolitical struggle for global influence by these two superpowers, following their temporary alliance and victory against Nazi Germany in 1945. Aside from the nuclear arsenal development and conventional military deployment, the struggle for dominance was expressed via indirect means such as psychological warfare, propaganda campaigns, espionage, far-reaching embargoes, rivalry at sports events and technological competitions such as the Space Race.

Administrative divisions
Main articles: Subdivisions of the Soviet Union, Soviet republic (system of government), and Republics of the Soviet Union
Constitutionally, the USSR was a federation of constituent Union Republics, which were either unitary states, such as Ukraine or Byelorussia (SSRs), or federations, such as Russia or Transcaucasia (SFSRs),[36] all four being the founding republics who signed the Treaty on the Creation of the USSR in December 1922. In 1924, during the national delimitation in Central Asia, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan were formed from parts of Russia's Turkestan ASSR and two Soviet dependencies, the Khorezm and Bukharan PSPs. In 1929, Tajikistan was split off from the Uzbekistan SSR. With the constitution of 1936, the Transcaucasian SFSR was dissolved, resulting in its constituent republics of Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan being elevated to Union Republics, while Kazakhstan and Kirghizia were split off from the Russian SFSR, resulting in the same status.[111] In August 1940, Moldavia was formed from parts of Ukraine and Soviet-occupied Bessarabia, and Ukrainian SSR. Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania were also annexed by the Soviet Union and turned into SSRs, which was not recognized by most of the international community and was considered an illegal occupation. After the Soviet invasion of Finland, the Karelo-Finnish SSR was formed on annexed territory as a Union Republic in March 1940 and then incorporated into Russia as the Karelian ASSR in 1956. Between July 1956 and September 1991, there were 15 union republics (see map below).[112]

While nominally a union of equals, in practice the Soviet Union was dominated by Russians. The domination was so absolute that for most of its existence, the country was commonly (but incorrectly) referred to as 'Russia'. While the Russian SFSR was technically only one republic within the larger union, it was by far the largest (both in terms of population and area), most powerful, and most highly developed. The Russian SFSR was also the industrial center of the Soviet Union. Historian Matthew White wrote that it was an open secret that the country's federal structure was 'window dressing' for Russian dominance. For that reason, the people of the USSR were usually called 'Russians', not 'Soviets', since 'everyone knew who really ran the show'.[113]

Republic    Map of the Union Republics between 1956 and 1991
1     Russian SFSR    
2     Ukrainian SSR
3     Byelorussian SSR
4     Uzbek SSR
5     Kazakh SSR
6     Georgian SSR
7     Azerbaijan SSR
8     Lithuanian SSR
9     Moldavian SSR
10     Latvian SSR
11     Kirghiz SSR
12     Tajik SSR
13     Armenian SSR
14     Turkmen SSR
15     Estonian SSR
Military
Main article: Soviet Armed Forces
See also: Red Army, Soviet Army, Soviet Navy, Soviet Air Forces, Lists of Heroes of the Soviet Union, and Military history of the Soviet Union

A medium-range SS-20 non-ICBM ballistic missile, the deployment of which by the Soviet Union in the late 1970s launched a new arms race in Europe when NATO responded by deploying Pershing II missiles in West Germany, among other things
Under the Military Law of September 1925, the Soviet Armed Forces consisted of the Land Forces, the Air Force, the Navy, Joint State Political Directorate (OGPU) and the Internal Troops.[114] The OGPU later became independent and in 1934 joined the NKVD secret police, and so its internal troops were under the joint leadership of the defense and internal commissariats. After World War II, Strategic Missile Forces (1959), Air Defense Forces (1948) and National Civil Defense Forces (1970) were formed, which ranked first, third, and sixth in the official Soviet system of importance (ground forces were second, Air Force fourth, and Navy fifth).

The army had the greatest political influence. In 1989, there served two million soldiers divided between 150 motorized and 52 armored divisions. Until the early 1960s, the Soviet navy was a rather small military branch, but after the Caribbean crisis, under the leadership of Sergei Gorshkov, it expanded significantly. It became known for battlecruisers and submarines. In 1989, there served 500 000 men. The Soviet Air Force focused on a fleet of strategic bombers and during war situation was to eradicate enemy infrastructure and nuclear capacity. The air force also had a number of fighters and tactical bombers to support the army in the war. Strategic missile forces had more than 1,400 intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), deployed between 28 bases and 300 command centers.

In the post-war period, the Soviet Army was directly involved in several military operations abroad.[3][115][116] These included the suppression of the uprising in East Germany (1953), Hungarian revolution (1956) and the invasion of Czechoslovakia (1968). The Soviet Union also participated in the war in Afghanistan between 1979 and 1989.

In the Soviet Union, general conscription applied, meaning all able-bodied males aged 18 and older were drafted in the armed forces.[117]

Economy
Main article: Economy of the Soviet Union

The Soviet Union in comparison to other countries by GDP (nominal) per capita in 1965 based on a West-German school book (1971)[citation needed]
  > 5,000 DM
  2,500–5,000 DM
  1,000–2,500 DM
  500–1,000 DM
  250–500 DM
  < 250 DM
The Soviet Union adopted a command economy, whereby production and distribution of goods were centralized and directed by the government. For the overwhelming majority of its existence, the USSR did not use GDP or GNP to measure its economy, instead relying on the Material Product System. The first Bolshevik experience with a command economy was the policy of war communism, which involved the nationalization of industry, centralized distribution of output, coercive or forced requisition of agricultural production, and attempts to eliminate money circulation, private enterprises and free trade. The barrier troops were also used to enforce Bolshevik control over food supplies in areas controlled by the Red Army, a role which soon earned them the hatred of the Russian civilian population.[118] After the severe economic collapse, Lenin replaced war communism by the New Economic Policy (NEP) in 1921, legalizing free trade and private ownership of small businesses. The economy steadily recovered as a result.[119]

After a long debate among the members of the Politburo about the course of economic development, by 1928–1929, upon gaining control of the country, Stalin abandoned the NEP and pushed for full central planning, starting forced collectivization of agriculture and enacting draconian labour legislation. Resources were mobilized for rapid industrialization, which significantly expanded Soviet capacity in heavy industry and capital goods during the 1930s.[119] The primary motivation for industrialization was preparation for war, mostly due to distrust of the outside capitalist world.[120] As a result, the USSR was transformed from a largely agrarian economy into a great industrial power, leading the way for its emergence as a superpower after World War II.[121] The war caused extensive devastation of the Soviet economy and infrastructure, which required massive reconstruction.[122]


The DneproGES, one of many hydroelectric power stations in the Soviet Union
By the early 1940s, the Soviet economy had become relatively self-sufficient; for most of the period until the creation of Comecon, only a tiny share of domestic products was traded internationally.[123] After the creation of the Eastern Bloc, external trade rose rapidly. However, the influence of the world economy on the USSR was limited by fixed domestic prices and a state monopoly on foreign trade.[124] Grain and sophisticated consumer manufactures became major import articles from around the 1960s.[123] During the arms race of the Cold War, the Soviet economy was burdened by military expenditures, heavily lobbied for by a powerful bureaucracy dependent on the arms industry. At the same time, the USSR became the largest arms exporter to the Third World. A portion of Soviet resources during the Cold War were allocated in aid to the Soviet-aligned states.[123] The Soviet Union's military budget in the 1970s was gigantic, forming 40–60% of the entire federal budget and accounting to 15% of the USSR's GDP (13% in the 1980s).[125]


Picking cotton in Armenia in the 1930s
From the 1930s until its dissolution in late 1991, the way the Soviet economy operated remained essentially unchanged. The economy was formally directed by central planning, carried out by Gosplan and organized in five-year plans. However, in practice, the plans were highly aggregated and provisional, subject to ad hoc intervention by superiors. All critical economic decisions were taken by the political leadership. Allocated resources and plan targets were usually denominated in rubles rather than in physical goods. Credit was discouraged, but widespread. The final allocation of output was achieved through relatively decentralized, unplanned contracting. Although in theory prices were legally set from above, in practice they were often negotiated, and informal horizontal links (e.g. between producer factories) were widespread.[119]

A number of basic services were state-funded, such as education and health care. In the manufacturing sector, heavy industry and defence were prioritized over consumer goods.[126] Consumer goods, particularly outside large cities, were often scarce, of poor quality and limited variety. Under the command economy, consumers had almost no influence on production, and the changing demands of a population with growing incomes could not be satisfied by supplies at rigidly fixed prices.[127] A massive unplanned second economy grew up at low levels alongside the planned one, providing some of the goods and services that the planners could not. The legalization of some elements of the decentralized economy was attempted with the reform of 1965.[119]


Workers of the Salihorsk potash plant, Belarus, 1968
Although statistics of the Soviet economy are notoriously unreliable and its economic growth difficult to estimate precisely,[128][129] by most accounts, the economy continued to expand until the mid-1980s. During the 1950s and 1960s, it had comparatively high growth and was catching up to the West.[130] However, after 1970, the growth, while still positive, steadily declined much more quickly and consistently than in other countries, despite a rapid increase in the capital stock (the rate of capital increase was only surpassed by Japan).[119]


Volzhsky Avtomobilny Zavod (VAZ) in 1969
Overall, the growth rate of per capita income in the Soviet Union between 1960 and 1989 was slightly above the world average (based on 102 countries).[131] A 1986 study published in the American Journal of Public Health claimed that, citing World Bank data, the Soviet model provided a better quality of life and human development than market economies at the same level of economic development in most cases.[132] According to Stanley Fischer and William Easterly, growth could have been faster. By their calculation, per capita income in 1989 should have been twice higher than it was, considering the amount of investment, education and population. The authors attribute this poor performance to the low productivity of capital.[133] Steven Rosefielde states that the standard of living declined due to Stalin's despotism. While there was a brief improvement after his death, it lapsed into stagnation.[134]

In 1987, Mikhail Gorbachev attempted to reform and revitalize the economy with his program of perestroika. His policies relaxed state control over enterprises but did not replace it by market incentives, resulting in a sharp decline in output. The economy, already suffering from reduced petroleum export revenues, started to collapse. Prices were still fixed, and the property was still largely state-owned until after the country's dissolution.[119][127] For most of the period after World War II until its collapse, Soviet GDP (PPP) was the second-largest in the world, and third during the second half of the 1980s,[135] although on a per-capita basis, it was behind that of First World countries.[136] Compared to countries with similar per-capita GDP in 1928, the Soviet Union experienced significant growth.[137]

In 1990, the country had a Human Development Index of 0.920, placing it in the 'high' category of human development. It was the third-highest in the Eastern Bloc, behind Czechoslovakia and East Germany, and the 25th in the world of 130 countries.[138]

Energy
Main article: Energy policy of the Soviet Union

A Soviet stamp depicting the 30th anniversary of the International Atomic Energy Agency, published in 1987, a year following the Chernobyl nuclear disaster
The need for fuel declined in the Soviet Union from the 1970s to the 1980s,[139] both per ruble of gross social product and per ruble of industrial product. At the start, this decline grew very rapidly but gradually slowed down between 1970 and 1975. From 1975 and 1980, it grew even slower,[clarification needed] only 2.6%.[140] David Wilson, a historian, believed that the gas industry would account for 40% of Soviet fuel production by the end of the century. His theory did not come to fruition because of the USSR's collapse.[141] The USSR, in theory, would have continued to have an economic growth rate of 2–2.5% during the 1990s because of Soviet energy fields.[clarification needed][142] However, the energy sector faced many difficulties, among them the country's high military expenditure and hostile relations with the First World.[143]

In 1991, the Soviet Union had a pipeline network of 82,000 kilometres (51,000 mi) for crude oil and another 206,500 kilometres (128,300 mi) for natural gas.[144] Petroleum and petroleum-based products, natural gas, metals, wood, agricultural products, and a variety of manufactured goods, primarily machinery, arms and military equipment, were exported.[145] In the 1970s and 1980s, the USSR heavily relied on fossil fuel exports to earn hard currency.[123] At its peak in 1988, it was the largest producer and second-largest exporter of crude oil, surpassed only by Saudi Arabia.[146]

Science and technology
Main article: Science and technology in the Soviet Union
See also: Cybernetics in the Soviet Union

Soviet stamp showing the orbit of Sputnik 1
The Soviet Union placed great emphasis on science and technology.[147][148] Lenin believed the USSR would never overtake the developed world if it remained as technologically backward as it was upon its founding. Soviet authorities proved their commitment to Lenin's belief by developing massive networks and research and development organizations. In the early 1960s, 40% of chemistry PhDs in the Soviet Union were attained by women, compared with only 5% in the United States.[149] By 1989, Soviet scientists were among the world's best-trained specialists in several areas, such as energy physics, selected areas of medicine, mathematics, welding, space technology, and military technologies. However, due to rigid state planning and bureaucracy, the Soviets remained far behind the First World in chemistry, biology, and computer science. Under Stalin, the Soviet government persecuted geneticists in favour of Lysenkoism, a pseudoscience rejected by the scientific community in the Soviet Union and abroad but supported by Stalin's inner circles. Implemented in the USSR and China, it resulted in reduced crop yields and is widely believed to have contributed to the Great Chinese Famine.[150] In the 1980s, the Soviet Union had more scientists and engineers relative to the world's population than any other major country, owing to strong levels of state support.[151] Some of its most remarkable technological achievements, such as launching the world's first space satellite, were achieved through military research.[126]

Under the Reagan administration, Project Socrates determined that the Soviet Union addressed the acquisition of science and technology in a manner radically different to the United States. The US prioritized indigenous research and development in both the public and private sectors. In contrast, the USSR placed greater emphasis on acquiring foreign technology, which it did through both covert and overt means. However, centralized state planning kept Soviet technological development greatly inflexible. This was exploited by the US to undermine the strength of the Soviet Union and thus foster its reform.[152][153][154]

Space program
Main articles: Soviet space program and Nedelin catastrophe

From left to right: Yuri Gagarin, Pavel Popovich, Valentina Tereshkova and Nikita Khrushchev at the Lenin's Mausoleum in 1963

Soyuz rocket at the Baikonur Cosmodrome
At the end of the 1950s, the USSR constructed the first satellite—Sputnik 1, which marked the beginning of the Space Race—a competition to achieve superior spaceflight capability with the United States.[155] This was followed by other successful satellites, most notably Sputnik 5, where test dogs were sent to space. On 12 April 1961, the USSR launched Vostok 1, which carried Yuri Gagarin, making him the first human to ever be launched into space and complete a space journey.[156] The first plans for space shuttles and orbital stations were drawn up in Soviet design offices, but personal disputes between designers and management prevented their development.

In terms of the Luna program, the USSR only had automated spacecraft launches with no crewed spacecraft, passing on the 'Moon' part of Space Race, which was won by the Americans. The Soviet public's reaction to the American moon-landing was mixed. The Soviet government limited the release of information about it, which affected the reaction. A portion of the populace did not give it attention, and another portion was angered.[157][158]

In the 1970s, specific proposals for the design of a space shuttle emerged, but shortcomings, especially in the electronics industry (rapid overheating of electronics), postponed it till the end of the 1980s. The first shuttle, the Buran, flew in 1988, but without a human crew. Another, Ptichka, endured prolonged construction and was canceled in 1991. For their launch into space, there is today an unused superpower rocket, Energia, which is the most powerful in the world.[159]

In the late 1980s, the Soviet Union built the Mir orbital station. It was built on the construction of Salyut stations and its only role was civilian-grade research tasks.[160][161] Mir was the only orbital station in operation from 1986 to 1998. Gradually, other modules were added to it, including American modules. However, the station deteriorated rapidly after a fire on board, so in 2001 it was decided to bring it into the atmosphere where it burned down.[160]

Transport
Main article: Transport in the Soviet Union

Aeroflot's flag during the Soviet era

Nuclear Icebreaker Lenin
Transport was a vital component of the country's economy. The economic centralization of the late 1920s and 1930s led to the development of infrastructure on a massive scale, most notably the establishment of Aeroflot, an aviation enterprise.[162] The country had a wide variety of modes of transport by land, water and air.[144] However, due to inadequate maintenance, much of the road, water and Soviet civil aviation transport were outdated and technologically backward compared to the First World.[163]

Soviet rail transport was the largest and most intensively used in the world;[163] it was also better developed than most of its Western counterparts.[164] By the late 1970s and early 1980s, Soviet economists were calling for the construction of more roads to alleviate some of the burdens from the railways and to improve the Soviet government budget.[165] The street network and automotive industry[166] remained underdeveloped,[167] and dirt roads were common outside major cities.[168] Soviet maintenance projects proved unable to take care of even the few roads the country had. By the early-to-mid-1980s, the Soviet authorities tried to solve the road problem by ordering the construction of new ones.[168] Meanwhile, the automobile industry was growing at a faster rate than road construction.[169] The underdeveloped road network led to a growing demand for public transport.[170]

Despite improvements, several aspects of the transport sector were still[when?] riddled with problems due to outdated infrastructure, lack of investment, corruption and bad decision-making. Soviet authorities were unable to meet the growing demand for transport infrastructure and services.[171]

The Soviet merchant navy was one of the largest in the world.[144]

Demographics
Main article: Demographics of the Soviet Union

Population of the Soviet Union (red) and the post-Soviet states (blue) from 1961 to 2009 as well as projection (dotted blue) from 2010 to 2100
Excess deaths throughout World War I and the Russian Civil War (including the famine of 1921–1922 that was triggered by Lenin's war communism policies)[172] amounted to a combined total of 18 million,[173] some 10 million in the 1930s,[174] and more than 20 million in 1941–1945. The postwar Soviet population was 45 to 50 million smaller than it would have been if pre-war demographic growth had continued.[175] According to Catherine Merridale, '... reasonable estimate would place the total number of excess deaths for the whole period somewhere around 60 million.'[176]

The birth rate of the USSR decreased from 44.0 per thousand in 1926 to 18.0 in 1974, mainly due to increasing urbanization and the rising average age of marriages. The mortality rate demonstrated a gradual decrease as well—from 23.7 per thousand in 1926 to 8.7 in 1974. In general, the birth rates of the southern republics in Transcaucasia and Central Asia were considerably higher than those in the northern parts of the Soviet Union, and in some cases even increased in the post–World War II period, a phenomenon partly attributed to slower rates of urbanization and traditionally earlier marriages in the southern republics.[177] Soviet Europe moved towards sub-replacement fertility, while Soviet Central Asia continued to exhibit population growth well above replacement-level fertility.[178]

The late 1960s and the 1970s witnessed a reversal of the declining trajectory of the rate of mortality in the USSR, and was especially notable among men of working age, but was also prevalent in Russia and other predominantly Slavic areas of the country.[179] An analysis of the official data from the late 1980s showed that after worsening in the late-1970s and the early 1980s, adult mortality began to improve again.[180] The infant mortality rate increased from 24.7 in 1970 to 27.9 in 1974. Some researchers regarded the rise as mostly real, a consequence of worsening health conditions and services.[181] The rises in both adult and infant mortality were not explained or defended by Soviet officials, and the Soviet government stopped publishing all mortality statistics for ten years. Soviet demographers and health specialists remained silent about the mortality increases until the late-1980s, when the publication of mortality data resumed, and researchers could delve into the real causes.[182]

  
Largest cities or towns in the Soviet Union
Sources: 1989 Soviet census
Rank    Name    Republic    Pop.    Rank    Name    Republic    Pop.    
Moscow
Moscow
Leningrad
Leningrad    1    Moscow    Russian SFSR    8,967,332    11    Tbilisi    Georgian SSR    1,246,936    Kiev
Kiev
Tashkent
Tashkent
2    Leningrad    Russian SFSR    4,990,749    12    Kuybyshev    Russian SFSR    1,254,460
3    Kiev    Ukrainian SSR    2,571,000    13    Yerevan    Armenian SSR    1,201,539
4    Tashkent    Uzbek SSR    2,072,459    14    Dnepropetrovsk    Ukrainian SSR    1,178,000
5    Baku    Azerbaijan SSR    1,727,000    15    Omsk    Russian SFSR    1,148,418
6    Kharkov    Ukrainian SSR    1,593,970    16    Chelyabinsk    Russian SFSR    1,141,777
7    Minsk    Byelorussian SSR    1,607,077    17    Odessa    Ukrainian SSR    1,115,371
8    Gorki    Russian SFSR    1,438,133    18    Donetsk    Ukrainian SSR    1,109,900
9    Novosibirsk    Russian SFSR    1,436,516    19    Kazan    Russian SFSR    1,094,378
10    Sverdlovsk    Russian SFSR    1,364,621    20    Alma-Ata    Kazakh SSR    1,071,900
Urbanism

Largest cities of the USSR according to the 1989 census
The Soviet Union imposed heavy control on city growth, preventing some cities from reaching their full potential while promoting others.[183][184]

For the entirety of its existence, the most populous cities were Moscow and Leningrad (both in Russian SFSR), with the third far place taken by Kiev (Ukrainian SSR). At its inception, the Top 5 was completed by Kharkov (Ukrainian SSR) and Baku (Azerbaijan SSR), but, by the end of the century, Tashkent (Uzbek SSR), which had assumed the position of capital of Soviet Central Asia, had risen to fourth place. Another city worth mentioning is Minsk (Byelorussian SSR), which saw rapid growth during the 20th century, rising from the 32nd most populous in the union to the 7th.[184][185][186]

Women and fertility

Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman in space, visiting the Lvov confectionery, Ukrainian SSR, 1967
Under Lenin, the state made explicit commitments to promote the equality of men and women. Many early Russian feminists and ordinary Russian working women actively participated in the Revolution, and many more were affected by the events of that period and the new policies. Beginning in October 1918, Lenin's government liberalized divorce and abortion laws, decriminalized homosexuality (re-criminalized in 1932), permitted cohabitation, and ushered in a host of reforms.[187] However, without birth control, the new system produced many broken marriages, as well as countless out-of-wedlock children.[188] The epidemic of divorces and extramarital affairs created social hardships when Soviet leaders wanted people to concentrate their efforts on growing the economy. Giving women control over their fertility also led to a precipitous decline in the birth rate, perceived as a threat to their country's military power. By 1936, Stalin reversed most of the liberal laws, ushering in a pronatalist era that lasted for decades.[189]

By 1917, Russia became the first great power to grant women the right to vote.[190] After heavy casualties in World Wars I and II, women outnumbered men in Russia by a 4:3 ratio;[191] this contributed to the larger role women played in Russian society compared to other great powers at the time.

LGBT rights
The Soviet Union repressed homosexuality. Even during the period when homosexuality was officially legal after the abolition of the Tsarist penal code criminalising it, Soviet courts attempted to repress non-traditional forms of sexuality, which were widely viewed by Russian revolutionaries as a form of capitalist decadence despite more liberal views on homosexuality from Soviet academic sexologists. After Stalin's consolidation of power, homosexuality became officially recriminalised in 1934 and remained a criminal offence throughout the remainder of the Soviet Union's existence.[192]

Education
Main article: Education in the Soviet Union

Young Pioneers at a Young Pioneer camp in the Kazakh SSR
Anatoly Lunacharsky became the first People's Commissar for Education of Soviet Russia. In the beginning, the Soviet authorities placed great emphasis on the elimination of illiteracy. All left-handed children were forced to write with their right hand in the Soviet school system.[193][194][195][196] Literate people were automatically hired as teachers. [citation needed] For a short period, quality was sacrificed for quantity. By 1940, Stalin could announce that illiteracy had been eliminated. Throughout the 1930s, social mobility rose sharply, which has been attributed to reforms in education.[197] In the aftermath of World War II, the country's educational system expanded dramatically, which had a tremendous effect. In the 1960s, nearly all children had access to education, the only exception being those living in remote areas. Nikita Khrushchev tried to make education more accessible, making it clear to children that education was closely linked to the needs of society. Education also became important in giving rise to the New Man.[198] Citizens directly entering the workforce had the constitutional right to a job and to free vocational training.

The education system was highly centralized and universally accessible to all citizens, with affirmative action for applicants from nations associated with cultural backwardness. However, as part of a general antisemitic policy, an unofficial Jewish quota was applied[when?] in the leading institutions of higher education by subjecting Jewish applicants to harsher entrance examinations.[199][200][201][202] The Brezhnev era also introduced a rule that required all university applicants to present a reference from the local Komsomol party secretary.[203] According to statistics from 1986, the number of higher education students per the population of 10,000 was 181 for the USSR, compared to 517 for the US.[204]

Nationalities and ethnic groups
Main articles: Islam in the Soviet Union, National delimitation in the Soviet Union, Korenizatsiia, and Soviet Central Asia

People in Samarkand, Uzbek SSR, 1981

Svaneti man in Mestia, Georgian SSR, 1929
The Soviet Union was an ethnically diverse country, with more than 100 distinct ethnic groups. The total population of the country was estimated at 293 million in 1991. According to a 1990 estimate, the majority of the population were Russians (50.78%), followed by Ukrainians (15.45%) and Uzbeks (5.84%).[205] Overall, in 1989 the ethnic demography of the country showed that 69.8% was East Slavic, 17.5% was Turkic, 1.6% were Armenians, 1.6% were Balts, 1.5% were Uralic, 1.5% were Tajik, 1.4% were Georgian, 1.2% were Moldovan and 4.1% were of other various ethnic groups.[206]

All citizens of the USSR had their own ethnic affiliation. The ethnicity of a person was chosen at the age of sixteen by the child's parents.[207] If the parents did not agree, the child was automatically assigned the ethnicity of the father. Partly due to Soviet policies, some of the smaller minority ethnic groups were considered part of larger ones, such as the Mingrelians of Georgia, who were classified with the linguistically related Georgians.[208] Some ethnic groups voluntarily assimilated, while others were brought in by force. Russians, Belarusians, and Ukrainians, who were all East Slavic and Orthodox, shared close cultural, ethnic, and religious ties, while other groups did not. With multiple nationalities living in the same territory, ethnic antagonisms developed over the years.[209][neutrality is disputed]

Members of various ethnicities participated in legislative bodies. Organs of power like the Politburo, the Secretariat of the Central Committee etc., were formally ethnically neutral, but in reality, ethnic Russians were overrepresented, although there were also non-Russian leaders in the Soviet leadership, such as Joseph Stalin, Grigory Zinoviev, Nikolai Podgorny or Andrei Gromyko. During the Soviet era, a significant number of ethnic Russians and Ukrainians migrated to other Soviet republics, and many of them settled there. According to the last census in 1989, the Russian 'diaspora' in the Soviet republics had reached 25 million.[210]

Ethnographic map of the USSR, 1930
Ethnographic map of the USSR, 1930
 
European Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) Ethnic Groups, before 1939
European Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) Ethnic Groups, before 1939
 
Ethnographic map of the Soviet Union, 1941
Ethnographic map of the Soviet Union, 1941
 
Ethnic composition of the Soviet Union in 1949
Ethnic composition of the Soviet Union in 1949
 
Ethnographic map of the Soviet Union, 1970
Ethnographic map of the Soviet Union, 1970
 
Map of the ethnic groups living in USSR, 1970
Map of the ethnic groups living in USSR, 1970
 
Ethnic Groups in the Soviet Union, 1979
Ethnic Groups in the Soviet Union, 1979
 
Comparative Soviet Nationalities by Republic, 1989
Comparative Soviet Nationalities by Republic, 1989
Health
Main article: Health care in the Soviet Union

An early Soviet-era poster discouraging unsafe abortion practices
In 1917, before the revolution, health conditions were significantly behind those of developed countries. As Lenin later noted, "Either the lice will defeat socialism, or socialism will defeat the lice".[211] The Soviet health care system was conceived by the People's Commissariat for Health in 1918. Under the Semashko model, health care was to be controlled by the state and would be provided to its citizens free of charge, a revolutionary concept at the time. Article 42 of the 1977 Soviet Constitution gave all citizens the right to health protection and free access to any health institutions in the USSR. Before Leonid Brezhnev became general secretary, the Soviet healthcare system was held in high esteem by many foreign specialists. This changed, however, from Brezhnev's accession and Mikhail Gorbachev's tenure as leader, during which the health care system was heavily criticized for many basic faults, such as the quality of service and the unevenness in its provision.[212] Minister of Health Yevgeniy Chazov, during the 19th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, while highlighting such successes as having the most doctors and hospitals in the world, recognized the system's areas for improvement and felt that billions of rubles were squandered.[213]

After the revolution, life expectancy for all age groups went up. This statistic in itself was seen by some that the socialist system was superior to the capitalist system. These improvements continued into the 1960s when statistics indicated that the life expectancy briefly surpassed that of the United States. Life expectancy started to decline in the 1970s, possibly because of alcohol abuse. At the same time, infant mortality began to rise. After 1974, the government stopped publishing statistics on the matter. This trend can be partly explained by the number of pregnancies rising drastically in the Asian part of the country where infant mortality was the highest while declining markedly in the more developed European part of the Soviet Union.[214]

Dentistry
Soviet dental technology and dental health were considered notoriously bad. In 1991, the average 35-year-old had 12 to 14 cavities, fillings or missing teeth. Toothpaste was often not available, and toothbrushes did not conform to standards of modern dentistry.[215][216]

Language
Main articles: Languages of the Soviet Union and Reforms of Russian orthography
Under Lenin, the government gave small language groups their own writing systems.[217] The development of these writing systems was highly successful, even though some flaws were detected. During the later days of the USSR, countries with the same multilingual situation implemented similar policies. A serious problem when creating these writing systems was that the languages differed dialectally greatly from each other.[218] When a language had been given a writing system and appeared in a notable publication, it would attain 'official language' status. There were many minority languages which never received their own writing system; therefore, their speakers were forced to have a second language.[219] There are examples where the government retreated from this policy, most notably under Stalin where education was discontinued in languages that were not widespread. These languages were then assimilated into another language, mostly Russian.[220] During World War II, some minority languages were banned, and their speakers accused of collaborating with the enemy.[221]

As the most widely spoken of the Soviet Union's many languages, Russian de facto functioned as an official language, as the 'language of interethnic communication' (Russian: язык межнационального общения), but only assumed the de jure status as the official national language in 1990.[222]

Religion
Main article: Religion in the Soviet Union

Cover of Bezbozhnik in 1929, magazine of the Society of the Godless. The first five-year plan of the Soviet Union is shown crushing the gods of the Abrahamic religions.

The Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow during its demolition in 1931

The Saviour Church on Sennaya Square in Leningrad was one of many notable church buildings destroyed during the Khrushchev Thaw.

A paranja burning ceremony in the Uzbek SSR as part of Soviet Hujum policies

Major religious groups in the Soviet Union as published by the CIA
Christianity and Islam had the highest number of adherents among the religious citizens.[223] Eastern Christianity predominated among Christians, with Russia's traditional Russian Orthodox Church being the largest Christian denomination. About 90% of the Soviet Union's Muslims were Sunnis, with Shias being concentrated in the Azerbaijan SSR.[223] Smaller groups included Roman Catholics, Jews, Buddhists, and a variety of Protestant denominations (especially Baptists and Lutherans).[223]

Religious influence had been strong in the Russian Empire. The Russian Orthodox Church enjoyed a privileged status as the church of the monarchy and took part in carrying out official state functions.[224] The immediate period following the establishment of the Soviet state included a struggle against the Orthodox Church, which the revolutionaries considered an ally of the former ruling classes.[225]

In Soviet law, the 'freedom to hold religious services' was constitutionally guaranteed, although the ruling Communist Party regarded religion as incompatible with the Marxist spirit of scientific materialism.[225] In practice, the Soviet system subscribed to a narrow interpretation of this right, and in fact used a range of official measures to discourage religion and curb the activities of religious groups.[225]

The 1918 Council of People's Commissars decree establishing the Russian SFSR as a secular state also decreed that 'the teaching of religion in all [places] where subjects of general instruction are taught, is forbidden. Citizens may teach and may be taught religion privately.'[226] Among further restrictions, those adopted in 1929 included express prohibitions on a range of church activities, including meetings for organized Bible study.[225] Both Christian and non-Christian establishments were shut down by the thousands in the 1920s and 1930s. By 1940, as many as 90% of the churches, synagogues, and mosques that had been operating in 1917 were closed; the majority of them were demolished or re-purposed for state needs with little concern for their historic and cultural value.[227]

More than 85,000 Orthodox priests were shot in 1937 alone.[228] Only a twelfth of the Russian Orthodox Church's priests were left functioning in their parishes by 1941.[229] In the period between 1927 and 1940, the number of Orthodox Churches in Russia fell from 29,584 to less than 500 (1.7%).[230]

The Soviet Union was officially a secular state,[231][232] but a 'government-sponsored program of forced conversion to atheism' was conducted under the doctrine of state atheism.[233][234][235] The government targeted religions based on state interests, and while most organized religions were never outlawed, religious property was confiscated, believers were harassed, and religion was ridiculed while atheism was propagated in schools.[236] In 1925, the government founded the League of Militant Atheists to intensify the propaganda campaign.[237] Accordingly, although personal expressions of religious faith were not explicitly banned, a strong sense of social stigma was imposed on them by the formal structures and mass media, and it was generally considered unacceptable for members of certain professions (teachers, state bureaucrats, soldiers) to be openly religious. While persecution accelerated following Stalin's rise to power, a revival of Orthodoxy was fostered by the government during World War II and the Soviet authorities sought to control the Russian Orthodox Church rather than liquidate it. During the first five years of Soviet power, the Bolsheviks executed 28 Russian Orthodox bishops and over 1,200 Russian Orthodox priests. Many others were imprisoned or exiled. Believers were harassed and persecuted. Most seminaries were closed, and the publication of most religious material was prohibited. By 1941, only 500 churches remained open out of about 54,000 in existence before World War I.

Convinced that religious anti-Sovietism had become a thing of the past, and with the looming threat of war, the Stalin administration began shifting to a more moderate religion policy in the late 1930s.[238] Soviet religious establishments overwhelmingly rallied to support the war effort during World War II. Amid other accommodations to religious faith after the German invasion, churches were reopened. Radio Moscow began broadcasting a religious hour, and a historic meeting between Stalin and Orthodox Church leader Patriarch Sergius of Moscow was held in 1943. Stalin had the support of the majority of the religious people in the USSR even through the late 1980s.[238] The general tendency of this period was an increase in religious activity among believers of all faiths.[239]

Under Nikita Khrushchev, the state leadership clashed with the churches in 1958–1964, a period when atheism was emphasized in the educational curriculum, and numerous state publications promoted atheistic views.[238] During this period, the number of churches fell from 20,000 to 10,000 from 1959 to 1965, and the number of synagogues dropped from 500 to 97.[240] The number of working mosques also declined, falling from 1,500 to 500 within a decade.[240]

Religious institutions remained monitored by the Soviet government, but churches, synagogues, temples, and mosques were all given more leeway in the Brezhnev era.[241] Official relations between the Orthodox Church and the government again warmed to the point that the Brezhnev government twice honored Orthodox Patriarch Alexy I with the Order of the Red Banner of Labour.[242] A poll conducted by Soviet authorities in 1982 recorded 20% of the Soviet population as 'active religious believers.'[243]

Culture
Main article: Culture of the Soviet Union
See also: Soviet cuisine, Music of the Soviet Union, Fashion in the Soviet Union, Broadcasting in the Soviet Union, Printed media in the Soviet Union, and Samizdat
Duration: 3 minutes and 2 seconds.3:02
The 'Enthusiast's March', a 1930s song famous in the Soviet Union

Soviet singer-songwriter, poet and actor Vladimir Vysotsky in 1979
The culture of the Soviet Union evolved through several stages during its existence. During the first decade following the revolution, there was relative freedom and artists experimented with several different styles to find a distinctive Soviet style of art. Lenin wanted art to be accessible to the Russian people. On the other hand, hundreds of intellectuals, writers, and artists were exiled or executed, and their work banned, such as Nikolay Gumilyov who was shot for alleged conspiracy against the Bolsheviks, and Yevgeny Zamyatin.[244]

The government encouraged a variety of trends. In art and literature, numerous schools, some traditional and others radically experimental, proliferated. Communist writers Maxim Gorky and Vladimir Mayakovsky were active during this time. As a means of influencing a largely illiterate society, films received encouragement from the state, and much of director Sergei Eisenstein's best work dates from this period.

During Stalin's rule, the Soviet culture was characterized by the rise and domination of the government-imposed style of socialist realism, with all other trends being severely repressed, with rare exceptions, such as Mikhail Bulgakov's works. Many writers were imprisoned and killed.[245]

Following the Khrushchev Thaw, censorship was diminished. During this time, a distinctive period of Soviet culture developed, characterized by conformist public life and an intense focus on personal life. Greater experimentation in art forms was again permissible, resulting in the production of more sophisticated and subtly critical work. The government loosened its emphasis on socialist realism; thus, for instance, many protagonists of the novels of author Yury Trifonov concerned themselves with problems of daily life rather than with building socialism. Underground dissident literature, known as samizdat, developed during this late period. In architecture, the Khrushchev era mostly focused on functional design as opposed to the highly decorated style of Stalin's epoch. In music, in response to the increasing popularity of forms of popular music like jazz in the West, many jazz orchestras were permitted throughout the USSR, notably the Melodiya Ensemble, named after the principle record label in the USSR.

In the second half of the 1980s, Gorbachev's policies of perestroika and glasnost significantly expanded freedom of expression throughout the country in the media and the press.[246]

Sport
See also: Voluntary Sports Societies of the Soviet Union, CSKA Moscow, Soviet Union at the Olympics, and Soviet Union men's national ice hockey team

Valeri Kharlamov represented the Soviet Union at 11 Ice Hockey World Championships, winning eight gold medals, two silvers and one bronze.
In summer of 1923 in Moscow was established the Proletarian Sports Society "Dynamo" as a sports organization of Soviet secret police Cheka.

On 13 July 1925 the Central Committee of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) adopted a statement "About the party's tasks in sphere of physical culture". In the statement was determined the role of physical culture in Soviet society and the party's tasks in political leadership of physical culture movement in the country.

The Soviet Olympic Committee formed on 21 April 1951, and the IOC recognized the new body in its 45th session. In the same year, when the Soviet representative Konstantin Andrianov became an IOC member, the USSR officially joined the Olympic Movement. The 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki thus became first Olympic Games for Soviet athletes. The Soviet Union was the biggest rival to the United States at the Summer Olympics, winning six of its nine appearances at the games and also topping the medal tally at the Winter Olympics six times. The Soviet Union's Olympics success has been attributed to its large investment in sports to demonstrate its superpower image and political influence on a global stage.[247]

The Soviet Union national ice hockey team won nearly every world championship and Olympic tournament between 1954 and 1991 and never failed to medal in any International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) tournament in which they competed.

Soviet Olympic team was notorious for skirting the edge of amateur rules. All Soviet athletes held some nominal jobs, but were in fact state-sponsored and trained full-time. According to many experts, that gave the Soviet Union a huge advantage over the United States and other Western countries, whose athletes were students or real amateurs.[248][249] Indeed, the Soviet Union monopolized the top place in the medal standings after 1968, and, until its collapse, placed second only once, in the 1984 Winter games, after another Eastern bloc nation, the GDR. Amateur rules were relaxed only in the late 1980s and were almost completely abolished in the 1990s, after the fall of the USSR.[247][250]

According to British journalist Andrew Jennings, a KGB colonel stated that the agency's officers had posed as anti-doping authorities from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to undermine doping tests and that Soviet athletes were "rescued with [these] tremendous efforts".[251][252] Documents obtained in 2016 revealed the Soviet Union's plans for a statewide doping system in track and field in preparation for the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. Dated prior to the country's decision to boycott the Games, the document detailed the existing steroids operations of the program, along with suggestions for further enhancements.[253]

Legacy
See also: Neo-Sovietism and Nostalgia for the Soviet Union

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World War II military deaths in Europe by theatre and by year. Nazi Germany suffered 80% of its military deaths on the Eastern Front.[254]
The legacy of the USSR remains a controversial topic. The socio-economic nature of communist states such as the USSR, especially under Stalin, has also been much debated, varyingly being labelled a form of bureaucratic collectivism, state capitalism, state socialism, or a totally unique mode of production.[255] The USSR implemented a broad range of policies over a long period of time, with a large amount of conflicting policies being implemented by different leaders. Some have a positive view of it whilst others are critical towards the country, calling it a repressive oligarchy.[256] The opinions on the USSR are complex and have changed over time, with different generations having different views on the matter as well as on Soviet policies corresponding to separate time periods during its history.[257]


2001 stamp of Moldova shows Yuri Gagarin, the first human in space.
Western academicians published various analyses of the post-Soviet states' development, claiming that the dissolution was followed by a severe drop in economic and social conditions in these countries,[258][259] including a rapid increase in poverty,[260][261][262][263] crime,[264] corruption,[265][266] unemployment,[267][268] homelessness,[269][270] rates of disease,[271][272][273] infant mortality and domestic violence,[274] as well as demographic losses,[275] income inequality and the rise of an oligarchical class,[276][260] along with decreases in calorie intake, life expectancy, adult literacy, and income.[277] Between 1988 and 1989 and 1993–1995, the Gini ratio increased by an average of 9 points for all former Soviet republics.[260] According to Western analysis, the economic shocks that accompanied wholesale privatization were associated with sharp increases in mortality,[278] Russia, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia saw a tripling of unemployment and a 42% increase in male death rates between 1991 and 1994,[279][280] and in the following decades, only five or six of the post-communist states are on a path to joining the wealthy capitalist West while most are falling behind, some to such an extent that it will take over fifty years to catch up to where they were before the fall of the Soviet Bloc.[281][282] However, virtually all the former Soviet republics were able to turn their economies around and increase GDP to multiple times what it was under the USSR,[283] though with large wealth disparities, and many post-soviet economies described as oligarchic.[284]

Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, annual polling by the Levada Center has shown that over 50% of Russia's population regretted this event, with the only exception to this being in 2012 when support for the Soviet Union dipped below 50 percent.[285] A 2018 poll showed that 66% of Russians regretted the fall of the Soviet Union, setting a 15-year record, and the majority of these regretting opinions came from people older than 55.[285][286] In 2020, polls conducted by the Levada Center found that 75% of Russians agreed that the Soviet era was the greatest era in their country's history.[287]

According to the New Russia Barometer (NRB) polls by the Centre for the Study of Public Policy, 50% of Russian respondents reported a positive impression of the Soviet Union in 1991.[288] This increased to about 75% of NRB respondents in 2000, dropping slightly to 71% in 2009.[288] Throughout the 2000s, an average of 32% of NRB respondents supported the restoration of the Soviet Union.[288]

In a 2021 poll, a record 70% of Russians indicated they had a mostly/very favourable view of Joseph Stalin.[289] In Armenia, 12% of respondents said the USSR collapse did good, while 66% said it did harm. In Kyrgyzstan, 16% of respondents said the collapse of the USSR did good, while 61% said it did harm.[290] In a 2018 Rating Sociological Group poll, 47% of Ukrainian respondents had a positive opinion of Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev, who ruled the Soviet Union from 1964 to 1982, while viewing Lenin, Stalin, and Gorbachev very negatively.[291] A 2021 poll conducted by the Levada Center found that 49% of Russians prefer the USSR's political system, while 18% prefer the current political system and 16% would prefer a Western democracy. A further 62% of people polled preferred the Soviet system of central planning, while 24% prefer a market-based system.[292] According to the Levada Center's polls, the primary reasons cited for Soviet nostalgia are the advantages of the shared economic union between the Soviet republics, including perceived financial stability.[293] This was referenced by up to 53% of respondents in 2016.[293] At least 43% also lamented the loss of the Soviet Union's global political superpower status.[293] About 31% cited the loss of social trust and capital.[294] The remainder of the respondents cited a mix of reasons ranging from practical travel difficulties to a sense of national displacement.[293]

The 1941–1945 period of World War II is still known in Russia as the 'Great Patriotic War'. The war became a topic of great importance in cinema, literature, history lessons at school, the mass media, and the arts. As a result of the massive losses suffered by the military and civilians during the conflict, Victory Day celebrated on 9 May is still one of the most important and emotional dates in Russia.[295] Catherine Wanner asserts that Victory Day commemorations are a vehicle for Soviet nostalgia, as they "kept alive a mythology of Soviet grandeur, of solidarity among the Sovietskii narod, and of a sense of self as citizen of a superpower state".[296]

Russian Victory Day parades are organized annually in most cities, with the central military parade taking place in Moscow (just as during the Soviet times).[297][298] Additionally, the recently introduced Immortal Regiment on 9 May sees millions of Russians carry the portraits of their relatives who fought in the war.[299] Russia also retains other Soviet holidays, such as the Defender of the Fatherland Day (23 February), International Women's Day (8 March), and International Workers' Day.[300]

In the former Soviet republics
See also: Anti-Sovietism, Anti-Russian sentiment, and Decommunization in Ukraine

People in the Donetsk People's Republic celebrate the annual Victory Day over Nazi Germany, 9 May 2018.

Protest against Ukrainian decommunization policies in Donetsk, 2014. The red banner reads, "Our homeland USSR".
In some post-Soviet republics, there is a more negative view of the USSR, although there is no unanimity on the matter. In large part due to the Holodomor, ethnic Ukrainians have a negative view of the Soviet Union.[301] Russian-speaking Ukrainians of Ukraine's southern and eastern regions have a more positive view of the USSR. In some countries with internal conflict, there is also nostalgia for the USSR, especially for refugees of the post-Soviet conflicts who have been forced to flee their homes and have been displaced. The many Russian enclaves in the former USSR republics such as Transnistria have in a general a positive remembrance of it.[302]

By the political left
See also: Criticism of communist party rule § Left-wing criticism
The left's view of the USSR is complex. While some leftists regard the USSR as an example of state capitalism or that it was an oligarchical state, other leftists admire Vladimir Lenin and the Russian Revolution.[303] Council communists generally view the USSR as failing to create class consciousness, turning into a corrupt state in which the elite controlled society.

Trotskyists believe that the ascendancy of the Stalinist bureaucracy ensured a degenerated or deformed workers' state, where the capitalist elite have been replaced by an unaccountable bureaucratic elite and there is no true democracy or workers' control of industry.[304] In particular, American Trotskyist David North noted that the generation of bureaucrats that rose to power under Stalin's tutelage presided over the stagnation and breakdown of the Soviet Union.[305]

Many anti-Stalinist leftists such as anarchists are extremely critical of Soviet authoritarianism and repression. Much of the criticism it receives is centered around massacres in the Soviet Union, the centralized hierarchy present in the USSR and mass political repression as well as violence towards government critics and political dissidents such as other leftists. Critics also point towards its failure to implement any substantial worker cooperatives or implementing worker liberation, as well as corruption and the Soviet authoritarian nature.[citation needed]

Anarchists are also critical of the country, labeling the Soviet system as red fascism. Factors contributing to the anarchist animosity towards the USSR included the Soviet destruction of the Makhnovist movement after an initial alliance, the suppression of the anarchist Kronstadt rebellion, and the defeat of the rival anarchist factions by the Soviet-supported Communist faction during the Spanish Civil War.[306]

Maoists also have a mixed opinion on the USSR, viewing it negatively during the Sino-Soviet Split and denouncing it as revisionist and reverted to capitalism. The Chinese government in 1963 articulated its criticism of the USSR's system and promoted China's ideological line as an alternative.[307][308]

After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the Japanese Communist Party (JCP) released a press statement titled "We welcome the end of a party which embodied the historical evil of great power chauvinism and hegemonism".[309]

Noam Chomsky called the collapse of the Soviet Union "a small victory for socialism, not only because of the fall of one of the most anti-socialist states in the world, where working people had fewer rights than in the West, but also because it freed the term 'socialism' from the burden of being associated in the propaganda systems of East and West with Soviet tyranny—for the East, in order to benefit from the aura of authentic socialism, for the West, in order to demonize the concept."[310] Some scholars on the left have posited that the end of the Soviet Union and communism as a global force allowed neoliberal capitalism to become a global system, which has resulted in rising economic inequality.[311][312][313][314]

See also
Succession, continuity and legacy of the Soviet Union
Baltic states under Soviet rule (1944–1991)
Ideocracy
Index of Soviet Union–related articles
Neo-Stalinism
Orphans in the Soviet Union
Russification
Second Cold War
Sovietization
Soviet patriotism
Notes
 For names of the Soviet Union in other official languages, see Official names of the Soviet Union.
 De facto, legally since 1990. Constituent republics had the right to declare their own regional languages.
 As chairman of the Council of People's Commissars.
 As General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and chairman of the Council of People's Commissars (then the Council of Ministers).
 As chairman of the Council of Ministers.
 March–September.
 As First Secretary of the Communist Party.
 As General Secretary of the Communist Party.
 As General Secretary of the Communist Party and President of the Soviet Union.
 As Chairman of the Central Executive Committee, then as Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet.
 As Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, then Chairman of the Supreme Soviet and finally President.
 As Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the Soviet Union and Russian SFSR.
 As Chairman of the Committee on the Operational Management of the Soviet Economy.
 Unicameral.
 The Alma-Ata Protocol was signed by the remaining 11 of 12 republics on 21 December 1991.
 Declaration No. 142-Н of the Soviet of the Republics of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union, formally establishing the dissolution of the Soviet Union as a state and subject of international law (in Russian).
 Statistics surrounding Soviet GDP are only estimates as the Soviet Union did not use Gross Domestic Product or Gross National Product to measure its economy until 1990, before which it utilised a system known as the Material Product System
 Statistics surrounding Soviet GDP are only estimates as the Soviet Union did not use Gross Domestic Product or Gross National Product to measure its economy until 1990, before which it utilised a system known as the Material Product System
 Assigned on 19 September 1990, existing onwards.
 Russian: Союз Советских Социалистических Республик, romanized: Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, IPA: [sɐˈjus sɐˈvʲetskʲɪx sətsɨəlʲɪˈsʲtʲitɕɪskʲɪx rʲɪˈspublʲɪk] ⓘ.
 Russian: СССР, romanized: SSSR.
 Russian: Советский Союз, romanized: Sovetskiy Soyuz, IPA: [sɐˈvʲetskʲɪj sɐˈjus] ⓘ
 As of 1989, the countries that bordered the Soviet Union were: Norway and Finland to the northwest; Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Romania to the west; Turkey and Iran to the southwest; Afghanistan and Mongolia to the south; China and North Korea to the southeast. The Soviet Union also shared maritime boundaries with Japan (which was bordered to the south until 1945) and the United States.
 As outlined in Part III of the 1977 Soviet Constitution, "The National-State Structure of the Soviet Union".
 Ukrainian: рада (rada); Belarusian: савет/рада; Uzbek: совет; Kazakh: совет / кеңес (sovet / kenges); Georgian: საბჭოთა (sabch′ota); Azerbaijani: совет; Lithuanian: taryba; Romanian: soviet (Moldovan Cyrillic: совиет); Latvian: padome; Kyrgyz: совет; Tajik: шӯравӣ / совет (šūravī / sovet); Armenian: խորհուրդ / սովետ (xorhurd / sovet); Turkmen: совет; Estonian: nõukogu.
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