How Did The Soviet Union Affect During The Cold War?

The late 1940′s were a time when much change happened to the American society. As a result to the expanding threat of the Soviet Union, or its Communistic ideals, America took a stand that lead it to the Cold War.  Although the war didn’t involve fighting directly with Russia, it still affected the American society and domestic policy. The war affected America so much that it lead to a fear of livelihood; precisely when Joseph McCarthy began his “witch hunt”. The Cold war lead to an enlarged fear of nuclear war; as well, it affected many of the domestic policies.

Emerging victoriously from World War II, America became the leader of the free-market capitalist world, and proved to be a military, economic, and political powerhouse. However, as one major war came to a close, another battle was brewing between the democratic United States and the communist Soviet Union. As the Soviet Union expanded farther West into Europe, America as well as its NATO allies worked together in an effort to contain the USSR’s expanding communist party. The Cold War went far beyond a battle between different ideologies. Rather, it developed into a global conflict where espionage, treason, and massive propaganda campaigns were inflicted on all aspects of individuals’ lives internationally. The plausibility of communism seeping into the confinements of the United States caused nation-wide fear to erupt. American businesses feared the idea of a communistic revolution on the basis that it would disturb the very groundwork that holds capitalism together. As a result, the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) was formed to investigate communist and fascist organizations within America. Unfortunately, the controversial tactics used during the HUAC hearings contributed to the fear, blacklisting, and repression that existed from 1940 through the 1950s. In the midst of the Cold War, several American opinions materialized concerning the role of the HUAC, in which Americans either praised the committee for its patriotic ideals, applauded but recognized the

In 1991 the Soviet Union collapsed into fifteen different countries. It changed the world geopolitical balance. Their fall ended the ownership of a superpowers with the resources of more than a ten countries. The collapse left Russia unable to own anything like the global influence that they had for many years. Before the Soviet Union collapsed representatives of eleven Soviet republics from Ukraine, the Russian Federation, Belarus, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan met and stated that they would no longer be part of the Soviet Union. Instead, they announced they will create a Commonwealth of Independent States. They did it because Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania had already stated their independence.

The Cold War was a state of economic, diplomatic, and ideological discord among nations without armed conflict. The Cold War was between the United States and the USSR because these were the two major powers after WWII. Basically, the Cold War was a series of proxy wars that had taken place back in time involving surrounding countries. One of the main causes for Cold War was that the Soviet Union was spreading communism and the United States didn’t like that so they were trying to contain communism. However, in the end they failed. Many events took place in other countries. In Korea, Vietnam, Latin America, and China, communism took over; however, before it did, major wars had taken place. The cold war between the U.S. and the Soviet Union worsened the condition of countries involved. The Cold War broke countries into two parts that turned against each other, the United States and the Soviet Union used these countries to fight their war and caused a big disturbance to daily life, and the Communist States fought the Non-Communist States; however, the end results of these wars only caused more damage in these countries.

“We promised the Europeans freedom. It would be worse than dishonorable not to see they have it.” General George S. Patton believed this and was right to a certain degree. America didn’t declare war on the Soviets but they did play a major role in the collapse of the Soviet Union. The Americans didn’t fire a shot on Russian soil but they pressured them into doing acts that the Russian economy wasn’t capable of doing. Although the Soviet Union was a super power after World War 2, their power was cut short because of the involvement in the space race and arms race.

During World War II women in the Soviet Union played a major role in helping the

The Cold War period represented a breaking point for real and potential threats against the US hegemony in Latin America. The US and the Soviet Union had a power struggle for almost all the last half of the twentieth century, and even if the political and military tension was between those two blocks, the poor relationship’s collateral damage reached the rest of countries in the American continent with the anti-communism US foreign policy.

The Unites States and Communist Union of Soviet Socialist Republics put aside their immense political differences to become allies during World War II. Previous hostility between the Soviet Union and democratic nations, did not stop the communist world power from forming an alliance with the United States and Great Britain. The United States similar to the Soviet Union saw Nazi Germany as a greater threat to national security and world peace than the other’s political ideologies or philosophies; therefore, the most dangerous enemy. Tensions during the alliance were always near, but a common opponent concealed a restricted amount ideology in common. Even with the political differences, the United States, Britain, Soviet Union and additional nations surfaced from World War II victorious in 1945. The alliance between the United States and the Soviet Union disintegrate quickly after the surrender of Japan. The rapid change from allies to enemies was rooted in the Unites States and Soviet Union’s foreign policies towards each other. The Soviets wanted to spread the political and economic system of communism into Eastern Europe, while the United States wanted to protect all countries from the threat of communism. Joseph Stalin, leader of the Soviet Union, demanded that Eastern European countries enter the Soviet sphere of influence. The United States was resistant to allow Stalin dictate the shape of the postwar world, which began Unites States’ anti-communist foreign policy.

Shortly after the World War 2 ended, the United States and its North Atlantic Treaty Organization allies entered the cold war with the Soviet Union. Germany was divided in half and later, the Berlin Wall was constructed as a physical boundary between the Soviet controlled East Germany and NATO controlled West Germany. This standoff continued until the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991. The cold war had a huge influence on the world stage, but also had a major effect on the Soviet Union internally. The cold war had a huge influence on the Soviet economy, caused great hardship for the Soviet population, and led to significant change in the political structure.

During the 1970s, the Cold War had quieted down for a bit and there were even negotiations of peace talks. That all changed when the Soviet Union occupied Afghanistan in favor of the communist side while the USA were aiding the anti-communist side. Eventually America pulled out of Afghanistan and went home, but the tension that was there continued through the 1980 Olympic Games. The Soviet Union dominated in the sport of hockey for several years and won gold medals multiple times, but what satisfied them the most was beating team USA every time they faced. The USSR wanted to show their dominance and their pride every time they faced USA. That’s why the miracle on ice game was more than just an underdog story, it was the second Cold War. “The Olympics are hardly apolitical. Nothing is apolitical in this world. The Olympics are the last thing,” Mansbach said. “So in a sense, the hockey match was a Cold War, literally and figuratively.” Draped in the irony of the Cold War playing out on actual ice, the U.S. pulled off the improbable upset and continued on to beat Finland in the gold medal game. “It enhances the reputation of the administration, even though it had nothing to do with it. Simply, citizens bathed in the glow [of the win] that somehow capitalism, Americans [and] the free world had won some type of significant, symbolic victory,” Mansbach said.

When the Soviets came to power in Russia following the October Revolution of 1917, they realized the country they controlled had many problems to rectify. At this time the newly formed Soviet Union had a small urban population, a large percentage of its people illiterate, and had a practically nonexistent industrial capacity following World War I and later, the Civil War. The Bolsheviks’ plan to remedy these problems was to construct what they called “Soviet” or “socialist” cities, where the majority of the population would live, be educated, and work in industry. The planners intended for Soviet cities to be different from their capitalist city counterparts, such as London or New York City, with specific fundamental characteristics that

Almost all narratives of Allied victory in World War II account economic output as a decisive factor. Overy concedes to this point as well, citing Soviet evacuation of civilians and industry as salvation for the Eastern front. (Overy, 181) As the Germans flooded into the Soviet Union in 1941 entire populations and industries fled to the east, destined for the Urals, the Volga region, and Eastern Siberia. Along with saving Soviet industry by relocation, the Soviets also destroyed what they could not move including food and manufacturing plants. Destruction denied the invading Germans valuable resources that could’ve assisted the Axis war machine. The relocation of industry in the Soviet Union forced hard conditions on civilians who endured scarce rations and appalling working conditions. (Overy, 187) However, despite the odds, Soviet war production actually increased after the relocation of its industry. Overy attributes this economic success to central planning and control of the economy as well as simple models that allowed for easy mass production. The Soviet Union operated under a command economy that was completely controlled by the government and were more easily able to direct the economy for wartime production. Centralized organizations such as the Manpower Committee allocated valuable resources to labor, reserving skilled men for the war industry. Additionally, the Soviet Union simplified tank and aircraft models to allow quick production. For example, Overy writes

The political landscape, economic climate change and religious beliefs all factored into the Cold War due the fact that it lasted nearly 5 decades. The Cold War changed histrionically from each administration change that every nation faced during these long time periods. In the Soviet Union political landscapes went from Stalin to Khruschev then Brezhnev, each impacting the Cold War with significant actions. In the film Czechoslovakia 1968: We Don 't Want to Live on Our Knees explains after the suicide of Hitler the fascist regime merely changed from Hitler’s “Third Reich” to Stalin’s “Red Army” in 1944-45. The same could be seen in Khruschev who shifted from non-aggressive too aggressive in Hungary October 31st 1958 (Zubok, p.117). Next, Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev invaded Prague, Czechoslovakia in the spring of 1968, which was dubbed the Brezhnev Doctrine, which states “Moscow has the right to intervene in any country where a communist government had been threatened.” (History.state.gov, 2014). This oppression could be felt in economical, religious and cultural facets as well and all made subsequent Soviet/American relations increasingly difficult.

This essay will discuss about cold war, including the background, beginning, progress and ending. As we know, cold war is a struggle between U.S. with NATO and Soviet Union with WTO from 1947 to 1991. It is a significant event in history, and it influence the almost all of world, it directly lead to the radical change of eastern Europe and the breakup of the USSR.

The end of the Cold War heightened optimism at the United Nations about the prospect of creating a new international order with the UN at its core. The idea came even prior to that. During the 1980s. The USSR was economically enfeebled and could not afford a new arms race against the West. This led to Gorbachev’s “new thinking”, which was to reform the basis of the communist economies and gain accommodation with the West. By partially accepting Western values, the Soviet leaders tried to seek new allies among the rich Western states so as to restore the rapidly deteriorating economy (Forsberg, 1999).