38. Beginning cold war". The Marshall Plan and the final division of Europe. The creation of NATO (II half of the 40s of the XX century)

Start of the Cold War

American President Harry Truman liked to brag about having "a good club for Russian guys" in his hands. He meant nuclear weapons. “If you don’t show an iron fist to Russia and don’t speak decisively with her, new war inevitable. We don't have to compromise anymore... I'm tired of babysitting the Soviets," said the American leader.

On May 9, 1945, Counselor of the US Embassy in Moscow J. Kennan, watching the celebration of Victory Day from the windows of the embassy building, said: “They are rejoicing ... They think that the war is over. It's only just beginning."

The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JSC) of the United States rated the USSR as the leading world power and the main political opponent. As early as September 4, 1945, a US intelligence memorandum outlined 20 major targets and 20 Soviet cities to be subjected to atomic bombing. In October 1945, American generals insisted on a preventive war against the USSR. After the destruction of up to half of the population of the USSR and its surrender, it was planned to divide the country into zones of occupation. Then it was supposed to subdue China and Southeast Asia, to take control of the whole world. The Soviet leadership was well informed about all these plans. The Soviet intelligence officer, the Englishman Harold Adrian Russell (Kim) Philby, who served in the British intelligence (SIS), since 1949 was appointed to the post of liaison officer with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). “This led to the fact that all the extremely extensive efforts of Western intelligence in the period from 1944 to 1951 were inconclusive. It would be better if we did nothing at all,” one of the American intelligence officers later admitted.

Such information was clearly unable to strengthen the friendly feelings of the Soviet leadership towards the former allies. Of course, Stalin and other top leaders of the country understood the danger of the situation and made every effort to strengthen the geopolitical position of the USSR, restore the destroyed national economy and eliminate the US monopoly on the possession of atomic weapons.

In March 1946 at the University of the American city of Fulton, in the presence of President H. Truman, the former Prime Minister of Great Britain Winston Churchill delivered a bright speech. He defined the principles of confrontation with the "Soviet threat". For a long time, Churchill's speech was considered the actual beginning of the Cold War. In fact, he only ideologically substantiated and presented to the public the already actually pursued policy. A few days after the death of F. D. Roosevelt (April 12, 1945), H. Truman, who replaced him, took a tough stance against the USSR. On one of the controversial issues in a narrow circle, he said: "If the Russians do not want to join us, then let them go to hell." And at a meeting in September 1945, the proposal of Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson, who warned against "atomic diplomacy", against using the monopoly on atomic weapons as a means of pressure on the USSR, was rejected.

History in TERMS

Cold War. It was a global confrontation between two superpowers - the USA and the USSR. The main components of the Cold War were:

an arms race, primarily the development and deployment of new types of weapons of mass destruction, increasing their number;

confrontation between military-political blocs;

direct military confrontation in local wars;

the struggle for influence in the countries of the "third world", for their involvement in the orbit of their interests;

"psychological warfare" - subversive propaganda, support for the opposition;

fierce confrontation between intelligence agencies and special services.

Creation of NATO. Marshall Plan and the final division of Europe

The aggressive direction of American foreign policy was fully manifested in the Truman Doctrine. It provided for open US interference in the internal affairs of other states, support for reactionary regimes, refusal to cooperate with the countries of the Soviet bloc, and the creation of military bases in foreign territories. The global network of foreign military bases and occupation groups in Western Europe, Asia, Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, and oceanic islands performed a triple function:

Creation of a real threat to the Soviet Union and the socialist community;

Support for US governments;

Protecting the economic interests of American monopolies.

Under American leadership, contradictions within the capitalist world began to be overcome, which caused two world wars and were successfully used by Soviet diplomacy. In the second half of the 40s. The United States has provided tremendous assistance to many countries in the framework of Marshall plan. Its implementation contributed to the rapid recovery of the economy of Western Europe with the simultaneous strengthening of the political and economic influence of the United States. The total amount of aid amounted to $13.1 billion. Most of this amount was provided free of charge in the form of supplies of food, fuel, raw materials, semi-finished products and fertilizers. Under these conditions, the United States received unconditional support for its undertakings. The NATO military-political union was formed (1949), which included the following countries: the USA, England, France, Canada, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Portugal, Denmark, Norway, Iceland, Greece, Turkey, Germany, Spain. In other regions, military blocs SEATO, CENTO, ANZUS emerged.

The United States was the initiator or an active participant in many military conflicts, military-political crises, and complications in the international arena.

In violation of the Potsdam agreements, in May 1949 the Federal Republic of Germany. In October 1949, on the territory occupied by Soviet troops, the formation German Democratic Republic.

For control over Berlin, there was a struggle between the Soviet and allied military administrations, as well as special services. In August 1961, West Berlin was surrounded by a powerful wall, which was supposed to stop the negative economic impact on East Berlin and the GDR, as well as stop the escapes of GDR citizens to West Berlin. A permanent hotbed of tension arose in the center of Europe, giving rise to many dangerous conflict situations. The Berlin Wall existed until 1989. The Group of Soviet Forces in Germany (GSVG) was stationed on the territory of the GDR.

After the end of World War II, relations between the allies in anti-Hitler coalition began to deteriorate more and more. Two world powers - the USSR and the USA - became rivals in the international arena. Having two superpowers nuclear weapons contributed not to a direct military conflict - World War III - but to a war for spheres of influence in the world. One way or another, publicly and privately, the two powers supported "their own" in military conflicts around the world. The beginning of the Cold War will be discussed in this lesson.

Beginning of the Cold War

background

By the end of World War II, the two powers, the USSR and the USA, turned out to be the most powerful militarily and economically. The ideological confrontation between the two superpowers led to a split in the world into two opposing camps (most countries adjoined either the bloc of socialist countries led by the USSR, or capitalist countries led by the USA). The era of the bipolar world was coming.

Events

Abstract

Officially, the Cold War is usually counted from Churchill's speech in an American city Fulton March 5, 1946, where he demanded to fight communism and the Soviet Union, but the confrontation itself began even when the Red Army was rushing to Berlin. Truman, who succeeded the deceased Roosevelt as president, and his subsequent colleagues advocated the fight against the USSR in all directions.

To influence the countries of Western Europe, the US presidential administration developed the so-called. " Marshall Plan”, according to which the Americans were supposed to provide assistance to the affected countries of Europe, for, in fact, the loss of sovereignty by the latter (Fig. 1).

Rice. 1. Poster dedicated to the "Marshall Plan" ()

IN 1949 The United States and its allies in Europe create the North Atlantic Alliance - NATO- a military organization whose purpose was to confront the USSR and wage war with it and its allies (Fig. 2). A little later, in 1955, in response to the aggressive plans of NATO, the Warsaw Pact Organization (WTO), Soviet military organization.

Rice. 2. NATO meeting ()

From 1950 to 1953 there was a war in korea. Here, for the first time, behind the scenes, former allies clashed in battle. The communist-minded north, led by Kim Il Sung was supported by the USSR and China, and the south - by the USA (Fig. 3). In fact, the war between the North and the South is still going on, since neither side recognizes its neighbor.

Rice. 3. War in Korea ()

With the coming to power in 1953 General Eisenhower relations with the USSR became more and more aggravated. The general gave orders to draw up plans for a possible attack on the USSR. IN October 1957, when a Soviet satellite went into orbit around the Earth Americans were deeply shocked. They were no longer sure of their own safety. An arms race and confrontation began, not only in political and ideological terms, but also in all others.

IN 1959 Cuban Revolution. Power in Cuba was seized by pro-Soviet forces led by Fidel Castro. Have an island at your opponent's side, but count military base, was promising. At the same time, the new US President, Kennedy, as the de facto head of NATO, is placing nuclear missiles on the borders of the USSR, in Turkey. In response, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev orders Soviet missiles to be placed in Cuba. These events 1962 went down in history as Caribbean crisis when the parties could start a nuclear war at any moment. In the end, at the last moment, reason prevailed. By agreement, Soviet missiles were withdrawn from Cuba, and American ones from Turkey. The next round of the Soviet-American confrontation ended.

1. Aleksashkina L.N. General history. XX - beginning of XXI century. - M.: Mnemosyne, 2011.

2. Zagladin N.V. General history. XX century. Textbook for grade 11. - M.: Russian word, 2009.

3. Plenkov O.Yu., Andreevskaya T.P., Shevchenko S.V. General history. Grade 11 / Ed. Myasnikova V.S. - M., 2011.

1. Read Chapter 14 pp. 154-158 of the textbook by Aleksashkina L.N. General history. XX - beginning of the XXI century and give answers to questions 1-2 on p. 160.

2. Could the Cold War have been avoided? Explain the answer.

3. Describe the main stages of the "Cold War" of the initial period.

cold war dulles plan

The ideological confrontation, which was muted on both sides during the Second World War, did not disappear, the contradictions between the two systems - capitalist and socialist - persisted and became stronger as more countries were drawn into the orbit of Soviet influence. The open rejection of a different socio-economic system was aggravated by a completely new nuclear factor, which gradually came to the fore. Even during the Second World War, the United States became the owner of the secret of nuclear weapons. The US nuclear monopoly continued until 1949, which irritated the Stalinist leadership. It was these objective reasons that created the background against which the appearance of specific reasons that led to the beginning of the "cold war" did not take long to appear.

The biggest controversy is the question of who started the Cold War - Soviet Union or USA. Proponents of opposing points of view bring more and more evidence of their correctness, but the dispute in this case, apparently, is not resolved by the number of arguments "for" and "against".

It is important to understand the main thing: both countries were aimed at increasing their influence, sought to expand its scope as much as possible and, up to the Caribbean crisis, believed that this goal justified any means, even the use of weapons of mass destruction. There are many facts both from the Soviet side and from the side of the former coalition allies, testifying to the strengthening of mutual disagreements.

So, in 1945, the head of the Sovinformburo A. Lozovsky informed V.M. Molotov about the "campaign to discredit the Red Army" organized in the United States and Great Britain, that "every fact of the indiscipline of the Red Army soldiers in the occupied countries is exaggerated and angrily commented on in a thousand ways."

The Soviet ideological machine, initially set up for counter-propaganda, gradually moved on to forming the image of a new enemy. Stalin spoke of "the aggressive aspirations of imperialism" on February 9, 1946, in a speech to the voters. This change of mood in the Soviet leadership was caught by US Chargé d'Affaires ad interim D. Kennan, who on February 26, 1946 sent to Washington a secret document that went down in history under the name "Kennan's long telegram". The document noted that Soviet authority, "being immune to the logic of reason, very sensitive to the logic of power." So gradually both sides "exchanged blows", "warmed up" before the decisive battle.

The key event from which historians count the "cold war" was W. Churchill's speech. After it, the last hopes of even the appearance of allied relations collapsed and an open confrontation began. March 5, 1946, speaking at the American Fulton College in the presence of US President G. Truman, W. Churchill said: "I do not believe that Soviet Russia wants war. She wants the fruits of war and the unlimited expansion of her power and her doctrines."

W. Churchill pointed to two main dangers threatening the modern world: the danger of a monopoly on nuclear weapons of a communist or neo-fascist state and the danger of tyranny. By tyranny, W. Churchill understood such a system in which "state power is exercised indefinitely either by dictators or narrow oligarchies acting through the mediation of a privileged party and political police ..." and in which civil liberties are significantly limited.

The combination of these two factors made, according to W. Churchill, necessary the creation of a "fraternal association of peoples speaking the English language"to coordinate actions primarily in the military field. The former Prime Minister of Great Britain justified the relevance of such an association by a significant expansion of the sphere of Soviet influence, thanks to which the "iron curtain descended on the continent", the growth of the influence of communist parties in Europe, far exceeding their numbers, the danger of creating a pro-communist Germany, the emergence of communist fifth columns around the world, acting on instructions from a single center.In conclusion, Churchill made a conclusion that determined the global world politics: "We cannot afford to rely on a slight advantage in strength, thereby creating an temptation for a test of strength."

Churchill's speech, hitting Stalin's table, caused an outburst of indignation. On March 13, the day after the publication of the speech in Izvestia, Stalin gave an interview to a correspondent of Pravda, in which he noted that, in fact, Mr. Churchill was now in the position of warmongers. He and his friends, Stalin said, are strikingly reminiscent in this respect of Hitler and his friends. Thus, the return shot was fired, the "cold war" began.

The ideas of the retired British prime minister were developed and detailed in February 1947 in President G. Truman's message to the US Congress and were called the "Truman Doctrine". The "Truman Doctrine" contained specific measures that were supposed to at least prevent the expansion of the Soviet sphere of influence and the spread of communist ideology ("the doctrine of the containment of socialism"), and, under favorable circumstances, return the USSR to its former borders ("the doctrine of the rejection of socialism"). Both the immediate and long-term tasks required the concentration of military, economic and ideological efforts: European countries were asked to provide large-scale economic assistance, to form a military-political alliance under the leadership of the United States and to deploy a network of US military bases near Soviet borders, to support opposition movements in countries of Eastern Europe.

The economic component of the "Truman Doctrine" was developed in detail in the plan of the US Secretary of State J. Marshall in the same 1947. initial stage VM Molotov was invited to take part in the discussion of the Marshall Plan. However, the provision of economic assistance to the United States was associated with certain political concessions from Moscow, which was absolutely unacceptable for the leadership of the USSR. After the demand for the Soviet government to retain freedom in spending the allocated funds and independently determine economic policy was rejected by the West, the USSR refused to participate in the "Marshall Plan" and put direct pressure on Poland and Czechoslovakia, where the plan aroused interest.

The United States provided colossal economic assistance to Europe ravaged by the war - for 1948-1951. European countries received a total of 12.4 billion dollars of investment. The logic of ambitious behavior aggravated the already heavy economic burden of the Soviet Union, which was forced to invest heavily in the countries of people's democracy in the name of its ideological interests. By the middle of 1947, two types of foreign policy orientation had finally taken shape in Europe: pro-Soviet and pro-American.

With the undoubted influence and authority of the communists in post-war Europe, they managed to come to power and form their own governments only in Yugoslavia and Albania. In Eastern Europe, the process of establishing communist regimes was much more complex than historiography had previously portrayed. The establishment of the communists in power in these countries went through two main stages.

The first stage covered the period from the end of the war to the middle of 1947, when the main model state structure there was the so-called "people's democracy", which was based on the concept of "national paths to socialism". The term "people's democracy" was supposed to demonstrate the difference both from the "old democracy" (bourgeois) and from the Soviet form political power. The concept of "national paths to socialism" was based on the recognition of a gradual progressive movement towards a new system through evolutionary development, and not revolution. This evolutionary process was to be oriented toward civil peace and broad interclass alliance, excluding civil war and the dictatorship of the proletariat. In the economy, the Soviet practice of forcible expropriation of private property, which was supposed to be gradually transformed into public property, was completely denied. In general terms, this concept was formulated by the President of Czechoslovakia, E. Beneš, when he declared that a new era of "resolute struggle for a new social and economic structure, the transition from bourgeois democracy to people's democracy" is coming. Such a "soft" model was also beneficial for the USSR, which received a significant expansion of its sphere of influence and, along with this, could demonstrate that it did not impose its system on anyone by force.

But the "cold war" made significant adjustments to Moscow's relations with the "people's democracy" countries. The communist movement, led by Moscow, was included in the process of confrontation and became one of its leading forces. From the middle of 1947 the situation in Europe changed - the communists lost their positions in France, Italy and Finland, the communist resistance was defeated in Greece. The Stalinist leadership began to "float away from under its feet" and it took a course to speed up the revolutionary process.

The Cold War revived the logic of the pre-war confrontation between Stalin and Hitler, which in the communist movement meant a return to the idea of ​​a "united front" against imperialism, and in fact - the restoration of the Stalinist understanding of internationalism as loyalty to the USSR, the subordination of the countries of the socialist bloc to Soviet foreign policy. Fearing to lose its positions and striving with all its might to protect Eastern Europe from American influence, Moscow forced socio-economic and political transformations in these countries.

The second stage of relations is characterized by the establishment of such regimes in Eastern Europe, when the Soviet model of development was recognized as the only acceptable one. The process of the fall of the coalition governments of the "popular front" and the establishment of communist rule began. The communist government was formed in November 1946 in Bulgaria. In January 1947, the communist B. Bierut became president of Poland. From August 1947 to February 1948 similar regimes were established in Hungary, Romania and Czechoslovakia.

The transition to a single Soviet model of development was supposed to be facilitated by an international closed political structure - the Information Bureau of the Communist and Workers' Parties (Cominform), created in September 1947 and existed until 1956. The first blow, devastating in strength, was dealt to the concept of "national paths to socialism." At the very first meeting of the Cominform in September 1947 in Poland, the strategy of the communists in relation to democratic blocs and political allies was revised. The slightest deviation from the Soviet model came to be seen by Moscow as separatism and a potential threat to reduce the sphere of Soviet influence. The creation of the Cominform meant a transition to a strict unification of the communist ideology, a complete rejection of the concept of "national paths to socialism", the replacement of "people's democracy" by the state of the dictatorship of the proletariat. Recently opened documents show that at the turn of 1947-1948. the Stalinist leadership was preparing to accuse the leaders of the communist parties in Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Poland of ignoring the Marxist-Leninist theory, hostile attitude towards the USSR, liquidationist policy in the organizational building of the Communist Party, and loyalty to the kulak. However, at the very beginning of this hard line, Stalin unexpectedly encountered resistance from the Yugoslav communists.

Moscow was especially annoyed by the idea of ​​the Yugoslav leader Tito to create a Balkan federation (a union of Yugoslavia and Bulgaria). Stalin suspected Tito of striving for a leadership role in the Balkans, which, in his opinion, could cause a weakening of the USSR's position there. At the Soviet-Bulgarian-Yugoslav meeting on February 10, 1948, Stalin demanded that the process of creating a federation be transferred to a channel acceptable to the USSR. Tito did not agree with the Stalinist model of a federal structure and did not want to submit to Moscow's crude dictates.

"Rebellion on the ship" Stalin tried to suppress the hands of the Cominform, which in June 1948 issued a resolution on the situation in the Communist Party of Yugoslavia. The CPY was accused of departing from the Marxist-Leninist ideology, of slandering the USSR and the CPSU (b), and the Yugoslav communists were asked to change their leaders if they did not admit and correct their "mistakes". The events of the spring and summer of 1948 led to the rupture of diplomatic relations between the USSR and Yugoslavia in October 1949. Economic sanctions were applied against Yugoslavia.

The finale of the drama came on November 29, 1949, when the Cominform published a resolution entitled "The Yugoslav Communist Party is in the power of assassins and spies." Real anti-Yugoslav propaganda was launched in the USSR. The newspapers branded "the fascist clique of Tito-Rankovich". Tito himself was depicted with an ax in his hands, from which the blood of the Yugoslav communists flows.

After the Soviet-Yugoslav conflict, the countries of "people's democracy" were left with no options: either unquestioning obedience to Moscow's dictates, or complete political and economic isolation. Stalin demanded an exact repetition of the Soviet model of development, without any amendments "to local conditions." Copying the Soviet practice of socialist construction caused a wave of repressions in 1949-1952, which was organized by the secret services with the direct participation of advisers from Moscow. All party functionaries who advocated national features of building socialism were removed from leadership, sent to prison, and shot. Thus, the countries of the "people's democracy" turned into countries of the "socialist camp", with the laws of the center binding on them and party discipline. The use of the term "camp" perfectly accurately reflected the oppressive, oppressive atmosphere in the relationship between Moscow and the countries that built socialism according to the Soviet recipe. Only in the early 1960s did this concept in the political lexicon gradually begin to be replaced by the "socialist commonwealth".

Naturally, Moscow's imposition of its political will had a material basis. Even under conditions of famine, which in 1946 engulfed most of the territory of Moldova and Ukraine, the USSR delivered 2.5 million tons of grain to Bulgaria, Romania, Poland, Czechoslovakia, and the Soviet occupation zone of Germany. Economic assistance was transferred to solid ground as a result of the provision of concessional long-term loans to the countries of the "socialist camp", which amounted to 1945-1952. 3 billion dollars.

Under the conditions of severe polarization in the international arena, the actual emergence of pro-American and pro-Soviet blocs, the struggle for influence on countries that have not yet declared one or another orientation, the countries of the so-called "third world", has acquired particular importance. Among them are the young independent states freed from colonial or other dependence.

After World War II, the national liberation movement unfolded with particular force on the Asian continent. In 1945-1948. sovereignty is given to Indonesia, Pakistan, India, Burma and Ceylon, which is considered to be the first stage in the collapse of the colonial system.

The Soviet Union used all available means of influencing the national liberation movement and including it in the orbit of its influence. Material and military-political support were actively used. The political parties that were in opposition to the pro-Western forces in the country became channels for such assistance. So, for example, in Iran, occupied during the war by Soviet and British troops, the USSR supported the People's Party of Iran (the Tudeh Party), the separatism of the Kurds and Azerbaijanis. The strengthening of the Soviet position in Iran for Moscow was associated with the conquest of political power by the Tudeh party and the creation of a pro-Soviet regime there. In December 1945, the separatists, relying on Soviet assistance, proclaimed the Autonomous Republic of Azerbaijan and the Kurdish People's Republic in the northern provinces of Iran. This caused a sharp aggravation in Soviet-British relations. The British brought an additional military contingent into the northern provinces of Iran, suppressed the Kurdish and Azerbaijani separatists. There was no official reaction to the complete fiasco in Iran from Stalin, who did not want to get involved in a regional conflict.

Throughout all post-war years the national liberation movement was a channel of Soviet influence on the countries of the "third world", and the young independent states themselves often became "pawns" in the global geopolitical game, acted as an arena of confrontation between the Soviet and American blocs, which often resulted in armed confrontation.

The struggle between the USSR and the USA for strengthening their influence became most acute in Korea and Vietnam. After the end of World War II in the Asia-Pacific region, Korea was liberated from Japanese occupation and is divided into Soviet and American zones. In the northern part of the country, which ended up in the Soviet administrative zone, a "people's democratic revolution" began with the support of Moscow: new authorities were created - people's committees under the leadership of the Workers' Party of Korea and its leader Kim Il Sung; in 1946, a land reform, nationalization of industry, and other transformations were carried out. In September 1948, the formation of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) was proclaimed. Simultaneously with these events, an American military administration had been functioning in the southern part of Korea since the autumn of 1945, which was not going to give up its positions in Korea. Here, in 1948, the government of South Korea was established, headed by the American protege Lee Syngman. A hotbed of direct confrontation between systems arose, called in modern historiography "the phenomenon of divided peoples."

China also fell into the sphere of Soviet influence. A strong communist party, founded here in the 1920s and actively supported by the Comintern, was defeated in 1927 by the Western-oriented national Kuomintang party. The communists started guerrilla war against the Kuomintang and established strongholds in remote rural areas. Since 1931, Japan began to fight for the subjugation of all of China, which was largely hampered by the military and material assistance of the Soviet Union. After the rout Kwantung Army in 1945, Northeast China, occupied by the Japanese, was liberated. China swept Civil War between the communists led by Mao Zedong and the troops of the Kuomintang. With active Soviet assistance, the communists won. On October 1, 1949, the Chinese People's Republic(PRC), and on February 14, 1950, an agreement on friendship, alliance and mutual assistance was signed between it and the USSR. Stalin considered the victory of the revolution in China and the building of socialism there according to the Soviet model as a key condition for the victory of socialism throughout the world, and therefore spared neither effort nor means to help the Chinese communists, and also made significant concessions on all controversial issues. Thus, the USSR provided China with a one-percent loan in the amount of $300 million, transferred to the PRC government free of charge the rights to the former CER for 25 years. ahead of time the expiration of the contract, he left the port of Dalniy (Dalian) and withdrew his military forces from the joint Soviet-Chinese base Port Arthur, transferring all property and facilities to the Chinese side. A "great friendship" was proclaimed between the USSR and China for all eternity.

After the war, the world was actually redistributed, two main poles of attraction were formed, and a bipolar geopolitical model was formed. At a meeting of the Cominform in November 1949, in the report of M.A. Suslov, it was stated that on the one hand there is an aggressive and bloody imperialism, pursuing a policy of violence against the peoples, preparing for a war against the USSR, on the other, the progressive USSR and its allies.

Most definitely about the nature of the Soviet foreign policy Churchill spoke out, calling it "Soviet imperialism" and emphasizing the close connection between the foreign policy aspirations of the Soviet Union and the communist idea. He noted that after the war, "Russian imperialism and communist doctrine did not see and did not set limits to their progress and striving for final domination." Having accepted Lenin's idea of ​​a "world revolution", the pragmatic politician Stalin gradually transformed it into the concept of the steady expansion of the "socialist camp", spheres of influence in the "third world" under the slogans of proletarian internationalism, rallying peace fighters, etc. Along with consistent, realistic actions to expand the Soviet bloc and the zone of influence in the Third World, Moscow's post-war ambitions sometimes went beyond sober calculation. So, the most odious example, difficult to explain from the point of view of common sense, can be considered Stalin's demands in the summer-autumn of 1945, doomed to failure from the very beginning. These are demands for a change in the regime of the Black Sea straits, the return of the Kars and Ardagan districts to the USSR, which became Turkish in 1921, the participation of the USSR in the management of Tangier (Morocco), as well as statements of interest in changing political regimes in Syria, Lebanon, a number of Italian colonies in Africa . Forced at the request of Stalin to implement these absurd initiatives in the international arena, V.M. Molotov later recalled: "It was difficult to come up with such demands then. But to scare them - they scared them hard."

One way or another, but by the beginning of 1949 the "socialist camp" was ideologically united on the basis of subordination and strict discipline. In all countries, programs for building socialism according to the Soviet version were approved, and their cooperation was consolidated within the framework of the CMEA. Two communist regimes emerged in the Asia-Pacific region. The revolution in China ended victoriously. The influence of the USSR in the countries of the "third world" has increased significantly. The measures taken by the United States and its allies were already announced in Churchill's Fulton speech, they only needed to be formalized in international law.

On April 4, 1949, at the initiative of the United States, the North Atlantic Treaty was signed, which determined the international legal basis for the military-political alliance of the pro-American bloc. This alliance was called the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, or NATO (from the English North Atlantic Treaty Organization - NATO). NATO included the USA, Great Britain, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Canada, Italy, Portugal, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, in 1952 Turkey and Greece. Within the framework of NATO, a unified military command of the participating countries was created, which became the basis of the first military bloc of states in the post-war world. The creation of NATO makes it possible to talk about the transition of confrontation from the ideological and political sphere to the military one, which qualitatively changed the international situation and led to a significant aggravation of international tension.

The only sphere of allied relations in 1945-1949. the joint administration of Germany remained, therefore it was in the German question that the confrontation manifested itself most sharply. The Soviet Union adhered to the position of the territorial integrity of the German state. This position was caused by two main factors: the threat of revanchist sentiment in the western occupation zones, which had an economically rich Ruhr basin, and the desire to receive reparation payments from the government of a united Germany in full. As V.M. Molotov, Stalin was practically confident in the victory of the German communists and did not give up hope of extending Soviet influence throughout Germany.

In a radically changed international situation, the politics of the German question has become the main way of confrontation for the West. From January 1, 1947, the process of merging the Allied occupation zones began: during 1947, the British and American zones were merged, and in the summer of 1948 the French zone was attached to them. The reform of the monetary system in June 1948 in West Germany and its inclusion in the sphere of economic assistance under the "Marshall Plan" laid the economic foundation for the division of the territory of the German state. The last desperate attempt to put pressure on the former allies was the economic blockade of West Berlin (the allied occupation sectors of the capital of Germany, which was entirely in the Soviet zone). In the spring of 1949, the USSR tried to block the delivery of food to West Berlin, but to no avail - the Americans delivered all the means of life support for the population by air. Stalin's proposal to lift the blockade of West Berlin in exchange for abandoning the idea of ​​creating a West German state was ignored.

In May 1949, an agreement was signed between the high commissioners of the western occupation zones on the creation of the Federal Republic of Germany with its capital in Bonn, the Constitution was adopted and government bodies of the FRG were formed. As a response, in October 1949, the German Democratic Republic (GDR) was created in the Soviet occupation zone.

The confrontation between the two systems made open military confrontation quite real. The danger of this trend was aggravated by the nuclear factor. Until 1949, the only power that possessed nuclear weapons was the United States, which turned them into the main means of pressure on the USSR. In the summer of 1946, the United States submitted the Baruch Plan to the UN, which proposed to establish international system control over nuclear energy.

All types of activities (research and production) related to nuclear energy were to be controlled by a special international organization, the real leadership of which was in the United States. If the Baruch plan was adopted, it would be possible to consolidate the US monopoly on developments in the field of nuclear energy. The USSR came up with a counter-initiative and submitted to the UN a convention on the complete prohibition of nuclear weapons, proposing not to use them under any circumstances, to ban their production and storage, and to destroy all their stocks. The UN Security Council was supposed to monitor compliance with the convention. The Baruch plan was rejected by the USSR, and the convention for the prohibition of nuclear weapons by the United States. The aggravation in the international legal plane of the issue of atomic energy and nuclear weapons served as the beginning of the era of "nuclear diplomacy", an arms race in the international arena.

The United States, in preparing its military-strategic plans, proceeded from the readiness to use nuclear weapons against the USSR. Among these plans, the most famous was the Dropshot plan (1949), which outlined the primary goals of nuclear bombing of the cities of the Soviet Union.

The US monopoly on nuclear weapons put the USSR in a rather difficult position and forced the country's leadership to pursue two main lines. The first, official line was to ensure that, regardless of any difficulties, create Soviet nuclear weapons and eliminate the US nuclear monopoly. The efforts of the Soviet military-industrial complex were crowned with success. A TASS statement dated September 25, 1949 stated that the secret of the atomic bomb was no more. Thus, the US nuclear monopoly was eliminated. The confrontation became thermonuclear.

While not yet in possession of nuclear weapons, the USSR activated the second, propaganda line. Its essence was to demonstrate in every possible way the desire to agree with the United States on the prohibition and destruction of nuclear weapons. Was this wish sincere? Did the Soviet leadership consider such negotiations real? Most likely not. Another thing is important - this propaganda line responded to the desire of the Soviet people to live in peace, and official propaganda in this case coincided with the peace movement both in the USSR and abroad.

In 1947, at the initiative of the USSR, a resolution of the UN General Assembly was adopted condemning any form of propaganda aimed at creating or intensifying a threat to peace. Against the backdrop of a broad international discussion of the threat of world war in August 1948, on the initiative of prominent scientists and cultural figures, an international peace movement arose, which held its first congress in April 1949 in Paris. Representatives of 72 countries took part in the congress, the Standing Committee of the World Peace Congress headed by the outstanding French physicist F. Joliot-Curie was created, and International Peace Prizes were established. This social movement absolutely coincided with the official foreign policy line of the Soviet Union, so the USSR provided constant assistance to the peace movement.

It also assumed an organized character inside the country, uniting with all the might of the Soviet propaganda machine - in August 1949, the first All-Union Peace Conference was held in Moscow and the Soviet Committee for the Defense of Peace was created. The entire adult population of the USSR (115.5 million people) put their signatures under the Stockholm Appeal, adopted in March 1950 by the session of the Standing Committee of the World Peace Congress. The appeal demanded an unconditional ban on atomic weapons "as weapons of intimidation and mass extermination of people." The signatories demanded "the establishment of strict international control over the execution of this decision," and the first use of atomic weapons against any country was declared a "crime against humanity."

At the official diplomatic level, in June 1950, the USSR declared its readiness to cooperate with the legislatures of other countries in implementing the proposals of the supporters of peace, and on March 12, 1951, the Supreme Soviet of the USSR adopted the Law on the Protection of Peace, according to which propaganda of war was declared the gravest crime against humanity.

The apogee of the confrontation was the war in Korea (June 25, 1950 - July 28, 1953), during which the struggle between the USSR and the USA for influence in Asia turned into an open military confrontation that threatened to develop into world war. In the Korean War, North Korea (DPRK) fought against pro-American South Korea. On the side of the DPRK, Chinese volunteers took part in the hostilities, and from the end of November 1950, several Soviet air divisions on aircraft with Korean identification marks, air defense formations. The Americans fought on the side of South Korea under the UN flag. The Soviet government provided the DPRK with military and financial assistance: supplied the Korean army with tanks, aircraft, ammunition, medicines. Several Soviet ground divisions were prepared to be sent to Korea. Military operations took place with varying success. The US landing in the rear of the North Korean army in September 1950 and the massive bombing of the capital of the DPRK Pyongyang in July 1952 played the greatest role militarily. Nevertheless, neither side managed to achieve a decisive strategic advantage, and on July 28, 1953 peace was established, but the country remained divided into two states.

The confrontation between the blocs came to a dangerous point during the Cuban Missile Crisis in the autumn of 1962. The United States began to deploy missiles with nuclear charges in Turkey, Italy and the FRG, organizing their military bases there. The United States also tried to overthrow the Castro regime by organizing an amphibious landing in the Playa Giron area in April 1961.

Under the threat of losing power, Castro in the spring of 1962 obtained from the Soviet leadership the recognition of Cuba as a socialist country. The admission of Cuba into the "socialist camp" imposed obligations on the USSR, primarily in the military-strategic field, related to the defense of the territory of the "island of freedom." The United States continued to develop plans for a military invasion of the island.

Therefore, in the spring of 1962, the USSR began to secretly equip its military base in Cuba, carrying out a top-secret transfer of people and medium-range missiles. This made it possible, while defending the socialist transformations in Cuba, at the same time to keep Washington at gunpoint. The retaliatory step of American President D. Kennedy was the naval blockade of Cuba and the demand for the immediate withdrawal of Soviet missiles from the island. Not only the troops of the USSR and the USA, but also the formations of NATO and the Department of Internal Affairs were brought to full combat readiness.

Intensive negotiations began between Khrushchev and Kennedy, as a result of which a saving compromise was reached: the USSR took out missiles from Cuba, and the USA - from Turkey and Italy; America also guaranteed the security of Cuba and the Castro regime.

Of particular discussion is the question of which side prevailed as a result of the Cuban Missile Crisis. The literature presents a wide range of opinions. It seems that it is necessary to separate the political and military results of past events. If in the political sense the United States gained an advantage and new evidence of "Soviet expansionism", then militarily the withdrawal of American missiles from the territory of Turkey and Italy was an undoubted success for the USSR. If the propaganda effect was obvious, the US military agreements and concessions in Turkey and Italy were kept secret. This development of events led to further confrontation between the USSR and China, since it gave Mao Zedong a pretext to speak of a "criminal conspiracy" between Soviet revisionism and American imperialism.

On a number of points, Mao's views were shared by Castro, who believed that Khrushchev had betrayed him when he made concessions to the Americans and "exchanged" their missiles in Turkey and Italy for his own in Cuba. However, the main and indisputable significance of the Caribbean crisis was to prove the impossibility of using nuclear missiles to achieve political goals. The Cuban Missile Crisis marked the end of the first period of the Cold War, when it could escalate into an armed conflict.

After the crisis, a gradual process of removing the sharp confrontation in relations between the USSR and the USA began. an important step in this direction was the signing of an agreement on the prohibition of tests of atomic weapons in the atmosphere, space and under water, which took place in august 1963 in Moscow. The assassination of Kennedy in November 1963 and the resignation of Khrushchev in October 1964 slowed down the development of this process.

Thus, the analysis historical events during the period under review allows us to conclude that both the leadership of the United States and the USSR were equally guilty of unleashing the Cold War at its first stage, which not only did not try to reduce it, but intensified it in every possible way by conducting appropriate ideological propaganda .

Big scientific interest causes the so-called Allen Dulles plan, which will be discussed further in this work.

RVIO Scientific Director Mikhail Myagkov spoke about how the American aid program to Europe launched the Cold War with the USSR.

Traveling through the expanses of the foreign press, we found one interesting article published in the American newspaper The Washington Post. And although the text tells about the events of the late 1940s, the author leaves no doubt that this topic is still relevant.

We are talking about the famous Marshall Plan, or rather, about a book that is entirely devoted to this American program assistance to Europe after World War II. The author of the article is Dr. historical sciences, history professor Hope Harrison. Its material focuses on the book by writer Benn Steil called The Marshall Plan: Dawn of the Cold War.

It is noteworthy that in his article Harrison openly criticizes the Marshall Plan, arguing that "an initiative like this is unlikely to be implemented again - even if one day a president rises again at the head of the United States, who considers that America's key interests are closely connected with the interests of other countries, and who wants to help these countries.”

Both the author of the book and the historian agree that it was the policy of Secretary of State George C. Marshall, which the United States began to implement in April 1948, that launched the mechanism of the Cold War and aggravated relations with the Soviet Union.

It would seem that by deciding to help 17 European countries restore their economies after World War II, America showed nobility, but a number of historians see completely different reasons for this.

Read about the role the Marshall Plan played in the Cold War, what America was guided by in this situation, and how it connected with the division of Germany into East and West - read in our interview with scientific director Mikhail Myagkov.

Depression or Cold War?

- Mikhail Yuryevich, tell us what thethe Marshall Plan and why did America need it first of all?

The Marshall Plan is a large-scale economic assistance of the United States of America to the countries of Europe (affected in World War II. - Note. ed.). But this assistance had a twofold purpose. On the one hand, it really was help, and on the other hand, it was the subordination of European countries to the American economy, which, in fact, tied European countries to the industrial, agricultural and financial power of the United States. In addition, it was also an opportunity for America to subjugate Western Europe in military and political terms.

What role did the Marshall Plan play in rebuilding the economies of countries affected by the war? And what exactly was the help?

The assistance was quite significant: the total amount of allocations to Western European countries for several years is about 13 billion dollars. It allowed Europe to quickly increase the pace of development of its industry and agriculture. But do not forget that the Marshall Plan was primarily needed by the United States itself, because in America, one way or another, they were afraid of the post-war depression.

- And the help to Europe could prevent this depression? How exactly?

In the States, there was a certain overproduction of goods that needed to be sold somewhere, and this sale had to be made precisely to the countries of Europe. This enabled American industry and agriculture not to lose the pace of its development after the war, because the war gave American industry a powerful impetus. And the US government was afraid that after the war the sale of goods would stop and what happened during the Great Depression of 1929-1930 would be repeated. To avoid this, it was necessary to open markets in Europe. Accordingly, Europe had to submit economically to the United States. And the second goal, as I said, was through this large-scale assistance to subjugate Europe and in the military-political sense. For example, it was agreed in advance that left-wing forces should be removed from the governments of countries that receive support. It was a kind of mechanism for the Cold War, which was already flaring up at that time.

The division of Germany was thought about during the war

- In the articleTheWashingtonpost there is a phrase that, in my opinion, well illustrates the position of the United States in this story. True, it looks more like an excuse: “At first, America believed that the economic assistance program would stabilize Europe and give the United States the opportunity at some point to leave there in order to concentrate on its own affairs. However, European concerns about a possible resurgence of German power required the United States to maintain its presence in Europe. Do you think it is possible to believe that America was really going to “leave” Europe?

Whatever American President Franklin Roosevelt said during World War II, after the war the United States naturally wanted to stay in Europe. They needed to be there in order, first of all, to discover the markets of European states and through their economy to penetrate even more into the colonies of European countries scattered around the world, to subjugate them economically and politically.

And were they really afraid of the revival of the power of Germany then? And is the Marshall Plan connected with the process of dividing Germany into the GDR and the FRG?

The Marshall Plan undoubtedly influenced the division of Germany, since the United States was interested in one way or another in Germany being economically subordinate primarily to American capital. The Americans had access to coal, to steel, to the production facilities of the western part of Germany. All this would allow the United States not only to subjugate West Germany, but also to oppose its resources to the Soviet Union. It is noticeable that in the conditions of the already flaring Cold War, the Americans tried to strengthen their military and economic capabilities, including at the expense of West Germany. And it is clear that such support, of course, could only lead to the division of the country.

One of the prerequisites for the Marshall Plan is sometimes cited as the failure of the Morgenthau Plan, which was also a program to prevent Germany from starting a third world war. What is the difference between these two concepts?

The Morgenthau Plan, in fact, spoke of the transformation of Germany into an agrarian country. Such thoughts were indeed expressed, there were such projects. Franklin Roosevelt, during the war years, had plans to divide Germany into several states. But in the context of the Cold War that had already begun, when the United States headed for an escalation of confrontation with the Soviet Union, fears about a possible revival of the power of the western part of Germany gave way to a desire to use its potential against the USSR. West Germany was already taken into account in the plans for the war against the Soviet Union.

Reduce Russia to a subordinate power

- How did the Soviet leadership react to such a policy of the Americans?

There is an opinion that the Soviet Union immediately rejected the Marshall Plan. But, on the other hand, it is also known that in 1947 negotiations were held between the USSR, England and France, at which V. M. Molotov was present from the USSR, where issues of American assistance to European countries affected by the war were initially discussed. On the other hand, when it became clear that the Marshall Plan was aimed primarily at subordinating the European states to the American economy and politics, the attitude of the Soviet Union towards it, of course, became unambiguously negative.

The Americans played their game, and the USSR did not want the economic, and then the military-political influence of the United States to penetrate the countries of Eastern Europe. Then the Soviet Union, instead of a security belt on its borders, could again receive a belt of unfriendly states. A threat from a potential adversary would come very close to our territory (as happened in the 1990-2000s, when Eastern European countries began to join NATO). In any case, it was clear in Moscow that the United States of America was thinking primarily in terms of the weakening of the USSR.

Doesn't it seem strange to you that both the article and the book to which it is dedicated were published not somewhere abroad, but in the USA, that is, in the homeland of the Marshall Plan? After all, both the journalist and the historian, whose book is analyzed there, quite openly criticize such a policy of the States. Maybe this is a sign that America is ready for rapprochement with Russia, and not unleashing a new Cold War? And did the Marshall Plan play such a big role in this conflict?

I think the Marshall Plan for the American leadership was precisely the Cold War escalation mechanism. At the same time, the Americans were interested in getting as many countries as possible into their orbit. They wanted the Eastern European countries, which in those years were under the influence of the Soviet Union, to also enter their sphere of influence. Accordingly, Europe both then and today occupies the most important place in the strategic plans of the United States - both economic and political. That is, the more European countries enter the US orbit, the easier it will be for the States to implement their various military-political plans, including the encirclement of Russia with military bases, increasing sanctions against it, and other methods aimed at undermining our defense capability and economic development. If the Americans then used all their economic and political possibilities for this, then they will do it today. No matter how much the Marshall Plan was criticized, the most important foundations that were laid then, in fact, continue to operate today. Even earlier, the States sought to subjugate Europe and use its resources against the USSR. And today, Washington wants to continue to dominate the European continent economically and military-politically and use its potential against Russia.

The term "cold war" was first used by the famous English writer George Orwell on October 19, 1945, in the article "You and the Atomic Bomb" in the British weekly Tribune. In an official setting, this definition was first voiced by adviser to US President Harry Truman Bernard Baruch, speaking before the State House of Representatives South Carolina April 16, 1947 Since that time, the concept of "cold war" began to be used in journalism and gradually entered the political lexicon.

Strengthening influence

After the end of World War II political situation prevailing in Europe and Asia has changed dramatically. Former allies in the fight against Nazi Germany - the USSR and the USA - looked differently at the further structure of the world. The leadership of the Soviet Union provided serious assistance to the liberated countries of Eastern Europe, where the communists came to power: Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia. Many Europeans believed that replacing the capitalist system, which was going through hard times, with a socialist one would help quickly restore the economy and return to normal life. In most Western European countries, the proportion of votes cast during elections for the communists was between 10 and 20 percent. This happened even in such countries, alien to socialist slogans, as Belgium, Holland, Denmark and Sweden. In France and Italy, the communist parties were the largest among the other parties, the communists were part of the governments, they were supported by about a third of the population. In the face of the USSR, they saw not the Stalinist regime, but, above all, the force that defeated the "invincible" Nazism.

The USSR also considered it necessary to support the countries of Asia and Africa that had freed themselves from colonial dependence and embarked on the path of building socialism. As a result, the Soviet sphere of influence on the world map expanded rapidly.

disagreement

The United States and its allies viewed the further world development in a completely different way, they were annoyed by the growing importance of the USSR on the world stage. The United States believed that only their country - the only power in the world at that time that possessed nuclear weapons - could dictate its terms to other states, and therefore they were not satisfied that the Soviets were striving to strengthen and expand the so-called "socialist camp".

Thus, at the end of the war, the interests of the two largest world powers entered into an irreconcilable contradiction, each country sought to extend its influence to large quantity states. A struggle began in all directions: in ideology, in order to attract as many supporters as possible to their side; in an arms race to speak to opponents from a position of strength; in the economy - to show the superiority of their social system, and even, it would seem, in such a peaceful area as sports.

It should be noted that at the initial stage, the forces that entered into confrontation were not equal. The Soviet Union, which bore the brunt of the war on its shoulders, emerged from it economically weakened. The United States, on the contrary, largely thanks to the war turned into a superpower - in economic and military terms. During the years of World War II, the United States increased industrial capacity by 50%, and agricultural production by 36%. industrial production The USA, excluding the USSR, surpassed the production of all other countries of the world combined. In such circumstances, the United States considered the pressure on its opponents completely justified.

Thus, the world was actually divided in two in accordance with social systems: one side led by the USSR, the other led by the United States. Between these military-political blocs, the Cold War began: a global confrontation, which, fortunately, did not reach an open military clash, but constantly provoked local military conflicts in various countries.

Churchill's Fulton speech

The starting point or signal for the beginning of the Cold War is considered to be the famous speech of former British Prime Minister W. Churchill in Fulton (Missouri, USA). On March 5, 1946, speaking in the presence of US President G. Truman, Churchill announced that "the United States is at the pinnacle of world power and is opposed by only two enemies -" war and tyranny ". Analyzing the situation in Europe and Asia, Churchill stated that the Soviet Union was the cause of "international difficulties", since "no one knows what Soviet Russia and its international communist organization intend to do in the near future, and whether there are any limits to their expansion" . True, the prime minister paid tribute to the merits of the Russian people and personally to his "military comrade Stalin", and even reacted with understanding to the fact that "Russia needs to secure its western borders and eliminate all possibilities of German aggression." Describing the current situation in the world, Churchill used the term " iron curtain", which descended "from Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, across the entire continent." The countries to the east of it, according to Churchill, became not only objects of Soviet influence, but also of growing control from Moscow ... The small communist parties in all these Eastern European states “are grown to a position and strength that greatly exceed their numbers, and they are trying to achieve totalitarian control in everything. Churchill declared about the danger of communism and that "in a large number of countries communist "fifth columns" have been created, which work in complete unity and absolute obedience in carrying out directives received from the communist center.

Churchill understood that the Soviet Union was not interested in a new war, but noted that the Russians "craved the fruits of the war and the unlimited expansion of their power and ideology." He called on the “fraternal association of English-speaking peoples,” that is, the United States, Great Britain and their allies, to repulse the USSR, not only in the political but also in the military sphere. He further noted: “From what I saw during the war in our Russian friends and associates, I conclude that they admire nothing more than strength, and they respect nothing less than weakness, especially military weakness. Therefore, the old doctrine of the balance of power is now unfounded.”

At the same time, speaking about the lessons of the past war, Churchill noted that “there has never been a war in history that could have been easier to prevent by timely action than one that had just devastated a huge area on the planet. Such a mistake cannot be repeated. And for this, under the auspices of the United Nations and on the basis of military force English-speaking community to find mutual understanding with Russia. The maintenance of such relations during many, many years of peace must be ensured not only by the authority of the UN, but by all the might of the United States, Great Britain and others. English speaking countries, and their allies."

This was blatant hypocrisy, since in the spring of 1945 Churchill ordered the preparation of the military operation "Unthinkable", which was a war plan in the event of a military conflict between Western states and the USSR. These developments were met with skepticism by the British military; They weren't even shown to the Americans. In comments on a draft submitted to him, Churchill indicated that the plan was "a preliminary sketch of what, I hope, is still a purely hypothetical possibility."

In the USSR, the text of Churchill's Fulton speech was not fully translated, but was retold in detail on March 11, 1946 in a TASS report.

I. Stalin became aware of the content of Churchill's speech literally the next day, but, as often happened, he preferred to pause, waiting for what kind of reaction to this speech would follow from abroad. Stalin gave his answer in an interview with the Pravda newspaper only on March 14, 1946. He accused his opponent of calling on the West to go to war with the USSR: “In fact, Mr. in English, something like an ultimatum: acknowledge our dominance voluntarily, and then everything will be in order - otherwise war is inevitable. Stalin put W. Churchill on a par with Hitler, accusing him of racism: German represent a complete nation. Mr. Churchill begins the business of unleashing war also with racial theory, arguing that only nations that speak the English language are full-fledged nations, called upon to decide the fate of the whole world.

Truman Doctrine

In 1946–1947 The USSR stepped up pressure on Turkey. From Turkey, the USSR sought to change the status of the Black Sea straits and provide territory for the location of its naval base near the Dardanelles to ensure security and unhindered access to the Mediterranean Sea. Also, until the spring of 1946, the USSR was in no hurry to withdraw its troops from the territory of Iran. An uncertain situation also developed in Greece, where there was a civil war, and the Albanian, Bulgarian and Yugoslav communists tried to help the Greek communists.

All this caused extreme discontent in the United States. President G. Truman believed that only America is capable of promoting progress, freedom and democracy in the world, and the Russians, in his opinion, “do not know how to behave. They are like an elephant in a china shop.”

Speaking on March 12, 1947 in the US Congress, Harry Truman announced the need to provide military assistance to Greece and Turkey. In fact, in his speech, he announced a new US foreign policy doctrine, which authorized US intervention in the internal affairs of other countries. The reason for this intervention was the need to resist the "Soviet expansion".

The Truman Doctrine assumed the "containment" of the USSR throughout the world and meant the end of cooperation between the former allies who defeated fascism.

Marshall Plan

At the same time, the "cold war front" ran not only between countries, but also within them. The success of the left forces in Europe was obvious. In order to prevent the spread of communist ideas, in June 1947, US Secretary of State George Marshall presented a plan to help European countries to restore the destroyed economy. This plan became known as the Marshall Plan. official name European Recovery Program - "Program for the recovery of Europe") and became integral part new US foreign policy.

In July 1947, representatives of 16 Western European countries gathered for a meeting in Paris to discuss the amount of assistance for each country separately. Together with representatives of Western Europe, representatives of the USSR and the states of Eastern Europe were also invited to these talks. And although Marshall declared that “our policy is directed not against any country or doctrine, but against hunger, poverty, despair and chaos,” the help, as it turned out, was not disinterested. In exchange for American supplies and loans, European countries pledged to provide the United States with information about their economies, supply strategic raw materials, and also prevent the sale of "strategic goods" to socialist states.

For the USSR, such conditions were unacceptable, and he refused to participate in the negotiations, forbidding the leaders of the Eastern European countries to do so, promising them, in turn, preferential loans from his side.

The Marshall Plan began to be implemented in April 1948, when the US Congress passed the law "On Economic Cooperation", which provided for a four-year (from April 1948 to December 1951) program of economic assistance to Europe. Assistance was received by 17 countries, including West Germany. The total amount of appropriations amounted to about 17 billion dollars. The main share went to England (2.8 billion), France (2.5 billion), Italy (1.3 billion), West Germany (1.3 billion) and Holland (1.1 billion). West Germany, financial assistance under the Marshall Plan was provided simultaneously with the collection of indemnities (reparations) from it for material damage caused to the victorious countries in World War II.

Formation of CMEA

Eastern European countries that did not participate in the Marshall Plan formed a group of states of the socialist system (except for Yugoslavia, which occupied an independent position). In January 1949, six countries of Eastern Europe (Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania, the USSR and Czechoslovakia) united into an economic union - the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (CMEA). One of the main reasons for the creation of the CMEA was the boycott Western countries trade relations with the socialist states. In February, Albania joined the CMEA (it left in 1961), in 1950 - the GDR, in 1962 - Mongolia and in 1972 - Cuba.

Creation of NATO

A kind of continuation of Truman's foreign policy was the creation in April 1949 of a military-political alliance - the North Atlantic bloc (NATO), led by the United States. Initially, NATO included the United States, Canada and Western European countries: Belgium, Great Britain, Denmark, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal and France (withdrew from the bloc's military structures in 1966, returned in 2009). Greece and Turkey (1952), the Federal Republic of Germany (1955) and Spain (1982) later joined the alliance. The main task of NATO was to strengthen stability in the North Atlantic region and counter the "communist threat". (The Soviet Union and the countries of Eastern Europe created their own military alliance - the Organization Warsaw Pact(OVD) - only six years later, in 1955). Thus, Europe was divided into two opposing parts.

German question

The division of Europe had a particularly hard effect on the fate of Germany. At the Yalta Conference in 1945, a plan was agreed upon for the post-war occupation of Germany between the victorious countries, to which, at the insistence of the USSR, France joined. According to this plan, after the end of the war, the east of Germany was occupied by the USSR, the west - by the USA, Great Britain and France. The capital of Germany - Berlin - was also divided into four zones.

West Germany in 1948 was included in the scope of the Marshall Plan. Thus, the unification of the country became impossible, since different economic systems were formed in different parts of the country. In June 1948 western allies unilaterally carried out a monetary reform in West Germany and West Berlin, abolishing the old-fashioned money. The whole mass of old Reichsmarks poured into East Germany which forced the USSR to close the borders. West Berlin was completely surrounded. The first serious conflict arose between the former allies, called Berlin Crisis. Stalin wanted to use the situation with the blockade of West Berlin to occupy the entire German capital and extract concessions from the United States. But the United States and Great Britain organized an air bridge to connect Berlin with the western sectors and broke the blockade of the city. In May 1949, the territories located in the western zone of occupation were united into the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG), with Bonn as its capital. West Berlin was becoming an autonomous self-governing city linked to the FRG. In October 1949, another German state, the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was created in the Soviet zone of occupation, with East Berlin as its capital.

End of US nuclear monopoly

The Soviet leadership understood that the US, which possessed nuclear weapons, could afford to speak with it from a position of strength. Moreover, unlike the United States, the Soviet Union emerged from the war economically weakened and, therefore, vulnerable. Therefore, accelerated work was carried out in the USSR to create its own nuclear weapons. In 1948 in Chelyabinsk region A nuclear center was established where a plutonium production reactor was built. In August 1949, the Soviet Union successfully tested a nuclear weapon. The United States lost its monopoly on atomic weapons, which sharply tempered the ardor of American strategists. The famous German researcher Otto Hahn, who discovered the fission process atomic nucleus, having learned about the test of the first Soviet atomic bomb, he remarked: "This is good news, since the danger of war has now been significantly reduced."

It must be admitted that the USSR was forced to allocate colossal funds to achieve this goal, which caused serious damage to the production of consumer goods, agricultural production and the socio-cultural development of the country.

Dropshot Plan

Despite the creation of atomic weapons in the USSR, the West did not abandon plans to deliver nuclear strikes against the USSR. Such plans were developed in the United States and Great Britain immediately after the end of the war. But only after the formation of NATO in 1949 did the United States have a real opportunity to fulfill them and they proposed another, already more ambitious plan.

On December 19, 1949, NATO approved the Dropshot plan ("Dropshot") "to counter the alleged Soviet invasion of Western Europe, the Middle East and Japan." In 1977, his text was declassified in the USA. According to the document, on January 1, 1957, the start of a large-scale war of the forces of the North Atlantic Alliance against the USSR was supposed to begin. Naturally, "due to an act of aggression by the USSR and its satellites." In accordance with this plan, 300 atomic bombs and 250 thousand tons of conventional explosives. As a result of the first bombing, 85% of industrial facilities were to be destroyed. The second stage of the war was to be followed by an occupation. NATO strategists divided the territory of the USSR into 4 parts: West Side USSR, Ukraine - Caucasus, Urals - Western Siberia- Turkestan, Eastern Siberia - Transbaikalia - Primorye. All these zones were divided into 22 sub-zones of responsibility, where NATO military contingents were to be deployed.

Expansion of the socialist camp

Immediately after the start of the Cold War, the countries of the Asia-Pacific region turned into an arena for a fierce struggle between supporters of the communist and capitalist paths of development. On October 1, 1949, the People's Republic of China was proclaimed in Beijing, the capital of China.

With the creation of the People's Republic of China, the military-political situation in the world changed radically, as the communists won in one of the most populous states in the world. The socialist camp has moved significantly to the east, and the West could not but reckon with the vast territory and powerful military potential of socialism, including Soviet nuclear missile weapons. However, subsequent events showed that there was no unequivocal certainty in the alignment of military-political forces in the Asia-Pacific region. For many years, China has become the "favorite card" in the global game of two superpowers for dominance in the world.

Growing confrontation

In the late 1940s, despite the difficult economic situation in the USSR, the rivalry between the capitalist and communist blocs continued and led to a further buildup of armaments.

The opposing sides sought to achieve superiority both in the field of nuclear weapons and in their means of delivery. In addition to bombers, rockets became such means. A nuclear-missile arms race began, which led to extreme strain on the economies of both blocs. Enormous funds were spent on defense needs, the best scientific personnel. Powerful associations of state, industrial and military structures were created - military-industrial complexes (MIC), where the most modern technology, which worked primarily for the arms race.

In November 1952, the United States tested the world's first thermonuclear charge, the explosion power of which was many times greater than the atomic one. In response to this, in August 1953, the world's first hydrogen bomb was detonated in the USSR at the Semipalatinsk test site. Unlike the American model, the Soviet bomb was ready for practical application. From that moment until the 1960s. The United States overtook the USSR only in the number of weapons.

Korean War 1950-1953

The USSR and the USA were aware of the danger of a war between them, which forced them not to go into direct confrontation, but to act "bypassing", fighting for the world's resources outside their countries. In 1950, shortly after the victory of the Communists in China, the Korean War began, which became the first military clash between socialism and capitalism, bringing the world to the brink of nuclear conflict.

Korea was occupied by Japan in 1905. In August 1945, at the final stage of World War II, in connection with the victory over Japan and its surrender, the United States and the USSR agreed to divide Korea along the 38th parallel, assuming that to the north of it the Japanese the troops will surrender to the Red Army, and to the south the surrender will be accepted by American troops. Thus, the peninsula was divided into northern - Soviet, and southern, American, parts. The countries of the anti-Hitler coalition believed that after a while Korea should be reunited, but under the conditions of the Cold War, the 38th parallel essentially turned into a border - an "iron curtain" between North and South Korea. By 1949, the USSR and the USA withdrew their troops from the territory of Korea.

Governments were formed in both parts of the Korean peninsula, northern and southern. In the south of the peninsula, with the support of the United Nations, the United States held elections in which a government led by Syngman Rhee was elected. In the north, Soviet troops handed over power to the communist government led by Kim Il Sung.

In 1950, the leadership of North Korea (People's Democratic Republic of Korea - DPRK), referring to the fact that South Korean troops invaded the DPRK, crossed the 38th parallel. The armed forces of China (called "Chinese volunteers") fought on the side of the DPRK. The USSR provided direct assistance to North Korea, supplying the Korean army and "Chinese volunteers" with weapons, ammunition, aircraft, fuel, food and medicine. Also, a small contingent of Soviet troops took part in the hostilities: pilots and anti-aircraft gunners.

In turn, the United States passed a resolution through the UN Security Council calling for the necessary assistance to South Korea and sent its troops there under the UN flag. In addition to the Americans, the contingents of Great Britain (more than 60 thousand people), Canada (more than 20 thousand), Turkey (5 thousand) and other states fought under the UN flag.

In 1951, US President Harry Truman threatened to use atomic weapons against China in response to Chinese aid to North Korea. The Soviet Union also did not want to concede. The conflict was resolved diplomatically only after the death of Stalin in 1953. In 1954, at a meeting in Geneva, the division of Korea into two states was fixed - North Korea and South Korea. At the same time, Vietnam was divided. These sections have become a kind of symbol of the split of the world into two systems on the Asian continent.

The next stage of the Cold War is 1953-1962. Some warming, both in the country and in international relations did not affect the military-political confrontation. Moreover, it was at this time that the world repeatedly stood on the threshold of nuclear war. Arms race, Berlin and caribbean crises, events in Poland and Hungary, ballistic missile tests… This decade was one of the most intense in the 20th century.