129
IRON CURTAIN IS RAISED
Gorbachev’s pledge to end Soviet
political domination of Eastern
Europe triggered the rapid
collapse of communist regimes
across the region. In November
1989, one of the most vivid
symbols of the Cold War, the
Berlin Wall, was opened, and the
people from both sides of Berlin
united to tear it down. Germany
was reunited in 1990, bringing a
close to the Cold War. By the end
of 1991, the Soviet Union itself
ceased to exist, breaking apart
into independent republics.COLD WAR CONFRONTATION
1945 World leaders meet in Potsdam,
Germany, but fail to reach an agreement.
1946 Iron curtain falls across Eastern Europe.
1948 Berlin airlift ignites Cold War tensions.
1950 Korean War begins.
1953 Stalin dies; Korean War ends.
1957 Soviets launch Sputnik.1961 Construction of the Berlin Wall begins.
1962 Cuban Missile Crisis threatens nuclear war.
1965 American intervention in Vietnam begins.
1985 Gorbachev comes to power in the USSR.
1987 INF Treaty cuts number of nuclear weapons.
1989 Berlin Wall falls.
1991 Soviet Union collapses; Warsaw Pact disbands.Astronauts and space travel
Communism
Korean war
Russian federation
Soviet union, history of
World war iiNUCLEAR DISARMAMENT
In December 1987, American president Ronald Reagan and Soviet
leader Mikhail Gorbachev signed the Intermediate-range Nuclear
Forces (INF) treaty to eliminate an entire class of weapons delivery
systems. The START (Strategic Arms Reduction Talks) treaty of
1989 and 1991 (with the newly created Russian Federation)
further reduced the superpowers’ arsenals.
George H.W. Bush (left),
president of the United
States, and president Boris
Yeltsin of the Russian
Federation agree on arms
reductions at the START
treaty talks in 1991.SPACE RACE
In 1957, the Soviet Union launched
Sputnik, the first artificial satellite to
orbit Earth. American scientists
scrambled to catch up with Soviet
technology, and the space race was on. In
1975, the US and the Soviet Union worked
together to launch two manned spacecraft,
Apollo and Soyuz, for a rendezvous in orbit.
For two days, the crews from both crafts
visited and shared meals, briefly easing
Cold War tensions.GLASNOST AND PERESTROIKA
In the mid-1980s, the Soviet people
suffered from widespread economic
hardship. New Soviet leader Mikhail
Gorbachev introduced a group of reforms known
as perestroika (economic reform) and glasnost
(openness) to revitalize the economy. Gorbachev’s
policies greatly improved Soviet relations with the
West, and inadvertently created the conditions
that led to the collapse of Communism in the
Soviet Union and throughout Eastern Europe.THE ATOMIC AGE
After the first atomic bombs were
dropped in 1945, the United States
and the Soviet Union began a nuclear
arms race. Both superpowers built
and stockpiled an arsenal of nuclear
weapons great enough to destroy
every living thing on Earth. The fear
of nuclear war dominated American
and Soviet relations for decades, as
both sides struggled to prevent an
all-out conflict while maintaining a
strong defense. The superpowers
began to disarm in the late 1980s.Mikhail Gorbachev
was president of
the Soviet Union
from 1985 to 1991.The Soviet Soyuz
spacecraft docked with
the American Apollo while
in orbit above Earth.Find out more
COLD WAR