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Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin, who had been the Secretary General of the CPSU since 1922, gradually gained power within the party and in 1924, after Lenin's death, became the leader of the USSR. Stalin established a ferocious dictatorship in wich he killed political opponents both inside and outside the CPSU. He repealed the nazi attack during the WWII and after it, set up soviet satellite states in Eastern Europe. He died in 1953, aged 74, and was succeded by Georgy Malenkov as leader of the Soviet Union. -
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Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin D. Roosevelt had been the President of the United States since 1933. Having led his country during the Great Depression and the Second World War, he died on April 12, 1945, at the age of 63. He was succeeded by his Vice-President Harry Truman. Roosevelt died before the WWII ended. -
The Yalta Conference
From February 4 to 11,1945, Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin, the leaders of the US, UK and USSR respectively met in the Crimean town of Yalta to discuss the aftermath of the German surrender following the WWII. The main agreements were the division of Germany into occupied zones and that the Soviet Union would hold free elections in Eastern Europe, wich didn't happen and satellite states were established. -
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Harry Truman
Harry Truman became the President of the United States after Roosevelt's death. He authorised the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to force Japan's surrender, wich eventually happened, putting an end to the World War II. Truman supported the creation of the United Nations, the NATO, the Marshall Plan and the Recognition of Israel. Also, he had to handle the Korean War and the Soviet Blockade over Berlin, wich he solved with the Berlin Airlift. He proposed the Truman Doctrine. -
The San Francisco Conference
From April 25, 1945, to June 26, 1945, the San Francisco Conference gathered representatives from more than 50 countries who wrote the Charter of the United Nations which established The United Nations. Its main objectives were the cooperation between nations and the maintenance of peace. -
The Potsdam Conference
After the Yalta Conference, the new American President, Harry Truman, the new British Prime Minister, Clement Atlee and Stalin met. Although they were disagreements, the main decisions were the division of Germany in four zones, the denazification of Germany and the Nuremberg trials, the German war reparations and the new territorial changes after the war. -
Japan Surrenders
On September 2, 1945, The Japaneese Empire surrendered after the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki putting an end to the WWII. The Japanese Foreign Minister, Mamoru Shigemitsu, signed the Instrument of Surrender on behalf of the Japanese Government on board of the USS Missouri if front of the American general Douglas McArthur. -
The Iron Curtain
On March 3, 1946, the Leader of the Opposition and former Prime Minister of the UK, Winston Churchill visited the Westminster College in the American town of Fulton, Missouri, and famously said "From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the Continent" referring to the division between the communist authoritarian regimes in Eastern Europe and the capitalist democracies in Western Europe. -
The Truman Doctrine
On March 3, 1947, the American President, Harry Truman, presented to the US Congress a new doctrine that became the standard in the foreign policy of the US during the Cold War. The Truman Doctrine consisted in trying to stop the communist expansion primarily by aiding the countries threatened by Communism. It was further developed on July 4, 1948, when he contained the communist uprisings in Greece and Turkey. -
The Marshall Plan
The Marshall Plan, named after its proponent, the American Secretary of State, George Marshall, consisted in giving economic aid and sending supplies to rebuild the European countries that were devastated after the WWII. Also, the Marshall plan was intended to stop the advance of communism in Europe, because it was thought that the poorer a country was, the greater was the chance of it turning to communism. -
The Berlin Airlift
Form June 6, 1948, to May 12, 1949, the Soviet Union blocked the supply line that the US had developed to provide West Berlin, impeding the circulation by the Eastern German roads. To solve this problem, the US government established an airlift over Berlin, flying all the supplies to the Berlin Tempelhof Airport. On average, almost one plane per minute landed in West Berlin. -
Creation of the NATO
On April 4, 1949, the North Atlantic Treaty was signed in Washington. Its main purpose was to form a military alliance against a hypothetical external aggression. During the Cold War, that hypothetical aggression was represented by the Soviet Union. The North Atlantic Treaty was implemented by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). -
Mao Takes Power
Since 1927, a civil war had been fought in China between the Nationalist China and the Chinese Communist Party led by Mao Zedong. On October 1, 1949, the communists took power, and Mao proclaimed the People's Republic of China. Mao allied with Stalin and the Soviet Union. -
Korean War
The Korean Peninsula was divided on the 38th parallel between the north, wich was communist and the south, wich was supported by the US. On June 25, 1950, the North Koreans crossed the 38th parallel and almost conquered all of the South. In that situation, UN troops led by the US disembarked in the city of Incheon and conquered most of the North, which was supported by China and the USSR. Finally, the borders in the 38th parallel were restored and an armistice was signed in Panmunjom in 1953. -
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Dwight Eisenhower
Dwight Eisenhower, a general of the United States Army who led the American troops in Europe during the WWII, won the Presidency in 1953. He ended the Korean War signing an armistice wich divided the Korean peninsula in two by the 38th parallel. He also had to manage the Hungarian revolution and the Suez canal crisis. After Stalin's death, Eisenhower promoted a policy of openness towards the Soviet Union. His Vice-President was Richard Nixon. -
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Georgy Malenkov
Georgy Malenkov succeded Stalin after his death in 1953. In order to divide power, Nikita Khrushchev was named First Secretary of the CPSU in September of the same year. Malenkov remained as premier, forming the Malenkov-Khrushchev duumvirate. He was the leader of the USSR for two more years, during wich he tried to change the soviet economy in favour of the production of consumer goods and opposed to nuclear weapons. However, he was forced to resign in 1955 being succeded by Nikita Khrushchev. -
The McCarthyism
The McCarthyism consisted of accusations of subversion, treason and communism and appeared with the US Senator Joseph McCarthy's Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations hearings in the 1950s. In that hearings he investigated celebrities and government officials who were suspicious of being communist. However, McCarthy's career in the US Senate was brief, he was dismissed as chairman of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations on December 2, 1954. -
Creation of the Warsaw Pact
The Warsaw Pact was a defense treaty similar to the NATO signed in Warsaw between the Soviet Union and Albania (which withdrew in 1968), Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland and Romania. It was created as a military alliance of the communist block after West Germany joined the NATO in 1955. -
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Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Khrushchev replaced Georgy Malenkov as premier of the USSR. Domestically, Khrushchev started a deep policy of De-Stalinization. Also, he promised political reforms, but cracked down the protests like the Hungarian revolution in 1956. Internationally he escalated the tensions between the East and the West with the construction of the Berlin Wall and the Cuban missile crisis. In 1964, Leonid Brezhnev successfully removed him from power and succeded him as leader of the Soviet Union. -
The Suez Crisis
The Suez Crisis was the invasion of Egypt by Israeli, British and French forces after Nasser, the Egyptian president, nationalized the Suez Canal in 1956. The three invaders had strategic interests in the region and wanted to retake the Canal. However, shortly after the outbreak of the war, they had to withdraw the invasion que to pressure of the United States, the Soviet Union and the United Nations. -
The Hungarian Revolution
The Hungarian Revolution was a popular uprising against the Hungarian government, which was directly controlled by the Soviet Union. It started with the suppression of a student protest in Budapest in which many demonstrators were killed by the police. This caused a popular uprising that eventually overthrew the Hungarian Government. However, the USSR was threatened by this situation and sent troops to Hungary to crush the revolution and restore the previous government. -
"We Will Burry You"
On November 18, 1956, the Leader of the Soviet Union, Nikita Khrushchev, threatened the west while addressing Western ambassadors at a reception at the Polish embassy in Moscow. This caused many countries delegations to leave the room. He said, "About the capitalist states(...) Whether you like it or not, history is on our side. We will bury you." This was seen as a nuclear threat to the west and escalated the tensions between both superpowers. -
Sputnik
The Sputnik 1 was the first artificial Earth satellite. It was launched into the Earth's orbit by the USSR on 4 October 1957 as part of the Soviet space program. It orbited for three weeks until its batteries died and then orbited for two more months before it fell back into the atmosphere. This happened two years after the US, and the USSR had started the Space Race, announcing that they would launch an artificial satellite in 1957 or 1958. -
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John F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy became president after narrowly defeating the Vice-President at the time, Richard Nixon. During his presidency he had to deal with the unsuccessful Bay of Pigs Invasion, the Cuban missile crisis, the construction of the Berlin wall and the beginning of the Space Race. On November 22, 1963, he was assassinated in Dallas with only 46 years of age. Kennedy's Vice-President, Lyndon B. Johnson, succeded him as President of The United States. -
The Bay of Pigs Invasion
On March 17, 1960, the American President, Dwight Eisenhower, ordered the CIA to train a guerrilla warfare composed of Cuban exiles to overthrow the newly established Cuban communist regime led by Fidel Castro. The original plan contemplated a landing on the Cuban coast with American air support. However, when John F. Kennedy took office, the plan was changed and the air support eliminated. The Invasion failed on April 17, 1961, and the members of the guerrilla warfare were arrested. -
The Construction of the Berlin Wall
On August 13, 1961, the city of Berlin was physically divided by a wall ordered by the East German communist government due to the massive exodus of East Germans to the west. The people who tried to escape by climbing the wall were shot. The Berlin Wall, which represented the division between communism and democracy during the Cold War, would divide the city for 28 years. -
The Cuban Missile Crisis
The Cuban Missile Crisis was a major diplomatic crisis between the United States and the Soviet Union. In 1962, US B-2 spy planes reported to have seen a missile launching complex in Cuba in which Soviet missiles were placed. This frightened the US government as those missiles could reach most of the US mainland. In response, the US established a naval blockade on Cuba. Finally, on October 28 the Soviets decided to withdraw the missiles if the Americans withdrew their nuclear missiles in Turkey. -
"Ich bin ein Berliner"
On June 26, 1963, 22 months after East Germany built the Berlin Wall, the President of the United States, John F. Kennedy, visited West Berlin. He famously said, "Two thousand years ago, the proudest boast was civis romanus sum ("I am a Roman citizen."). Today, in the world of freedom, the proudest boast is "Ich bin ein Berliner!"... All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin." Kennedy alluded to the totalitarian nature of the communist East Berlin. -
Kennedy's Assassination
On November 22, 1963, while he was riding on a convertible car in the city of Dallas, the President of the United States, John F. Kennedy was shot and died with only 46 years of age. His assassin was Lee Harvey Oswald, who was believed to be a communist supporter. The same day, the Vice-President, Lyndon B. Johnson, took office in the plane flying back to Washington.Lyndon B. Johnson, took office in the plane flying back to Washington. Kennedy's assassination continues to be a mystery today. -
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Lyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon B. Johnson, who was the incumbent Vice-President, became President after Kennedy's assassination. In 1964, Johnson sent American troops to support the allied South Vietnam against the communist North Vietnam and the Vietcong guerrilla. He believed in the Domino theory wich stated that if a country became communist, the surrounding ones would also. The Vietnam War was highly unpopular in the United States, which caused Lyndon B. Johnson to not seek the reelection in the 1968 elections. -
US Military Intervention in Vietnam
In 1964, the US President, Lyndon B. Johnson, sent American troops into Vietnam to support the South Vietnamese against North-Vietnam and the Vietcong due to the communist advance in the region. However, the Vietnam War became highly unpopular in the American public opinion due to the casualties among the US army and the ineffectiveness of the war because of the guerrilla tactics followed by the Vietcong. -
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Leonid Brezhnev
In 1964, Leonid Brezhnev, who was the General Secretary of the CPSU, successfully conspired to remove Khrushchev from power and eventually succeded him. The relations with the US improved thanks to the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks and the Helsinki Accords. Brezhnev supported North Vietnam and the communist guerrillas over the US, invaded Czechoslovakia after reform attempts and invaded Afghanistan. In 1982, he died at the age of 75 and was succeded by Yuri Andropov. -
The Prague Spring
On January 5, 1968, Alexander Dubček became the President of Czechoslovakia and started to carry out numerous political reforms which allowed more freedom. These actions contrasted with the previous years of hard-line communist governments. However, the rest of the communist bloc didn't approve the reforms and on August 20, forces from the Warsaw Pact commanded by the Soviet Union invaded the country, deposed Dubček and restore the hard-liners into the government. -
Lyndon Johnson Doesn't Run for Reelection
On March 31, 1968, the President of the United States, Lyndon B. Johnson, decided not to run for reelection on that year's presidential elections. On a televised speech, he said, "I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your President." Johnson made that desition because of his failure in the Vietnam War and because of the protests that this caused. Eventually, the nominee of his party would be the Vice-President, Hubert Humphrey. -
Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons
The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons was signed on July 1, 1968, by the United Kingdom, the United States, the Soviet Union, and 59 other states. The countries which possessed nuclear weapons agreed not to help other states in obtaining or producing them. The treaty became effective in March 1970. -
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Richard Nixon
Richard Nixon, Vice-President under Eisenhower, defeated Johnson's Vice-President, Hubert Humphrey, in the 1968 elections. He had promised to end the Vietnam War and in 1973, a ceasefire agreement was reached and all the US troops retired as Vietnam was unified. Nixon also was the first American President to visit China in 1972. However, he had to resign in 1974 after the Watergate scandal. His successor was Gerald Ford, Vice-President at the time. -
The Man Lands on the Moon
On July 20, 1969, the mankind landed on the moon for the first time. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, the crew of the Apollo 11 mission, were the humans who arrived to the moon and also planted an American flag on the lunar surface. After being around 21 hours on the moon and having collected 22 kilograms of lunar soil, the astronauts set off and successfully landed on the Earth. -
Nixon Visits China
On February 1972, the President of the United States, Richard Nixon, visited China and met with Mao and the Chinese prime minister Zhou Enlai. The purpose of the visit was to strengthen the Chinese-American relations diplomatically and economically taking advantage of China's breakup with the Soviet Union. In 1979, the United States recognised the communist People's Republic of China. -
Strategic Arms Limitation Talks
In the late 1960s, it was believed that limiting the development of offensive and defensive strategic systems would stabilize the relation between the United States and the Soviet Union. On November 17, 1969, the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks began in Helsinki. Finally, the American President Richard Nixon and the Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev signed in Moscow the ABM Treaty and the SALT agreement on May 26, 1972. For the first time, the US and USSR agreed to limit their nuclear arsenals. -
Paris Peace Accords
The Paris Peace Accords was a peace treaty signed on January 27, 1973, to establish peace in Vietnam and end the Vietnam War. The Paris Agreement Treaty would remove all remaining US Forces. Direct US military intervention was ended, and fighting between the remaining powers temporarily stopped. Two years later, a North Vietnamese offensive conquered South Vietnam on April 30, 1975, after which the two countries, united on July 2, 1976, as the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. -
Nixon Resigns
On August 8, 1974, the President of the United States, Richard Nixon, resigned because of the Watergate scandal that involved him and because of the imminent Impeachment procedure to force him out of office was going to prosper. He was succeded by his Vice-President Gerald Ford, whose controversial first action as president was to pardon Nixon. -
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Gerald Ford
Gerald Ford, who was the Vice-President, became President after Nixon resigned. However, his first action was to pardon Nixon, which wasn't well received. He had to deal with the communist victory in Vietnam. Also, he was the first American President to visit Japan. Ford slightly defeated the California Governor, Ronald Reagan in the 1976 Republican primaries and then was defeated by his opponent, Jimmy Carter in the presidential elections of the same year. -
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Jimmy Carter
Jimmy Carter won the presidency in 1976, after narrowly defeating the incumbent president, Gerald Ford. He sponsored the peace treaty between Israel and Egypt, which ended thirty years of hostilities between those countries. However, Carter was a highly unpopular President due to the economic recession, the oil crisis and the hostages crisis in Iran. In 1980, Jimmy Carter lost the reelection to his Republican opponent, Ronald Reagan by a great margin. -
The Iranian Revolution
The Iranian Revolution was a popular uprising in Iran in 1978–79 that overthrew the monarchy on February 11, 1979, and established an Islamic republic led by the religious leader Ruhollah Khomeini. After the revolution, a Islamic Hard-line constitution was approved. Also, during the revolution, a group of Irani students took the US Embassy in Tehran and captured 66 American hostages. The hostages stayed on Iranian custody for 444 days and finally were liberated on January 20, 1981. -
Margaret Thatcher Elected Prime Minister
On May 4, 1979, Margaret Thatcher was elected Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, position in which she remained until 1990. In 1982, she successfully repealed the Argentine invasion of the Falkland Islands. She also managed to solve the deep economic crisis in the UK. She led the anti-communist block, along with the US President, Ronald Reagan and the Pope John Paul II. -
Soviet Invation of Afghanistan
On 1979, the new Afghan leader, Hafizullah Amin, who began a period of repression, supported the United States and Pakistan although he was a member of a communist party. Under these circumstances, the Soviet Union decided to intervene. On December 27, 1979, a KGB special commando dressed with Afghan uniforms, entered Afghanistan, took the main military and governmental facilities and killed Amin. Then, the Soviets named Babrak Karmal President and fought against the groups who rebelled them. -
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Ronald Reagan
The former actor, President of the Screen Actors Guild and Governor of California, Ronald Reagan, became President in 1980 after defeating the incumbent Jimmy Carter. Reagan ended the policy of appeasement that the US had followed towards the USSR the previous years and increased the military budget with measures like the SDI, winning the Arms race to the Soviet Union. In 1987, he signed with Gorbachev the Treaty of Washington, which consisted in the nuclear disarmament between both superpowers. -
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Yuri Andropov
After Leonid Brezhnev´s death, Yuri Andropov, who had been the Chairman of the KGB and helped to suppress the Hungarian revolution, the Prague Spring and invade Afghanistan and also had a reputation of eliminating the dissent, became the leader of the USSR. During his rule, the Afghanistan War was continued, and the relations with the US worsen. However, on February 9, 1984, only 15 months after he took power, Andropov died at the age of 69. He was succeded by Konstantin Chernenko. -
"An Evil Empire"
On March 8, 1983, the President of the United States, Ronald Reagan, considerably toughen the American rhetoric towards the Soviet Union. In a speech to the National Association of Evangelicals, he condemned communism and called it an "Evil Empire". He said,"I urge you to beware the temptation of blithely declaring yourselves above it all and label both sides equally at fault, to ignore the facts of history and the aggressive impulses of an evil empire, to call the arms race a misunderstanding." -
The Strategic Defense Iniciative
The Strategic Defense Initiative, also known as Star Wars, was a US strategic defensive system against nuclear attacks. It was first proposed by the US President, Ronald Reagan, on March 23, 1983. The SDI's objective to intercept the missiles at their flight. However, the Strategic Defense Initiative would require too advanced technological systems, yet to be researched and developed. The SDI helped the United States to win the Arms Race. -
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Konstantin Chernenko
Konstantin Chernenko became the premier of the Soviet Union after the death of Yuri Andropov. Chernenko made an educational reform and a trade agreement with China strenthening the diplomatic relations between those countries. Nevertheless, only 13 months after becoming the soviet premier, Chernenko died at the age of 73. He was replaced by Mikhail Gorbachev, a member of the Politburo of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. -
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Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Gorbachev took power in 1985, after the death of Konstantin Chernenko. He led a period of openness towards the West and reached numerous agreements with the US like the Treaty of Washington. He also carried out radical political reforms wich allowed free elections in western Europe. In 1991, some communist hard-liners kidnaped Gorbachev in response to his reforms. In that moment, the newly elected president of Russia, Boris Yeltsin dissolved the USSR. On December 25, Gorbachev resigned. -
The Geneva Summit
On November 19, 1985, the American President Ronald Reagan and the new Soviet premier Mikhail Gorbachev met for the first time in Geneva to discuss about the arms race. The both leaders developed a personal friendship that determined the outcome of the Cold War. -
"Tear Down this Wall"
On June 12, 1987, the President of the United States, Ronald Reagan, visited West Berlin and made a speech in front of the Brandenburg Gate in which he asked the leader of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev to demolish the Berlin Wall that had divided the city in two since 1961. He famously said, "General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity, if you seek liberalization: Come here to this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall." -
The Washington Treaty
The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, also known as the Washington Treaty, is a nuclear arms-control agreement reached by the United States and the Soviet Union in 1987 in which those two nations agreed to eliminate their stocks of intermediate-range and shorter-range land-based missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads. It was the first arms-control treaty to abolish an entire category of weapons systems. The INF Treaty was signed in Washington on December 8, 1987. -
Democratic Revolutions in Eastern Europe
The Revolutions of 1989 formed part of a revolutionary wave in the late 1980s and early 1990s that resulted in the end of communist rule in Eastern Europe and beyond. These revolutions started in Poland in 1988, with the Polish workers' mass strike movement on April 21, 1988, continued in Hungary, East Germany, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia and Romania, and ended when Cambodia abandoned communism on September 24, 1993. The democratic revolutions in Eastern Europe greatly weakened the USSR. -
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George H.W Bush
George H.W Bush, Reagan's Vice-President, succeded him as President in 1988. Bush continued the policy of openness towards Gorbachev's Soviet Union. During his presidency, the Berlin Wall fell, the European communist regimes started to disappear, and the USSR disintegrated. In 1991, Bush signed the START I treaty with Gorbachev which reduced the intercontinental missiles. On December 26, 1991, the Soviet Union collapsed, ending the Cold War. -
Fall of the Berlin Wall
East Germany’s hard-line communist leadership was forced from power in October 1989 during the wave of democratization that was experimented through eastern Europe. On November 9 the East German government opened the country’s borders with West Germany, and openings were made in the Berlin Wall through which East Germans could travel freely to the West. After 28 years, the Berlin Wall had fallen. -
German Reunification
After the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989, and the collapse of East Germany, the West German premier, Helmut Kohl, started the procedures to unify Germany. The German Reunification took place on October 3, 1990, and a year later, the October 3 was declared the German Unity Day. -
Warsaw Pact Disintegration
After the democratic revolutions of 1989 in eastern Europe, the Warsaw Pact was at its last days and was formally dissolved on July 1, 1991, at a summit of Warsaw Pact leaders in Prague. Soviet troops were gradually withdrawn from the former satellite states, now independent countries. The conflict between eastern and western Europe had symbolically ended. Finally, all of the former Warsaw Pact members, except from Russia, ended up joining NATO. -
START I Treaty
The Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty was a treaty between the United States and the Soviet Union on the reduction and the limitation of strategic offensive arms. It was signed on July 31, 1991, by the American President George H.W Bush and the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and entered into force in 1994. The treaty banned its signatories from deploying more than 6.000 nuclear warheads and a total of 1.600 intercontinental ballistic missiles and bombers. -
The Soviet Union Collapses
In 1991, as a response to Mikhail Gorbachev's political reforms, wich allowed free elections in western Europe and more freedom in the USSR, communist hard-liners kidnaped him. In that moment, the newly elected president of the Russian Soviet Socialist Republic, Boris Yeltsin rebelled against the hard-liners and dissolved the USSR on December 25, 1991, and Gorbachev had to resign. The collapse of the Soviet Union marked the end of the Cold War, after almost 50 years.