Immediately once World War II ended, The Soviet Union distance4d itself from the West. In particular, a deep political and diplomatic gap developed between it and the USA. That divide is the Cold War, a period of tense detente that lasted five decades. Political intrigue, diplomatic drama, international espionage and military posturing tensions marked the period, delivering rich literary material for writers of history and fiction alike. A Cold War author concentrates on the political and ideological maneuverings of those years.
The Soviet Union fought against Nazi Germany as an ally of the British-French-USA military axis during World War 2, In spite of that alliance, the relationship between the Soviet and western countries was very fragile and brittle. This is perhaps not surprising given the huge difference in the political ideology that divided the two sides at that time. After all, communism and capitalism are far from easy bedfellows.
During the war, Soviet Russia maintained some dialogue with western allies. However, once the war ended, it withdrew. It severely limited its diplomatic dialogue and established a deep and wide ideological gulf with the western countries.
Winston Churchill lamented this detente in a speech he gave at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri, in 1946. Churchill said Soviet isolationism had caused a large Iron Curtain to descend upon the European continent. This status divided its west from its east.
Poland, Hungary, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia plus Romania were all under a high degree of Soviet influence if not control. They were puppets of the Soviet Union. Their communist parties were funded significantly by the Soviet Union.
Similarly, the Soviet Russia continually rejected normal diplomatic relationships with western nations. It remained deliberately distant. Its absence of dialogue created an information void. Lacking hard data, the West filled that void with doubt and uncertainty regarding Soviet military intentions. Nobody knows, Churchill said in his speech, if the Soviet and its global satellites have expansionist ambitions.
The imagery painted and rhetoric used by Churchill in his address at Westminster College captured the attention of people all around the world. Churchill originally titled his speech Sinews of Peace but the media and scholars almost immediately dubbed it his Iron Curtain speech. It is one of the early signals marking the beginning of the Cold War.
Throughout that five decades of Soviet detente, limited data about its economy and military were available to other nations. Western analysts grossly over-estimated Soviet economic wealth and military might. That misunderstanding greatly contributed to the arms race. Eventually, burdened by a crippling budget deficit, the Soviet Union moved to limit its military spending. Its President Gorbachev introduced Perestroika, a set of policies to strengthen the efficiency of the economy. He abolished bureaucratic constraints on individuals and businesses, introduced the market system to many sectors and opened it to global competition. Gorbachev also ended diplomatic detente with the West. As a result, a rich source of literary ideas, that any Cold War author had enjoyed for decades, dried up.
The Soviet Union fought against Nazi Germany as an ally of the British-French-USA military axis during World War 2, In spite of that alliance, the relationship between the Soviet and western countries was very fragile and brittle. This is perhaps not surprising given the huge difference in the political ideology that divided the two sides at that time. After all, communism and capitalism are far from easy bedfellows.
During the war, Soviet Russia maintained some dialogue with western allies. However, once the war ended, it withdrew. It severely limited its diplomatic dialogue and established a deep and wide ideological gulf with the western countries.
Winston Churchill lamented this detente in a speech he gave at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri, in 1946. Churchill said Soviet isolationism had caused a large Iron Curtain to descend upon the European continent. This status divided its west from its east.
Poland, Hungary, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia plus Romania were all under a high degree of Soviet influence if not control. They were puppets of the Soviet Union. Their communist parties were funded significantly by the Soviet Union.
Similarly, the Soviet Russia continually rejected normal diplomatic relationships with western nations. It remained deliberately distant. Its absence of dialogue created an information void. Lacking hard data, the West filled that void with doubt and uncertainty regarding Soviet military intentions. Nobody knows, Churchill said in his speech, if the Soviet and its global satellites have expansionist ambitions.
The imagery painted and rhetoric used by Churchill in his address at Westminster College captured the attention of people all around the world. Churchill originally titled his speech Sinews of Peace but the media and scholars almost immediately dubbed it his Iron Curtain speech. It is one of the early signals marking the beginning of the Cold War.
Throughout that five decades of Soviet detente, limited data about its economy and military were available to other nations. Western analysts grossly over-estimated Soviet economic wealth and military might. That misunderstanding greatly contributed to the arms race. Eventually, burdened by a crippling budget deficit, the Soviet Union moved to limit its military spending. Its President Gorbachev introduced Perestroika, a set of policies to strengthen the efficiency of the economy. He abolished bureaucratic constraints on individuals and businesses, introduced the market system to many sectors and opened it to global competition. Gorbachev also ended diplomatic detente with the West. As a result, a rich source of literary ideas, that any Cold War author had enjoyed for decades, dried up.
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