The historians reported that the Cold War was one of the main political issues of the 20th century. Though, there is no unique agreement considering the exact time when the Cold War began. The confrontation between the USA and the Soviet Union started after the establishment of the communist regime after the Soviet Bolshevik Revolution in 1917. There was a threat of spreading the communist regime all over the globe. That was the main reason for the confrontation between two superpowers: the USA and the Soviet Union (Martin et al., 2007). That confrontation was strengthened in 1947 after the Second World War when American President Harry S. Truman declared an anti-communist policy. Joseph Stalin, who was the leader of the Soviet Union, also supported the idea of the confrontation between two countries for supremacy. The Cold War lasted till the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and had a great impact on the world in a political, economic, and philosophical way.
Joseph Stalin and the Cold War
Joseph Stalin became the supreme leader of the Soviet Union in 1929. He saw his main task to modernize the new country in a political, economic, and philosophical way. The research asserts that, in order to survive, the country should develop its economic, ideological, and military power. He was quite successful on this match, and the Soviet Union has rapidly developed in achieving its goal. Under Stalin`s leadership, the Soviet Union became a powerful country. The historians assert that this rapid development was gained by brutal Stalin`s activity. It is worth mentioning that he was a dictator and sent all his potential enemies into forced labor camps (Snyder, 2010). Though, during the Second World War, the USA and the Soviet Union were alliances, the relations between two countries have been worsened, because the Americans and British did not invite Stalin to the conference in Casa Blanca. Another reason that made Stalin be inferior was the fact that Harry Truman did not inform him about the atomic bombs that were dropped in Japan. That made Stalin feel furious, because the Soviet Union did not have such capability. Actually, that was the beginning of the arms race between the two countries. As a result, Stalin left the Soviet military forces in the Eastern Europe after the Second World War that kept under control these countries intending to spread the communist idea. This was the reason to start a new, strong wave of the Cold War. The historical information reports that, after the Second World War, power in the world was shared between the USA and the USSR. It was fought by different means: economic, political, and ideological.
The differences between the two countries led to the deeper confrontation, which was intensified gradually. Meanwhile, their mutual suspicions have become stronger over the years of the Cold War. As a result, the Soviet Union, under the leadership of Stalin and his paranoid activities, fought for supremacy in all places, such as independent nations in Africa and Asia, neutral countries and in outer space. Stalin intended to spread the communist idea over the globe and conquest the whole world. It was threatening to the West and the USA, because many people supported the communist idea. As both countries wanted to dominate, conflicts occurred in the different parts of the world. Stalin`s reign was characterized by terror, executions, purges, exiles to labor camps, and persecution in his own country. The Soviet people lived in horror and repressions. They could be exiled to labor camps for no reason (Hilton, 199). In 1949, he led the country into the nuclear age. The main aim of the invention of the nuclear weapon was to threaten the USA.
According to the research, the Soviet communist system was diametrically opposed to the American democratic system. In the Soviet Union, people had no right to elect and form the government and different political parties. The only ideology was the communist one. That is why there could not be any compromise between the USA and the USSR (Hilton, 1999). Stalin`s totalitarian regime prevented the Russians to be involved into international trade because of the risk to become opened to western influences. Because of the communist ideology, people of Russia could not travel to the capitalist countries. Mass media was under the strict government control. These circumstances led to misunderstanding and confrontation between the USA and the Soviet Union. Stalin and his government favored a strong resistance against the USA and other Western European countries. On the other hand, President Truman was strongly opposed Russian expansion in Eastern Europe and the world. The communist idea was spread all over the world. Thus, in 1946, communist parties became rather powerful in France and Italy.
Conclusion
In conclusion, it is worth mentioning that the Cold War was exhaustible for both nations, as it led to a confrontation between the USA and the Soviet Union. It separated the world into two opposite camps: the communist and the democratic one. According to the human sense, the democratic approach to the development of societies was supposed to reward. The Cold War was a result of political, economic, and ideological differences between the United States and the Soviet Union. Joseph Stalin, the communist party leader of the Soviet Union, played an important role in that war. Though he was a dictator, many people in the former Soviet Union supported his policy.
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