home Audience 12 Cold War in faces. Cold War in Brief

Cold War in faces. Cold War in Brief

1. The existence of a relatively stable bipolar world - the presence in the world of two superpowers balancing each other’s influence, to which other states gravitated to one degree or another.

2. “Block politics” – the creation of opposing military-political blocs by superpowers. 1949 - creation of NATO, 1955 - Warsaw Pact Organization.

3. “Arms race” - the increase in the number of weapons by the USSR and the USA in order to achieve qualitative superiority. The “arms race” ended by the beginning of the 1970s. in connection with the achievement of parity (balance, equality) in the number of weapons. From this moment on, the “policy of detente” begins - a policy aimed at eliminating the threat of nuclear war and reducing the level of international tension. “Détente” ended after the entry of Soviet troops into Afghanistan (1979)

4. Formation of an “enemy image” among one’s own population in relation to the ideological enemy. In the USSR, this policy was manifested in the creation of the “Iron Curtain” - a system of international self-isolation. In the USA, “McCarthyism” is being carried out - the persecution of supporters of “left” ideas.

5. Periodically emerging armed conflicts that threaten to escalate the Cold War into a full-scale war.

Causes of the Cold War:

1. Victory in World War II led to a sharp strengthening of the USSR and the USA.

2. The imperial ambitions of Stalin, who sought to expand the zone of influence of the USSR into the territories of Turkey, Tripolitania (Libya) and Iran.

3. US nuclear monopoly, attempts at dictatorship in relations with other countries.

4. Ineradicable ideological contradictions between the two superpowers.

5. Formation of a socialist camp controlled by the USSR in Eastern Europe.

The date of the beginning of the Cold War is considered to be March 1946, when W. Churchill made a speech in Fulton (USA) in the presence of President G. Truman, in which he accused the USSR of “the limitless spread of its power and its doctrines” in the world. Soon, President Truman announced a program of measures to “save” Europe from Soviet expansion (the “Truman Doctrine”). He proposed providing large-scale economic assistance to European countries (“Marshall Plan”); create a military-political alliance of Western countries under the auspices of the United States (NATO); place a network of US military bases along the borders of the USSR; support internal opposition in Eastern European countries. All this was supposed not only to prevent further expansion of the sphere of influence of the USSR (the doctrine of containing socialism), but also to force the Soviet Union to return to its previous borders (the doctrine of rolling back socialism).

By this time, communist governments existed only in Yugoslavia, Albania and Bulgaria. However, from 1947 to 1949. socialist systems are also developing in Poland, Hungary, Romania, Czechoslovakia, North Korea, and China. The USSR provides them with enormous financial assistance.

In 1949, the economic foundations of the Soviet bloc were formalized. For this purpose, the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance was created. For military-political cooperation, the Warsaw Treaty Organization was formed in 1955. Within the framework of the commonwealth, no “independence” was allowed. Relations between the USSR and Yugoslavia (Joseph Broz Tito), which was seeking its path to socialism, were severed. At the end of the 1940s. Relations with China (Mao Zedong) deteriorated sharply.

The first serious clash between the USSR and the USA was the Korean War (1950-53). The Soviet state supports the communist regime of North Korea (DPRK, Kim Il Sung), the USA supports the bourgeois government of South Korea. The Soviet Union supplied the DPRK with modern types of military equipment (including MiG-15 jet aircraft) and military specialists. As a result of the conflict, the Korean Peninsula was officially divided into two parts.

Thus, the international position of the USSR in the first post-war years was determined by the status of one of the two world superpowers won during the war. The confrontation between the USSR and the USA and the outbreak of the Cold War marked the beginning of the division of the world into two warring military-political camps.

Cultural life of the USSR 1945-1953.

Despite the extremely tense economic situation, the Soviet government is seeking funds for the development of science, public education, and cultural institutions. Universal primary education was restored, and since 1952 education up to 7 grades has become compulsory; Evening schools are opened for working youth. Television begins regular broadcasting. At the same time, control over the intelligentsia, weakened during the war, is being restored. In the summer of 1946, a campaign against “petty-bourgeois individualism” and cosmopolitanism began. It was led by A.A. Zhdanov. On August 14, 1946, resolutions of the Party Central Committee were adopted on the magazines “Leningrad” and “Zvezda”, which were persecuted for publishing the works of A. Akhmatova and M. Zoshchenko. A.A. was appointed first secretary of the board of the Writers' Union. Fadeev, who was tasked with bringing order to this organization.

On September 4, 1946, the resolution of the Central Committee of the Party “On unprincipled films” was issued - a ban was imposed on the distribution of the films “Big Life” (Part 2), “Admiral Nakhimov” and the second series of “Ivan the Terrible” by Eisenstein.

Composers are the next targets of persecution. In February 1948, the Central Committee adopted a resolution “On decadent tendencies in Soviet music”, condemning V.I. Muradeli, later a campaign begins against “formalist” composers - S.S. Prokofieva, A.I. Khachaturyan, D.D. Shostakovich, N.Ya. Myaskovsky.

Ideological control covers all spheres of spiritual life. The Party actively interferes in the research of not only historians and philosophers, but also philologists, mathematicians, and biologists, condemning some sciences as “bourgeois.” Wave mechanics, cybernetics, psychoanalysis and genetics were subjected to severe defeat.

Ufa State Aviation Technical University

Department of History of the Fatherland and Cultural Studies

Test

in history

"Cold War": causes, essence, consequences

Completed:

Gaisin A.N.

FIRT student

Group PIE-210z

Introduction

1.The beginning of the Cold War

Causes of the Cold War

1 Korean War

2 Construction of the Berlin Wall

3 Cuban Missile Crisis

4 Vietnam War

5 Afghan War

4. Consequences

Conclusion

Bibliography

INTRODUCTION

The unity of the victorious countries could not be strong. The USSR, on the one hand, and the USA, Great Britain and France, on the other, represented different social systems. Stalin sought to expand the territory led by the communist parties. The Soviet Union sought to gain access to resources that were previously controlled by capitalist countries. The United States and its allies sought to maintain their dominance in Asia, Africa and Latin America. All this brought humanity to the brink of the third world war. The confrontation between the USSR and the USA, which unfolded in the mid-40s-80s of the twentieth century and was called the “Cold War,” never resulted in a “hot” war, although it constantly led to conflicts in certain regions. The Cold War caused a split in the world into two camps, gravitating towards the USSR and the USA. The term "Cold War" was coined by Churchill during his speech in Fulton (USA) on March 5, 1946. No longer the leader of his country, Churchill remained one of the most influential politicians in the world. In his speech, he stated that Europe was divided by the “Iron Curtain” and called on Western civilization to declare war on “communism.” In fact, the war between two systems, two ideologies has not stopped since 1917, however, it took shape as a completely conscious confrontation precisely after the Second World War.

Why did it start only after the Second World War? Obviously, this was dictated by the time itself, the era itself. The allies came out of this war so strong, and the means of warfare became so destructive that it became clear: sorting things out using the old methods was too much of a luxury. However, the desire to harass the other side among the coalition partners has not diminished. To a certain extent, the initiative to start the Cold War belonged to Western countries, for which the power of the USSR, which became obvious during the Second World War, turned out to be a very unpleasant surprise.

So, the Cold War arose shortly after the end of World War II, when the Allies began to take stock of its results. What did they see? Firstly, half of Europe found itself in the Soviet zone of influence, and pro-Soviet regimes were feverishly emerging there. Secondly, a powerful wave of liberation movements arose in the colonies against the mother countries. Thirdly, the world quickly polarized and turned into a bipolar one. Fourthly, two superpowers emerged on the world stage, whose military and economic power gave them significant superiority over others. Plus, the interests of Western countries in various parts of the globe are beginning to collide with the interests of the USSR. It was this new state of the world that emerged after the Second World War that Churchill realized faster than others when he proclaimed the “Cold War.”

1.THE BEGINNING OF THE COLD WAR

In 1945, there was a deep disparity in power and strength between the two main victor countries. Even before the war, imbalances were shifting in America's favor, especially in the economy. But hostilities drove the two countries even further in opposite directions. The war did not touch American soil: the fighting took place far from the shores of America. The US economy, which was the main supplier and financier of the entire victorious coalition, experienced an unprecedented leap between 1939 and 1945. The potential of US industrial capacity increased by 50%, production increased by 2.5 times. They produced 4 times more equipment and 7 times more vehicles. Agricultural production increased by 36%. Wages grew, as did all incomes of the population.

Inequality also manifested itself in relation to the possession of nuclear weapons. As you know, until 1949, the only power with an atomic bomb was the United States. The Americans did not hide the fact that they perceived nuclear weapons as an attribute of the power of a great power, as a means of intimidating a potential enemy - the USSR and its allies, as a means of pressure.

I.V. Stalin considered it necessary to create a military counterweight to the United States. Since 1949, he became convinced of the possibility of destabilizing the capitalist system and the approach of the proletarian revolution in the West.

For its part, the US leadership sought to implement a policy “from a position of strength” and tried to use all its economic and military-political power to put pressure on the USSR. In 1946, US President Henry Truman's doctrine of "limiting communist expansion" was proclaimed, supported in 1947 by the doctrine of economic assistance to "free peoples" (the "Marshall Plan", which was abandoned by the USSR). This meant a turn to the Cold War, which predetermined the deterioration of the international climate and created the threat of military-political crises. Stalin faced a difficult dilemma: whether to resist the pressure that his former allies, now armed with the atomic bomb, were putting on the USSR in conditions when the country was exhausted. Stalin was convinced that the United States and England would not dare to start a war. The Soviet government decided to speed up work on producing its own atomic bomb. The work, carried out in strict secrecy, began in full from August-September 1945. After Potsdam and Hiroshima, Stalin formed, under the supreme control of Beria, a special committee headed by People's Commissar Vannikov, designed to supervise all activities to create new weapons.

The deterioration of relations with the Western world, as well as the revival of imperial ambitions, pushed the Soviet leadership to consolidate control over Central and South-Eastern Europe. In response to the US attempt to link the Western occupation zones with Western European states through economic and political agreements, the USSR and under its pressure, the Eastern European countries refused to participate in the American assistance program, and subsequently in the activities of international economic organizations. This is what the world was like after the war. The role of the communists has grown greatly, the authority of the USSR in the world has risen high. This was clearly not beneficial for the USA, Great Britain and other major capitalist powers. The confrontation between the West and the Soviet Union began to become acute. Moreover, Stalin was irritated by the economic power of the United States after the war, in which the states suffered almost no losses. They began to talk more and more often about the bipolar structure of the world; the USSR, which was in ruins, was gradually rising to its feet. Two superpowers rose above all others - the USSR and the USA. Gradually, unnoticed by both opposing camps, an arms race began between them - the Cold War.

Its beginning was associated with atomic weapons. The American military, thinking in the usual categories of naked force, began to look for the appropriate means to strike the “enemy,” that is, the Soviet Union. The philosophical stone in solving a problem that seemed insoluble in the recommendations dating back to 1943-1944 was atomic weapons. Support for the position of the United States by the majority of countries in the world was combined with their exceptional position as holders of a monopoly on the atomic bomb: the Americans again demonstrated their power by conducting test explosions on Bikini Atoll in the summer of 1946. Stalin made a number of statements during this period in order to downplay the importance of the new weapon. These statements set the tone for all Soviet propaganda. But the behavior of the representatives of the Soviet Union in private showed their great concern in reality.

But the American monopoly on nuclear weapons lasted only four years. In 1949, the USSR tested its first atomic bomb. This event was a real shock for the Western world and an important milestone in the Cold War. In the course of further accelerated development in the USSR, nuclear and then thermonuclear weapons were soon created. Fighting has become very dangerous for everyone, and is fraught with very bad consequences. The nuclear potential accumulated over the years of the Cold War was enormous, but the gigantic stockpiles of destructive weapons were of no use, and the costs of their production and storage were growing. If earlier they said “we can destroy you, but you cannot destroy us,” now the wording has changed. They began to say “you can destroy us 38 times, and we can destroy you 64 times!” The debate is fruitless, especially considering that if a war broke out and one of the opponents used nuclear weapons, very soon there would be nothing left not only of him, but of the entire planet.

The arms race was growing at a rapid pace. As soon as one of the sides created some fundamentally new weapon, its opponent threw all its forces and resources into achieving the same thing. Crazy competition affected all areas of the military industry. They competed everywhere: in the creation of the latest small arms systems (the US responded to the Soviet AKM with the M-16), in new designs of tanks, aircraft, ships and submarines, but perhaps the most dramatic competition was in the creation of rocketry. The entire so-called peaceful space in those days was not even the visible part of the iceberg, but a snow cap on the visible part. The USA has overtaken the USSR in the number of nuclear weapons. The USSR overtook the USA in rocket science. The USSR was the first in the world to launch a satellite, and in 1961 it was the first to send a man into space. The Americans could not bear such obvious superiority. The result is their landing on the moon. At this point, the parties reached strategic parity. However, this did not stop the arms race. On the contrary, it has spread to all sectors that have at least some connection with weapons. This could, for example, include the race to create supercomputers. Here the West took unconditional revenge for lagging behind in the field of rocket science, since for purely ideological reasons the USSR missed a breakthrough in this area.

The arms race has even affected education. After Gagarin's flight, the United States was forced to reconsider the foundations of the education system and introduce fundamentally new teaching methods.

The arms race was subsequently voluntarily suspended by both sides. A number of treaties were concluded limiting the accumulation of weapons.

3.CAUSES OF THE COLD WAR

The Cold War was characterized by the frequent appearance of “hot” spots. Each local conflict was brought to the world stage, thanks to the fact that Cold War opponents supported the opposing sides. Let's take a look at some of the "hot spots".

3.1 Korean War

In 1945, Soviet and American troops liberated Korea from the Japanese army. US troops are located south of the 38th parallel, and the Red Army to the north. Thus, the Korean Peninsula was divided into two parts. In the North, the communists came to power, in the South - the military, relying on the help of the United States. Two states were formed on the peninsula - the northern Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) and the southern Republic of Korea. The North Korean leadership dreamed of uniting the country, even if only by force of arms.

In 1950, North Korean leader Kim Il Sung visited Moscow and enlisted the support of the Soviet Union. Plans for the "military liberation" of South Korea were also approved by Chinese leader Mao Zedong. At dawn on June 25, 1950, the North Korean army moved to the south of the country. Her offensive was so powerful that within three days she occupied the capital of the South, Seoul. Then the advance of the northerners slowed down, but by mid-September almost the entire peninsula was in their hands. It seemed that only one decisive effort separated the army of the north from final victory. However, on July 7, the UN Security Council voted to send international troops to help South Korea.

And in September, UN troops (mostly American) came to the aid of the southerners. They launched a powerful attack on the North from the area that was still held by the South Korean army. At the same time, troops were landed on the west coast, cutting the peninsula in half. Events began to develop with the same speed in the opposite direction. The Americans occupied Seoul, crossed the 38th parallel and continued their offensive against the DPRK. North Korea was on the brink of complete disaster when China suddenly intervened. The Chinese leadership proposed, without declaring war on the United States, to send troops to help North Korea. In China they were officially called "people's volunteers." In October, about a million Chinese soldiers crossed the border Yalu River and engaged the Americans in battle. Soon the front lined up along the 38th parallel.

The war continued for another three years. During the American offensive in 1950, the Soviet Union sent several air divisions to help North Korea. The Americans were significantly superior to the Chinese in technology. China suffered heavy losses. On July 27, 1953, the war ended with a truce. In North Korea, the government of Kim Il Sung, friendly to the USSR and China, remained in power, accepting the honorary title of “great leader.”

3.2 Construction of the Berlin Wall

In 1955, the division of Europe between East and West finally took shape. However, a clear line of confrontation has not yet completely divided Europe. There was only one open “window” left in it - Berlin. The city was divided in half, with East Berlin being the capital of the GDR, and West Berlin being considered part of the Federal Republic of Germany. Two opposing social systems coexisted within the same city, while every Berliner could easily get “from socialism to capitalism” and back, moving from one street to another. Every day up to 500 thousand people crossed this invisible border in both directions. Many East Germans, taking advantage of the open border, left for the West permanently. Thousands of people were resettled in this way every year, which greatly worried the East German authorities. And in general, the wide-open window in the “Iron Curtain” did not at all correspond to the general spirit of the era.

In August 1961, Soviet and East German authorities decided to close the border between the two parts of Berlin. Tension in the city grew. Western countries protested the division of the city. Finally, in October, the confrontation reached its climax. American tanks lined up at the Brandenburg Gate and on Friedrichstrasse, near the main checkpoints. Soviet combat vehicles came out to meet them. For more than a day, the tanks of the USSR and the USA stood with their guns aimed at each other. Periodically, the tankers turned on their engines, as if preparing for an attack. The tension was somewhat relieved only after the Soviet, and after them, American tanks retreated to other streets. However, Western countries finally recognized the division of the city only ten years later. It was formalized by an agreement between four powers (USSR, USA, England and France), signed in 1971. Throughout the world, the construction of the Berlin Wall was perceived as a symbolic completion of the post-war division of Europe.

cold war revolution crisis

3.3 Cuban Missile Crisis

On January 1959, a revolution led by 32-year-old guerrilla leader Fidel Castro won in Cuba. The new government began a decisive struggle against American influence on the island. Needless to say, the Soviet Union fully supported the Cuban Revolution. However, the Havana authorities seriously feared a US military invasion. In May 1962, Nikita Khrushchev put forward an unexpected idea - to place Soviet nuclear missiles on the island. He jokingly explained this step by saying that the imperialists “need to put a hedgehog in their pants.” After some deliberation, Cuba agreed to the Soviet proposal, and in the summer of 1962, 42 nuclear-tipped missiles and bombers capable of carrying nuclear bombs were sent to the island. The transfer of missiles was carried out in the strictest secrecy, but already in September the US leadership suspected something was wrong. On September 4, President John Kennedy said that the United States would under no circumstances tolerate Soviet nuclear missiles 150 km from its coast. In response, Khrushchev assured Kennedy that there were and would not be any Soviet missiles or nuclear weapons in Cuba.

October, an American reconnaissance plane photographed missile launch sites from the air. In an atmosphere of strict secrecy, the US leadership began to discuss retaliatory measures. On October 22, President Kennedy addressed the American people on radio and television. He reported that Soviet missiles had been discovered in Cuba and demanded that the USSR immediately remove them. Kennedy announced that the United States was beginning a naval blockade of Cuba. On October 24, at the request of the USSR, the UN Security Council urgently met. The Soviet Union continued to stubbornly deny the presence of nuclear missiles in Cuba. The situation in the Caribbean Sea became increasingly tense. Two dozen Soviet ships were heading towards Cuba. The American ships were ordered to stop them, if necessary by fire. True, it didn’t come to sea battles. Khrushchev ordered several Soviet ships to stop at the blockade line.

On October 23, an exchange of official letters began between Moscow and Washington. In his first messages, N. Khrushchev indignantly called the actions of the United States “pure banditry” and “the madness of degenerate imperialism.”

Within days, it became clear that the United States was determined to remove the missiles at any cost. On October 26, Khrushchev sent a more conciliatory message to Kennedy. He recognized that Cuba had powerful Soviet weapons. At the same time, Nikita Sergeevich convinced the president that the USSR was not going to attack America. As he put it, “Only crazy people can do this or suicides who want to die themselves and destroy the whole world before that.” Khrushchev offered John Kennedy a commitment not to attack Cuba; then the Soviet Union will be able to remove its weapons from the island. The President of the United States responded that the United States was willing to make a gentleman's commitment not to invade Cuba if the USSR withdrew its offensive weapons. Thus the first steps towards peace were taken.

But on October 27 came the “Black Saturday” of the Cuban crisis, when only a miracle did not break out a new world war. In those days, squadrons of American aircraft flew over Cuba twice a day for the purpose of intimidation. And on October 27, Soviet troops in Cuba shot down one of the US reconnaissance aircraft with an anti-aircraft missile. Its pilot, Anderson, was killed. The situation escalated to the limit, the US President decided two days later to begin bombing Soviet missile bases and a military attack on the island.

However, on Sunday, October 28, the Soviet leadership decided to accept the American conditions. The decision to remove the missiles from Cuba was made without the consent of the Cuban leadership. Perhaps this was done deliberately, since Fidel Castro categorically objected to the removal of the missiles. International tensions began to subside quickly after October 28. The Soviet Union removed its missiles and bombers from Cuba. On November 20, the United States lifted the naval blockade of the island. The Cuban (or Caribbean) crisis ended peacefully.

3.4 Vietnam War

The Vietnam War began with an incident in the Gulf of Tonkin, during which DRV coast guard ships fired on American destroyers providing fire support to South Vietnamese government forces in their fight against guerrillas. After this, everything secret became clear and the conflict developed according to the already familiar pattern. One of the superpowers entered the war openly, and the second did everything in its power to make the war “not boring.” The war that the United States thought would be a cakewalk turned out to be America's nightmare. Anti-war demonstrations rocked the country. Young people rebelled against the senseless slaughter. In 1975, the United States thought it best to announce that it had “completed its mission” and begin evacuating its military contingent. This war greatly shocked the entire American society and led to major reforms. The post-war crisis lasted more than 10 years. It’s hard to say how it would have ended if the Afghan crisis had not come along.

3.5 Afghan War

In April 1978, a coup took place in Afghanistan, later called the April Revolution. Afghan communists came to power - the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA). The government was headed by writer Noor Mohammed Taraki. However, within a few months, a sharp struggle broke out within the ruling party. In August 1979, a confrontation broke out between the two leaders of the party - Taraki and Amin. On September 16, Taraki was removed from his post, expelled from the party and taken into custody. He died soon after. These events caused discontent in Moscow, although outwardly everything remained as before. The mass “cleansings” and executions that began in Afghanistan among the party were condemned. And since they reminded the Soviet leaders of the Chinese “cultural revolution,” fears arose that Amin might break with the USSR and move closer to China. Amin repeatedly asked for the entry of Soviet troops into Afghanistan to strengthen revolutionary power. Finally, on December 12, 1979, the Soviet leadership decided to fulfill his request, but at the same time remove Amin himself. Soviet troops were sent into Afghanistan, Amin was killed by a grenade explosion during the storming of the presidential palace. Now Soviet newspapers called him a “CIA agent” and wrote about the “bloody clique of Amin and his minions.”

In the West, the entry of Soviet troops into Afghanistan caused violent protests. The Cold War flared up with renewed vigor. On January 14, 1980, the UN General Assembly demanded the withdrawal of “foreign troops” from Afghanistan. 104 states voted for this decision.

Meanwhile, in Afghanistan itself, armed resistance to Soviet troops began to intensify. It was, of course, not Amin’s supporters who fought against them, but opponents of the revolutionary government in general. At first, the Soviet press claimed that there were no battles in Afghanistan, that peace and tranquility reigned there. However, the war did not subside, and when this became clear, the USSR admitted that “bandits were rampaging” in the republic. They were called "dushmans", that is, enemies. Secretly, through Pakistan, they were supported by the United States, helping with weapons and money. The United States knew well what war against an armed people was. The experience of the Vietnam War was used 100%, with only one small difference, the roles changed. Now the USSR was at war with an underdeveloped country, and the United States helped it feel what a difficult thing it was. The rebels controlled large parts of Afghanistan. All of them were united by the slogan of jihad - the holy Islamic war. They called themselves "Mujahideen" - fighters for the faith. Otherwise, the rebel groups' programs varied widely.

The war in Afghanistan has not stopped for more than nine years... More than a million Afghans died during the fighting. Soviet troops, according to official data, lost 14,453 people killed.

In June 1987, the first, so far symbolic, steps towards establishing peace were taken. The new Kabul government offered "national reconciliation" to the rebels. In April 1988, the Soviet Union signed an agreement in Geneva on the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan. On May 15, the troops began to leave. Nine months later, on February 15, 1989, the last Soviet soldier left Afghanistan. For the Soviet Union, the Afghan war ended on this day.

4. CONSEQUENCES

The dismantling of the Berlin Wall is considered the last milestone of the Cold War. That is, we can talk about its results. But this is perhaps the most difficult thing. Because for everyone the consequences are twofold.

What are they like for the USSR and present-day Russia? After the Second World War, the USSR restructured its economy in such a way that the overwhelming majority of funds went to the military-industrial complex, since the USSR could not afford to be weaker than the United States. This turned the USSR into a country of general shortages and a weak economy, and destroyed the once mighty power. However, on the other hand, thanks to this, another state appeared on the political map - the Russian Federation, the state in which we now live, which is developing and building exclusively friendly and partnership relations with other countries.

What about the USA? First of all, they lost a dangerous rival in the person of the USSR, and lost a partner in the person of the Russian Federation. And secondly, by helping the “dushmans” in Afghanistan, they gave birth to a worldwide evil - international terrorism.

And finally, the Cold War emphasized that the main component that determined the victory of one of the sides was universal human values, which neither the fantastic development of technology nor sophisticated ideological influence could outweigh.

CONCLUSION

A slight detente in the confrontation occurred in the 70s. Its crowning achievement was the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe. The participating countries deliberated for two years, and in 1975 in Helsinki, these countries signed the Final Act of the meeting. On the USSR side, it was sealed by Leonid Brezhnev. This document legitimized the post-war division of Europe, which is what the USSR sought. In exchange for this Western concession, the Soviet Union pledged to respect human rights.

Shortly before this, in July 1975, the famous Soviet-American joint flight on the Soyuz and Apollo spacecraft took place. The USSR stopped jamming Western radio broadcasts. It seemed that the Cold War era was forever a thing of the past. However, in December 1979, Soviet troops entered Afghanistan - another period of the Cold War began. Relations between the West and the East reached a freezing point when, by decision of the Soviet leadership, a South Korean plane with civilian passengers on board was shot down, which ended up in Soviet airspace. After this event, US President Ronald Reagan called the USSR “an evil empire and the center of evil.” It was only by 1987 that relations between East and West began to gradually improve again. In 1988-89, with the beginning of perestroika, dramatic changes occurred in Soviet politics. In November 1989, the Berlin Wall came down. On July 1, 1991, the Warsaw Pact was dissolved. The socialist camp collapsed. In a number of countries - its former members - democratic revolutions took place, which were not only not condemned, but were supported by the USSR. The Soviet Union also refused to expand its influence in third world countries. Such a sharp turn in Soviet foreign policy in the West is associated with the name of USSR President Mikhail Gorbachev.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Encyclopedia for children. T.5, part 3. Moscow "Avanta+". 1998.

History of Russia: Educational minimum for applicants. "Graduate School". Moscow. 2001.

N.N.Yakovlev. "CIA against the USSR." "Young guard". Moscow.1983.

Stephen Ambrose. "Eisenhower - soldier and president." "LTD Book." 1993.

Winston Churchill. "The Second World War".T3. "Military Publishing House". 1991.

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	Planet Earth.
	Collapse of the USSR Decay: CMEA, EEC creation: CIS, European Union, CSTO German reunification, Termination of the Warsaw Pact.
Opponents
ATS and CMEA:	NATO and EEC:

Albania (until 1956)

	France (until 1966)
	Germany (since 1955)




Cuba (since 1961)


Angola (since 1975)



Afghanistan (since 1978)
Egypt (1952-1972)


Libya (since 1969)



Ethiopia (since 1974
	Iran (until 1979)

Indonesia (1959-1965)
Nicaragua (1979-1990)


Mali (until 1968)

Cambodia (since 1975)


Commanders
Joseph Stalin	Harry Truman
Georgy Malenkov	Dwight Eisenhower
Nikita Khrushchev	John Kennedy
Leonid Brezhnev	Lyndon Johnson
Yuri Andropov	Richard Nixon
Konstantin Chernenko	Gerald Ford
Mikhail Gorbachev	Jimmy Carter
Gennady Yanaev	Ronald Reagan
Enver Hoxha	George Bush Sr.
Georgiy Dimitrov
Vylko Chervenkov	Elizabeth II
Todor Zhivkov	Clement Attlee
Matthias Rakosi	Winston Churchill
Janos Kadar	Anthony Eden
Wilhelm Pieck	Harold Macmillan
Walter Ulbricht	Alexander Douglas-Home
Erich Honecker	Harold Wilson
Boleslaw Bierut	Edward Heath
Wladyslaw Gomułka	James Callaghan
Edward Gierek	Margaret Thatcher
Stanislav Kanya	John Major
Wojciech Jaruzelski	Vincent Auriol
Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej	Rene Coty
Nicolae Ceausescu	Charles de Gaulle
Klement Gottwald	Konrad Adenauer
Antonin Zapototsky	Ludwig Erhard
Antonin Novotny	Kurt Georg Kiesinger
Ludwik Svoboda	Willy Brandt
Gustav Husak	Helmut Schmidt
Fidel Castro	Helmut Kohl
Raul Castro	Juan Carlos I
Ernesto Che Guevara	Alcide de Gasperi
Mao Zedong	Giuseppe Pella
Kim Il Sung	Amintore Fanfani
Ho Chi Minh	Mario Scelba
	Antonio Segni
Ton Duc Thang	Adone Zoli
Khorlogin Choibalsan	Fernando Tambroni
Gamal Abdel Nasser	Giovanni Leone
Fauzi Selu	Aldo Moro
Adib al-Shishakli	Mariano Rumor
Shukri al-Quatli	Emilio Colombo
Nazim al-Qudsi	Giulio Andreotti
Amin al-Hafez	Francesco Cossiga
Nureddin al-Atassi	Arnaldo Forlani
Hafez al-Assad	Giovanni Spadolini
Abdul Salam Aref	Bettino Craxi
Abdul Rahman Aref	Giovanni Goria
Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr	Ciriaco de Mita
Saddam Hussein	Chiang Kai-shek
Muammar Gaddafi	Lee Seung Man
Ahmed Sukarno	Yoon Bo Song
Daniel Ortega	Park Chung Hee
	Choi Gyu Ha
	Jung Doo Hwan

	Ngo Dinh Diem
	Duong Van Minh
	Nguyen Khanh
	Nguyen Van Thieu
	Tran Van Huong
	Chaim Weizmann
	Yitzhak Ben-Zvi
	Zalman Shazar
	Ephraim Katzir
	Yitzhak Navon
	Chaim Herzog
	Mohammad Reza Pahlavi



	Mobutu Sese Seko

The global geopolitical, economic and ideological confrontation between the Soviet Union and its allies, on the one hand, and the United States and its allies, on the other, lasted from the mid-1940s to the early 1990s.

One of the main components of the confrontation was ideology. The deep contradiction between the capitalist and socialist models is the main cause of the Cold War. The two superpowers - winners of World War II - tried to rebuild the world according to their ideological principles. Over time, confrontation became an element of the ideology of the two sides and helped the leaders of military-political blocs consolidate allies around them “in the face of an external enemy.” The new confrontation required the unity of all members of the opposing blocs.

The expression “Cold War” was first used on April 16, 1947 by Bernard Baruch, an adviser to US President Harry Truman, in a speech before the South Carolina House of Representatives.

The internal logic of the confrontation required the parties to participate in conflicts and interfere in the development of events in any part of the world. The efforts of the USA and the USSR were aimed primarily at dominance in the military sphere. From the very beginning of the confrontation, the process of militarization of the two superpowers unfolded.

The USA and the USSR created their spheres of influence, securing them with military-political blocs - NATO and the Warsaw Pact. Although the United States and the USSR never entered into direct military confrontation, their competition for influence often led to the outbreak of local armed conflicts around the world.

The Cold War was accompanied by a conventional and nuclear arms race that continually threatened to lead to a third world war. The most famous of such cases when the world found itself on the brink of disaster was the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. In this regard, in the 1970s, both sides made efforts to “détente” international tensions and limit arms.

The growing technological backwardness of the USSR, along with the stagnation of the Soviet economy and exorbitant military spending in the late 1970s and early 1980s, forced the Soviet leadership to undertake political and economic reforms. The policy of perestroika and glasnost announced by Mikhail Gorbachev in 1985 led to the loss of the leading role of the CPSU and also contributed to the economic collapse in the USSR. Ultimately, the USSR, burdened by an economic crisis, as well as social and interethnic problems, collapsed in 1991.

In Eastern Europe, communist governments, having lost Soviet support, were removed even earlier, in 1989-1990. The Warsaw Pact officially ended on July 1, 1991, which can be considered the end of the Cold War.

Story

Beginning of the Cold War

The establishment of Soviet control over the countries of Eastern Europe at the end of World War II, in particular the creation of a pro-Soviet government in Poland as opposed to the Polish émigré government in London, led to the fact that the ruling circles of Great Britain and the United States began to perceive the USSR as a threat.

In April 1945, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill ordered the preparation of a plan for war against the USSR. The task was preceded by the conclusions that Churchill presented in his memoirs:

The operation plan was prepared by the joint planning staff of the British War Cabinet. The plan provides an assessment of the situation, formulates the objectives of the operation, determines the forces involved, the directions of attacks by the Western Allied forces and their likely results.

The planners came to two main conclusions:

when starting a war with the USSR, you must be prepared for a long and expensive all-out war, and for a very possible defeat;
The numerical superiority of Soviet troops on land makes it extremely doubtful that one of the sides can achieve victory quickly.

It should be pointed out that Churchill indicated in comments on the draft plan presented to him that it was a “precautionary measure” for what he hoped would be a “purely hypothetical case.”

In 1945, the USSR presented territorial claims to Turkey and demanded a change in the status of the Black Sea straits, including recognition of the USSR's right to create a naval base in the Dardanelles.

In 1946, Greek rebels, led by communists and fueled by arms supplies from Albania, Yugoslavia and Bulgaria, where communists were already in power, became more active. At the London meeting of foreign ministers, the USSR demanded the right to a protectorate over Tripolitania (Libya) in order to ensure its presence in the Mediterranean.

In France and Italy, the Communist Parties became the largest political parties and the Communists entered the governments. After the withdrawal of the bulk of American troops from Europe, the USSR became the dominant military force in continental Europe. Everything was favorable for Stalin to establish complete control over Europe, if he so desired.

Some Western politicians began to advocate pacification of the USSR. This position was most clearly expressed by US Secretary of Commerce Henry Wallace. He considered the USSR's claims to be justified and proposed to agree to a kind of division of the world, recognizing the USSR's right to dominance in a number of areas of Europe and Asia. Churchill had a different point of view.

The formal beginning of the Cold War is often considered to be March 5, 1946, when Winston Churchill (at that time no longer serving as Prime Minister of Great Britain) made his famous speech in Fulton (USA, Missouri), in which he put forward the idea of creating a military alliance of Anglo-Saxon countries with goal of the fight against world communism. In fact, the aggravation of relations between the allies began earlier, but by March 1946 it intensified due to the USSR’s refusal to withdraw occupation troops from Iran (the troops were withdrawn only in May 1946 under pressure from Great Britain and the USA). Churchill's speech outlined a new reality, which the retired British leader, after protesting his deep respect and admiration for “the valiant Russian people and my wartime comrade Marshal Stalin,” defined as follows:

...From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, the Iron Curtain stretched across the continent. On the other side of the imaginary line are all the capitals of the ancient states of Central and Eastern Europe. (...) The communist parties, which were very small in all the eastern states of Europe, seized power everywhere and received unlimited totalitarian control. Police governments prevail almost everywhere, and so far, except in Czechoslovakia, there is no real democracy anywhere.

Turkey and Persia are also deeply alarmed and concerned about the demands that the Moscow government is making on them. The Russians made an attempt in Berlin to create a quasi-communist party in their zone of occupation of Germany (...) If the Soviet government now tries to separately create a pro-communist Germany in its zone, it will cause new serious difficulties in the British and American zones and divide the defeated Germans between the Soviets and the Western democracies.

(...) The facts are: this, of course, is not the liberated Europe for which we fought. This is not what is needed for permanent peace.

Churchill called not to repeat the mistakes of the 30s and to consistently defend the values of freedom, democracy and “Christian civilization” against totalitarianism, for which it is necessary to ensure close unity and cohesion of the Anglo-Saxon nations.

A week later, J.V. Stalin, in an interview with Pravda, put Churchill on a par with Hitler and stated that in his speech he called on the West to go to war with the USSR.

1946-1953: beginning of the confrontation

On March 12, 1947, US President Harry Truman announced his intention to provide military and economic assistance in the amount of $400 million to Greece and Turkey. At the same time, he formulated the objectives of US policy aimed at helping “free peoples resisting attempts at enslavement by an armed minority and external pressure.” In this statement, Truman, in addition, defined the content of the emerging rivalry between the USA and the USSR as a conflict between democracy and totalitarianism. This is how the Truman Doctrine was born, which became the beginning of the transition from post-war cooperation between the USSR and the USA to rivalry.

In 1947, at the insistence of the USSR, the socialist countries refused to participate in the Marshall Plan, under which the United States provided economic assistance to countries affected by the war in exchange for the exclusion of communists from the government.

The efforts of the USSR, in particular Soviet intelligence, were aimed at eliminating the US monopoly on the possession of nuclear weapons (see the article Creation of the Soviet atomic bomb). On August 29, 1949, the Soviet Union conducted its first nuclear bomb tests at the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site. American scientists from the Manhattan Project had previously warned that the USSR would eventually develop its own nuclear capability - nevertheless, this nuclear explosion had a stunning impact on US military strategic planning - mainly because US military strategists did not expect that they would will have to lose its monopoly so soon. At that time, it was not yet known about the successes of Soviet intelligence, which managed to penetrate Los Alamos.

In 1948, the United States adopted the “Vandenberg Resolution” - the official US renunciation of the practice of non-alignment with military-political blocs outside the Western Hemisphere in peacetime.

Already on April 4, 1949, NATO was created, and in October 1954, Germany was admitted to the Western European Union and NATO. This step caused a negative reaction from the USSR. In response, the USSR began to create a military bloc that would unite the Eastern European countries.

At the end of the 1940s, repressions against dissidents intensified in the USSR, who, in particular, began to be accused of “worshipping the West” (see also the article Fighting Cosmopolitanism), and a campaign was launched in the United States to identify communist sympathizers.

Although the USSR now also had nuclear capabilities, the United States was far ahead in both the number of warheads and the number of bombers. In any conflict, the United States could easily bomb the USSR, while the USSR would have difficulty responding.

The transition to large-scale use of jet fighter-interceptors somewhat changed this situation in favor of the USSR, reducing the potential effectiveness of American bomber aircraft. In 1949, Curtis LeMay, the new commander of the US Strategic Air Command, signed a program for the complete transition of bomber aircraft to jet propulsion. In the early 1950s, the B-47 and B-52 bombers began to enter service.

The most acute period of confrontation between the two blocs (USSR and the USA with their allies) occurred during the Korean War.

1953-1962: on the brink of nuclear war

With the onset of Khrushchev’s “thaw,” the threat of world war receded - this was especially true in the late 1950s, which culminated in Khrushchev’s visit to the United States. However, these same years included the Events of June 17, 1953 in the GDR, the events of 1956 in Poland, the anti-communist uprising in Hungary, and the Suez Crisis.

In response to the numerical increase in Soviet bomber aircraft in the 1950s, the United States created a fairly strong layered air defense system around large cities, involving the use of interceptor aircraft, anti-aircraft artillery and surface-to-air missiles. But the focus was still on the construction of a huge armada of nuclear bombers, which were destined to crush the defensive lines of the USSR - since it was considered impossible to provide effective and reliable defense of such a vast territory.

This approach was firmly rooted in US strategic plans - it was believed that there was no reason for special concern as long as US strategic forces exceeded the overall potential of the Soviet Armed Forces in their power. Moreover, according to American strategists, the Soviet economy, destroyed during the war, was unlikely to be capable of creating an adequate counterforce potential.

However, the USSR quickly created its own strategic aviation and tested in 1957 the R-7 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), capable of reaching US territory. Since 1959, serial production of ICBMs began in the Soviet Union. (In 1958, the United States also tested its first Atlas ICBM). Since the mid-1950s, the United States has begun to realize that in the event of a nuclear war, the USSR will be able to deliver a counter-value strike against American cities. Therefore, since the late 1950s, military experts have recognized that an all-out nuclear war between the United States and the USSR has become impossible.

The scandal with the American U-2 spy plane (1960) led to a new aggravation of relations between the USSR and the USA, the peak of which was the Berlin crisis of 1961 and the Cuban missile crisis (1962).

1962-1979: "Détente"

The ongoing nuclear arms race, the concentration of control of Western nuclear forces in the hands of the United States, and a number of incidents with nuclear weapons carriers caused increasing criticism of US nuclear policy. Contradictions in the principles of nuclear weapons management in the NATO command led to France's withdrawal in 1966 from participation in the formation of the armed forces of this organization. On January 17, 1966, one of the largest incidents involving nuclear weapons occurred: after a collision with a tanker aircraft, a US Air Force B-52 bomber crash-dropped four thermonuclear bombs over the Spanish village of Palomares. After this incident, Spain refused to condemn France's withdrawal from NATO and limited military activities of the US Air Force in the country, suspending the 1953 Spanish-American Treaty on Military Cooperation; Negotiations to renew this treaty in 1968 ended in failure.

Regarding the competition between two systems in space, Vladimir Bugrov noted that in 1964, Korolev’s main opponents managed to create the illusion with Khrushchev that it was possible to land on the Moon before the Americans; according to the scientist, if there was a race, it was between the chief designers.

In Germany, the coming to power of the Social Democrats led by Willy Brandt was marked by a new “Eastern policy”, which resulted in the Moscow Treaty between the USSR and the Federal Republic of Germany in 1970, which established the inviolability of borders, the renunciation of territorial claims and declared the possibility of uniting the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic.

In 1968, attempts at democratic reform in Czechoslovakia (Prague Spring) prompted military intervention by the USSR and its allies.

However, Brezhnev, unlike Khrushchev, had no inclination either for risky adventures outside the clearly defined Soviet sphere of influence, or for extravagant “peaceful” actions; The 1970s passed under the sign of the so-called “détente of international tension”, manifestations of which were the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (Helsinki) and the joint Soviet-American space flight (the Soyuz-Apollo program); At the same time, treaties on the limitation of strategic arms were signed. This was largely determined by economic reasons, since the USSR already then began to experience an increasingly acute dependence on the purchase of consumer goods and food (for which foreign currency loans were required), while the West, during the years of the oil crisis caused by the Arab-Israeli confrontation, was extremely interested in the Soviet oil. In military terms, the basis for “detente” was the nuclear-missile parity of blocs that had developed by that time.

On August 17, 1973, US Secretary of Defense James Schlesinger put forward the doctrine of a “blinding” or “decapitation” strike: defeating enemy command posts and communications centers using medium- and shorter-range missiles, cruise missiles with laser, television and infrared targeting systems. This approach assumed a gain in “flight time” - the defeat of command posts before the enemy had time to make a decision on a retaliatory strike. The emphasis in deterrence has shifted from the strategic triad to medium- and shorter-range weapons. In 1974, this approach was enshrined in key documents on US nuclear strategy. On this basis, the United States and other NATO countries began modernizing Forward Base Systems - American tactical nuclear weapons located in Western Europe or off its coast. At the same time, the United States began creating a new generation of cruise missiles capable of hitting specified targets as accurately as possible.

These steps raised concerns in the USSR, since US forward-deployed assets, as well as the “independent” nuclear capabilities of Great Britain and France, were capable of hitting targets in the European part of the Soviet Union. In 1976, Dmitry Ustinov became the USSR Minister of Defense, who was inclined to take a tough response to US actions. Ustinov advocated not so much for building up the ground group of conventional armed forces, but for improving the technical park of the Soviet Army. The Soviet Union began modernizing the delivery systems for medium- and shorter-range nuclear weapons in the European theater of operations.

Under the pretext of modernizing the outdated RSD-4 and RSD-5 (SS-4 and SS-5) systems, the USSR began deploying RSD-10 Pioneer (SS-20) medium-range missiles on its western borders. In December 1976, the missile systems were deployed, and in February 1977, they were put on combat duty in the European part of the USSR. In total, about 300 missiles of this class were deployed, each of which was equipped with three independently targetable multiple warheads. This allowed the USSR to destroy NATO's military infrastructure in Western Europe in a matter of minutes - control centers, command posts and, especially, ports, which in the event of war made it impossible for American troops to land in Western Europe. At the same time, the USSR modernized the general-purpose forces stationed in Central Europe - in particular, it modernized the Tu-22M long-range bomber to a strategic level.

The actions of the USSR caused a negative reaction from NATO countries. On December 12, 1979, NATO made a double decision - the deployment of American medium- and shorter-range missiles on the territory of Western European countries and at the same time the start of negotiations with the USSR on the issue of Euromissiles. However, the negotiations reached a dead end.

1979-1986: a new round of confrontation

A new aggravation occurred in 1979 in connection with the entry of Soviet troops into Afghanistan, which was perceived in the West as a violation of the geopolitical balance and the USSR’s transition to a policy of expansion. The aggravation reached its peak in the fall of 1983, when Soviet air defense forces shot down a South Korean civilian airliner, which, according to media reports, had about 300 people on board. It was then that US President Ronald Reagan called the USSR an “evil empire.”

In 1983, the United States deployed Pershing-2 medium-range ballistic missiles on the territory of Germany, Great Britain, Denmark, Belgium and Italy within 5-7 minutes of approach from targets on the European territory of the USSR and air-launched cruise missiles. In parallel, in 1981, the United States began production of neutron weapons - artillery shells and warheads for the Lance short-range missile. Analysts suggested that these weapons could be used to repel the advance of Warsaw Pact troops in Central Europe. The United States also began developing a space missile defense program (the so-called “Star Wars” program); Both of these large-scale programs extremely worried the Soviet leadership, especially since the USSR, which maintained nuclear missile parity with great difficulty and strain on the economy, did not have the means to adequately fight back in space.

In response, in November 1983, the USSR withdrew from the Euromissile negotiations held in Geneva. General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee Yuri Andropov said that the USSR would take a number of countermeasures: it would deploy operational-tactical nuclear weapons launch vehicles on the territory of the GDR and Czechoslovakia and move Soviet nuclear submarines closer to the US coast. In 1983-1986. Soviet nuclear forces and missile warning systems were on high alert.

According to available data, in 1981, Soviet intelligence services (KGB and GRU) launched Operation Nuclear Missile Attack (Operation RYAN) - monitoring the possible preparation of NATO countries for the start of a limited nuclear war in Europe. The concerns of the Soviet leadership were caused by the NATO exercises “Able archer 83” - in the USSR they feared that, under their cover, NATO was preparing to launch “Euromissiles” at targets in the Warsaw Pact countries. Similarly in 1983-1986. NATO military analysts feared that the USSR would launch a pre-emptive “disarming” strike on the Euromissile bases.

1987-1991: Gorbachev’s “new thinking” and the end of the confrontation

With the coming to power of Mikhail Gorbachev, who proclaimed “socialist pluralism” and “the priority of universal human values over class values,” the ideological confrontation quickly lost its severity. In a military-political sense, Gorbachev initially tried to pursue a policy in the spirit of “detente” of the 1970s, proposing arms limitation programs, but negotiating rather harshly over the terms of the treaty (meeting in Reykjavik).

However, the development of the political process in the USSR towards the rejection of communist ideology, as well as the dependence of the USSR economy on Western technologies and loans due to the sharp drop in oil prices, led to the fact that the USSR made broad concessions in the foreign policy sphere. It is widely believed that this was also due to the fact that increased military spending as a result of the arms race became unsustainable for the Soviet economy, but a number of researchers argue that the relative level of military spending in the USSR was not excessively high.

In 1988, the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan begins. The fall of the communist system in Eastern Europe in 1989-1990. led to the liquidation of the Soviet bloc, and with it the virtual end of the Cold War.

Meanwhile, the Soviet Union itself was experiencing a deep crisis. The central authorities began to lose control over the union republics. Interethnic conflicts broke out on the outskirts of the country. In December 1991, the final collapse of the USSR occurred.

Manifestations of the Cold War

reduction of economic and humanitarian ties between states with different socio-political systems.
boycotts of some Olympic Games. For example, the USA and a number of other countries boycotted the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow. In response, the USSR and most socialist countries boycotted the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.

Lessons from the Cold War

Joseph Nye, a professor at Harvard University (USA), speaking at the conference “From Fulton to Malta: How the Cold War Began and How It Ended” (Gorbachev Foundation, March 2005), pointed out the lessons that should be learned from the Cold War:

bloodshed as a means of resolving global or regional conflicts is not inevitable;
the presence of nuclear weapons among the warring parties and the understanding of what the world could become after a nuclear conflict played a significant deterrent role;
the course of development of conflicts is closely related to the personal qualities of specific leaders (Stalin and Harry Truman, Mikhail Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan);
military power is essential, but not decisive (the USA was defeated in Vietnam, and the USSR in Afghanistan); in the era of nationalism and the third industrial (information) revolution, it is impossible to control the hostile population of an occupied country;
in these conditions, the economic power of the state and the ability of the economic system to adapt to the requirements of modernity, the ability for constant innovation, acquire a much greater role.
a significant role is played by the use of soft forms of influence, or soft power, that is, the ability to achieve what you want from others without coercing (intimidating) them or buying their consent, but attracting them to your side. Immediately after the defeat of Nazism, the USSR and communist ideas had serious potential, but most of it was lost after the events in Hungary and Czechoslovakia, and this process continued as the Soviet Union used its military power.

Memory of the Cold War

Museums

The Cold War Museum is a military history museum and museum and entertainment complex in Moscow.
The Cold War Museum (UK) is a military history museum in Shropshire.
Cold War Museum (Ukraine) is a naval museum complex in Balaklava.
The Cold War Museum (USA) is a military history museum in Lorton, Virginia.

Medal "For Victory in the Cold War"

In early April 2007, a bill was introduced into both houses of the US Congress to establish a new military award for participation in the Cold War ( Cold War Service Medal), supported by a group of senators and congressmen from the Democratic Party led by the current US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. The medal is proposed to be awarded to all those who served in the armed forces or worked in US government departments during the period from September 2, 1945 to December 26, 1991.

As Hillary Clinton stated, “Our victory in the Cold War was made possible only by the willingness of millions of Americans in uniform to repel the threat that came from behind the Iron Curtain. Our victory in the Cold War was a tremendous achievement, and the men and women who served during that time deserve to be rewarded."

Congressman Robert Andrews, who introduced the bill in the House, said: “The Cold War was a global military operation that was extremely dangerous and at times deadly for the brave soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines who fought in the campaign. The millions of American veterans who served around the world to help us win this conflict deserve to receive a unique medal to recognize and honor their service.”

In the United States, there is an Association of Cold War Veterans, which also demanded that the authorities recognize their services in the victory over the USSR, but only managed to achieve the issuance of certificates from the Ministry of Defense confirming their participation in the Cold War. The Veterans Association issued its own unofficial medal, the design of which was developed by a leading specialist at the US Army Institute of Heraldry, Nadin Russell.

Holodnaya voyna (1946—1989...present)

In short, the Cold War is an ideological, military and economic confrontation between the two strongest powers of the 20th century, the USSR and the USA, which lasted 45 years - from 1946 to 1991. The word “war” here is conditional; the conflict continued without the use of military force, but this did not make it any less severe. If we talk briefly about the Cold War, then the main weapon in it was ideology.

The main countries of this confrontation are the Soviet Union and the United States. The USSR has caused concern in Western countries since its inception. The communist system was the extreme opposite of the capitalist one, and the spread of socialism to other countries caused an extremely negative reaction from the West and the United States.

Only the threat of Nazi Germany's seizure of Europe forced the former fierce opponents to become temporary allies in World War II. France, Great Britain, the USSR and the USA created an anti-Hitler coalition and jointly fought against German troops. But the conflicts were forgotten only for the duration of the war.

After the end of the bloodiest war of the 20th century, a new division of the world into spheres of influence between the major victorious countries began. The USSR extended its influence to Eastern Europe. The strengthening of the Soviet Union caused serious concerns in England and the United States. The governments of these countries already in 1945 were developing plans to attack their main ideological enemy. British Prime Minister William Churchill, who hated the communist regime, made an open statement in which he emphasized that military superiority in the world should be on the side of Western countries, not the USSR. Statements of this kind caused increased tension between Western countries and the Soviet Union.

In short, the Cold War began in 1946, immediately after the end of World War II. Churchill’s speech in the American city of Fulton can be considered its beginning. It showed the true attitude of the Western allies towards the USSR.
In 1949, the West created the NATO military bloc in order to protect against possible aggression from the USSR. In 1955, the Soviet Union and its allied countries also formed their own military alliance, the Warsaw Pact Organization, as a counterbalance to Western countries.

The main participants in the conflict, the USSR and the USA, did not engage in hostilities, but the policies they pursued led to the emergence of many local conflicts in many regions of the world.
The Cold War was accompanied by increased militarization, an arms race and ideological warfare. The Cuban Missile Crisis that occurred in 1962 showed how fragile the world is under such conditions. A real war was barely averted. After him, the USSR came to understand the need for disarmament. Mikhail Gorbachev, starting in 1985, pursued a policy of establishing more trusting relations with Western countries.

In 1988-89, the process of “perestroika” began in the USSR, the Berlin Wall fell, and the socialist camp soon collapsed. And the USSR did not even lay claim to any influence in third world countries. By 1990, the Cold War was over. It was she who contributed to the strengthening of the totalitarian regime in the USSR. The arms race also led to scientific discoveries: nuclear physics began to develop more intensively, and space research acquired a wider scope.

Consequences of the Cold War

The 20th century has ended, more than ten years have passed in the new millennium. The Soviet Union no longer exists, and the Western countries have also changed... But as soon as the once weak Russia rose from its knees, gained strength and confidence on the world stage, the “ghost of communism” again appeared in the United States and its allies. And we can only hope that politicians in leading countries will not return to the Cold War policy, since everyone will ultimately suffer from it...

58. The collapse of the USSR and the formation of a new Russian statehood in the 90s. Perestroika.

Soviet Union in 1985-1991 Perestroika. Collapse of the USSR.

The concept of “perestroika” can be defined. as an attempt to preserve administrative-command socialism, giving it elements of democracy and market relations, without affecting the fundamental foundations of politics. building. Perestroika had serious preconditions. Stagnation in the economy, growth of scientific and technological lagging behind the West, failures in social services. sphere have caused millions of people and some leaders to realize the need for change. Dr. its premise was watered. crisis, expressed in the decomposition of the leadership, in its inability to provide. econ. progress.

The subjective reason for the restructuring of the yav. arrival on sec. floor. 70s-early 80s. to the leadership of the country rel. young politicians (M. S. Gorbachev, E. K. Ligacheva, E. A. Shevardnadze, N. I. Ryzhkov), who sought not only to strengthen their power, but also advocated the renewal of the state and society.

You can suggest the following.periodization of perestroika: 1st stage - from April 1985 to the end of 1986; the second stage - from January 1987 to April 1988; third stage - from April 1988 to March 1990; fourth stage - from March 1990 to August 1991.

Perestroika began with the April (1985) Plenum of the CPSU Central Committee, proclaimed. course to accelerate social and economic development of the country, profound changes in the life of society through the improvement of socialism. Acceleration Assumed. implementation due to scientific and technical progress, re-equipment of machines and activation of “human. factor”, by increasing labor and economics. disciplines. The most realistic manifestation of perestroika. at the first stage in external politics, where the idea of a new watered was put forward. thinking. It meant a rethinking of modern times. peace and carrying out the campaign from a universal human perspective. values.

A slow retreat from the ideas of “world revolution” began. The first years of perestroika show. Gorbachev (and his position in the party leadership has strengthened) is radical. changes cannot be achieved without deep transformations of the economy and politics. systems. Noun 2 alternatives for the development of the USSR: the first could be based on the experience of China, where, in the absence of water. economic freedoms have expanded widely. reform, the second option involved simultaneous democratization and reform. The second option was chosen. It was with these measures that the second stage of perestroika began. Understanding the importance of economics. issues, Gorbachev convened the 1987 Plenum, on the cat. sentence economic reform program. The transition from administrative to economic was proclaimed. methods of managing the national economy. The two cornerstones of the reform were the state laws adopted in 1987. enterprise and cooperation.

An important role in the implementation. reforms, involvement in politics. the lives of working people played a part in glasnost. It began with revealing the truth about the crimes of the Stalinist period, without exposing the cat. it was impossible to break the totalitarian regime.

During the party conference in June-July 1988 b. the question of watering was raised. reform, for example to create a legal state and develop parliamentarism. B. amendments were made to the Constitution of the USSR, providing for the introduction of a new element of state. structure - the Congress of People's Deputies of the USSR. During this period of perestroika, a multi-party system is being formed. Gorbachev begins to carry out half a maneuver between conservatives and reformists. But this style played into the hands of opponents of change. The lack of firmness and determination has had a particularly hard impact on the economy. In 1988-1990 not attempted will decide. measures for its structural transformation - preserved. former farms. mechanism. The changes affected only the cooperative sector. Open inflationary processes began, production fell, and standard of living. In the spring of 1990, the last one began. stage of perestroika – crisis. Fast. Gorbachev’s hesitations led to conservatives accusing him of being “bourgeois” and “betraying the cause of socialism.”

Elected in the spring of 1990 as Chairman of the Supreme Council, B. N. Yeltsin at the end of July. Gorbachev to develop a joint economic program. reforms. Two programs were initially developed: Ryzhkov-Abalkin (“Prussian” path of market transformation of society) and Shatalin-Yavlinsky (radical transition to the market). Although the second program was chosen, the plan was not actually completed. Instead of Ryzhkov, V. S. Pavlov, cat, became the chairman of the government. implementation price increases and exchange of 50- and 100-ruble banknotes. The ruble has depreciated significantly.

At the turn of 1990-1991. Gorbachev moved towards rapprochement with the conservatives. The situation in the Union republics became more complicated. April 23, 1991 – a meeting of the leaders of 11 republics took place in Novo Ogarevo, on the cat. b. agreement was reached on the principles of the new union treaty. Yeltsin began to lose the support of the majority, cat. was elected to the post of Chairman of the Supreme Council. He is prov. early elections of the President of Russia and wins.

At the same time, August 21, 1991 d.b. sign the union agreement, cat. presupposed creation of a federal state. However, on August 18, a group of hands proposed. Gorbachev to introduce emergency measures. half and end the reforms. After his refusal, he was isolated from the government of the country.

On August 19, Vice President G.I. Yanaev took office as president. The State Emergency Committee was created. There were centuries in Moscow. troops. The fight against the State Emergency Committee was led by Yeltsin and the Russian leadership. The coup was declared unconstitutional. Prod. putsch at the white house. Many thousands of Muscovites came to the White House. Act. New entrepreneurs played a role in organizing and repelling the putsch - the leadership of exchanges and commercial structures. They provided fin. and tech. help to the hands of Russia, and their employees were an act. participants in the live ring at the White Lady. As a result, the putschists did not risk using force, and by August 21 the uprising was suppressed. The leaders of the State Emergency Committee were taken into custody. These events essentially drew a line under the existence of the USSR. The victory of Yeltsin and the democrats frightened the local communist nomenklatura, and they rushed into the arms of the nationalists. A wave of declarations of independence, referendums and presidential elections swept across all republics.

In December, at a meeting in Belovezhskaya Pushcha between Yeltsin, Kravchuk and Shushkevich, and then at a meeting in Alma-Ata of the leaders of the former Soviet republics, the Union Treaty of 1922 was terminated, the USSR ceased to exist, and Gorbachev resigned. Simultaneous The CIS arose on the territory of the former union. The collapse of administrative-command socialism and the liquidation of the USSR were caused. complex social-economic. reasons. First of all, the markets that developed on a “shadow” criminal basis demanded legalization. relationship. Totalitarian polit. sis-ma not b. capable of providing conventional for economic progress. The lack of real rights and powers of the union republics, the gap in their economic levels. development, fear of loss of national identity, memories of repression created the preconditions for the rise of national movements.

The formation of a new Russian statehood.

With the collapse of the USSR, the history of a new modern era began. Russia. Today it is still difficult with history. t.zr. evaluate the collapse of the USSR and the events that followed, because Very little time has passed, there is no necessary distance from the era, and we still cannot fully imagine all the consequences of this event. But even today those negative signs have clearly emerged. trends, cat. caused by the events of 1991. Many historians compare the significance of 1991 with the events of October 1917 in Russia.

The most serious problem. decline in the Russian economy. At the end of 1991, a new government was formed, cat. was headed by E. T. Gaidar, a scientist-economist and supporter of liberal market relations. Early reforms with “shock therapy”. They turned on a landslide liberalization of prices, and there was an unprecedented rise in prices. As a result, it appeared. goods, but the savings of millions of citizens were lost. Savings, often collected over a lifetime, were immediately turned to dust, and in such a way that the economy could not extract the slightest benefit from them. The salaries of public sector workers have decreased many times over. Simultaneous beginning reform to denationalize the state. own She's on. “voucherization” plan, developed by A. B. Chubais, cat. provided for the distribution of vouchers, i.e. privatization checks to the entire population of the country. Vouchers, pieces of paper distributed to the population instead of money, turned out to be useless. Another form of denationalization was the corporatization of property. Spanish also selling property at auction. All this allowed us to provide. mass denationalization of property, but its owners became a narrow layer of Russian citizens, most of them are former employees of party, Komsomol, and trade union organizations.

Reforms that have begun and bank. sis-mu. An important role in finance. the sphere began to play freely. circulation of foreigners currencies. The government has been reduced. and the cooperative form of trade, sharply led away. private trading sector. The Russian market turned out to be littered with foreign goods. But the new, so-called market, relations had little in common with the civilized market, which caused great harm to both the state and citizens. During this period, intensification. fight for the original accumulation of capital. And Russia became similar to America in the 30s, cat. was going through a gang war at the time. The transition to private ownership and market relations also gave rise to private entrepreneurship. But it showed. primarily in fin. sphere, in market development, various. services, at the same time practical. did not touch the mother. production Most enterprises could not withstand this course of reforms. Actual the industry was destroyed, because industrial production fell by more than half. The fall in production led to massive non-payments, abbr. contributions to the state budget, pension fund, increased. salary arrears.

This right worked for about a year. The country managed to turn towards the market, but at what cost. Voltage The struggle in the regiment was intertwined with the struggle for the choice of economy. course of transformation. For the successful development of reforms, it is necessary. b. develop a scientific basis. concept of development, but there was no time for this. Management is forced b. compose it in a hurry, making mistakes. The reform began to be carried out without the support of the masses, which complicated its implementation. Need b. well-trained reformist cadres. Hence the frequent changes in the country's leadership. Changes in the composition of the Government of the Russian Federation were sometimes protracted and led to negative consequences. econ. consequences. This happened during the next change of government on March 23, 1998, when for the first time it was dismissed in its entirety, headed by Chairman V.S. Chernomyrdin. In April 1998, the new chairman of the Government b. the young reformer S.V. Kiriyenko was elected. This right did not work for long. August 25, 1998 by presidential decree it was dismissed. This was caused by the government's decision to freeze GKOs (simultaneous default) and devaluation. This led to disastrous consequences. Within a month, the economy was thrown back to the level of the early 90s. For some time the whole of Finland was paralyzed. Russian system. Econ. The crisis has deepened and watered down. crisis, cat. b. associated with the creation of a new law of the Russian Federation. Prime Minister b. elected E. M. Primakov, man, cat. in September 1998 they supported the practice. all factions in the State. Duma. The formation of a new cabinet began. But the most serious consequences of the autumn crisis of 1998, which consist in the separation of power from the people and the loss of the people's trust by the country's leadership, will not be overcome soon.

Economic transformation process sys-we rendered. much more painful, long and complex than the previous one. previously. Market mechanisms nah. at a primitive level, fin. The sector is still weak by international standards, with industry and agriculture experiencing a multi-year decline. This happens due to unfavorable circumstances. environment, both external and internal. character. First of all, for the successful implementation of reforms, Russia lacks resources. Unprecedented economy. The crisis led to a multiple decline. federal income. State the budget amounted to about 80 billion dollars in 1997. As a result, it was not used. issue even a reduced government spending plan. Russian law lives on debt: in 1995-1997. state sizes Domestic debt increased from 14.7 to 25.4% of GDP. Noticeably abbreviated tax base, because cont. industrial decline production

The budget deficit is growing. And this means. search for new funds abroad. Russia's dependence on foreign affairs is increasing. creditors. Russia inherited from the USSR about 70 billion dollars of external debt, since then it has doubled. Only in 1995-1996. ext. debt taken away. by 12 billion dollars. With one hand the government pays new bills, with the other it collects more and more new loans.

After the collapse of the socialist system in Russia, practical have to reintegrate into the world again. economy. And this is what happened. in conventional terms, when the competitiveness of the Russian economy is extremely low. Ext. Russia's trade resembles underdeveloped countries: oil and gas and other minerals dominate exports. Russia still has opportunities - in aviation, special metallurgy, mechanical engineering, energy, biotechnology and other areas.

Scientific and technical The country's development is rapidly declining.

the reduction in inflation and the currency “corridor” did not lead to a division of the ruble’s coverage area, but to its reduction.

Tough tax policy in both small and medium-sized areas. entrepreneurs, and in relation to citizens, led to the opposite result: taxes began to be collected. even worse.

Low inflation d. was abbr. prices for the provision of loans and borrowings, but nothing like that is produced.

The government tried to revive the industry. production through the development of strategic directions, holding a competition of projects, and further attracting state and foreign funds. investors. But there was no need. funds, and industrial program. the floor was never approved. By the end of the 20th century, Russia turned out to be in complex gender. But all is not lost. Russia still has a chance to get out of the protracted crisis.

There are three development paths:

loss of the country's intellectual and cultural development potential, its transformation into a raw material base and a source of cheap labor.

Implementation of the ideals of consumer society and the formation of a high level of consumption.

Searching for movement towards the information society, developing a new reform strategy, changing the ideals of a consumer society to a value system that affirms the prestige of the spiritual and intellectual sphere, the development of culture, science, technological revolution, etc.

Political reform continues in the country. systems. Further changes in politics. lives go in the direction approved. statehood.

On December 12, 1993, the Constitution was adopted by popular vote. She consolidated the changes that took place in the country. It states that the bearer of sovereignty and the only source of power is the people. He exercises his power directly and through state and local government bodies. The new law limited the powers of parliament, but strengthened the power of the president. The President exercises the power of administration and lawmaking through decrees. The 1996 presidential elections confirmed Yeltsin for another 4 years.

Elections have become a constant occurrence in the country.

58. After Chernenko's death in 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev came to power. By that time, the USSR was already on the verge of a deep crisis, both in the economy and in the social sphere. The efficiency of social production was steadily declining, and the arms race was a heavy burden on the country's economy. In fact, all areas of society needed updating. The difficult situation of the USSR was the reason for perestroika, as well as changes in the country's foreign policy. Modern historians identify the following stages of perestroika:

1985 – 1986

1987 – 1988

1989 – 1991

During the period of the beginning of perestroika from 1985 to 1986. there were no significant changes in the organization of government of the country. In the regions, power, at least formally, belonged to the Soviets, and at the highest level to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. But during this period, statements about transparency and the fight against bureaucracy were already heard. The process of rethinking international relations gradually began. Tensions in relations between the USSR and the USA decreased significantly.

Large-scale changes began somewhat later - from the end of 1987. This period is characterized by unprecedented freedom of creativity and the development of art. Author's journalistic programs are broadcast on television, and magazines publish materials promoting the ideas of reform. At the same time, the political struggle is clearly intensifying. Serious changes are beginning in the sphere of government power. Thus, in December 1988, at the 11th extraordinary session of the Supreme Council, the law “On Amendments and Additions to the Constitution” was adopted. The law introduced changes to the electoral system, introducing the principle of alternativeness.

However, the third period of perestroika in the USSR turned out to be the most turbulent. In 1989, Soviet troops were completely withdrawn from Afghanistan. In fact, the USSR ceases to support socialist regimes on the territory of other states. The camp of socialist countries is collapsing. The most important, significant event of that period is the fall of the Berlin Wall and the unification of Germany.

The party is gradually losing real power and its unity. A fierce struggle between factions begins. Not only the current situation in the USSR is criticized, but also the very foundations of the ideology of Marxism, as well as the October Revolution of 1917. Many opposition parties and movements are being formed.

Against the backdrop of tough political struggle during this period of Gorbachev’s perestroika, a split began among the intelligentsia and among artists. If some of them were critical of the processes taking place in the country, then the other part provided full support to Gorbachev. Against the backdrop of political and social freedom unprecedented at that time, the volume of funding for both art, science, education, and many industries is significantly reduced. In such conditions, talented scientists go to work abroad, or turn into businessmen. Many research institutes and design bureaus cease to exist. The development of knowledge-intensive industries slows down and later stops altogether. Perhaps the clearest example of this can be the Energia-Buran project, within the framework of which a unique reusable space shuttle Buran was created, which made its only flight.

The financial situation of the majority of citizens is gradually deteriorating. Also, there is an aggravation of interethnic relations. Many cultural and political figures are beginning to say that perestroika has outlived its usefulness.

The consequences of perestroika are extremely ambiguous and multifaceted. Of course, society gaining social and political freedoms, openness and reform of the planned distribution economy are positive aspects. However, the processes that took place during the period of perestroika in the USSR from 1985 to 1991 led to the collapse of the USSR and the aggravation of interethnic conflicts that had been smoldering for a long time. The weakening of power, both in the center and locally, a sharp decline in the standard of living of the population, undermining the scientific base, and so on. Undoubtedly, the results of perestroika and its significance will be rethought more than once by future generations.

59. Russian Federation in 1991-2000.

Consequences of perestroika Economic consequencesThe collapse of the USSR and the difficulties of economic transformation resulted in a reduction in Russia's economic potential by one third. The country lost half of its seaports and merchant fleet, direct access to world routes in the West and South.

The immediate result was a drop in production, the cessation of investment activity, and the collapse of cooperative ties within the USSR and CMEA. There was a reduction in trade volumes and a deterioration in its structure. All this affected the socio-economic situation in the country and caused a process of polarization of the population.

At the same time, Russia declared itself the legal successor of the Union and inherited all Union property located on its territory, including the remains of the gold reserves.

Political changesGorbachev's reform period led to the elimination of the one-party communist system and the weakening of political stability in society. Political freedoms, political pluralism were secured in the country, and a multi-party system was formed.

The beginning of Russian modernization

Economic development in 1991-1993After 1991, a new stage of economic modernization began in Russia.

The radicals who came to power, led by B.N. Yeltsin nominatedeconomic reform programfor 1992-1993, which included:

- free pricing (which was supposed to eliminate commodity shortages);

- trade liberalization and then

mass privatization of housing and state-owned enterprises.

The total destruction of the state monopoly on economic activity was the main goal of the liberal-privatization course of reforms.Structural restructuring of the Russian economyassumed overcoming super-militarization and excessive production of means of production (which in 1992 amounted to 82.6%).

The social direction of the reforms was the creation of new social groups, primarily a relatively broad layer of owners.

The main strategist of economic reforms and a supporter of the shock therapy method was the Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian governmentE.T. Gaidar.

Progress of reform.From January 1, 1992, prices for most products were released. The next step was the privatization of state property. In 1992, the privatization of 20% of state-owned enterprises in trade and services was envisaged. On October 1, 1992, the issuance of privatization checks (vouchers) to Russian citizens began. Since 1993, investment of these securities in shares of enterprises has been permitted.

At the same time, in January 1992, the centralized system of resource distribution was abolished, measures were taken to limit government subsidies to unprofitable industries and regions, and to transfer enterprises to full self-sufficiency. The share of total military expenditures was reduced (in 1991 - by 67-71%).

Results of the first stage.The results of the reforms turned out to be deeply contradictory.

On the one side, a market was introduced in Russia, trade liberalization eliminated the commodity deficit. Russian privatization accomplished the task of dismantling the mechanism of centralized economic management.

On the other side, the decline in industrial production continued (by 35%), and there was a sharp decline in the standard of living of the people. Prices have increased 100-150 times, while the average salary has increased only 10-15 times.

As a result of the freeing of prices, the population's funds were confiscated, which caused acute social discontent. High inflation led to a depreciation of the ruble and made financial and monetary stabilization impossible.

During the process of privatization (sale of corporatized enterprises), a redistribution of state property occurred, as a result, a significant part of it was concentrated in the hands of a small part of the country's population.

Economic development in 1993-1994

New government office.In December 1992, the VII Congress of People's Deputies of Russia achieved the resignation of E.T. Gaidar from the post of acting Prime Minister. Was elected as the new head of governmentV.S. Chernomyrdin(former head of the oil and gas industry of the USSR).

TOadjusting the course of reforms. While maintaining the general direction of movement towards the market, the emphasis was placed on supporting state-owned (including unprofitable) enterprises. Particular attention was paid to the fuel, energy and defense complexes, which again received significant loans from the government. Protectionism was also a main feature of Chernomyrdin's policy. Due to disagreement with the principles of reforms, those appointed to the new cabinet by the Deputy Prime MinisterE.T. Gaidarand the Minister of FinanceB.G. Fedorovat the beginning of 1994 they left the government, joining the parliamentary opposition.

In December 1992, the government adopted a unified tariff system of remuneration, which made it possible to somewhat soften the situation in the budgetary sphere.

The main direction of the reform wasmass privatizationstate enterprises in all sectors. This process was coordinated by one of the deputy prime ministersA.B. Chubais.

Results.By the end of 1993, almost 40 thousand enterprises were privatized. At the same time, in conditions of corruption and super-monopolization, privatization had a number of negative consequences despite obvious successes in a number of industries. During privatization, the real value of fixed assets was underestimated by 20-30 times and, accordingly, the value of privatization checks. In addition, in enterprises privatized into the ownership of labor collectives, the real owner remained the director, who disposed of the income.

During the first years of reforms, the number of private banks (up to 2000) and exchanges (303) increased. In agriculture, the share of enterprises with state ownership was no more than 15% of land (24,000 collective farms). The rest turned into LLPs and JSCs, but for most farms this was the only change.

The decline in production in industry continued and amounted to 16.2%, in agriculture - 4% compared to 1992. In the absence of the necessary technical and economic base and state assistance, 14 thousand farms ceased their activities.

Economic development in 1995-1996

Attempts to stabilize the situation. GovernmentV.S. Chernomyrdintried to stabilize the standard of living of the population by providing targeted support to part of the least protected strata. The entrepreneurial activity of citizens was encouraged, and efforts to attract foreign investment were intensified.

The priority task at the new stage was again proclaimedtough financial policy. To solve problems in this area and replenish the budget, the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission on Tax Policy was created. However, despite this, the government failed to contain the decline in production and the decline in economic efficiency.

Results of the first five years of reforms. In 1990, labor productivity in the economy was 19.4%, in 1995 - 13.5%; industrial growth in 1990 - 24.3%, in 1995 - 16.2%; agricultural growth in 1990 - 20.7%, in 1995 - 14.8%. Allocations for science and education were significantly reduced from 2% to 0.32%.

The main reason for the process of further curtailment of industry and agriculture in the Russian economy is the unprofitability of enterprises in world prices, their lack of competitiveness in the world market. Due to the reduction in the share of expenses for the needs of the agro-industrial complex (from 15% in 1991 to 3.2% in 1996) and the fall in the all-Russian gross harvest, the problem of food security in Russia arose. Against the background of a general decline in industrial production, there was an increase in the raw materials orientation of the domestic industry. The share of these sectors for 1991-1996. increased by more than 2 times, while the share of mechanical engineering decreased by more than 20%, light industry by 62%. The share of total military expenditures in the structure of GDP decreased: from 7.6% in 1990 to 3.82% in 1997. As a result, Russia lost traditional arms markets.

Foreign investment in the Russian economy. According to economists' calculations, the investment needs for structural restructuring of the Russian economy over the next 15 years amount to 800 - 900 billion dollars (Russia's internal reserves were 400 - 600 billion dollars). Foreign investments (loans, investments in shares of privatized enterprises, etc.) in the Russian economy at the beginning of 1996 amounted to $9 billion. At the same time, the size of Russia's external debt approached $130 billion (which amounted to 53% of GDP). But it is known that many countries also owe Russia (the debt of developing countries to Russia as the successor of the USSR was $149 billion). Therefore, in order to speed up the process of returning money, Russia became a member of the London and Paris Club of creditor countries.

Economic development in 1997 early 1998

The new composition of the cabinet of the government of V.S. Chernomyrdin.In March 1997, the president dismissed the government. The main reason was the holding of the All-Russian protest action on March 27, 1997, organized by trade unions and supported by the opposition. The reason for the workers' protests was the continuing decline in the population's living standards, non-payment of wages, social benefits and pensions. V.S. Chernomyrdin remained head of the cabinet, and his first deputies were appointedA.B. Chubais(who became simultaneously the Minister of Finance) andB.E. Nemtsov(representative of Russian regions, governor of the Nizhny Novgorod region).

Asmain directionsThe activities of the new government cabinet included measures such as reform of natural monopolies, pension and utility reforms, and reform of the government apparatus. The fight against corruption, which was seen as one of the reasons for the decline in the authority of the Russian government, was declared an important task of the new cabinet. For these purposes, declaration of income and property of managers, as well as members of their families, was introduced. The President even ordered the development of a set of ethical rules for civil servants, as well as a Civil Service Code.

The new cabinet of ministers decided to abolish unjustified tax and customs benefits. Each purchase of goods or provision of services under government orders had to be carried out through open competitions.

The catastrophic situation that had developed in the field of finance by the spring of 1997 led to the adoptionspending sequestration lawfederal budget, that is, reducing government spending by 108 trillion. rub. (including a 30% reduction in costs for the defense industry, military-industrial complex, and coal industries; a 50% reduction in all other costs was envisaged).

Increasing crisis phenomena in the economy.In the new year of 1998, the Chernomyrdin government took a number of measures to get out of the financial crisis (a new bankruptcy law was adopted, the ruble was redenominated). However, in March-April the situation continued to deteriorate, including in the social sphere (the next All-Russian protest action was scheduled for April 9). On March 31, by presidential decree, the government headed by V.S. Chernomyrdin was dismissed. After difficult negotiations between the President and the State Duma, the new Prime Minister was approvedS.V.Kiriyenko.

Monetary and financial crisis of 1998. Economic development in 1998-2000. Economic course of S.V. Kiriyenko. In May-June, the deterioration of the situation in the financial market became catastrophic, which was caused, among other things, by a fall in world prices for raw materials (by 30% for metal and twice as much for oil) and in shares of Russian companies. The government issued a statement about tightening fiscal policy, simultaneously asking for help from the heads of state of the United States and Germany, as well as the IMF. Clinton and Kohl supported the activities of the Russian authorities, and the IMF provided Russia with another $700 million loan. At the same time, negotiations continued on providing Russia withstabilization loan(in the amount of 10-15 billion dollars) to prevent the devaluation of the ruble. At the same time, the government proposedanti-crisis(stabilization) program.

The main condition for issuing a loan from the World Bank in 1998 was the fragmentation of natural monopolies. Therefore, the government began to develop a plan for vertical and horizontal restructuring in such industries as oil transportation, energy, gas industry, railway transport, and telecommunications. A plan to nationalize Gazexport and direct financial flows from gas exports directly (bypassing Gazprom) to the budget (i.e., an attempt to introduce a state monopoly on gas exports) was also discussed.

August socio-economic crisis. On August 17, 1998, Prime Minister S.V. Kiriyenko made a statement about the termination of payments on state obligations and a moratorium on the payment of debts to foreign banks (default - refusal of previously assumed obligations). On August 23, the resignation of the government of S.V. Kiriyenko followed. The consequences of the crisis were extremely difficult for the population. High inflation (up to 60%) and rising prices led to a decrease in real incomes of citizens by about a third. The fall in imports (6-7 times) caused a sharp reduction in customs duties as a traditional source of revenue to the treasury. There was a collapse of the market infrastructure and a crisis in the banking system and the securities market.

Government Cabinet of E.M. Primakov. On September 11, 1998, E.M. Primakov was approved as the new head of government. The main principles of his policy were the introduction of stricter government regulation of the market, limiting, if possible, the issue of money in amounts that would not allow hyperinflation, and the fight against criminalization in the economic sphere. The role of strong statists in the government was strengthened (E. Primakova, Y. Maslyukova(First Deputy Prime Minister, Chairman of the Ministry of State Property Committee;V. Gerashchenko(Chairman of the Central Bank). The government has taken measures to administratively regulate the foreign exchange market under the leadership of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation. On October 1, 1998, a state monopoly on alcoholic products was introduced.

Looking for a way out of the crisis. The government made attempts to achieve a restructuring of GKO debts and new Western loans, and to prevent the seizure of foreign assets of Russian banks. The size of the internal and external debt of the Russian Federation in 1998 amounted to 158.8 billion dollars (of which external 143 billion dollars). In the context of the financial crisis in Russia, the West is trying to impose on it a number of favorable conditions (demands to increase VAT, maintain high duties for Russian exporters, change the budget balance between the center and regions, slow down the export of Russian high technologies and increase the primary budget surplus by 2-3 times, i.e. cut the social sphere even more). Against this background, a struggle unfolded in the upper echelons of power over the problems of overcoming the crisis. In May 1999, the government of E.M. Primakov was dismissed. The new head of the cabinet of ministers wasS.V. Stepashin, whom he replaced in the summer of 1999V.V. Putin,at the same time publicly named successor to the President.

Political development

Political processes in 1991-1993.

On June 12, 1990, still within the USSR, it was adoptedDeclaration of SovereigntyRSFSR.

The democratization of the political process, which began during the period of perestroika, led to the establishment in the political system of the RSFSR of the principle of separation of powers: into the executive (represented by the President) and the legislative (Supreme Council of the RSFSR). The transitional nature of Russian statehood was determined in 1993.confrontation between two branches of government.In this situation, the President persistently defended the positions of radical democrats and their course of reforms. At the All-Russian referendum on April 25, 1993, the majority of citizens voted for confidence in the President.

Political crisiserupted in the fall of 1993. On September 21, the President signed a decree in which he announced the dissolution of the Congress of People's Deputies and the Supreme Council, the holding of elections in December for new government bodies and a referendum on a new Constitution. Following this, the vice president openly joined the ranks of the oppositionA.V. Rutskoy, Chairman of the Supreme CouncilR.I. Khasbulatov. The apogee of the constitutional crisis was the events of October 3-4, 1993, when armed clashes took place on the streets of Moscow and blood was shed.

Political processes in 1993-1996.

Moods in society and elections to the Federal Assembly. On December 12, 1993, elections were held to the new legislative body of Russia - a bicameralFederal Assembly(upper house - Federation Council, lower - State Duma). Elections were held according to electoral districts and party lists.

The election results testified to the growing dissatisfaction of the population with the socio-economic situation in the country and the significant decline in living standards. The problem of the weakness of government, its corruption, inability to ensure public safety, stop crime and solve other pressing problems has become palpable to people. The growth of the national-patriotic idea in society was also important. At the same time, a certain part of the electorate remained in favor of continuing liberal reforms. A quarter of the votes receivedLDPRheaded byV.V. Zhirinovsky, representatives received a significant number of votesCommunist Party of the Russian Federation (leader G.A. Zyuganov).15% of votes were cast forRussia's choiceheaded byE.T. Gaidar;

Adoption of a new Constitution. Elimination of the Soviet political system. On December 12, 1993, a new Constitution of Russia was adopted during a popular vote. The Russian Federation was proclaimedpresidential republic. The system of local councils was liquidated, their functions were transferred to representatives of the President. The bicameral Federal Assembly was declared the new legislative body.

The Constitution significantly strengthened the position of the President. He became both head of state and head of government. The President concentrated in his hands all the executive power and was endowed with significant legislative powers (including the right to dissolve the State Duma in the event of its three-time rejection of the candidacy of the Prime Minister).

At the same time, a unified system of local power did not emerge. In a number of places, representative bodies practically do not participate in governance. They are governed by mayors, governors, etc. Moreover, in most cases these are elected positions, although sometimes we are talking about a leader appointed from above. In some regions, the influence of representative elected bodies is predominant.

Elections to the State Duma of the second convocation and presidential elections.On December 17, 1995, in the elections to the State Duma, out of 43 electoral blocs and associations, four of them overcame the 5% barrier -Communist Party of the Russian Federation, Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, Yabloko, pro-government associationOur home is Russia(fraction did not pass the 5% barrierWomen of Russia, movementRussia's choiceand etc.). The Communists received a relative majority in the State Duma. Representative of the faction of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation -G. Seleznevbecame Chairman of the State Duma.

On June 16, 1996, elections for the President of Russia took place. Having refused to support the discredited Zhirinovsky, a significant part of the population, dissatisfied with the results of the reforms, voted for the communists. Of the 10 candidates in the second round of elections,B.N. YeltsinAndG.A.Zyuganov. On July 3, the second round of presidential elections took place, during which he wonB.N. Yeltsin(40% of votes).

Political processes in 1996-1999. Second term of B.N. Yeltsinhis presidency coincided with a rather difficult period in the history of our state.

. On1998 camepeak of social conflict in society: On April 9, 1998, a General Protest took place, followed by student unrest in Yekaterinburg, then the miners' rail war, which paralyzed the work of the North-Western Railway (damage amounted to 9.5 million rubles). Miners, as well as scientists, teachers, and students, are seeking repayment of debts from the state, regular payment of wages, and an increase in the living standards of the population. Of particular concern in society is the tendency to merge power and private property (through the entry of financiers and entrepreneurs into the highest executive bodies), that is, elements of oligarchic rule in Russia.

Against this background, there is a noticeableactivation of radicalismin all its manifestations. Among the radical parties that are trying to use the difficult socio-political situation in the country to strengthen their own positions, the radical right stands out (nationalist - Russian National Unity, the Party of Russian Nationalists; national-patriotic (LDPR); radical left - one of which is the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, the largest party in Russia 1.550 thousand people). The Communist Party of the Russian Federation, like the Liberal Democratic Party, use ethnic nationalism as their political slogans, relying on ideas about the collectivist character of the people as a means of reviving the greatness of the state. In the current situation, the opposition aimed its efforts at removing the president from power (impeachment) and forming a government of people's trust.

Elections to the State Duma of the third convocation (December 19, 1999).After the difficult political election struggle that unfolded in the fall of 1999, the new composition of the State Duma will be represented bysixelectoral associations. The Communist Party of the Russian Federation received the largest number of votes (24.22%). This will be the largest faction in the Duma, which, however, now does not have an opposition majority. Following the communists is the pro-government bloc Unity (Bear, leaderS.Sh. Shoigu (23.37%),Further - Fatherland movement - All Russia led by the leader -E.M. Primakov(12.64%) and the Union of Right Forces (leader S.V. Kiriyenko) (8.72%). The 5% barrier was also overcome by the Yabloko association (6.13%) and the Zhirinovsky Bloc (6.08%). The main sensation of the elections was the victory thanks to the electoral technologies used by the interregional Unity movement, created only in October 1999 (that is, on the eve of the elections), and the weak results of the Yabloko association, which lost a third of the votes. The Our Home - Russia association did not enter the State Duma, receiving only 1.2% (although its leaders V.S. Chernomyrdin and V. Ryzhkov won in single-mandate constituencies).

Political development in 2000

3.4.1. Resignation of B.N. Yeltsin. Activity President of the Russian Federation V.V. Putin.

3.4.2. Presidential elections March 2000

The evolution of Russian statehood.

After the collapse of the USSR, Russia from an integral federal part of the union state turned into an independent federation (it includes 89 regions, 21 autonomous republics, 50 regions, 6 territories, 10 autonomous districts, 2 federal cities Moscow and St. Petersburg). Two levels of government in the Russian Federation were formed: federal and constituent entities of the Federation.

Changes in the social status of the republics.The leadership of the Russian Federation was faced with the priority task of building Russian statehood on the basis of federalism and decentralization of management. In 1991, the autonomous republics within the RSFSR declared their sovereignty, and the autonomous regions declared themselves sovereign republics. The Islamic factor has acquired a special role in the national policy of the state (20 million people in Russia profess this religion). Tatarstan, Bashkortostan, Yakutia directed their efforts to secede from the Russian Federation. The leadership of the Chechen Republic announced a severance of ties with the federal authorities and set a course for armed confrontation with the center in the name of achieving independence.

Division of powers of the subjects of the federation.In order to preserve statehood, in March 1992, aFederative Treaty, where the powers of the subjects of the federation were stipulated and the boundaries between them were designated. For the first time, all subjects of the Russian Federation received the right to create their own laws. In 1994, Tatarstan joined the agreement under special conditions. Chechnya refused to sign it.

One of the problems for the Russian Federation is ensuring the legal status of national minorities. For this purpose, on June 19, 1996, it was adoptedLaw on National-Cultural Autonomyregulating the rights of national minorities that do not have their own state-territorial entities within the Russian Federation. The Government of the Russian Federation has created an Advisory Council to protect the interests of ethnic communities.

Federal center and constituent entities of the Russian Federation. The variety of pace and scale of reforms, their economic and social consequences determined regional differences in the level of production, in the financial situation of the population, and in the demographic situation. Among the regions, the most privileged ones stand out (Tatarstan, Bashkortostan, Sakha (Yakutia), which pay 1% to the federal budget (all other 10%). There is also a group of highly profitable regions: Moscow, St. Petersburg, Samara, Moscow, Sverdlovsk regions, Krasnodar Territory At the same time, there are subsidized and highly subsidized regions of Kalmykia, Dagestan, Ingushetia, Tuva, Adygea, Buryat, Koryak, Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, etc.

After the division of powers and the transition to gubernatorial elections (1996), the federal government was forced to reckon with regional consciousness and the strengthening of local economic elites, as well as the emerging problem of economic separatism (non-compliance with federal laws and presidential decrees, government regulations, concealment of national incomes, etc. ). This situation requires the adoption of constitutional laws to strengthen the influence of the Federal center in the regions in order to preserve the integrity and security of Russian statehood.

War in Chechnya.After the collapse of the USSR, the hottest spot in Russia became the North Caucasus. In December 1994, in order to restore constitutional order in Chechnya, federal troops were brought in, which led to a bloody two-year war, which was completed only in the fall of 1996.

In October, an agreement was reached in Khasavyurt to hold presidential elections and to postpone the issue of the political status of the Chechen Republic for five years. The elections took place on January 27, 1997. Colonel was elected President of the Chechen RepublicA. Maskhadov, who proclaimed a course for the national independence of Chechnya. On May 12, 1997, the Treaty on Peace and Principles of Relations between the Russian Federation and the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria was signed.

After the end of the war in Chechnya, Russia was faced with the problem of terrorism in the North Caucasus, which in the fall of 1999 became a national problem. Militants from Chechen gangs, after a series of explosions in Buinakhsk, Moscow, Volgodonsk, began a policy of intimidation of the Russian authorities. As a response, the Russian government led by V.V. Putin decided to use force in the fight against terrorists. As a result, the second Chechen war began. The measures taken by Moscow caused a mixed reaction in the world.INSERT

4. RESULTS

With the collapse of the USSR and the communist regime in the Russian Federation,new stage of economic modernization. The reforms carried out in Russia in the 90s led to the dismantling of the main elements of the outdated administrative system and the transition to economic methods of regulation. Private property has become a reality. New social strata of owners at various levels and senior managers have formed. Liberalization of economic activities, prices and foreign trade contributed to the activation of the consumer market. It was possible to ensure the internal convertibility of the ruble. Russia has embarked on the path of integration into the world economy.

At the same time, the continued decline in production causedcomplication of the economic situationin the country, worsening social problems, increasing stratification of society into rich and poor. The influence of the state bureaucracy on the economy remains enormous.

The modern stage of Russia's renewal is characterized by the coexistence of opposite principles - elements of freedom and authoritarianism, market and state management of the economy, strengthening of central power and the desire for regional autonomy. In the balance of forces of supporters of different paths of development of Russian society, a kind of balance has developed, which is the basis for preservinghigh degree of alternativeness in the Russian political process.

The peculiarities of the period the country is experiencing (transitional nature, lack of world experience of changes of this nature and scale) determined significant fluctuations in the economic and political course within the accepted direction of progressive reforms. Until nowno specific development model has been developed. At the same time, there is no doubt about both the need to use Soviet and foreign experience and the impossibility of mechanically perceiving Western models or returning to the Soviet past.

60. Foreign policy of the Russian Federation

Priorities of Russian foreign policy

Changing geopolitical situation in the world and Russia’s place in it. After the collapse of the Soviet Union and the proclamation of the Commonwealth of Independent States, a fundamentally new foreign policy situation emerged for the Russian Federation. Profound changes in the geopolitical and geostrategic situation required a rethinking of the role and place of Russia in the system of international relations.

Factors weakening Russia’s position in the international arena. In the new geopolitical situation, Russia is faced with a large number of problems. As a result of the changed economic, political and ideological situation in the country, its foreign policy activity sharply decreased.

With the reduction in economic potential, the country's defense capability has suffered significantly. Russia found itself pushed to the northeast, deep into the Eurasian continent, losing half of its seaports and merchant fleet, direct access to world routes in the West and South. The Russian fleet lost its traditional bases in the Baltic states, and a controversial issue arose with Ukraine about the basing of the Russian Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol.

The former republics of the USSR nationalized the most powerful strike military groups located on their territory. The previously unified air defense system collapsed. In June 1994, the withdrawal of Russian troops from Germany was completed. Russia has lost allies in Eastern and Central Europe.

Main directions of foreign policy of the Russian Federation.Russia was faced with the task of integrating into the world market and harmonizing its political course with the policies of the leading world powers.

After the end of the Cold War, the role of the central confrontation noticeably decreased, but at the same time the threat of regional conflicts, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and missile technology increased. A belt of unstable states has formed near the borders of the CIS, which requires special attention to relations with neighboring countries.

Gradually, at least partial restoration of Russia's status as an influential power in the world is being recognized as an important task. The basis for this is the country’s still significant economic and military potential, its foreign policy and economic ties, as well as the desire of many states and peoples to live not in a unipolar world dominated by the United States, but, after the elimination of the bipolar one, in a multipolar, balanced international community.

Russia - West

Political and military relations.

Russia and the USA.Preference in foreign policy continued to remain with Western countries, primarily the United States.

At the end of 1991 - beginning of 1992. The President of Russia announced that nuclear missiles are no longer aimed at targets of the United States and other Western countries. In 1994, nuclear missiles of Russia and the United States were retargeted from objects on each other's territory - to uninhabited areas of the Earth. The joint declaration of the two countries (Camp David, 1992) recorded the end of the Cold War and stated that Russia and the United States did not consider each other as potential adversaries.

Their relationship is based on elements of mutual trust and a shared commitment to democracy and economic freedom. Russia has also joined the Chemical Weapons Convention. In January 1993, a new treaty on the limitation of strategic offensive arms (START-2) was concluded between Russia and the United States. According to the Treaty, by 2003, a reduction in the nuclear potential of the two countries should be achieved by 2/3 compared to the level determined by the START I Treaty. However, the agreement caused a mixed reaction in society. The VI State Duma did not ratify the treaty.

Russian diplomacy and NATO. With the weakening of the Russian Federation's position in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, the Russian leadership was faced with a new problem - the expansion of NATO to the east. Russian diplomacy tried to prevent former members of the Warsaw Division, as well as the Baltic countries, from joining NATO. To this end, she came up with the idea of providing the countries of Central Europe with cross security guarantees from both Russia and Western European countries. The proposal was not accepted by the former allies of the USSR.

The leadership of the North Atlantic Alliance, in turn, announced an intermediate option for cooperation with these countries: without being granted full NATO member status, they could sign the Partnership for Peace program. By the summer of 1994, it was signed by more than 20 countries of Central and Eastern Europe, including members of the CIS. June 22, 1994. Russia joined it.

NATO's expansion to the east will revive a situation similar to that of the Cold War. Therefore, the NATO factor largely determines today the nature of Russia's efforts to create a new national defense system.

Russia and Japan.Russian-Japanese relations have clearly lagged behind in their development the level of Moscow's relations with the EU countries and the USA. A certain warming in relations between the two countries began only after M.S. Gorbachev’s visit to Japan (until 1991, the USSR tried to declare the territorial problem non-existent). Subsequently, Japan withdrew its veto on Russia’s admission to the G7 (in turn, Russia supports Japan’s entry into the permanent membership of the Security Council), and expressed consent to Russia’s entry into the Asia-Pacific Cooperation Organization and the World Trade Organization.

In the summer of 1997, the Japanese leadership, represented by Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto, actually announced the concept of a new diplomacy towards Russia, which was based on the principles of trust, mutual benefit and long-term perspective. From now on, Tokyo separates the problem of the northern territories (Southern Kuril Islands) from the entire range of issues of bilateral relations. Concrete steps in the implementation of the new course wereinformalmeeting of the top leaders of the two countries. Japan agreed to postpone the payment of the Russian debt (at 1.8 billion dollars) to March 1999. A joint Russian-Japanese Commission on Economic Cooperation was created, as well as a forum within which negotiations will be conducted with the aim of concluding a Peace Treaty between the two countries, which has not been concluded since World War II.

If in the military field the partnership is developing difficultly, then in the civilian fields the development of working relations between Russia and Western countries is developing more successfully, in particular, Vresolving international crises, preventing the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, combating drug addiction, eliminating the consequences of natural disastersetc. Here Russia successfully cooperates with a number of international and national organizations, such as Interpol and others. Russia took part in resolving the Balkan crisis, and here its role was very noticeable not only within the framework of the efforts of the international community, but also in providing specific economic and humanitarian assistance to Serbia and Montenegro.

Economic cooperation with foreign countries.

Western directionas a source of new technologies and investments, sales of traditional goods turned out to be central to Russia’s foreign policy strategy. In 1994, COCOM, an organization that exercised control over the trade in military and dual technologies to socialist countries, was liquidated, which also turned out to be extremely beneficial for Russia.

In 1994, a decision was made to expand the seven leading Western countries at the expense of Russia (at the same time, we are talking only about its participation in the development of political, but not economic decisions). Wide opportunities for an equal economic partnership between Russia and Western Europe were opened by the partnership agreement signed by the Russian Federation with the European Community (EU) (June 1994, Corfu, Greece). Russia became a full member of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Western Europe accounts for 73% of our debt and 80% of our external aid. In addition, today 40% of Russian foreign trade falls on the EU, the main partner in the modernization of the country, while the share of Eastern Europe in the foreign economic relations of the Russian Federation has decreased by 2/3,Avolume of trade with CIS countries from 1991 to 1995. decreased from 56 to 20%. However, the possibility of obtaining new export or other loans from the West is negated by Russia's large debt, approaching $130 billion, and the harsh, often impossible conditions of creditors.

East directionAt the present stage, it acts as the most important reserve for increasing the foreign economic activity of the Russian Federation. Here Russia has retained direct access to the world market, and its main, largely untapped export resources are concentrated here. Therefore, the Asia-Pacific region is of particular importance. China has become one of Russia's main trading partners in this region. There are prospects for the development of traditional cooperation with India, Vietnam, and Korea. Certain changes have emerged in trade relations with Japan, South Korea, and ASEAN countries (including in the arms market). Although, in general, the eastern direction of Russian foreign policy remains secondary.

Russia and neighboring countries

Strategic priorities.

Objective need to strengthen ties. Strategic priorities are a long-term and permanent element of the Russian foreign policy. First of all, the sphere of Russia's strategic interests includes the independent states of the CIS. Relations with them are of paramount importance both in the political-economic and military spheres. In the CIS countries, Russia has developed markets where industrial products and technical experience of the Russian Federation can find the greatest demand and sales.

In addition, Russia feels the need for the maximum possible synchronization of reform processes in the Russian Federation and neighboring countries as a prerequisite for reviving integration.

Difficulties on the path of cooperation. In relations with neighboring countries, Russian diplomacy from the very beginning faced many difficulties: economic disintegration, the problem of forming national armies and dividing property of the USSR, creating borders. The main problem remained the unprofitable nature of economic cooperation in the context of the transition to world prices for energy trade.

In 1992, the withdrawal of Russian troops from the Baltic states, Georgia, Moldova, Tajikistan, and Armenia began (which cost Russia $600 million and 700 billion rubles). In Russia's relations with the Baltic countries, the issue of the rights of the Russian-speaking population living there remains controversial. In addition, in the 90s. became widespreadforced migration. Refugees appeared. In 1990-1991 the process of re-emigration of Russians has become widespread (with the exception of Ukraine and Belarus). In relations with Ukraine, the problem of the status of Sevastopol and the conditions for the division of the Black Sea Fleet, partially stipulated in the Russian-Ukrainian agreement of May 31, 1997, still remains.

The situation in this area was also aggravated by the fact that in the first years of independent Russia, priority in foreign policy doctrine was given to Western countries rather than neighboring countries. Only with the arrival of a new Minister of Foreign Affairs at the end of 1995E.V.PrimakovaThere have been visible changes in foreign policy guidelines. After the 1996 presidential elections, the position of Minister for Cooperation with CIS countries appeared in the Russian government, which existed until March 1998.

Ways and forms of integration. In the long term, taking into account Russian strategic interestseconomic unionthese countries turns out to be more beneficial than separatism. At the beginning of 1993, the CIS Charter was adopted (which was signed by only 7 countries). Then the CIS states were faced with the task of stage-by-stage formation of a market for goods, services, capital, and labor. To this end, a number of agreements were concluded (Treaty establishing an economic union(September 24, 1993), formation agreementInternational Economic CommitteeCIS countries (1994), Treatyon deepening integration in the economic and humanitarian spheres(March 29, 1996). In January 1995 it was concludedCustoms Unionbetween Russia and Belarus, to which Kazakhstan joined. In March 1996 it was formedInterstate Council of Fourconsisting of: Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, which were faced with the task of adopting the Agreed Principles for Reform and Structural Adjustment.

A practical step towards integration was the signing of the Treaty on the Commonwealth of Sovereign Republics of Russia and Belarus (April 2, 1996), which was received ambiguously by the public of both countries. On April 2, 1997, an agreement on the Union of Russia and Belarus was signed, after which a discussion began in both countries on the Charter of the Union of Russia and Belarus. The next step towards the unification of the two states was the signing on December 8, 1999. in Moscow, the Presidents of the two republics signed an agreement on the union formation of Russia and Belarus, within the framework of which in the future a union parliament, government, Court, and Supreme Council should appear.

It is considered as one of the most important elements of strengthening national defense and security within the CISexpansion of military integration, confirmed by the Collective Security Treaty of May 15, 1992. On its basis, Russia and Kazakhstan reached an agreement on the formation of a single defense space (1993) and the creation of a joint grouping of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Kazakhstan (1995). Russia also has military cooperation agreements with Kyrgyzstan and Georgia. At the same time, Uzbekistan refused to sign the Treaty on the joint protection of the external borders of the CIS (May 1995). In the same way, Turkmenistan is pursuing a policy of distancing itself from military cooperation within the CIS, adhering to the principle of positive neutrality and increasingly inclined in this area to develop military-technical ties with the United States and its allies. That is, there is a danger of Russia being ousted from post-Soviet Asia, in which the Islamic type of economic development is increasingly manifesting itself.

Today, many important initiatives for the integration of the CIS countries remain unrealized, including the project of the Euro-Asian Economic Union. Many concluded agreements and alliances often turn into purely decorative structures. Different economic opportunities, socio-political systems, and national interests serve as serious obstacles to the proclaimed Commonwealth of Independent Republics.

After 1991 Russian Federationreceived international recognition as the heiress of the USSRin foreign policy. The Russian Federation confirmed continuity with regard to agreements and understandings on arms control, solving global international problems, and the pan-European process. New qualityRussian-American relationsis today the driving force of change in the international arena. Russia faces the task of confirming its leadership role within the Commonwealth of Independent States. To do this, it is necessary to achieve a real integration process in all areas of political, economic, and military. However, the confrontation between the leading commercial and industrial centers has worsened in modern conditionsdisplaces Russia from the global division of labor, narrows its already limited opportunities for creating an open economy and integrating into the world economy. The reorientation to the West did not lead to the improvement of trade and economic relations. Russia continues to remain a country of high investment risk. Russia's foreign policy positions are also subject to pressure and restrictions, but our country has the opportunity todefend its rightful place in the international community.

Constitution of the Russian Federation 1993 Development of Russia at the present stage

This stage in the history of Russia began precisely with the adoption of the Constitution of the Russian Federation by popular vote on December 12, 1993.Constitution of the Russian Federation- The Basic Law of the Russian Federation has the highest legal force throughout the entire territory of the Russian Federation and has direct effect.

Structure of the ConstitutionRF:preamble; the first section, which in turn is divided into nine chapters; second section.

Basic principles of the Constitution of the Russian Federation:the supremacy of the Constitution and the direct effect of constitutional norms.

The draft Constitution of the Russian Federation was being preparedby a special constitutional commission on behalf of M.S. Gorbachev (President of the USSR), which was given at the First Congress of People's Deputies of the RSFSR 1990G.This commission included (and was headed by) the future first President of the Russian Federation B.N. Yeltsin.

General concept of the ConstitutionRFwas adopted at the first discussion of the draft constitution at the Congress of People's Deputies, but the draft was never approved. This made it difficult to prepare and implement the new Constitution of the Russian Federation.

Next, the need arose for more decisive measures by supporters of the transition to a new democratic form of government in Russia. In August 1991, a revolution took place in the Russian power system, as a result of which the head of the constitutional commission became the head of state.

At the beginning of 1993wasa constitutional conference was convened, whichpreparedseveral draft constitutions (B.N. Yeltsin took part in one of the projects). During the discussion of the draft constitution, the so-called presidential draft received the majority of votes (later it was put forward to a referendum). The main provisions of this Constitution of the Russian Federation:

- Russia has taken the path of forming a rule of law state;

- man, his rights and freedoms are now declared the highest value;

- The Constitution of the Russian Federation and federal legislation have the highest legal force;

- the state structure is built on the principles of federalism and the right of the small peoples of Russia to self-determination;

- the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Russia are proclaimed;

- a unified system of state authorities has been created;

- The principle of separation of powers operates in the Russian Federation.

CharacteristicFeatures of the state and law of Russia after 1993:

- the highest authorities in the Russian Federation: the President (also the head of state). Federal Assembly (is a bicameral parliament). Government (the highest executive body);

- observedgeneral humanization of criminal and penal law in Russia(a moratorium on the use of the death penalty has been introduced). In civil legal relations, private property is becoming increasingly important (its protection in the Russian Federation is carried out to the same extent as the protection of state property). For the first time, private ownership of land appeared legally (this was unacceptable during the USSR period);

- sanctions under criminal law are being tightenedfor crimes against public safety and, first of all, for the organization and execution of terrorist acts (this is still a pressing problem of our time).