In 1953 Stalin had died and in 1956 Khrushev the new soviet leader made a

speech in which he wanted peaceful- co estence with the west, in which he

claimed that the way forward was peaceful co-existence otherwise , there would
be a great war. He also said that he wanted the communist soviet countries in
the east to de-stanlise as Stalin was a tyrant and an enemie of the people,
Khrushev did this because he wanted better realtions with the west and to
reduce the arms race as it was causing the ussr and usa a strain economically as
the Usa at that time had an inflation problem whilst the ussr need the money to
be spent on their back-wards industry.

In 1969 President Nixon was the first president to visit Russia since 1945, Him
and Brezhnev began the stragetic arms limitation talks in 1972, in which they
both agreed to make fwer neuclear weapons for the next five years. Also after
1972 there were some new trade agreements in which America would sell cheap
wheat to Russia. And Nixon also tried to improve relations with China in 1971 he
let China join the United Nations, and in Febuary 1972 he visited China.

In Salt 2 President Crater and Brezhnev sighned salt traerty 2 in which it was
agreed that, both sides would reduce the number of long misiles nuclear
weapons, but then in December 1979, Russia invaded Afhgahistan and the idfea
was dropped.

In 1975 The soviets were one of the 35 countries to attend Helsinki in which they
sighned the Humans declaration act, and during the years of 1972-1979 there
were beginnings of improved realtions between the east and west due to
detente which had the salt 1 and 2 talks howver satlt 2 was cut short in
December 1979 due to Russias invasion of Afgahnisnstan which was later known
as Russias Vietnam. Thsi qworsend relations with the rest as The usa boycotted
the 1980 olympics which were held in Moscow, the cut of their trade of wheat to
the ussr and the war in afgahnistan was the end of detente. This seemed that
they were both back to square one.

The Cold war was a major starin on the ussr, the ussr was spendin 25% of its
buget on defence whilst the usa were spending 7%, and the main cause of this
was the arms race. Therefore in 1987 both counries sighned the INF treaty wich
agrred that both counries would destroy their missiles.

The invasion of Afgahnistan was known as the Ussr Vietnma, it was an extremely
unpopular war with the west, and it worsend relations therefore the knew leader
of the soviet union Mikahil Gorbache pulled out of Afghnistan in 1988, inhope of
improving relations.

When Mikhail Gorbachev became the leader of the Ussr in 1985, he bagn to
make some reforms in the ussr, which were known as Glasnost and Peristroika..
Glasnost allowed oppeness within the counry- freedom of speech and Peristrioka
reformed the ussr economy by adding capitilst methods sucha sa people were
allowed to set up their own buisnesss. The west were pleased with this,
ttheerefoere they were stepping one foot forward.

By 1949 tensions were high between the west and the east due to various
events. In April 1949, NAto was set up the the usa as protection aginst the ussr,
in which 12 nations of the west e.g Britain , France was part of it, however the
Ussr saw this as the west trying to try and ‘gang up on them’ . Nato allowed the
usa to place missiles on any countrs that were apart of it. In 1951 Greece and
Turkey joined Nato, and ussr were to be very worried as they were close to the
ussr and the usa could decide to place their missils on there. So when west
Germany Joined Nato in 1955 that was the last straw, in response to this The
warsaw pact was set up by THE USSR, for the same reason that Nato was set up.

Due to the tensions both countires had every right to fear each other, but this
resulted in the increase of arms, each country developed their military, and
arms. Also Germany was split in 1949 west germany became the fedral republic
of Germany whilst the west became a separate country-the German democratic
Republic.

However what caused all these events to happen by 1949? Well it was events
like the t bErlin blockade in june 1948-49 in which stalin cut off all road and rail
links from West Germany to West Berlin. He also stopped all gas, coal and
electricity from Esat Berlin, all this wsaa triggered by the new currency the west
introduced to get Germanys ecomy up agin. This was called the Deuthchmark
which was introduced in 1948.

wARrasw pact- 1955 in 1949 Nato was set up but when west Germny joined
Nato in 1955,this worried ussr as wst germany was near the ussr and that meant
the usa coul place their missiles in theat county, in response to this, ussr set up
the warasw pact, this just simply increadd the tension as ,it was now the warsaw
pact and Nato head to to head.

Hungarian uprisng 1956- many were imprisioned and 200,ooo werekilled this
leadto some people departing from the communist party and it made the west
even more determined to contain communism.

Berlin wall 1961-weorsend relations as west berlin was an embaressment to east

berlin which was saying that Communist was a betrer way of life, 2,000 refugees
a day were fleeing to west berlin and many of them were silled workers this
agered Khrusheve who told Keneddy to depat from west berlin however he
refused. So on the 13 august 1961 when the wall was built this opened doors for
the usa in order for them to use propaganda. The berlin wall also became the
symbol of the cold war.

Cuban Missiles crisis 1961-Brink of war-after the Cuban crisis both sised tried to
find ways to try and improve relations- a hotyline was set up.