“Nowadays they often say “unipolar world”. This expression is absurd, since the word “pole” in its meaning is inextricably linked with the number two, with the presence of a second pole.”

S. Kara-Murza, political scientist.

The history of the Cold War is not only the history of the rivalry between two ideologies, but also the history of the rivalry between two economic systems, which were essentially antipodes to each other. Why is it remarkable? this topic? It illuminates the beginning of what we will all witness in our lifetime.

What am I talking about?

Read between the lines. For he who has eyes, let him see...

Background.

“The iron curtain - this expression was given life by a device that was previously used in the theater - an iron curtain, which, in order to protect the auditorium from fire, was lowered onto the stage in case of a fire on it. This was very appropriate in an era when the stage was forced to be illuminated were to use open fire - candles, oil lamps, etc. For the first time, such an iron curtain began to be used in France - in the city of Lyon in the late 80s - early 90s. XVIII century."

Vadim Serov.

It is generally accepted that the well-known “iron curtain” fell on the country of the Soviets in the 1920s, roughly speaking, as soon as the USSR was created, they immediately covered it with a curtain so that dirt would not fly from the west. I'm afraid to disappoint some, but this is not so.

The country of the Soviets existed, developed and there was no self-isolation, and it did not have any closedness; on the contrary, the Soviet government made every effort to eliminate this closedness. For this purpose, famous writers, artists and other figures from all over the world were invited to the USSR. The purpose of all this was to break the veil of lies with which the West shrouded us, and to make it possible to assess what was happening in our country more or less truthfully.

In addition to writers and artists, ordinary people also came to the USSR: some of them were invited as specialists for a large salary, and some came on their own, for ideological reasons (people wanted to build the society of the future with their own hands). Naturally, after some time, returning to their homeland, they all brought with them a wealth of information about the country of the Soviets.

But the Western powers did not attach much importance to this; they no longer saw Russia as a serious enemy for the coming decades, although they did not stop their attempts to snatch an extra piece from us (the campaign of 14 states).

“Russia, which was a civilization of the Western type - the least organized and most shaky of the great powers - now represents a modern civilization in extremis (lat. at its last gasp - author's note). ... History knows nothing like the collapse ", experienced by Russia. If this process continues for another year, the collapse will be final. Russia will turn into a country of peasants; cities will be deserted and turned into ruins, railways will be overgrown with grass. With the disappearance railways the last remnants of central power will disappear."

H.G. Wells, 1920

However, the rapid growth rates of the USSR greatly frightened the West, showing them that they had greatly miscalculated on our score, even taking into account the insertion of sticks into all our wheels and wheels.

Then, the trump card of the West, Adolf Hitler, was pulled out of his sleeve (you can read more about this in the article - “Shock USSR. Chronicles of Stakhanov”) and a war of a grandiose scale, hitherto unprecedented in humanity, was unleashed.

“If the Germans gain the upper hand, then we must help the Russians, and if things turn out differently, then we must help the Germans. And let them kill each other as much as possible.”

G. Truman, " New York Times", 1941

As they say (they, in the West) - “nothing personal, just business.”

Bear trap.

“Whoever controls the money of a country is the absolute master of all industry and commerce.”

James Abram Garfield, 20th President of the United States, 1881

In July 1944, still at the height of the war, the international Bretton Woods Conference was held in the USA (New Hampshire). The meaning of this conference boiled down to two main points: the dollar is the only currency that is now allowed to have a gold content, all other countries must refuse to back their currencies with gold, introducing dollar backing in return (buy the dollar in order to print their currency), and the second point - the dollar becomes the main currency of account (all international trade must now be conducted only in dollars).

The USSR signs the enslaving Bretton Woods agreement, its ratification (approval) is scheduled for December 1945.

April 12, 1945 Franklin Delano Roosevelt is assassinated. The reason for the murder was his friendly relations with the USSR and Stalin personally. This event once again shows that US presidents are just pawns in a big game.

“The closest we were to equal cooperation was when America had Roosevelt and we had Stalin.”

S.E. Kurginyan, political scientist.

I will quote Roosevelt's words:

“Under the leadership of Marshal Joseph Stalin, the Russian people showed such an example of love for the motherland, fortitude and self-sacrifice, which the world has never known before. After the war, our country will always be glad to maintain relations of good neighborliness and sincere friendship with Russia, whose people, by saving themselves, help save the whole world from the Nazi threat."

Personal message to Stalin following the results Tehran Conference (held: November 28—December 1, 1943):
"I think the conference was very successful and I am confident that it will historical event, confirming our ability not only to wage war, but also to work for the cause of the coming peace in complete harmony."

"To put it in simple language, I got along very well with Marshal Stalin. This person combines a huge, unyielding will and a healthy sense of humor; I think the soul and heart of Russia have their true representative in him. I believe that we will continue to get along well with him and with the entire Russian people."

"Since the last meeting in Tehran, we have been working in really good cooperation with the Russians, and I believe that the Russians are quite friendly. They are not trying to swallow up all of Europe and the rest of the world."

The quotes speak for themselves.

Exactly 2 hours and 24 minutes after Roosevelt's death, he was replaced by US Vice President and ardent anti-communist Harry Truman. Literally in Russian, “Truman” is translated as “true man” =)), but this is a joke.

The first thing Truman does is prohibit the execution of any instructions from the previous Roosevelt administration.

“Enough, we are no longer interested in an alliance with the Russians, and therefore, we may not fulfill the agreements with them. We will solve the problem of Japan without the help of the Russians.”

From this moment on, you can forget about any friendliness.

On the eve of the Potsdam Conference (held: July 17 - August 2, 1945), Truman receives an encrypted message: " The operation took place this morning. The diagnosis is not yet completely completed, but the results seem satisfactory and are already exceeding expectations". This was a message about the successful testing of an atomic bomb. And on July 21, US Secretary of War Stimson, who accompanied the conference Truman , receives photographs of the tests performed and shows them to the president.

And Truman goes on the offensive.

During the conference, he tries to hint to Stalin that the United States has atomic weapons.

Churchill describes the scene this way: "We stood in twos and threes before going our separate ways. I was perhaps five yards away and was watching this important conversation with keen interest. I knew what the President was going to say. It was extremely important to know what impression it would make on Stalin ".

A little later, Churchill will approach Truman: "How did everything go?" - I asked. “He didn’t ask a single question,” the president answered.".

And on August 6 and 9, 1945, the United States carried out two nuclear strikes on Japanese cities - on the city of Hiroshima (up to 166 thousand dead) and on the city of Nagasaki (up to 80 thousand dead).

"Military and civilians, men and women, old and young, were killed indiscriminately by the atmospheric pressure and thermal radiation of the explosion...

These bombs used by the Americans, in their cruelty and terrifying effects, are far superior to poisonous gases or any other weapons, the use of which is prohibited.

Japan protests against the United States' violation of internationally recognized principles of warfare, violated both by the use of the atomic bomb and by earlier incendiary bombings that killed old people, women and children, destroyed and burned Shinto and Buddhist temples, schools, hospitals, residential areas, etc. d..

They were now using this new bomb, which had a much greater destructive effect than any other weapon used before. This is a new crime against humanity and civilization."

According to an American report from 1946, there was no military need for the use of atomic bombs:

"Based on a detailed examination of all the facts and after interviews with surviving Japanese officials, it is the opinion of this Study that definitely before December 31, 1945, and most likely before November 1, 1945, Japan would have surrendered even if the atomic bombs had not been dropped and the USSR would not have entered the war, and even if the invasion of the Japanese Islands had not been planned and prepared."

After Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Americans planned subsequent atomic bombings of Japan, but later decided that it would be more expedient not to waste bombs as they were created, but to begin accumulating them.

Stockpiles of nuclear weapons in the world.

On September 4, 1945, the United States Joint War Planning Committee prepared Memorandum No. 329: " select approximately 20 of the most important objectives suitable for strategic atomic bombing USSR and on the territory controlled by it"As the arsenal grew, the number of cities was planned to increase. At that time, the USSR not only did not have such weapons, but did not even have a strategic bomber capable of long-distance flights.

December 1945 arrived. The USSR outright refused to ratify the Bretton Woods Agreement.

But there were no atomic strikes on the USSR. Stalin weighed the pros and cons too well.
One of the important reasons for the failed attack was the Americans themselves, namely their supplies to us under Lend-Lease.

And since mid-1944, approximately 2,400 P-63 Kincobra fighter-attack aircraft, the best American fighters at the end of the war, which were a modification of the aforementioned P-39s, were delivered to the USSR. The Kincobras failed to take part in the war with Germany, and practically in the war with Japan as well.

Thus, it turned out that by the end of the war we had a full complement of the latest American fighters in our arsenal (I think good relations with Roosevelt played a role here), and all atomic bombs, at that time, were delivered using long-range aviation, vulnerable to fighters.

So it turns out that the Americans protected us from ourselves.

America did not have the opportunity tofight with us in a fair fight, even joining forces with Europe. By this time, the Soviet Union was no longer too tough for them. So the West begins to build up its joint military power with all its might in order to bring it down on the USSR as soon as possible. The USSR could only strengthen its air defense and speed up work on its atomic program.

The curtain falls.

"The most important thing is to choose the right enemy."

Joseph Goebbels.

On March 5, 1946, Winston Churchill, speaking at Westminster College in Fulton (USA), divided the world into two poles: those who are with us and those who are with them, the so-called bipolar world. President Truman also attended the speech.

This speech was the official start of the Cold War.

"Neither the effective prevention of war nor the permanent extension of the influence of the World Organization can be achieved without the fraternal union of the English-speaking peoples. This means a special relationship between the British Commonwealth and the British Empire and the United States.

From Stettin on the Baltic to Trieste on the Adriatic, an iron curtain fell across the continent. On the other side of the curtain are all the capitals of the ancient states of Central and Eastern Europe - Warsaw, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade, Bucharest, Sofia. All of these famous cities and the populations in their areas fell within what I call the Soviet sphere, all of them in one form or another subject not only to Soviet influence, but also to the significant and increasing control of Moscow.

Almost all of these countries are run by police governments,<...>they don't have true democracy."

But Churchill was not the one who first introduced the concept of an “iron curtain” in relation to the Soviet Union. He borrowed this expression from an article by the German Reich Minister of Education and Propaganda, Joseph Goebbels:

“If the Germans lower their arms, the Soviets will occupy, according to the Yalta Conference, all of eastern and southeastern Europe, along with most of the Reich. The Iron Curtain will fall over the entire gigantic territory controlled by the Soviet Union, behind which the peoples will be exterminated.
<...>

All that will remain will be human raw material, a stupid wandering mass of millions of desperate, proletarianized working animals who will know about the rest of the world only what the Kremlin wants."

This article was written by Goebbels on February 25, 1945, immediately after the Yalta Conference, at which the future fate of the world was decided.

With his article, Goebbels tried to sow seeds of discord in the ranks of the allies (anti-Hitler, of course) and desperately beg the West for a last chance for salvation, in the face of imminent death: “Now Bolshevism stands on the Oder. Everything depends on the steadfastness of the German soldiers. Will Bolshevism be pushed to the east or will its fury cover all of Europe.<...>Everything will be decided by us or not decided at all. That's all the alternatives."

Goebbels's article had its effect, but only after the fall of Germany and the death of its leadership. It was then that Churchill took Goebbels' words for his Fulton speech.

“Had Churchill dug deeper, he would have known that the term “Iron Curtain” first came into use in Scandinavia, where workers in the early 1920s protested against the desire of their rulers to isolate them from the “heretical ideas” coming from the East.”

Valentin Falin, Doctor of History. Sci.

We did not fight Hitler in order to transfer power to the Churchills.

Stalin immediately responded to the Fulton speech:

“It should be noted that Mr. Churchill and his friends are strikingly reminiscent of Hitler and his friends in this respect. Hitler began the work of unleashing war by proclaiming a racial theory, declaring that only people who spoke German, represent a full-fledged nation.

Mr. Churchill begins the work of unleashing war also with racial theory, arguing that only nations speaking English language, are full-fledged nations called upon to decide the destinies of the whole world.

German racial theory led Hitler and his friends to the conclusion that the Germans, as the only complete nation, should dominate other nations. The English racial theory leads Mr. Churchill and his friends to the conclusion that the nations speaking English, as the only full-fledged ones, should dominate the rest of the nations of the world.
<...>

In essence, Mr. Churchill and his friends in England and the United States are presenting to the nations that do not speak English a kind of ultimatum: accept our dominance voluntarily, and then everything will be in order, otherwise war is inevitable."

Parable of the Good Samaritan.

The meaning of the Marshall Plan was to provide financial assistance to countries affected during the Second World War.

A gesture of goodwill you say. Alas, no, in America there is “only business”. Each country that received assistance had to sacrifice part of its sovereignty.

The Truman Doctrine contained specific measures against the expansion of the Soviet sphere of influence and the spread of communist ideology (the “doctrine of containment” of socialism), as well as those aimed at returning the USSR to its former borders (the “doctrine of discarding” socialism).

The founding father of the “doctrine of containment” is considered to be the American ambassador in Moscow (at that time). It was he who formulated and outlined in his telegram dated February 22, 1946, even before Churchill’s speech in Fulton, all the main trends of the future Cold War. The telegram was called "long", as it contained about 8,000 words.

Here are excerpts from the telegram:

You can read the full text of the telegram here (link) or at the end of the article, in the additional section. materials.

It was George Kennan who formulated the idea that the Soviet Union should be defeated without entering into a direct military conflict with it. The bet here was on the depletion of the Soviet economy, because the economy of the West was much more powerful (why was it more powerful? Yes, because it developed while we were at war, and ate our gold).

Thus, by mid-1947, two types of foreign policy orientation were finally taking shape on the world map: pro-Soviet and pro-American.

And on April 4, 1949, countries that received economic assistance from the United States under the Marshall Plan signed the North Atlantic Treaty (NATO). Here's a two-move combination for you.

RDS-1.

A little about our bomber.

On August 3, 1947, three Tu-4 aircraft opened an air parade in Tushino, which was attended by foreign military representatives. At first, foreigners did not believe that Soviet planes were flying in the sky, because only the United States possessed such bombers; this was their latest development. But, no matter how much they didn’t want to admit it, the planes were Soviet. And the reason for the disbelief of foreigners was the similarity - the planes were exact copies of the American B-29 "Superfortress".

In 1949, the Tu-4 was put into service and became the first Soviet aircraft to carry atomic weapons.

Thus, the position of the two forces in the world was relatively equalized. Now, it was impossible to take us with bare hands.

"Truman started the Cold War. And he started it out of fear, out of weakness, not out of strength. And why? After the Second World War, capitalism as a system turned out to be very battered. It was discredited in the eyes of millions of people. It gave birth to the Great Depression. It gave birth to a terrible war.It gave birth to fascism and gas chambers.

The Soviet Union was a real alternative in this sense. And this happened against a background when Europe was in ruins.

The Greek communists are about to come to power.

The Italian communists in 1943 had 7 thousand people. In 1945 they had 1.5 million people.

And so Truman and his entourage were afraid that Stalin would take advantage of the opportunities that were opening up to him. Moreover, there was a civil war in China, where the communists won. India continued to fight for independence. Liberation wars were already underway in Indonesia and Vietnam, or they were ready for it.

That is, the Soviet Union, as the Americans believed, could take advantage of this situation in order to create a real threat to American capitalism and the American way of life. The Soviet Union had to be stopped. This was the reason why the Americans started the Cold War."

A.L. Adamashin, Russian diplomat.

The Soviet system was dangerous for the West not so much from an ideological point of view, but from a methodological one. This mainly concerned the economic component.

“The principle of state policy (Soviet - author's note) was a constant, albeit modest, improvement in the well-being of the population. This was expressed, for example, in large and regular price reductions (13 times in 6 years; from 1946 to 1950, bread fell in price three times, and meat by 2.5 times).It was then that specific stereotypes of mass consciousness arose, enshrined in the state ideology: confidence in tomorrow and the belief that life can only get better.

The condition for this was the strengthening of the state's financial system in close connection with planning. To preserve this system, the USSR took an important step: it refused to join the IMF and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and on March 1, 1950, it completely left the dollar zone, transferring the determination of the ruble exchange rate to a gold basis. Large gold reserves were created in the USSR, the ruble was inconvertible, which made it possible to maintain very low domestic prices."

In each country there is a certain amount of goods and services (commodity equivalent, TE), the number of these goods and services is constantly growing or decreasing (depending on the situation in the country, but definitely does not stand still) and there is a money supply, the purpose of which is to serve universal equivalent of exchange (DE - monetary equivalent). Money supply always attached to the goods and should approximately correspond to their quantity (that is, TE = DE). If there is more money than goods, it is called inflation ( TE< ДЭ = инфляция ); if there is less money than goods, then this is called deflation ( TE > DE = deflation).

But the Central Bank (in this particular case, I mean the Fed) is constantly printing extra money, in other words, creating inflation (TE< ДЭ ) и для того, чтобы уровнять соотношение "товар-деньги", цены на товары и услуги растут. Вот и вся математика.

What happened in Stalin's USSR?

But there it was exactly the opposite: the number of goods grew, but the Central Bank, on the contrary, did not print more money, that is, it created deflation (TE > DE), and in order to equalize the “goods-money” ratio, prices for goods were reduced (i.e. the solvency of money increased).

“The essential features and requirements of the basic economic law of socialism could be formulated approximately this way: ensuring maximum satisfaction of the constantly growing material and cultural needs of the entire society through continuous growth and improvement of socialist production on the basis of higher technology. Consequently: instead of ensuring maximum profits, ensuring maximum satisfying the material and cultural needs of society; instead of developing production with interruptions from boom to crisis and from crisis to boom, - continuous growth production..."

Thomas Jefferson, 3rd President of the USA.

But why did the US choose such an illogical and extremely unstable financial system? The answer is not complicated - “just business.” The Federal Reserve is a private company, and the inflation rate financial system is just a way for this company to make a profit.

“The main features and requirements of the basic economic law of modern capitalism could be formulated approximately this way: ensuring maximum capitalist profit through the exploitation, ruin and impoverishment of the majority of the population of a given country...”

Now I will explain what inflation is, since many do not understand the essence of this term.

For example: 10 people live in the country, each of them has 100 rubles (i.e., the country’s total turnover is 1000 rubles), but then the Central Bank prints another 1000 rubles. And I have a question for you - how much money do these people have? Yes, they still have all the money, but their price (solvency) has been halved. In other words, the population of the country was simply robbed of 1000 rubles. This is the inflation system - by producing extra money, the Central Bank is simply robbing its population. But here again we remember that the Fed is a private company, and therefore it turns out that it is not robbing “its own population,” but simply “the population” (and it doesn’t matter which country). " Nothing personal just business".

"Goods and services that could be purchased for $1 in 1913 now cost $21. Let's look at this in terms of the purchasing power of the dollar itself. It is now less than 0.05% of its value in 1913. You could say that the government and its banking cartel, through its incessant inflationary policies, have stolen from us 95 cents of every dollar."

Ron Paul, American politician, 2009

With the death of Stalin, the practice of lowering prices in the USSR was stopped. Khrushchev abolished the gold content of the ruble, transferring the Soviet currency, following the example of all countries, to dollar backing.

“The success of the Soviet system as a form of power within the country has not yet been conclusively proven. It must be clearly demonstrated that it can withstand the decisive test of a successful transfer of power from one individual or group of individuals to another.

Lenin's death was the first such transition, and its consequences had a disastrous effect on the Soviet state for 15 years. After Stalin's death or resignation there will be a second transition. But even this will not be the decisive test. As a result of the recent territorial expansion, Soviet power within the country will experience a number of additional difficulties that had already severely tested the Tsarist regime. Here we are convinced that never since the cessation civil war The Russian people were not as emotionally distant from the doctrines of the Communist Party as they are now.

In Russia, the party has become a gigantic and today successful apparatus of dictatorial rule, but has ceased to be a source of emotional inspiration. Thus, the internal strength and stability of the communist movement cannot yet be considered guaranteed."

What was Stalin's genius? He understood that the ideological component needed to be constantly changed to suit the changing needs of the country, that is, to be flexible, but his followers no longer understood this, which is exactly what Kennan was talking about.

With camber Soviet Union, many thought that the United States emerged victorious in the Cold War, but the collapse of the USSR was not the end of the war, it was only the end of the battle. Today we can observe an information war - a new round, a new battle in one big war - the battle of empires...

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Iron curtain(Iron Curtain) - informational, political and border barrier between the countries of the socialist and capitalist camps in the 20th century. In Western propaganda, the term “Iron Curtain” was actively used as a symbol of total lack of freedom under socialism, the suppression of basic individual rights, primarily the right to freedom of movement and obtaining information. The fall of the Iron Curtain in the late 1980s and early 1990s effectively marked the end of the Cold War period.

As a fire-fighting agent, the iron curtain began to be actually used in European theaters from the end of the 18th century. In the event of a fire on the stage, an iron curtain separated it from the auditorium and allowed spectators to safely leave the theater building. Later, fire curtains became mandatory equipment for all large theater buildings. In the 19th century, the expression “iron curtain” began to be used in a figurative sense, denoting the mental isolation of an individual, his indifference to external events. With the outbreak of the First World War, the term found application in political journalism; the warring parties began to accuse each other of erecting an “Iron Curtain”, which meant a set of measures to strengthen the defense capabilities of countries, in particular, tightening passport control at the borders, introducing censorship in the press, subordination foreign trade to state interests.
After the October Revolution in Russia, calls appeared in the Western press to lower the “Iron Curtain” on the borders with Soviet Russia in order to prevent the spread of the “revolutionary fire” in Western Europe. At the end of World War II, Goebbels' propaganda demanded that the Wehrmacht use an Iron Curtain to protect Germany from the Red Army. On the other hand, the practice of socialist construction in one country has revealed a tendency towards self-isolation of socialist countries - the introduction of censorship in the open press, the suppression of alternative sources of information, the state monopoly of foreign trade, the ban on free travel abroad, the restriction of communication with foreigners, and cultural exchange. The term “Iron Curtain” became widespread after Winston Churchill’s speech in Fulton (Missouri) in March 1946, in which he figuratively painted a picture of the division of post-war Europe into spheres of influence: “The Iron Curtain has descended across the entire continent.”
The “Iron Curtain” never had an absolute character, and in the conditions of the Cold War between the countries of capitalism and socialism there was active international trade, cultural contacts were carried out. Over time, the “Iron Curtain” regime weakened; in the second half of the 1950s, marriages with foreigners were allowed in the USSR, and tourist exchanges with other countries began. The policy of perestroika in the second half of the 1980s put an end to the Cold War and, accordingly, the Iron Curtain. The symbol of his fall was the destruction of the Berlin Wall in the fall of 1989. On May 20, 1991, the USSR adopted the law “On the procedure for leaving the USSR,” which abolished the permitting procedure for registering the departure of Soviet citizens abroad.

Real iron curtains appeared in theaters at the end of the 18th century. The stage was lit mainly by candles, so there was always the possibility of a fire. In the event of a fire, an iron curtain was lowered between the stage and the auditorium to block the fire.

But the term “iron curtain” appeared on everyone’s lips not at all in connection with safety precautions in Renaissance theaters. This is a political cliché used to describe a difficult period in world history.

"Iron Curtain" in political terminology

The "Iron Curtain" is a political metaphor that means the political, economic and cultural isolation of a country, in this case the USSR, from other states.

Who is the author of the expression?

The authorship is mainly attributed to Churchill, but this is not entirely true. To be extremely precise, this metaphor was first used by the Russian philosopher Vasily Rozanov in the book “Apocalypse of Our Time,” written in 1917. He compared the events October revolution with a theatrical performance, after which “with a clang, a creak,” a cumbersome iron curtain fell over Russian history. This performance, according to Rozanov, did not bring anything good; on the contrary, the audience watching all this suddenly became naked and homeless.

Two years later, French Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau used this expression in a speech. He declared his readiness to erect a huge iron curtain around Bolshevism in order to protect Western civilization from harmful influence. It is unknown whether he borrowed this metaphor from Rozanov or came up with it on his own. Be that as it may, this succinct expression came into wide use only almost 30 years after Churchill’s speech.

But before that (March 1945), an article entitled “The Year 2000” was also written. Realizing the imminence of Germany's defeat, this Nazi propaganda minister wanted to at least antagonize the allies of the time - the USA and Great Britain - and turn them against the USSR, describing the gloomy prospects for the future if the Germans surrendered. He called the expansion of Russians in the east and southeast of Europe the same term “Iron Curtain”. This assumption turned out to be prophetic.

A year later, Goebbels' words began to gradually come true. Then the British Prime Minister, wanting to warn the United States about the impending danger of Bolshevism, made his famous speech in Fulton, which is considered the starting point " cold war“According to him, the “Iron Curtain” is the isolation of the USSR from other states. He voiced which countries would fall under socialist influence: Germany, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, Austria, Romania, Yugoslavia. And so it happened.

How the "Iron Curtain" arose in the USSR

Since 1946, Stalin has been building a “sanitary ring” of “friendly” socialist states around the USSR to prevent a military invasion. Everything that came from the West was declared disastrous and harmful. For Soviet citizens, the world was divided into black and white, that is, capitalism and socialism. Moreover, both warring parties added fuel to the fire.

In addition to the unspoken confrontation, the initiators of the conflict formalized their hostility by entering into opposing alliances. In 1949, the North Atlantic Alliance (NATO) was created, and in 1955, the Warsaw Pact was signed.

The Berlin Wall, erected in 1961, became a visible symbol of this opposition between the two political systems.

The tense relationships of the bipolar world influenced both trade and economic ties between two blocks of states.

In addition, the Western media created a lot of myths and legends about life in a country where the Iron Curtain had been lowered. Years of isolation have taken their toll.

Life behind the Iron Curtain

How did such isolation affect the lives of ordinary citizens?

First of all, they had a very limited opportunity get outside the borders of the USSR (trips to “friendly” countries don’t count, because everything there was very reminiscent of Soviet reality). A few succeeded, but they were always monitored by intelligence agents.

In general, the KGB could find out absolutely everything about everyone’s life. Citizens with “unreliable” views have always been on the radar of the intelligence services. If someone had an opinion that was incorrect from the point of view of the party, then he could easily be declared an enemy of the people, and in different years this meant either exile or execution.

Residents of the Land of Soviets were extremely limited in their choice of clothing, equipment, and transport. Then the concept of “deficit” appeared. It was possible to get something worthwhile (real jeans, or even Beatles records) only through great connections. The “Iron Curtain” in the USSR also influenced the cultural sphere: many European and American films, books, and songs were simply banned.

How it was destroyed

The Cold War lasted more than 40 years. During this time, both superpowers were tired of In 1987, an agreement was signed on the destruction by both states of certain types of missiles. Then the USSR withdrew troops from Afghanistan. The new Secretary General Mikhail Gorbachev radically changed the state. In 1989, the Berlin Wall fell. In 1991, the Soviet Union also ceased to exist. Thus, the notorious “iron curtain” over the post-Soviet space was finally lifted.

The Iron Curtain is a history lesson for which many have had to pay a very high price.

And her allies. It seemed that victory over a common enemy should unite the states of Europe and the world, who together withstood a difficult test terrible war. However, relations between the USSR and its allies (USA, UK and other countries) only worsened. The leaders of the USSR tried to “protect the country from the pernicious influence of the West,” and the Western powers tried to protect them from the USSR. As a result, the expressions “Iron Curtain” and “Cold War” arose, defining the relations of the most powerful state in Europe with some countries of the world.

Few people remember that the Iron Curtain once really existed. This kind of curtain began to be used in theaters at the end of the 18th century. The fact is that fire-hazardous candles and lamps were then used to illuminate the stage, so fires often occurred in the theater. The iron curtain was lowered in the event of a fire on the stage, which was tightly separated from the audience, allowing them to safely leave the room. Hardly anyone thought then that the expression “Iron Curtain” would soon acquire political overtones.

For the first time, the expression “iron curtain” was used in a new capacity by British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, speaking on March 5, 1946 in the city of Fulton (USA). Summing up the political results of the Second World War, he said that “from Stettin on the Baltic to Trieste on the Adriatic, an “iron curtain” descended on the continent, implying the Soviet Union’s policy of limiting the influence of capitalist powers.

Before Churchill, this expression was used in the same context by the Minister of Propaganda of Nazi Germany, Joseph Goebbels (February 23, 1945). He stated that if the Soviet Union wins the war with Germany, it will fence off Eastern and South-Eastern Europe from the rest of it with an “iron curtain”. In the USSR, this expression was also familiar: back in 1930, Lev Nikulin used it in Literaturnaya Gazeta.

Indeed, relations between the USSR and the capitalist countries of Europe and the USA after 1945 deteriorated sharply. The fact is that the states pursued too different policies, not wanting to make any mutual concessions. The Soviet Union tried to expand its sphere of influence in Europe, which was very painful for the United States. Ultimately, the conflict between the two leading powers of the world at that time led to the so-called “Cold War”.

"Cold War"

The term "cold war" meant political conflict between the USSR and the USA in the period from the late 40s to the early 90s of the XX century. During this period, two superpowers fought for their influence in the world. This was a struggle not only between two states, but also between two ideologies. The main stages of the Cold War are considered to be the arms race, the struggle for dominance in space and the nuclear confrontation between the USSR and the USA.
The United States did not like the growing influence of the USSR in Europe and American politicians tried their best to limit it. A so-called “containment” policy was developed, that is, limiting the spread of communist ideology in Western European countries. It was expressed in economic, financial and military assistance non-communist regimes. Basics of the new foreign policy The United States was established by President Harry Truman on March 12, 1947 in the American Congress. Some politicians consider this date to be the official date of the beginning of the Cold War, others are of the opinion that it began after Churchill’s speech in Fulton.

The first stage of the Cold War was left to the Americans. Already in July 1945 (even before the start of the Cold War), the world's first atomic bomb was tested, and in early August the United States demonstrated its military power to the USSR in the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It was clear that it was necessary to restore the nuclear balance in the world, so work on creating an atomic bomb in the USSR was accelerated, but it appeared only in 1949. After this, both countries began to actively increase their nuclear potential. In an effort to overtake the enemy, both states spent enormous amounts of money on the production of weapons and military equipment. Over the years of rivalry, technical solutions were found that found application in peaceful life. This is how they appeared nuclear power plants, jet passenger aircraft, the Internet and much more.

At another stage of the Cold War—dominance in space—the competition was fought with varying degrees of success overall advantage THE USSR. In 1957, the first artificial earth satellite was launched, and in 1961 the first man, Yuri Gagarin, went into space. First exit in open space also implemented Soviet cosmonauts. Having completely lost the first stage of space rivalry, the Americans redeemed themselves a little by being the first to set foot on the surface of the Moon.

However, the main stage of the rivalry took place on the ground. One of the tasks of the Cold War, like a conventional war, was the task of winning over as many people as possible to one’s side. large quantity allies. One of the most notable conflicts on this basis occurred in Germany, which was divided into East and West. Thanks to the support of the United States, the latter developed faster economically, so residents East Germany(GDR) began to move to Western. The capital of Germany, Berlin, was also divided into Western and Eastern parts. To limit the outflow of residents from Soviet-controlled East Germany, the Berlin Wall was erected on August 13, 1961, dividing West and East Berlin. The creation of the Berlin Wall not only allowed the government of the GDR to stop the outflow of population, but also to create more favorable conditions for the independent development of the republic. In October, the Americans tried to destroy the Berlin Wall, but Soviet intelligence knew about these plans and took countermeasures. An entire regiment of tanks and a battalion of infantry came out against three jeeps, ten tanks and bulldozers from East Germany. As a result, the Americans had to retreat.

With the coming to power of Mikhail Gorbachev in the USSR, who proclaimed “socialist pluralism,” the conflict was practically settled. During negotiations, agreements began to be concluded between the warring countries to reduce the weapons that both countries had accumulated over the long years of the Cold War. Late 80s Soviet troops were withdrawn from Afghanistan, and East and West Germany became a single state. The economic and political crisis in the USSR no longer allowed fighting with the United States. On December 26, 1991, the Treaty of Union was terminated, which put an end to the Cold War.

In the end, the United States achieved its goal main goal: destruction of your main enemy in the struggle for influence in the world. The USSR crashed into several independent states and even the largest of them - Russia - could no longer dictate its terms to the Americans. In addition, communist countries that were left without the support of the USSR either ceased to exist altogether or found themselves in a deep crisis.

The law on the procedure for entry and exit from the USSR of Soviet citizens, which the Union Supreme Council adopted 20 years ago, on May 20, 1991, was the same progressive and revolutionary document as, for example, the 1990 Media Law. But he was unlucky, so to speak, “for technical reasons.”

This law could not be put into effect immediately and simultaneously. It was necessary to produce millions of foreign passports, re-profile, re-switch the work of thousands of OVIRs and much more to do and prepare. Therefore, a special resolution was issued on the gradual implementation of the articles of the law. And the final moment had to be postponed until January 1, 1993.

As you know, by that time the Soviet Union no longer existed. However, the law on entry and exit from a non-existent state has only just begun to operate in full, albeit in relation to Russian Federation. Then another three years were spent preparing for the implementation of the corresponding Russian law and Russian foreign passports.

Nevertheless, until the mid-2000s of the 21st century, many citizens of the Russian Federation (including the author of these lines) traveled around foreign countries with red skin and a “sickle-and-hammer passport.” And European border guards reacted to this document with great surprise. Not the same, of course, as in Mayakovsky’s famous poem: “He takes it like a bomb, he takes it like a hedgehog, like a double-edged razor.” Fear was replaced by bewilderment: how can it be that the state no longer exists, but his passport remains.

This happens periodically in jurisprudence. This field of activity in itself is very conservative. And here, in addition, the process of producing more and more new document samples does not keep up with political changes. Which sometimes leads to funny situations, and not only in the legislative sphere.

For example, the USSR national team made it through the qualifying games for the 1992 European Football Championship. But the Union disappeared from the political map of the world, and the tournament featured a team from a non-existent single state, the so-called “CIS team,” which included players from Russia, Belarus, Ukraine and—what may seem especially surprising today—Georgia. In the nineties of the last century, many similar paradoxical collisions arose.

Be that as it may, the Supreme Soviet of the USSR in May 1991 de jure marked the disappearance of the notorious “Iron Curtain”. Although de facto this barrier was eliminated a little earlier. And then a series of police and bureaucratic procedures unfolded, which brought the formal side into line with reality.

Thus, another argument appears in the endless dispute about who “gave freedom” to our citizens. The most progressive law on entry and exit and the resolution on its implementation bear the signatures of USSR President Mikhail Gorbachev and the Chairman Supreme Council USSR Anatoly Lukyanov. It was they who sanctified the following revolutionary provisions of the first article with their names:

“Every citizen of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics has the right to leave the USSR and enter the USSR. This Law, in accordance with international treaties of the USSR, guarantees citizens of the USSR the right to leave the USSR and enter the USSR... A foreign passport is valid for leaving the USSR to all countries of the world... Citizen The USSR cannot be arbitrarily deprived of the right to enter the USSR.".

In the same way, the right to travel was guaranteed to all citizens, except for convicted criminals, malicious deceivers and holders of state secrets, and these restrictions were not observed too strictly. Thus, the borders of the USSR and then the Russian Federation in both directions were calmly crossed by thieves in law and crime bosses like the famous Vyacheslav Ivankov-Yaponchik. If they were arrested and brought to justice, then, as a rule, in the countries " free world", and not at home.

Well, as they say, freedom requires sacrifice. And this freedom was granted to his fellow citizens by the first and last president of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev. He cannot in any way be responsible for the clumsiness of the paper and printing mechanism, due to which the possibility of the final and irrevocable implementation of these rights and freedoms came only a year after his voluntary resignation and the liquidation of the state that he headed.

However, the irony of history is such that as soon as traces of the “Iron Curtain” began to disappear from the Soviet and then from the Russian side, exactly the same curtain began to rise from the opposite side. Especially and first of all - from the emerging European Union and the United States of America.

And as soon as the citizens of the USSR fell away from the last obstacles and difficulties with leaving their native country, they immediately had difficulties entering the most “free” and “democratic” states, which they used to call “capitalist”. It was unbearably difficult, almost impossible to leave; it became just as difficult, and sometimes even impossible, to move there. Where thousands of Soviet citizens rushed.

These are the laws of dialectics, repeating the formula derived by the great Russian scientist Mikhail Lomonosov: “All changes occurring in nature occur in such a way that if something is added to something, it is taken away from something else.” And, naturally, vice versa. Using political and legal terms, it can be formulated as follows: if in one part of the planet the total volume of human rights and freedoms increases, then in another part it proportionally decreases.