Question

How did the United States and the Soviet Union shape the cold war?

HISTORY!

Answer 1

Soviet-US relations were driven by a complex interplay of ideological, political, and economic factors that led to shifts over the years between cautious cooperation and often bitter superpower rivalry. The distinct differences in the two countries' political systems often prevented them from reaching a mutual understanding on key policy issues, and even brought them to the brink of war, as in the case of the Cuban missile crisis.

Initially, the U.S. government was hostile to the Soviet leaders for removing Russia from World War I and opposed an ideologically communist-based state. Although the United States embarked on a famine relief program in the Soviet Union in the early 1920s and American businessmen established commercial ties there during the New Economic Policy period (1921–29), diplomatic relations were not established between the two countries until 1933.

Tensions between the Soviet Union and the West eased somewhat during the 1920s and early 1930s, especially in the area of economic cooperation. After their consolidation of political power, the Bolsheviks faced the same economic challenge as the tsarist regime's government ministers had: how to effectively organize the Soviet Union's vast natural and human resources. The immense social and economic dislocation caused by World War I, the revolutions of 1917, and the Civil War of 1918–21 made the economic situation even more difficult.

Following the dissolution of the Comintern in 1943, the Central Committee of the Soviet Party continued to utilize Communist parties from other nations as instruments of Soviet foreign policy. Each national party was obliged to adhere unconditionally to the decisions of the higher authorities to the Leninist principle of subordinating members and organisations.