When the Second World War ended, most European countries suffered from extensive damages and numerous losses. The authority and influence was mainly divided between the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the United States of America. As one wanted to surpass the other, clashes and conflicts were unavoidable. The battle affected the spheres of international economic relations, scientific and technological development, nuclear weapon production, and the relationships among nations worldwide.

The Cold War was a decades-long fight for international domination. It is believed to be a conflict that governed world politics for most of the lives of those being born in the twentieth century. The conflict that underlay the Cold War was the one between the Communist nations guided by the Soviet Union and the democratic nations headed by the United States. It got its name because the opponents avoided attacking each other directly, and thus resorted to means that were considered legitimate and rational. The battle was fought with the use of words instead of nuclear weapon. The rivals brought propaganda, economic confrontations and diplomatic bargaining into play.  Except for the rare and minor armed conflicts, no military forces were ever involved.

Both nations’ leaders realized that in case any of them engaged the rival into an armed military clash, resulting into an unavoidable involvement of nuclear powers, both sides would face the total destruction. All of a sudden, it became possible to think of a total war that could devastate not only the rival but also the conqueror. “Churchill called it ‘the balance of terror’ – the central characteristic of the Cold War, which became more widely known as Mutually Assured Destruction” (Godwin, 2006).

The competition that served as a basis for the conflict was shaped by the contradictory ideologies, differing domestic politics, leaders’ individual ambitions and the nuclear threat. It is curious that the danger being contained in an atomic bomb prevented the country leaders from using the nuclear weaponry. Therefore, the bomb helped to maintain the peace between USSR and USA, due to the policymakers’ awareness of the cataclysmic consequences one may provoke. Fortunately, the cold war competitors preferred cold logic to brute force, which implied that any sort of military attack was not considered a rational option.

Taking the peculiar nature of the Cold War into account, it is difficult to specify when exactly it began. Most historians, however, suggest that the conflict between Moscow and Washington materialized and was declared in 1947, when President Truman of the United States announced an implementation of an anti-communist policy. Historians also provide differing opinions on how long the Cold War persisted. “A few believe it ended when the United States and the Soviet Union improved relations during the nineteen-sixties and early nineteen-seventies. Others believe it ended when the Berlin Wall was torn down in 1989, or when the Soviet Union collapsed in late 1991” (GlobalSecurity.org).

Interestingly, some scholars argue that the conflict origins can be traced back to the period following the end of World War I. Others suggest that the strained relations between Russia, Western European states and the US date back to as far as the middle of the 19th century. It is, however, safe to say that the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution initially launched by Lenin, and subsequently headed by Stalin marked the beginning of an enduring political confrontation having spread globally.

How the two superpowers came to be the enemies, anyway? Attempts to name the primary source of the Cold War have become an issue that has long sparked harsh disputes among specialists. Some historians believe that the blame lies with Stalin and the Soviet Union. Some fully place responsibility for the disagreement on the US. Others suggest that both superpowers should share the blame for the conflict.