Curated playlist
Foreign relations of the Soviet Union
- NATONATO's promise that an attack on one is an attack on all was invoked only once.
- Molotov PlanInside the Soviet Union, the Molotov Plan went by a warmer name: the Brother Plan. It was Moscow's system for rebuilding the countries of Central and Eastern Europe that were politically and economically aligned with it. It can be seen as…
- KGBThe KGB once tried to secretly buy three banks in Northern California.
- Washington Summit (1987)Reagan and Gorbachev signed a treaty in 1987 that eliminated a whole category of nuclear missiles.
- German–Soviet Axis talksIn November 1940, Berlin greeted Molotov with an orchestra playing The Internationale.
- Reykjavík SummitReagan asked Gorbachev if he would refuse a historic chance over a single word. The 1986 Reykjavík Summit then ended.
- Sinatra DoctrineA Soviet spokesman explained a major policy shift by quoting a Frank Sinatra song.
- Tehran ConferenceStalin let a gift sword fall to the floor at the 1943 Tehran Conference. Churchill had just presented it.
- Soviet Union and the United NationsThe Soviet Union walked out of the Security Council in 1950 and accidentally let the Korean War vote pass.
- Warsaw PactThe Warsaw Pact's only two military actions targeted its own members. Hungary's 1956 exit bid was crushed.
- Evil Empire speechStaffers kept crossing out "evil empire" in a Reagan speech, and his speechwriter kept putting it back.
- Able Archer 83During NATO's Able Archer 83 exercise, Soviet forces loaded nuclear warheads onto combat planes.
- Active measuresActive measures is the name for political warfare waged by the Soviet Union and, later, the Russian Federation. The U.S. Government's own label for it was executive action. Oleg Kalugin knew the machinery from the inside. He headed Foreign…
- Stalin NoteIn March 1952, Stalin offered to reunify Germany if it stayed neutral. Konrad Adenauer refused to test the offer.
- Potsdam ConferenceMid-conference at Potsdam in 1945, British voters replaced Winston Churchill with Clement Attlee.
- Nuclear arms raceThe nuclear arms race began with 187 liters of heavy water smuggled out of Norway.
- Revolutions of 1989A picnic near the Hungarian border in August 1989 let thousands of East Germans cross into Austria.
- Congo CrisisThe Congo Crisis began on the very day the Congo won independence from Belgium. Within a week, the army had mutinied.
- CominformIn June 1948, Cominform expelled Yugoslavia's communist party. Eight parties voted unanimously against Tito's party.
- Molotov–Ribbentrop PactHitler decided Stalin looked like a man he could do business with. Their 1939 pact split Eastern Europe in secret.
- Iron CurtainWinston Churchill did not coin the phrase iron curtain. Queen Elisabeth of Belgium used it first, in 1914.
- Berlin Crisis of 1961American and Soviet tanks once sat loaded with live ammunition at Checkpoint Charlie. It happened in Berlin in 1961.
- Geneva Summit (1985)Reagan asked Gorbachev what they would do if aliens invaded. It came up at their 1985 Geneva Summit, by the fireplace.
- Soviet involvement in regime changeTito once wrote to Stalin: "Stop sending people to kill me." Yugoslav police had captured five Soviet agents.
- Soviet occupation zone in GermanyIn April 1946, Soviet authorities forcibly merged two German parties into one. It became East Germany's governing party.
- Curzon LineNeither Poland nor the Soviet Union accepted the Curzon Line in 1919. Allied leaders backed it at Yalta in 1945.
- Common European HomeWas Gorbachev's Common European Home a real vision or a ploy to hold the Soviet sphere together?
- We will bury youKhrushchev's "We will bury you" may have been a prediction, not a threat.
- Turkish Straits crisisIn August 1946, the Soviet Union demanded that Turkey scrap the rules for its two key straits.
- Berlin BlockadeIn June 1948, Stalin cut every road, rail line and canal into West Berlin.