"History of Russia in 100 Minutes" is a crash course for beginners. Here you will find the complete history summarized and retold in simple language with accurate dates, the most relevant names and essential concepts. After finishing the course, you will know:

- The basic characteristics of Russian history in different epochs
- The 54 most important rulers and 106 historical persons in Russian history
- 126 key dates and events in Russian history
- The basic terms and concepts of Russian history

The text is accompanied by numerous online resources:
- 20,000 pictures
- 700 videos
- 3,500 songs
- 100 podcast episodes

All that is available via the smarthistories.com website.


[ Ссылка ]


Narrated by: Sammi Bold
Written by: Tanel Vahisalu
Edited by: Madis Maasing and Kerry Kubilius
Proofread by: Tony Burnett
Graphic Art by: Mehak Zaib Suddle

Video:
Footage of the Soviet Hydrogen Bomb Test (1953)
“Answer to Stalin” by US Information Agency (1948)
“Checkpoint Charlie: Gate to Communism” by US Department of Defense (1962)
"Armor for the President: The ZIL Limousine, Soviet Leaders' Car of Choice” by RBTH (2014)

Music:
"Tchaikovsky (Part II)" and "Crocodile Ghena's Song" (1995) by J.M.K.E.
[ Ссылка ]...

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COLD WAR

After World War II, people found themselves in a bipolar world order with two opposing camps: Liberal democratic Western countries, led by the US, and the communist states of the Eastern Bloc, led by the USSR. So the second half of the 20th century, until 1991, became known as the “Era of Cold War.”

BACKGROUND
The destruction and loss of life in World War II exceeded that of the First World War by many times. At least 50 million people died, thousands of cities were destroyed, borders were redrawn, and entire nations deported. There was reconstruction work of enormous proportions necessary.

The war greatly changed the global balance of power. Germany was divided into Allied occupation zones, Italy and Japan were put aside, France and Great Britain had weakened, the United States and the Soviet Union, soon both in possession of an atomic bomb, had more power than ever before.

BERLIN AND NATO
Distrust grew into open conflict very soon, and the Iron curtain fell between the East and the West. Stalin established communist governments in Eastern Europe and formed the Eastern Bloc of satellite states. The United States launched the financial aid program, named the Marshall Plan, to recover Europe. The Soviet Union forced its satellite states to refuse the aid.

In 1948, Stalin blocked access to the Western sectors of Berlin. The Berlin Blockade had little effect, as the Allied forces opened a constant airlift of food and fuel to help the city survive. Berlin was the symbol of the Cold War again later, when, in 1961, Soviet leader, Nikita Khrushchev, ordered the construction of the Berlin Wall between West and East Berlin. The wall survived for twenty-eight years.

In 1949, the United States, and its Western European allies formed a common military alliance, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). The Soviet Union responded in 1955, by forming the Warsaw Pact.

THE THIRD WORLD
Following the Truman Doctrine, the United States tried their best to restrain the spread of communism in the Third World countries that were supported and financed by the Soviet Union. The communists were successful in China and Vietnam. The Korean War yielded no substantial results, and the Korean peninsula remains divided to this day. The most frightening moment of the escalating arms race was probably the Cuban Missile Crisis that took the world very near to a nuclear war.

STALIN'S FINAL YEARS
The last years of Stalin were full of terror and fear. Already in his seventies, the leader was growing extremely paranoid and was allegedly planning another large-scale wave of repressions. Before he could launch them. he died, after suffering a stroke, on 5 March 1953.

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