After World War II, the Soviet Union was this country’s chief rival or perhaps even enemy.?

Question

How did that happen? What became of our rivalry with the Soviet Union and why do we no longer hear much about them?

Answer 1

Thank you for your question.

The Soviet Union or USSR broke up in 1991 as a result of various factors. The successor states are a collection of 15 countries commonly dubbed "the former Soviet Union." Eleven of these states are aligned through a loose confederation known as the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). Turkmenistan, originally a full member of the CIS, is now an associate member. The three Baltic States (Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania) did not join this Commonwealth; instead, they joined both the European Union and the NATO alliance in 2004. Russia and Belarus also belong to the Union of Russia and Belarus.

In the late 1980s constituent republics of the Soviet Union started declaring sovereignty over their territories or even independence, citing Article 72 of the USSR Constitution, which stated that any constituent republic was free to secede. Many republics proceeded to produce legislation contradicting the Union laws in what was known as "The War of Laws." In 1989 Russian SFSR, which was then the largest constituent republic (with about 2/3 of population and territory) convened a Congress of Deputies. Boris Yeltsin was elected the chairman of the Congress. On June 12, 1990 the Congress declared Russia's sovereignty over its territory and proceeded to pass laws that attempted to supersede some of the USSR's laws. The period of legal uncertainty continued for the next three years as constituent republics slowly became de-facto independent.

A referendum for the preservation of the USSR was held on March 17, 1991, with the population voting for preservation of the Union in most republics. The referendum gave Gorbachev a minor boost, and in the summer of 1991 a new Union Treaty was designed and agreed upon by most republics which would have turned the Soviet Union into a much looser federation. The signing of the treaty, however, was interrupted by the August Coup - an attempted coup d'état against Mikhail Gorbachev by conservative members of the Communist Party, referred to as "Hardliners" by the Western media. After the coup collapsed, Yeltsin came out as a hero while Gorbachev's power was effectively ended. The balance of power tipped significantly towards the republics. Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania immediately asserted their independence, while the other 12 republics continued discussing new, increasingly looser, models of the Union. On December 8, 1991 Presidents of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus signed Belavezha Accords which declared the Union dissolved and established the Commonwealth of Independent States - CIS, in its place. While doubts remained over the authority of the Belavezha Accords to dissolve the Union, on December 21, 1991, the representatives of all soviet republics but Georgia, including those republics that had signed the Belavezha Accords, signed the Alma-Ata Protocol, which confirmed the dismemberment and consequential extinction of the USSR and restated the establishment of the CIS. The summit of Alma-Ata also agreed on several other practical measures consequential to the extinction of the Union. On 25 December 1991, Gorbachev, yielded to the inevitable and resigned as the president of the USSR, declaring the office extinct. He turned the powers that until then were vested in the presidency over to Boris Yeltsin, president of Russia. The following day, the Supreme Soviet, the highest governmental body of the Soviet Union, recognized the collapse of the Soviet Union and dissolved itself. This is generally recognized as the official, final dissolution of the Soviet Union as a functioning nation. Many organizations such as the Red Army and Militia forces continued to remain in place in the early months of 1992, but were slowly phased out or absorbed by the newly independent nations. In particular, many of the nations attempted a transition from communism to capitalism and from totalitarianism to democracy.

I have attached some links for your reference.

Regards

Answer 2

The Cold War (Russian: Холодная война Kholodnaya Voina) was the protracted geopolitical, ideological, and economic struggle that emerged after World War II between capitalism and communism, centering around the global superpowers of the Soviet Union and the United States, supported by their military alliance partners. It lasted from about 1947 to the period leading to the dissolution of the Soviet Union on December 25, 1991. Between 1985 and 1991 Cold War rivalries first eased and then ended.

The global contest was popularly termed The Cold War because direct hostilities never occurred between the United States and the Soviet Union. Instead, the "war" took the form of an arms race involving nuclear and conventional weapons, networks of military alliances, economic warfare and trade embargos, propaganda, espionage and proxy wars, especially those involving superpower support for opposing sides within civil wars. The Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 was the most important direct confrontation, together with a series of confrontations over the Berlin Blockade and the Berlin Wall. The major civil wars polarized along Cold War lines were the Greek Civil War, Korean War, Vietnam War and the Soviet-Afghan War, along with more peripheral conflicts in Angola, El Salvador, and Nicaragua.

The greatest fear during the Cold War was the risk it would escalate into a full nuclear exchange with hundreds of millions killed. Both sides developed a deterrence policy that prevented problems from escalating beyond limited localities. Nuclear weapons were never employed as weapons during the Cold War.

The Cold War cycled through a series of high and low tension years (the latter called Détente). It ended in the period between 1989 and 1991, with the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact and later the Soviet Union. Historians continue to debate the causes in the 1940s, and the reasons for the Soviet collapse in the 1980s.

Answer 3

Because the Soviet Union dissolved.

Answer 4

Communism vs Capitalism, in the simplest terms, and we don't hear about the Soviet Union any more because they don't exist.

Answer 5

all of it began even as Stalin entered the conflict early on scuffling with against China, taking aspects with the eastern. even as Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in 1943, this led to tensions with the u . s .. It replaced into awkward because Stalin replaced into also scuffling with against Hitler, and we were scuffling with against Hitler. So, Stalin replaced into our greatest pal in Europe, yet our enemy contained in the Orient. that's the reason China and the U.S. had such undesirable kinfolk after WW2. China held a deep seated resentment against the Soviets for what Stalin did. This obviously spilled over into acrimony between the u . s . and u.s., because the u . s . sided with China by way of Japan attacking them beforehand they attacked us. the u . s . despatched the Flying Tigersharks fighter pilots to China to help China wrestle against the Soviets contained in the China Tiger conflict in 1949. This made the Soviets so indignant that they threw Stalin out of skill and altered him with Michail Gorbachev. This led on to the cave in of the Berlin Wall in 1961, which made the Soviets truly indignant because they had to construct all of it yet back.

Answer 6

Communistic ideology is in direct conflict with Capitalistic ideology. It was one of the greatest money making schemes of all time. It divided the world and created the arms race. Who made money on that? Both sides.