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U.S.-Russia/Soviet Union relations

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An illustration of space, with two silhouettes of heads overlapping.

The Fraught U.S.-Soviet Search for Alien Life

During the Cold War, American and Soviet scientists embarked on an unprecedented quest to contact extraterrestrials.
by Sophie Pinkham via The New Yorker on February 6, 2025
A column of Soviet armored vehicles arrives to reinforce the military presence in Kabul on Jan. 30, 1980.

The Forgotten World War III Scare of 1980

Moscow and Washington trapped themselves in a cycle of fear over Iran.
by James M. Acton, Nicole Grajewski via Foreign Policy on June 9, 2024
Richard Nixon, 1968.

Richard Nixon’s Last Crusade

America’s 37th president tried to save America’s Russia policy in the 1990s.
by Anthony J. Constantini via The American Conservative on September 19, 2023
Painting of a city along a river, with a long dock and commerical ships

James Buchanan's 1832 Mission to the Tsar

The plight of Poland and the limits of America's revolutionary legacy in Jacksonian foreign policy.
by Derek Kane O'Leary via Age of Revolutions on March 6, 2023
Exhibit

The Soviets and US

The contours and legacies of the most consequential political rivalry of the 20th century.
Castro and Kruschev.
partner

Putin’s Nuclear Threats Evoke Cold War Tensions of the Cuban Missile Crisis

Russia’s recent nuclear threats have revived Cold War animosity with roots in the Cuban missile crisis.
via Retro Report on February 23, 2023
George Kennan.

George Kennan’s False Moves

The great grand strategist of the Cold War believed he failed in his most important task.
by Patrick Iber via The New Republic on January 12, 2023
Noam Chomsky

“Every Time We Build Up Our Military Budget, We’re Attacking Ourselves”

Noam Chomsky discusses the hypocrisies of US empire and why if we really wanted to build a decent society, we’d immediately slash the massive military budget.
by David Barsamian, Noam Chomsky via Jacobin on June 17, 2022
Arizona State Senator Wendy Rogers speaking before the appearance of former president Donald Trump at a Save America Rally on Jan 15th in Florence, Arizona.
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The Bond That Explains Why Some on the Christian Right Support Putin’s War

Russia has become an ally in a global movement.
by Bethany Moreton via Made By History on March 5, 2022
Bill Clinton and Vladimir Putin pose for a photo op in Auckland, New Zealand, in 1999.

How We Got From the Cold War to the Current Russian Standoff (and It’s Not All on Putin)

Yes, the Russian leader is an authoritarian aggressor. But different decisions at key points by the U.S. might have made him less so.
by Jordan Michael Smith via The New Republic on January 28, 2022
Photo of NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky

America’s Generation Gap on Ukraine

A decade or two ago, opposing NATO expansion to Ukraine was a position espoused by pillars of the American establishment. What happened?
by Peter Beinart via The Beinart Notebook on January 24, 2022
Moscow COVID-19 vaccination center
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The U.S. and Russia Could Join Forces to Get People Vaccinated. They Did Before.

The forgotten history of Soviet-American vaccine diplomacy.
by Yana Demeshko, Ruth Gabor, Ivan Grek, Kristen Ho via Made By History on September 1, 2021
Maxim and Ivy Litvinov

The People’s Ambassadress: The Forgotten Diplomacy of Ivy Litvinov

How Ivy Litvinov, the English-born wife of a Soviet ambassador, seduced America with wit, tea and soft diplomacy.
by Brigid O'Keefe via Aeon on March 29, 2021
A photo of Boris Yeltsin sitting at a desk looking over papers.

America and Russia in the 1990s: This is What Real Meddling Looks Like

It’s hard to imagine having more direct control over a foreign country’s political system — short of a straight-up military occupation.
by Yasha Levine via yasha.substack on August 27, 2020

The Shoals of Ukraine

Why has Ukraine been a stumbling block for U.S. foreign policy since the end of the Cold War?
by Serhii Plokhy, M. E. Sarotte via Foreign Affairs on January 4, 2020

How the Cold War Defined Scientific Freedom

The idea that liberal democracies shielded science from politics was always flawed.
by Patrick Iber via The New Republic on March 25, 2019
Reagan giving his "tear down this wall" speech at the Brandenburg Gate in 1987.

Ronald Reagan and the Cold War: What Mattered Most

By seeking to talk to Soviet leaders and end the Cold War, Reagan helped to win it.
by Melvyn P. Leffler via Texas National Security Review on June 5, 2018
Title screen of the film "1983: The Brink of Apocalypse."

Standing on the Brink: The Secret War Scare of 1983

Remembering a time when a toxic cocktail of threats, fear, and misunderstanding nearly led us down the path to Armageddon.
by Jill Kastner via The Nation on May 31, 2018
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30 Years Ago Ronald Reagan Did Something No One Could Have Expected Years Earlier

If we remember correctly how the Cold War ended, we can gain inspiration for how to begin to overcome the “new cold war.”
by David Foglesong via HNN on May 30, 2018
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The Year The World Almost Blew Up – And Nobody Noticed

On November 9, 1983, the Soviet Union nearly ordered a full pre-emptive nuclear strike against the US and Western Europe.
by Taylor Downing via HNN on May 27, 2018

The Soviet Anthology of “Negro Poetry”

In the 1930s, Soviet leaders decided that black American authors could teach Russians “to write social poetry.”
by Jennifer Wilson via The Paris Review on May 15, 2018

Russians Were Once Banned From a Third of the U.S.

Soviet ban? What Soviet ban?
by Greg Miller via National Geographic on March 26, 2018
Protestors for ACT UP lying on the ground, holding hands, as police arrest them.
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The Russian ‘Fake News’ Campaign That Damaged the United States — in the 1980s

The 2016 election wasn't the first time that a disinformation campaign was used against America.
by Alexander Poster via Made By History on March 12, 2018

The 1952 Olympic Games, the US, and the USSR

The Olympics have long enabled global superpowers to enact their political and ideological conflicts in sport.
by Erin Redihan via Process: A Blog for American History on February 8, 2018

The World the Cold War Built

A new book says the conflict began in the late 19th century and subsumed even World War II as our defining event.
by Leon Hadar via The American Conservative on January 31, 2018

JFK’s Russian Conspiracy

Kennedy had his own secret back channel with Moscow. It may have kept the superpowers from going to war.
by Timothy Naftali via Slate on May 27, 2017

Dermokratiya, USA

With rampant talk of Russian interference, it's worth recounting Washington's role in undermining Russia's 1996 election.
by Sean Guillory via Jacobin on March 13, 2017
Vladimir Putin's revealed from behind torn paper.

How America Wasted Its Most Powerful Economic Weapon

If world leaders had been clearer about the sanctions Putin would face, they might have deterred his invasion of Ukraine.
by Edward Fishman via The Atlantic on February 24, 2025
President Bill Clinton and Russian President Boris Yeltsin.

The First Draft of the Ukraine War’s History

Washington’s policy-makers showed themselves more wicked and feckless than their Vietnam- and Iraq-era predecessors.
by Scott McConnell via The American Conservative on February 19, 2025
Richard Nixon and Zhou Enlai
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How Nixon’s 1972 China Visit Set the Stage for Today’s Tensions Over Taiwan

The legacy of Nixon's strategic ambiguity of acknowledging China's claim to Taiwan without fully committing.
via Retro Report on February 18, 2025
A satellite orbiting the Earth.

Inside the CIA’s Decades-Long Climate “Spy” Campaign

How a top-secret satellite surveillance program accidentally documented climate change.
by Rachel Santarsiero via 3 Quarks Daily on February 7, 2025
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