Our world is a giant network. Everyone and everything is connected or associated with one another even if no one realizes it. What a complete stranger does across the globe can and often does have serious consequences for you. The imminent, constant, gnawing fear that nuclear annihilation was just moments away united almost everyone during the Cold War especially in the two superpowers. This shared experience not only bonded them together but it also kept each side from pushing the ‘red’ button. Each side was just as aware what would happened if push actually came to shove. Despite grandiose rhetoric from leaders and citizens on both sides everyone kept the nuclear option under control. That’s not to say the rhetoric had not effect on the situation. Reagan is a great example of this, only five years from the dissolution of the USSR he is making aggressive speeches and cranking up the United States military. This elicits a response from the Soviet military that leads to a mobilization and could have led to war. Reagan’s rhetoric and policies also created shared experiences. The USS Wisconsin was recommissioned 40 years after it had been built and a whole new generation of Americans served and slept on the same ship my Grandfather did. From World War Two to Korea to the First Gulf War the USS Wisconsin and the shared experience of the men who sailed her cruised around the world as America’s muscle.
Reagan’s inflammatory speeches and massive military expenditures frightened the Soviet society from leader to peasant. Fear was the overarching concern, it covered everything and permeated into everyday life. Reliable, accurate information was hard to come by in either society. Propaganda was put to great and effective use in conveying the opposing side in the most disturbing light. Citizens on both sides genuinely thought that the end could come any moment. That nuclear war was just minutes away and they would have almost no warning nor was any preparation really going to help them. Though the press was more open in the United States propaganda was just as prevalent and not many journalistic sources covered cold war events from an unbiased standpoint. Both countries wanted to win and this included the journalists. Most Soviet citizens lived in the countryside working in jobs selected by the state living in state provided housing or in communal apartments furnished by the state in cities. Residences were communal, bland, and unappealing. Limited space and many people meant community areas such as bathrooms were areas of contention and conflict. This lifestyle for the average Soviet citizen was vastly different from the consumerist America. The state and communist party’s control over every aspect of life lent to much monotony, boredom, and inefficiency. The lack of markets based in supply and demand meant huge disparaties in consumer goods. Waiting in long lines to acquire basic goods was a common occurrence in Soviet society. The divergence of much needed resources to the military further increased hardships on the average citizen.
The Soviet Union and the United States had been involved in this international chess games for decades. The pattern of move and counter move was evident, Reagan and Gorbachev were no exception. Example: the Soviets would unveil a new missile. so the US would move more missiles or interceptors to western Europe. This type of behavior was typical of the state level of interaction at this stage. So it would be expected that the soviets would fashion some response to the massive military buildup by the United States and aggressive rhetoric that Reagan was using. Reagan’s rhetoric especially the ‘evil empire’ speech was seen as threatening by the Soviets. In response to the United States of America the soviet military, “Vladimir Slipchenko, then a member of the Soviet General Staff. said “The military, the armed forces . . . used this,” he added, “as a reason to begin a very intense preparation inside the military for a state of war.” Furthermore, “we started to run huge strategic exercises. . . . These were the first military exercises in which we really tested our mobilization. We didn’t just exercise the ground forces but also the strategic arms.” The strategic arms of the soviet military included, the nuclear weapons component and air defense which were considered seperate from the Soviet Army. The experience in the Soviet Union was at the least one of concern. Leaders and citizens if they could get the information heard the words of Reagan and were worried that World War Three was around the corner. Millions of soviet soliders participated in these mobilization excersise. Soviet military spending though remained constant. Gorbachev did not include more money in the budget to match the US. In fact toward the end of the 1980s the soviet military budget was shrinking.
By the 1980s and the emergence of Reagan and Gorbachev the Cold War was reaching its 40th anniversary. Citizen and leaders alike on both sides had become accustomed to the constant that was the fear of imminent nuclear holocaust. Events such as the Cuban Missile Crisis demonstrated to not just both countries but the world how close it had been to a nuclear war. This fear permeated everything and it must have been compounded by the realization that the two superpowers were not disclosing all threats or plans and many events were transpiring behind closed doors. The thought that nuclear annihilation was only 15 minutes away across the Atlantic was terrifying. Both sides perceived that the other wanted a nuclear war. Reagan hated the Soviet Union and its ideology he often made this abundantly clear in his speeches. On the other side according to McMahon, “Soviet leaders had truly come to believe the Reagan administration of undertaking a preemptive nuclear war
US Hydrogen Bomb Test over Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean
Despite the war of words between Moscow and Washington the average citizens on both sides shared more characteristics than not. Often lost in the histories of the subject are the lives of the common citizens. Political and economic ideologies separated these people yet these did not lead to vastly different value system. People on both sides shared common hopes, dreams and worries. Families on both sides were the common social unit. While settings were different from suburbs of American cities to apartments of Kiev families were still the most important bond in society. Despite the lack of organized religion there were many values shared between Americans and Soviets. Basic morals and ethics did not disapear with the churches and synagogues. In many cases religious practice continued just underground to avoid the gaze of the state.
Joseph Stalin’s successor Khrushchev was quoted as saying to western diplomats in 1956, “Whether you like it or not, history is on our side. We will bury you”. This determination to beat the other side was a constant during the cold war. Both sides were confident of victory but the Soviets even more so. Marxist doctrine teaches that history is driven by a process defined as historical materialism. The progression of technologies (means of production) and labors interaction with them are the only thing that really progress history. According to Marxist thought, capitalism will inevitably continually divide society into the proletariat and the bourgeoisie. This imperialist oppression is unsustainable and will crumble leading to a new form of society. Freely chosen labor and one’s return to their species-being will then drive production in a communal economy.
Soviet Movie Poster
Anti US Soviet movie poster discussing 1983 US Invasion of Granada
Mikhail Gorbachev: Time Magazine Cover March 25, 1985
Gorbachev served as an influential member of the politburo during the early 1980s before asuming the position of General Secretary of the Communist Party in 1984. He then instituted a number of reform campaigns that ended with the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
Emma Goldman as portrayed in E.L Doctrow’s Ragtime serves as a rallying cry, a figure for those in America who advocate Anarchism, Socialism, Marxism, pretty much anything that isnt capitalism. She fights and pushes her agenda to help the poor working man and others who have been downtrodden by the current system. She decrys how people are disregared by the system and left without housing food or means to survive. Yet her ideas are difficult to put into practice. The founders of the Soviet Union, good intentioned, as they may have been still created a system of social hierarchy despite the flowery rhetoric preaching equality and no class distinction. Without a clear model or good ideas to base such a society the creation of one on the fly is very difficult.
The feelings and mood of the average Soviet citizen is harder to gauge because of the mostly closed society Moscow governed. The average Soviet citizen grew up and lived in a society dominated by the party and state. Free mandatory education from the state along with omnipresent propoganda indoctranated the populace with the government’s line.
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