Cold War - Key Dates

Vladimir Lenin's death

January 21, 1924

Five Year Plans

• First Five Year Plan → Oct. 1928 – Dec. 1932

• Second Five Year Plan → Jan. 1933 – Dec. 1937

• Third Five Year Plan → Jan. 1938 – June, 1941 (was supposed to go to 1942)

Great Terror

1934–1938

Molotov-Ribbentrop Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact is signed

August 23, 1939

Katyn Massacre

Spring, 1940

Operation Barbarossa is launched

June 22, 1941

Atlantic Charter is signed

August 14, 1941

Battle of Stalingrad

July 17, 1942 – February 2, 1943

Tehran Conference

November 28, 1943 – December 1, 1943

Percentages Agreement is signed

October, 1944

Yalta Conference

February 4, 1945 – February 11, 1945

Germany surrenders unconditionally

May 7, 1945

San Francisco Conference

April 25, 1945 – June 26, 1945

Potsdam Conference

July 17, 1945 – August 2, 1945

USA tests its first atomic bomb

July 17, 1945

Greek Civil War

1946–1949

Stalin refuses to remove troops from Iran

January 1, 1946

Kennan’s Long Telegram is sent

February 22, 1946

Stalin orders the removal of troops from Iran

March, 1946

Churchill gives the Iron Curtain Speech (the Sinews of Peace)

March 5, 1946

Truman Doctrine is announced

March 12, 1947

Communist Information Bureau (Conform) is established (successor of Comintern)

October 5, 1947

(Secret) London Conference

1948

Czechoslovakian Coup

February, 1948

Vasily Sokolovsky walks out of the Allied Control Council (ACC)

March 20, 1948

Josip Tito (Yugoslavian leader) splits from the USSR

June, 1948

Berlin Airlift

June, 1948 – May, 1949

Stalin begins blockade restricting all land access to West Berlin from West Germany

June 23, 1948

Council of Mutual Economic Assistantance (COMECON) is established

January, 1949

Establishment of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)

April 4, 1949

Establishment of the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) (West Germany)

May, 1949

Establishment of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) (East Germany)

October, 1949

West Germany joins NATO

May, 1955