1941 - Grand alliance between Britain, USA and USSR

November 1943 - Tehran conference - Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin - Roosevelt and stalin had good relations as they were able to agree on Japan, it was agreed that USA and Britain would open a second front to push nazis back, USSR would keep Polish land and blatic states as the red army was already occupying that land

June 1944 - D-day landings, The nazis were pushed back to Germany successfully

Feb 1945 - Yalta Conference - Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin - It was agreed that Germany would be split into four sections, USSR would take 50% of reparations, there would be free elections in Poland to decide a communist or capitalist government, there would be a future forming of the “united nations”

June 1945 - Nazi surrender, war over

Jul-Aug 1945 - Potsdam conference - Truman, Stalin, Atlee - Truman didn’t trust Stalin, USA kept atomic capabilities a secret until day 2, it was agreed that Germany and berlin would be split into four zones, and each country would take reparation from each zones, it was also agreed that USSR would take 25% of reparation from each zone as theirs was the poorest, no agreement about eastern Europe or soviet control, Truman was against Soviet involvement with Japan.

6th/9th Aug 1945 - A-Bombings - on Hiroshima and another Japanese city, Stalin was not happy as they were said to be in an alliance and this was not discussed before the dropping. tension rose dramatically, provoked the arms race and formation of satellite states.

Feb 1946 - The long Telegram - Sent to Truman from the US embassy in Moscow, it was very long, it warned Truman of the USSR acting hostile towards the USA but if they were handled firmly they would back down, led to growing mistrust of USSR, influenced the Truman Doctrine, and policy of containment

Mar 1946 - the Iron Curtain Speech - performed by Churchill when he was visiting the USA, the first public recognition of the breakdown of the alliance, talks about the divide between the East and west, which led to increased support of containment and doctrine, Stalin rejected the speech and viewed it as Western hostility

Sept 1946 - Novikov telegram - reported a change in attitude towards the USSR in the US, encouraged Stalin to strengthen his grip on eastern Europe, and led to distrust and tension

1947 - Truman Doctrine - the policy of communist containment, caused by an increase of communism in Eastern Europe, it meant that it would interfere with any countries that are close to converting to communism to stop the spread, this ed to rivalry and tension between superpowers, strong ideological division

1947 - Marshall aid plan - caused by low living standards in western Europe and fear of the spread of communism, it meant that the USA would offer aid t any countries that applied to increase their living standards and in total they gave away $20billion to other countries, very successful, Stalin banned satellite states from applying, led to a large economic divide across the curtain, prompted the USSR to come out with cominform

1947 - Cominform - it was a communist information bureau to bring all communist states together and align ideologies, in response to Truman Doctrine and Marshall Aid and the need for unification, an international communist newspaper was created to promote the Soviet policy, led to USA being frightened that communism is a threat to their recovery, increased propaganda

1948/9 - berlin blockade - Stalin shut off all road and railway access into berlin from the other zones in Germany preventing zones in berlin from receiving resources like food or fuel, this was because of the formation of Trizonia,

1948/9 - berlin airlift - Western allies were able to use air travel to fly in supplies so that residents didn’t starve, and Stalin couldn’t control air travel, berlin blockade was useless, resulted in an increase in tension

1949 - Comecon - in response to marshall aid which was becoming increasingly popular, in fear of communist states applying, all resources were shared and then divided amongst the states with each state responsible for a different category e.g. electronics, food, fuel, it failed because there still wasn’t enough resources, this gave USSR more influence amongst communist states, still a long term gap in living standards.

1949 - NATO - an alliance between western allies which served to protect capitalist states, if one state was attacked the others would come and defend it, moved US troops and missiles into Europe, arms race intensified

1952 - USA successfully tests H-Bomb

1953 - Stalin dies and Krushchev is the new leader

1953 - USSR successfully tests H-Bomb

1955 - Warsaw Pact - When West Germany joined NATO USSR was quick to form the Warsaw Pact just in case, with the same principles as NATO but with all communist states, Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, USSR, all under the command of the Soviet Union.

1956 - Hungarian Uprising - caused by political instability, and hope for change as the Polish uprising had been successful and Khrushchev wanted destalinisation, It started with demonstrations from the people of Hungary wanting more freedom, many riots followed after and Moscow sent in soviet troops to restore order, Nagy returned to the office and set up a new reform which restored peace for a little bit however when he announced that they would be leaving the Warsaw Pact 1000 tank were sent in and many of Nagy’s supporters fought back however 20,000 Hungarians were killed and Nagy was executed.

1957 - USA texts first ICBM and shortly after USSR makes first successful launch of it

1958 - refugee problem in Berlin - large difference in living standards in Berlin and in East Berlin they were under harsh rule from the USSR, and many East Germans chose to leave, especially those with higher qualifications and skills such as doctors and teachers, in 1958 3million refugees had left east Germany.

1958 - Khrushchev’s ultimatum - Khrushchev demanded that Western countries should recognise eastern Germany as one country and they should leave Berlin, the ultimatum stated that Berlin should become demilitarised and western troops withdrawn, and Berlin should become a free city, they had 6 months.

1959 - Geneva Summit 1 - both sides put forward proposals on how Berlin should be governed, no agreement

1959 - Camp David Summit 2 - no agreement on how it should be governed but they did agree to revoke the ultimatum, sign of better relations

1960 - Paris Summit 3 - no decisions were made because on May 1 a U2 spy plane was shot down by the USSR and as they interrogated the president of USA he denied it being a spy plane, he got embarrassed, Khrushchev was unhappy and walked out

Apr 1961 - Bay of pigs -

Aug 1961 - Berlin Wall - tension between sides grew and more east germans were leaving, in one night they built a barbed wire fence between east and west berlin which soon turned into an actual wall, although it prevented as many refugees there were still some attempts which ended in tragedy, it had 24/7 security and was impossible to cross, 130 people were killed trying to cross, it showed that people had to be locked into east berlin to stop them from leaving, wall sent a message that communism is strong and will survive, those who wanted to escape communism were no longer able to.