Historiography and approaches in Cold War Studies

Historiography and approaches in Cold War Studies

The aim of the review

Problem:• There are many stories about the Cold War proposing

divergent views• All the stories are based on selected documents, and

every author tries to find surprising things, applying his (her) personal interpretations and concepts.

Solution:• To explain the past and continuing debate about the

Cold War• To identify a number of major themes, dominated in

today’s literature

Historiographical review: Stages

1) The orthodox/realist/positivist interpretation: in the West, from the early 1950s through early 1960s

• central argument was that the Cold War had its origins in a power struggle;

• they blamed the expansionist intentions of the Soviet leader, Josef Stalin, and communist ideology

Herbert Feis, Between war and peace : the Potsdam conference, Princeton, NJ, 1960


1) The orthodox/realist/positivist interpretation: in the East, from the early 1950s until 1988

• central argument was that the Cold War was launched by imperialists and the U.S.

N. N. Inozemtsev, Vneshnyaya Politika SShA v Epohu Imperialisma (The Foreign Policy of the U.S. in the Epoch of Imperialism),Moscow, 1960

Historiographical review: Stages2) The revisionism in the West, from the early of 1960s

until the mid-1980s• central argument is that the crucial stimulant to

confrontation lay in the expansionist tendencies of the United States (its intention to extend their economic influence)

• Democracy is a cover for American imperialistic intentions (Lasch)

W. A. Williams, The tragedy of American diplomacy NY, 1962

D. F. Fleming, The Cold War and its origins, 1917–1960. NY, 1961

Lasch Ch. The Agony of American Left. N. Y., 1969


2) revisionism and post-revisionism:

• Soviet leadership was influenced by national security interests rather than by communist ideology

Daniel Yergin, The shattered peace. New York, NY, 1977


2) revisionism and post-revisionism:• American policy was determined by failed

perceptions about Soviet behavior/policy

• Washington “mistook Stalin’s determination to ensure Russian security through spheres of influence for a renewed effort to spread communism.”

Gaddis J. The Origins of the Cold War, 1941–1947. N. Y.,1972


3) triumphalism in the West, the end of 1980s through the early 1990s

• This concept constituted a Western victory over the Cold War and the inevitable spread of liberal democracy and market economics

• Influence of Francis Fukuyama, ‘The end of history’, The National Interest (Summer 1989); The end of history and the last man (London, 1992).

Historiographical review: triumphalism

• The appraisal of politicians who participated in the events of the End of the Cold War: R. Reagan, M. Gorbachev, their Ministers of Foreign Affairs as G. Shultz, E. Shevarnadze

Peter Schweizer, Reagan’s war: the epic story of his forty year struggle and final triumph over communism. New York, NY, 2003

Jack F. Matlock, Reagan and Gorbachev: how the Cold War ended. New York, NY, 2004.


4) Revisionism in the East, the middle and the end of 1980s

• The Cold War was a product of Stalin’s ruthless regime

the special issue of Diplomatic History, 21 (1997)

Historiographical review: Stages5) The stage of shifts, reevaluations and

concentration on the concrete topics,the mid-1990s through 2000s Why shift?

1) The access to the former Soviet and Eastern European archives;

2) the entry the scholars from disciplines such as sociology, literature, and media studies in the Cold War Studies>> cultural turn in these Studies >>

Two main approaches: political and anthropological


Political approach: West researchers• high-echelon politics

• a documented sense of the thinking behind Soviet policy

John L. Gaddis. We now Know: Rethinking of the Cold War. Oxford, 1997

John L. Gaddis. Cold war: New History, 2005

John L. Gaddis. George F. Kennan: An American Life, 2011 (new Kennan, who loved Russia of 19th cnt, hated both democracy and Stalin)

Historiographical review: Stages: political approach

Political approach: Russian researchers• Analysis of new dimensions of the Cold War

– Egorova N. Multilateral Diplomacy during the Cold War. Moscow, 2008

• A balance and coolness of the analysis– Pechatnov B. Ot Soyusa K Kholodnoy Voyne (From

the Alliance to the Cold War), Moscow, 2006

Renaissance of Soviet approach sponsored by the government

– Utkin A. “The World Cold War”. M., 2006

Main results of 1990s studies: a new interpretation of the Cold War origins

1) a necessity to provide the national security either for the USA or the Soviet Union;

2) the incompatible difference between the ideology and cultural values;

3) the role of person in history.


Anthropological approach is social and cultural Cold War.

• Public diplomacy• Cultural contacts• Influence of the Cold War on a citizen, cultureF. Saunders. Who Paid the Piper? The CIA and the

Cultural Cold War. L., 1999Mitter R., Major P. Across the Blocks: Cold War Cultural

and Social History. L., 2004Tsvetkova N. Cultural Imperialism? American Educational

Policy around the World during the Cold War, 2004Tsvetkova N. The Failure of Cultural Imperialism: American

And Soviet Policy in German Universities, 1945-1990, Leiden: Brill, 2013

Historiographical review: approaches to studies

1. Memories and oral historyDobrynin A. In Confidence. Moscow, 19972. Publications of Documents from Archives:

The Archive of Modern HistoryThe Archive of Russian Foreign PolicyThe National Archives in Washingtonthe Bundesarchiv in Koblenz and Berlin

3. Cold War International History Project at W. Wilson Research Center

4. Main research Journals:Journal of Cold War Studies, 1999- (Harvard)Cold War History Journal, 2000- (London)Diplomatic History

Historiographical review: major themes in the Cold War studies, 2015

1) Cultural and the ideological, propaganda (=public diplomacy) dominated

2) CIA and Espionage is also developed

3) Die Deutshe Frage

4) China line and Chinese scholars

5) Home Fronts: dissidents, opposition and how the Cold War influence the national culture

Main ideas of contemporary writings about Cold War: Russian and Western scholars

1) Reasons of the Cold war are:

a political vacuum in Europe;aim of the U.S. to fill this space

Washington was the victim of 3 paradigms of how to behave:

-to be a global power

-to be hard with Russians

Atom will help implementing all aims

1) Soviet ideology and political system were the main source.

Main ideas of contemporary writing about Cold War: Russian and Western scholars

2) The Goal of the US to fill the vacuum was clashed with the real position of the Soviet Armies in Europe

+The Aim of the Soviet Union was to create buffer zone in Europe

3) Ideology: The Wilsoniasm – expansion of liberal democracy – was the main foundation for American policy

5) Mistakes: Incorrect interpretations of the Soviet aims and power

2) US wanted to save Europe from communist expansion

+Soviet Union feared another invasion, but the buffer closed zone was not understood by the U.S.

3) Soviet imperialism

Main ideas of contemporary writing about Cold War: Russian and Western scholars

4) A guilty: Should the Soviet ideology and policy be blamed for the Cold War?

“NO, it should not” is an answer of Russian scholars

4) Personal mistrust was another major factor, and Stalin was responsible