In the book by Russian diplomat and political scientist Nikolai Platoshkin, the chronology of the 45-year Cold War between West and East is given by the author on the basis of diplomatic documents, intelligence reports and other materials that indicate the breadth and intensity of the confrontation between the two social systems in the second half of the 20th century. The reader, no doubt, will be interested in seeing the underbelly of the struggle that determined the vector of world development for decades to come. How did the epic confrontation between the USSR and the USA begin? How did Europe end up split into two camps? Who provoked the Hungarian uprising and the Prague Spring? How did the West fight for “democracy” and the USSR for “world peace”? How did Gorbachev betray the Soviet Union? The history of the Cold War from the defeat of Nazi Germany to the collapse of the USSR is on the pages of this book.