SoR Magazine #1 · Cold War · to finish
Timeline
From the division of Germany to the end of the Soviet Union: 25 moments from the Cold War, with the music that goes with them.
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A divided world
The Second World War is over. Germany and Berlin are divided into four zones. America and the Soviet Union have gone from allies to opponents.
The Iron Curtain
Winston Churchill says in Fulton, in America, that an Iron Curtain runs across Europe.
Read Rock behind the Iron Curtain →The airlift
The Soviet Union seals off West Berlin. For almost a year, Western aircraft bring food and coal to the city.
NATO and the bomb
America and Western Europe found NATO. In August the Soviet Union tests its first atom bomb.
Read Living with the bomb →War in Korea
North Korea invades South Korea. The fighting lasts three years; then comes an armistice, not peace.
Stalin dies
Soviet leader Joseph Stalin dies in March. In June Soviet tanks crush a workers' uprising in East Germany.
Jazz on the radio
Willis Conover starts his jazz programme on Voice of America, for listeners behind the Iron Curtain.
Gillespie on tour
Dizzy Gillespie tours the Middle East and the Balkans with an integrated big band, paid for by the American government. In the same year the Soviet Union crushes the uprising in Hungary.
Sputnik
The Soviet Union launches the first artificial satellite into space. America is shocked.
Read We Didn't Start the Fire →A cheerful song about the end
Tom Lehrer makes a joke of the bomb: we will all go at the same time.
The Wall
On the night of 13 August, East Germany begins building a wall straight through Berlin.
Thirteen days
The Cuban Missile Crisis: in October the world stands on the brink of nuclear war.
Tanks in Prague
The Soviet Union ends the Prague Spring. A few weeks later, The Plastic People of the Universe form.
No longer welcome
After a tour of West Germany, Wolf Biermann is not allowed back into the GDR.
Heroes at the Wall
David Bowie records Heroes in West Berlin, a few hundred metres from the Wall.
New missiles
NATO decides to deploy new nuclear missiles in Europe. In December the Soviet Union invades Afghanistan.
Read Dutch pop in the Cold War →The bomb at number one
Doe Maar spends four weeks at number one with a ska hit about the cruise missiles.
Half a million in The Hague
About 550,000 people demonstrate in The Hague against the cruise missiles. In West Germany, 99 Luftballons is at number one.
Gorbachev
Mikhail Gorbachev becomes leader of the Soviet Union. Sting sings Russians.
We want change
Kino sing Хочу перемен. Reagan and Gorbachev discuss abolishing their nuclear weapons in Reykjavik.
The INF Treaty
America and the Soviet Union agree that intermediate-range missiles will be removed. The cruise missiles never come to Woensdrecht.
Read Dutch pop in the Cold War →
Springsteen in East Berlin
More than 300,000 people see Bruce Springsteen play in East Berlin.
The Wall falls
On 9 November the border in Berlin opens. Seven weeks earlier, We Didn't Start the Fire was released.
Wind of Change
On 3 October Germany becomes one country again. Scorpions sing about a wind of change.
The end
In December the Soviet Union ceases to exist. The Cold War is over.